BROWN-TAIL MOTH AND OTHER ORCHARD MOTHS. 1 59 



The argument for such destruction is four-fold. It is in just 

 these trees that the winter nests would longest escape detection, 

 it being especially difficult in a dense growth of wild cherry to 

 ascertain whether every dangling dried leaf is attached to a 

 winter nest. The fruit trees in question being already worse 

 than useless, it would mean apparently a needless yearly tax, 

 either locally or upon the State, to keep them free from brown- 

 tail moths. There will remain enough trees worthy this atten- 

 tion. This remedy, though indirect, would lessen the labor of 

 direct search for and destruction of winter nests over this 

 ground, if not for always, yet for many years to come. Since 

 the infested area is still comparatively small, the cost of the cut- 

 ting and burning ought not to be great. 



Cutting and burning the winter nests. 



This is the most important of the direct remedies because it 

 is the easiest, cheapest, and, if thoroughly done, a sufficient 

 protection against the ravages of this pest. The webs and leaves 

 that compose the nest are woven tightly to the tips of the 

 branches and hang there like dead leaves all winter. With so 

 many months for inspection there is no excuse for harboring the 

 hibernating caterpillars on shade or orchard trees. After they 

 are cut from the branches, the nests should be burned, as this is 

 the simplest way of destroying the colony within. 



"As showing how cheaply webs may be gathered where a 

 general campaign is made the figures of work done by employees 

 of gypsy moth committee in 1899 are of interest. At that time 

 over nine hundred thousand webs were destroyed at the total 

 outlay of nine thousand seven hundred dollars." * This would 

 mean, accounting for the variation in the number of the cater- 

 pillars per nest, the destruction of from 15,000 to 30,000 cater- 

 pillars for each dollar's outlay. 



A bounty put upon the winter nests. 



Last winter in Portsmouth, N. H., the City Improvement 

 Society placed $50 with the superintendent of schools, who paid 

 five cents a dozen for winter nests. Hundreds of nests were 

 brought in by the children and burned in the school furnace. 

 In March groups of Portsmouth newsboys were to be seen 

 scanning the branches overhead and darting off ea^erlv for 



*Mass. Crop Report, Vol. 17, No. 3, p. 39. 



