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Professor Shaler. Suppose every tree sprayed, what reason have we to believe 

 that we should have disposed of the pest f 



Professor Riley. There would be need for some years afterward of the greatest 

 care. I would not attempt to kill the young caterpillars; wait until they are some- 

 what advanced, so that the work could be concentrated within a narrow limit of 

 time. 



(At this point Mr. Scudder came in.) 



Professor Shaler. The discussion has been, Mr. Scudder, on the question as to 

 whether it would be well to proceed at once to the destruction of the eggs. There 

 are places where the eggs are abundant, and, as we know, they are conspicuous, and 

 it seems that between now and hatching time we might collect a considerable per 

 cent of them, paying for them by weight or measure, and at once destroying them. 

 Professor Riley thinks that would diminish the conspicuousness of the colonies, so 

 to speak, and make it harder to find them, and thinks that an equal amount of money 

 would go further in poisoning with spray than it would in collecting the eggs. I 

 should like to hear from Mr. Scudder what bethink sabout the desirableness of doing 

 anything with the eggs. 



Mr. Scudder. I feel that I have no right to speak in the presence of others here 

 who have given special study to economic entomology, while I have not. All I can 

 speak upon is the natural history of the moth, and on that side of the question it 

 might be well to ask whether it is behaving the same in this country as in the old 

 country. There are a number of moths single brooded in the old country which are 

 double brooded here. 



Professor Riley. I have assumed that it was single brooded. 



Professor Ferxald. I have bred it twice, two years in succession. 



Mr. Scudder. If it is single brooded there is this point to be brought out, that 

 as the caterpillar is a very liberal feeder, so, of course, it is very much more difficult 

 to reach by spraying, because the spraying is not to be confined to a few kinds of 

 trees, but to a very large number, so tbat one would say you would have to spray 

 almost everything you came across. So with the eggs, which are laid not always on 

 trees, but on almost anything else. It therefore becomes the most dangerous insect 

 enemy we have had for a long time, I think. If it is single brooded it seems to me 

 that nature has indicated the easiest means of attack. The eggs are laid in batches 

 and are exposed for eight months of the year. Therefore it seems to me that the 

 eggs are the place to attack. I should suppose that the same amount of money ex- 

 pended in the destruction of the eggs would effect a very much larger end than the 

 same amount of money spent in spraying. 



Professor Riley. I have been trying to bring out what knowledge there is as to the 

 actual range of the insect, and my remarks on the possibility of stamping it out have 

 all been based on that. I want to say that if the insect has spread beyond the limits 

 indicated by Professor Shaler and got into the larger trees I think the question of 

 stamping it out a very doubtful one. At the same time there is an opportunity here 

 for the State of Massachusetts to make the experiment and show what can be done 

 by efficient means and intelligence, I would rather offer a higher bounty to every 

 schoolboy for pointing out where the caterpillars are to be found during two weeks 

 in June than for gathering the eggs. I believe that there is a chance of stamping it 

 out if it is not beyond the region where the trees are comparatively few in number 

 and not very large. 



Professor Shaler. How would it do, as one of the early steps in this work, to get 

 all the information we can as to the periphery and publish maps showing it ? Let 

 us ask for information as to the spread of the pest beyond those limits. I should 

 hesitate about offering a reward for the location of the caterpillars, because there is 

 the possibility of the schoolboys planting them. A reward for the eggs is much more 

 easy, and we could probably interest the schoolboys in searching for them, but it 

 would hardly do to offer a reward which might serve to spread the plague. All these 

 rewards for animals are very dangerous. 



