No. 4.] THE GYPSY MOTH. 347 



their position near the border of the infested region. The 

 first duty of the committee, under the law, was to '* prevent 

 the spreading " of the gypsy moth ; and there was evidently 

 more danger then of the moths spreading from these outer 

 colonies into territory outside the infested region than there 

 was of their spreading into this outside territory from the 

 forest colonies in the central towns. 



In summing up the progress of extermination, it may be 

 fairly stated that in the outer two-thirds of the district 

 known as the infested region there remain now only a few 

 known colonies, most of which are on the verge of extermi- 

 nation. From this portion of the infested region the moth 

 now appears to be almost, if not quite, exterminated. 



The problem of extermination is now considerably simpli- 

 fied. The large colonies in the woodlands of the outer 

 towns have been either exterminated or so reduced that their 

 extermination is a matter of a short time. Serious danger 

 from this source of the conveyance of the moth into towns 

 beyond the border of the infested region has been eliminated. 

 It is true that the large woodland colonies in the Fells are 

 not improved. But a large force of men, which has hereto- 

 fore been of necessity scattered in isolated colonies in the 

 outer towns, can now be concentrated nearer the centre of 

 the infested region, in the Fells and Saugus colonies, and in 

 Maiden, Medford and Everett, where the work can be more 

 economically supervised and directed. 



Why Laeger Appropriations are needed. 



As it has been already stated that progress has been made 

 with past appropriations, the question may well be asked. 

 Why, then, are larger appropriations now required? It may 

 be answered in brief that we have now reached a time when 

 much more rapid progress must be made, or the success of 

 the whole work will be put in imminent peril. This is clear 

 for the following, among other reasons : — 



1. A vast amount of work is immediately required in the 

 central woodlands, where, otherwise, the area now occupied 

 by the moth will greatly increase each year, thereby either 

 greatly increasing the final cost of extermination, or, by the 



