346 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



This search over the entire country is what is called a tree- 

 to-tree examination, and is made, not to find the last cater- 

 pillar or the last moth, but to find the last colony. When 

 that is found, careful inspection, burning, spraying, burlap- 

 ping and other means must be utilized to destroy the last 

 moth in that locality. 



When any given locality has been apparently freed from 

 the moth, extermination there must be verified by careful 

 examinations for a term of years before it can be authorita- 

 tively announced. 



The methods now in use have always exterminated the 

 moth wherever they have been followed without interruption 

 for a reasonable period. A personal examination of the 

 colonies known to have been infested in 1897 leads to the 

 conclusion that much more progress toward extermination 

 has been made this year than in any previous season. Out- 

 side the Fells region, except in Maiden and Medford, the 

 condition of nearly all the known colonies has been greatly 

 improved by the work of 1897. Against this favorable state- 

 ment must be set the fact that less inspection than usual has 

 been made in 1897, except in or near the vicinity of the 

 known colonies. The residential and business sections of 

 several of the outer towns were, however, burlapped almost 

 entirely this year, and the burlap carefully inspected. This 

 resulted in the picking up of a stray caterpillar here and there 

 on territory not lately infested. The discovery of such strays 

 does not indicate the local hatching of even a single egg- 

 cluster, but rather demonstrates that the caterpillars have 

 been disseminated by vehicles and pedestrians within the 

 past two years from the large colonies (especially the wood- 

 land colonies) in the central towns into territory previously 

 cleared. But, it may be asked, why was not the moth eradi- 

 cated from these central woodlands while the colonies there 

 were still small, and, therefore, comparatively easy to exter- 

 minate? This was not done for the reason that before it 

 could be attempted there were discovered in the woodlands 

 of the outer towns, larger colonies which were then in worse 

 condition than were those in the inner towns. As money 

 enough had not been provided to attend to all, it became 

 necessary to attend to the outer towns first, on account of 



