BEGINNING OF WORK BY THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 



41 



ited length of time that the insect is in the caterpillar stage it is 

 necessary to provide equipment so that a large area can be thor- 

 oughly sprayed in a short time. This renders impracticable the 

 use of hand outfits for such extensive work. The sprayers used 

 had a tank capacity of between 500 and 600 gallons, and it was 

 possible to treat many acres in a single day. Since the work began 

 a number of improvements have been made in spraying outfits used, 

 which have rendered them more efficient and economical. In addi- 

 tion to the spraying the bur- 

 lap and sticky bands on the 

 trees were examined from 

 time to time and the cater- 

 pillars crushed with steel- 

 wire brushes. In the worst 

 infested places it was neces- 

 sary to go over the strips 

 daily, and even then in some 

 instances it was almost im- 

 possible to kill the caterpil- 

 lars fast enough to prevent 

 some defoliation on the 

 back edge of the treated 

 strips. 



Early in the fall of 1906 

 a number of the more ex- 

 perienced men were selected 

 and scouting operations were 

 begun in a limited way in 

 Maine, New Hampshire, and 

 Connecticut. (See fig. 12, 

 showing outfit used by gipsy 

 moth scouts.) This work 

 was continued until June, 

 1907, and a large number of 

 towns were found infested. 

 In the spring of 1907 it be- 

 came evident that owing to 

 the discovery of so many infested towns, a larger appropriation would 

 be necessary in order to make anything like a careful examination of 

 the outside territory. InMay, 1907, Congress appropriated $150, 000 for 

 the purpose of carrying on the work, this sum being available for imme- 

 diate use. Plans were at once made to clear more roadside areas 

 in the worst infested sections and in the fall to scout thoroughly the 

 towns north of the known infested region. Owing to the great increase 

 in the amount of work which was to be taken up, the territory in 



Fig. 10.— Employees of the Bureau of Entomology treat- 

 ing egg clusters of the gipsy moth with creosote, using 

 an ordinary paint brush and a brush attached to a 

 long pole. (Original.) 



