GIPSY MOTH WORK IN NEW ENGLAND. 29 



BROWN-TAIL MOTH SCOUTING. 



The spread of the brown-tail moth is not easily controlled by arti- 

 ficial means unless the insect can be reduced to minimum numbers. 

 Owing to the large territory over which the insect has spread, it is 

 not possible to carry on extensive scouting or control work by the 

 use of hand-suppressive measures. During the year a considerable 

 area, however, has been examined in Maine, New Hampshire, Ver- 

 mont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, and areas have 

 been found infested where the insect was not known previously to 

 exist. The work of the commissioner of agriculture of Vermont and 

 his assistants has been very effective in reducing the infestation in 

 that State. The principal new infestations were found in Connec- 

 ticut, and a greater part of these were located by the assistants of 

 the State entomologist. Several webs have also been found on 

 Fishers Island and Long Island, N. Y., so that, in all, four towns on 

 these islands are known to be infested. The New York infestations 

 were discovered by the inspectors employed by the State department 

 of agriculture, and several scouts from this office were sent late in 

 the spring to check up the work and cover a part of the area 

 concerned. 



QUARANTINE WORK. 



The quarantine work is supervised by Mr. D. M. Rogers, who is 

 assisted by Mr. Harry W. Vinton, and the operations are confined 

 to the territory in New England and New York which is infested 

 by the gipsy moth and the brown-tail moth. As a result of the 

 provision of the Federal plant quarantine act, which was passed 

 by Congress August 20, 1912, a domestic quarantine * has been 

 declared by the Federal Horticultural Board, covering the territory 

 infested by each of these insects. While the legal authority for 

 declaring quarantine is vested in the board, the cost of adminis- 

 tering the work is defrayed by the appropriation for the Bureau 

 of Entomology for "Preventing the spread of moths." The object 

 of this work is to prevent egg clusters or larvae of the gipsy moth, 

 or winter webs of the brown-tail moth, from being carried out of 

 the infested areas on shipments of trees or forest products. The 

 regulations for enforcing this quarantine provide that all material of 

 this character before being accepted for shipment to points outside 

 the infested district must be inspected and must be accompanied 

 with an official certificate of the Federal Horticultural Board stating 

 that an examination has been made and that the material is free 

 from infestation. Shipment of Christmas trees and similar material 

 to points outside the quarantined area is prohibited. In order to 

 facilitate the work, the infested territory has been divided into 22 

 sections and a competent inspector has been placed in charge of 



1 For details, see Notice of Quarantine No. 17, of the Federal Horticultural Board, effective Aug. 1, 1914. 



