GYPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS AND THEIR CONTROL 3 



During the war period conditions were unfavorable for preventing 

 spread. The loss of efficient personnel and the constant turn-over of 

 men, together with extraordinary increase in costs, made progress 

 difficult. By the fall of 1922 scattered colonies were found farther 

 west in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and in New York 

 State near the Massachusetts State line. There was every indication 

 of the continued spread of the insect unless more intensive work 

 was done. 



To meet this serious situation a conference was held in the office 

 of the conrmissioner of farms and markets in Albany, November 26, 

 1922, which was attended by representatives from all the infested 

 States, the Dominion of Canada, and the United States Department 

 of Agriculture. 2 The entire subject of the prevention of spread of 

 the gypsy moth and its control was discussed, and a resolution was 

 adopted urging that sufficient funds be obtained from the States 

 interested and the Federal Government to continue and strengthen 

 control methods in the infested area, to do necessary scouting for the 

 discovery and destruction of border infestations, to determine the 

 location of the most practical place for a control zone, to take necessary 

 steps to make control therein effective, and to destroy all infestations 

 in and west of said zone. 



To carry out this project, in April 1923 the State of New York 

 appropriated $150,000 to be administered by the Department of 

 Conservation. Federal funds were also provided for the fiscal year 

 beginning July 1, 1923, to bring about effective cooperation. 



The plan finally adopted, by the Federal and State authorities, was 

 to locate a zone where clean-up operations to prevent westward 

 spread of this pest would be centered. This barrier zone embraced 

 an area of about 9,000 square miles east of the Hudson River extend- 

 ing from Long Island Sound (excluding Westchester County, N. Y.) 

 to the Canadian border, a distance of more than 250 miles, and rang- 

 ing in width from 25 to 30 miles (fig. 1). This is the shortest and 

 most feasible area in the United States that could be selected to pre- 

 vent Nation-wide spread of the insect. The territory east of this 

 zone was to be treated by the States concerned as far as their funds 

 would permit, and their work was to be supplemented by liberation 

 of imported parasites and other natural enemies of the insect by the 

 Bureau of Entomology. Work in the New York portion of the area 

 was to be financed by the State, with such assistance as could be given 

 by the Bureau after covering the eastern part of the zone in western 

 Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. 



While much of the extremely rugged country in the Adirondacks 

 in northern New York and the Green Mountains in Vermont was 

 avoided, as well as the Catskills and some of the rougher country 

 west of the Connecticut River in Connecticut, there are areas in this 

 zone, embracing the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts and 

 some of the territory directly south and southwest of them in Con- 

 necticut and New York, where the terrain is extremely difficult. 



In 1924, owing to the number of infestations found in Massa- 

 chusetts and Vermont, and the discovery of a colony at Henrysburg, 

 Quebec, by the inspection force of the Dominion entomologist of 

 Canada, the quarantine line was moved westward from the eastern 



2 Felt, E. P., and others, the gypsy moth, an imminent menace to the forest and shade trees 

 of the state of new york. N. Y. State Dept. Farms and Markets Agr. Bull. 148, 58 pp., illus. 1922. 



