38 FIELD WORK AGAINST GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



the larvse to be carried many miles during the early summer, and thus 

 the whole country was in danger of becoming infested. 



Later in the season $82,500 was appropriated by Congress. The 

 work was put under the direction of Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief of 

 the Bureau of Entomology, and Mr. D. M. Rogers, then first assistant 

 to state superintendent Kirkland, was appointed special field agent 

 of the Bureau in charge of the field work in New England. This 

 appropriation became available July 1, 1906, and after a conference 

 between the Chief of the Bureau of Entomology, the superintendent 

 of the moth work in Massachusetts, and the special field agent of 

 the Bureau it was decided that the most valuable results could 

 be secured with this appropriation by at once clearing as many 

 roadsides as possible in the thickly infested and much traveled 

 section of Massachusetts. Arrangements were also made to prevent 

 dissemination of the gipsy moth in the outside territory as far as the 

 limited appropriation would allow. A force of 22 men which had been 

 working in the infested district in Rhode Island was carried on the 

 pay roll from July 23, 1906, to May 15, 1907, although the number 

 at the latter date had been reduced to 9 men, so that work in that 

 State could be continued until the state funds were available. 



Later in the season scouting parties were organized and a limited 

 amount of work done in the southern parts of New Hampshire and 

 Maine. A more detailed account of this work will be given later in 

 this report. 



Owing to the severe infestation in the district around Boston 

 (see PI. V in comparison with PL VI), and to the fact that practically 

 all of the main highways were being used continually during the 

 caterpillar season by automobiles, it seemed necessary to keep the 

 roadsides free from caterpillars if a general dissemination of the 

 pests to distant points was to be prevented. Traffic between Boston 

 and its suburbs, the shore resorts along the coast, and the vacation 

 places in New Hampshire, is particularly heavy during the early sum- 

 mer. At the time of the serious outbreak of the gipsy moth in 1890 

 the spread of the insect was made possible chiefly b}^ means of teams 

 or carriages that passed through the infested district, and these sel- 

 dom traveled more than 20 miles in a single day. With the use of 

 the automobile the daily travel often covers a hundred or more 

 miles, so that the danger of spread to remote districts was greatly 

 increased; in fact, recent inspections have shown that the spread 

 of the insect can often be traced directly to this means of conveyance. 



A building was rented at Medford at a point within easy reach of 

 the badly infested section where work was to be carried on, the neces- 

 sary tools and supplies (figs. 8, 9) were installed, and arrangements 

 made for actively beginning the campaign against the moths. Mr. 

 Harry W. Vinton was selected as a special agent to take charge of 



