9 



The accompanying map (fig. 1) indicates accurately the infested dis- 

 trict of Massachusetts at the time of the interruption of the State 

 work in 1900. It also shows the district found infested in 1906, when 

 the work of suppression was recommenced by the State. The inter- 

 ruption of the work is thus seen to have been almost disastrous. In 



Fig. 1. — Districts in Massachusetts infested by the gipsy moth in 1900 and 1905. Infested area in 

 1900, 359 square miles; In 1905, 2,224 square miles. (From Eirkland.) 



1899 the State board of agriculture had the problem well in hand, and 

 at that time it seemed very probable to skilled practical entomologists 

 who looked into the matter that even extermination was possible in 

 the course of a comparatively short time. But the five years' inter- 

 ruption of the work caused the spread of the insect from a restricted 



18001— No. 275—07 2 



