58 FIELD WORK AGAINST GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



stated that while examining woodland along the railroad near Scar- 

 boro Beach, Me., he found a quantity of oak shim wood, which was 

 being used by the section men in repairing the track, badly infested 

 with gipsy moth egg clusters. 



An investigation showed that the wood was originally shipped from 

 a badly infested district near Bedford, Mass., and that it had been 

 delivered at various section houses along the railroad between South 

 Lawrence, Mass., and Portland, Me. By following up the deliveries, 

 infested wood from this shipment was found at Kennebunk, Bidde- 

 ford, Pine Point, and Scarboro Beach, Me. The entire shipment, so 

 far as could be determined, was traced and the egg clusters treated 

 wherever they were found. This discovery emphasized the danger 

 of shipping forest products of all kinds bj r rail after the egg clusters 

 of the gipsy moth had been laid, and arrangements were at once 

 made to inaugurate a system of inspection by means of which dis- 

 tribution of egg clusters from the infested area to distant points 

 could be prevented. The matter was presented to the Chief of the 

 Bureau of Entomology, and later a letter was sent by the Secretary 

 of Agriculture to the different railroad companies operating in the 

 infested district, requesting their cooperation with the Bureau of 

 Entomology in preventing further spread of this insect. The offi- 

 cials of the several railroads operating within the infested district 

 gave assurance of their interest in the matter, and promised all 

 possible assistance in confining the pest to the present territory. 

 Orders were issued by the railroads to all station agents within this 

 area that after July 1, 1909, forest products would be accepted for 

 shipment only when accompanied by permits or certificates of inspec- 

 tion from this office. As soon as shippers became acquainted with 

 the requirements little delay was experienced, and the order has met 

 with hearty approval and a generous spirit of cooperation. When 

 such material is being forwarded from one town in the infested dis- 

 trict to another known infested point, a permit to ship is granted 

 after proper application has been made. The inspection of such 

 shipments is not attempted unless there is special danger of trans- 

 mitting infested material. On shipments, however, that are destined 

 to points outside the infested territory, inspection is made by 

 employees of this office before a certificate is granted allowing ship- 

 ments to move. As a result of this work, inspections have been made 

 of 490 shipments, many of which were badly infested. The following 

 table gives the geographical range of the shipments sent out from 

 infested territory from July 1, 1909, to January 1, 1910. Each 

 shipment averaged about a carload lot, although in some cases as 

 high as 10 carloads were examined for a single shipment. Over 

 1,000 cars of forest products have been shipped from the infested 



