No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE FORESTER. 321 



run smoothly. The very fact that the tree warden is an elective 

 office, and that there is frequent rivalry for the place, engenders 

 feelings that are in themselves antagonistic. The reason that the 

 forest warden work is advancing so well and with so little friction 

 is that the office is not in politics, but depends on merit. This is 

 equally true of the work of the moth superintendent. Were we 

 to make the tree warden also appointive by the selectmen instead 

 of elective, there is every reason to believe that the whole forestry 

 plan would result in better work and at less expense. There 

 would be a tendency to amalgamate the three positions into one. 

 This could be done now only that it often happens that the tree 

 warden who is elected is not a man sufficiently experienced to get 

 results. The three town offices are each of importance, but if 

 properly systematized the work could be planned so that one 

 well-trained man could handle all. The setting out and pruning 

 of trees could be done at a time of the year when there is little to 

 be done on moth work, and hence the two kinds of work, if com- 

 bined, would give continuous employment, and naturally interest 

 a more stable and efficient class of employees. These same men, 

 being in steady employ, could be utilized as the active force for 

 fighting forest fires or brush. With the work thus systematized 

 I am confident our future conditions will be far more satisfactory. 



Gypsy and Brown-tail Moth Suppression. 



The moth work has gone forward in a definite and systematic 

 way and we have every reason to feel encouraged by the results. 

 As stated under another heading, the State Forester is frank to 

 say that the sooner we adopt scientific forestry methods just so 

 soon will we take a forward step in their control. Ever since 

 the work of moth suppression came under the control of this 

 department it has been our constant aim to utilize forestry 

 principles in combination with the other practices employed as 

 the most effective method of getting results. 



In the earlier days the moth problem was more confined to 

 residential sections, and hence to parks, shade trees and shrub- 

 ber}^ and the methods of combating it were quite different from 

 those at present in use. The insects now have spread out into 

 the country, and the problem is one of fighting them under much 

 more adverse conditions. Under city and village comlitions 



