No. 4.] THE GYPSY MOTH. 381 



polittm park reservatioD next summer, and that the moths 

 may be scattered abroad by means of vehicles driving 

 through the many roads which liave been recently opened 

 by the Metropolitan Park Commission. 



A Summary of the Present Condition of the Infested 



Meg ion. 



An arl)itrary line can now be drawn, enclosing the region 

 most infested, w^hich will leave outside of it and surrounding 

 the centre about two-thirds of the region formerly known as 

 infested. This outer region is nearly, if not entirely, cleared 

 of the moth. If sufficient resources are promptly provided 

 another year, I believe the moth can be cleared from all this 

 outer region in a year's time. In the central region there 

 are now only two large centres badly infested in the wood- 

 land, in place of three of about one thousand acres each 

 which were reported to the Legislature on Jan. 1, 1896. 

 The tract, comprising the woods of south-western Wolnirn, 

 eastern Lexington and western Winchester, is now in much 

 better condition than last year. This gain is offset by the 

 fact that the great tracts of woodland in Medford and Saugus 

 are now in a worse condition than ever before, though all 

 has been done there that could be done with the delayed 

 and reduced appropriation. This unfavorable condition of 

 affairs requires a word of explanation. 



When the work of extermination was begun by the Board 

 of Agriculture, in 1891, there were many infested localities 

 in the woodland in the outer towns. These colonies were 

 particularly dangerous as moth-distributing centres, both 

 on account of their situation near the borders of the in- 

 fested region and on lines of traffic and travel to non-infested 

 towns, and because of the character and extent of the wood- 

 land in which they were situated. In 1891 and until within 

 two years some of these outer colonies were much more 

 infested than those in the central woodlands. Attention 

 therefore had first to be given to preventing the moths in 

 these colonies from occupying a larger area in these remote 

 woodlands, from which it would be difficult to extermi- 

 nate them. Furthermore, the work of exterminating these 



