THE GIPSY-MOTH IN MASSACHUSETTS 239 



the houses, and began to establish themselves in the woods 

 and parks. In the summer of 1889 they covered the pave- 

 ments, crowded one another off the trees, and overran all 

 places within a limited district, which grew wider every day. 

 Boiling water, burning petroleum, sweeping and scraping, de- 

 stroyed millions of caterpillars, but the supply was inexhaustible. 

 The sound of their jaws was compared to the clipping of scissors. 

 All the trees in the eastern part of the town were stripped, many 

 were killed, and property lost value. In 1890, when " the walls 

 and almost every tree were almost wholly covered with nests " 

 (egg-clusters) the matter was at last taken in hand by the public 

 authorities. The Massachusetts Legislature voted 25,000 dollars 

 for the extermination of the pest. The infected area, which 

 had been supposed to be less than one square mile, was found 

 on a preliminary and incomplete inspection to cover fifty square 

 miles. In 1891, 50,000 dollars were voted, and 250 men set 

 to work. During the first six weeks of the year three-quarters 

 of a million egg-clusters, each of several hundred eggs, were 

 destroyed. Spraying the trees with Paris green was a favourite 

 remedy at this time, but it provoked opposition, and was 

 occasionally resisted by force. Stories of arsenical poisoning 

 in consequence of spraying were widely current. At the end 

 of 1 89 1 the moths were reported from thirty townships and 

 from over two hundred square miles of country. Seventy-five 

 thousand dollars were now voted for the following year, but the 

 grant was made so late that the field-force of 1891, which had 

 become trained, was almost entirely dispersed. In September 

 1892 all the workers except forty were again discharged for lack 

 of money. One hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars were 

 asked for in 1893, but only one hundred thousand were voted, 

 and this so late that many of the workers had found other 

 employment, and several weeks of the best working time were 

 lost. In 1894 the same difficulties recurred. Only one hundred 

 thousand dollars were voted, and three weeks of the best working 

 time were lost. In 1895 one hundred and fifty thousand dollars 

 were voted, but not until field-work had been suspended for 

 three months and the workers disbanded. 



In 1897 I had an opportunity of visiting the scene. The' 

 great devastation was now a thing of the past, but dead trees, 

 sometimes in patches of many acres, showed how serious the 

 danger had been. Cocoons and egg-clusters were still to be 



