30 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



flies and moths, and by so doing they keep down 

 these crawling pests, that would otherwise give 

 us much more trouble than they do. In New 

 England, and especially Massachusetts, there is 

 a small moth that was brought from Europe 

 thirty yeai-s ago by a French naturalist in order 

 to make some experiments about its ability to 

 spin web useful for making silk. Three or four 

 of these insects escaped in the town of Medford. 

 In ten years they began to make trouble, as their 

 caterpillars fed on almost all kinds of leaves and 

 they gained in numbers. In twenty years they 

 were very destructive in Medford and had ex- 

 tended in small numbers to other localities, and 

 there was a fight kept up by owners of orchards, 

 and gardens, and woodlands ; but still the enemy 

 increased. Nine years ago the State Legislature 

 was petitioned to find some means to abate this 

 scourge. Twenty-five thousand dollars was 

 voted to be expended in fighting this enemy. 

 The next year fifty thousand dollars was voted for 

 this war fund, and the battle raged with fire and 

 poisons and tar, but the caterpillars continued 

 to increase. 



In 1892 the Legislature voted seventy-five 

 thousand dollars for the annual " Gypsy Moth 

 Fund," as it was called. In 1893 it was infesting 

 thirty cities and towns, and laying waste the 



