42 



THE GYPSY MOTH. 



Other residents of the neighborhood give similar testi- 

 mony : — 



In 1890 we lived on Spring Street, and that year the caterpillars 

 seemed to be at their worst. You could not go along the street 

 after dark without getting them aU over you. (Mrs. Fenton.) 



Four years ago (1890) I saw the gypsy-moth caterpillars by the 

 thousand on the Sherman lot on Spring Street. I never saw such 

 a sight. Their eggs were as thick on the big willows as spawn in 

 a fish. (A. W. Crockford.) 



In 1889 the washing on oiu' clothes reel seemed to have a dingy 

 appearance, and I found tiny black worms on the clothes. These 

 would blow over from the Myrtle Street yard adjoining. They 

 were young gypsy-moth caterpillars, although at that time I did 

 not know what they were. The next year they appeared in our 

 yard by swarms. The board walks were completely covered with 

 them. It was impossible to walk without crushing them under 

 foot. On going out of doors they would get on one's clothing. 

 Our trees and other green things were stripped twice and leafed 

 out twice. The foliage of everything that was set out in our yard 

 was riddled ; the woodbine alone escaped. We became dis- 

 couraged, and let things go. The grape-\^ne suffered. One 

 morning Mr. Merrill picked caterpillars for an hour and a half off 

 one rose bush. The trunk of the umbrella tree in the yard was 

 completely hidden by the mass of caterpillars stuck together. I 

 scraped the caterpillars off into a tin can, but in a short time they 

 were just as thick again on the trunk. Some of our small fruit 

 trees which were stripped at that time have not done much since. 

 In that year (1890) if you went down the street with a sun um- 

 brella, the caterpillars would drop down on it just like rain. 

 (Mrs. E. E. Merrill, Lawrence Street.) 



In 1890 the street trees were badly injured by the gypsy-moth 

 caterpillars. At night in the lindens in front of the house there 

 was a noise like the gentle falling of rain. This was the noise of 

 the caterpillars eating the leaves. (Mi^. Plummer.) 



In 1890 the whole place was full of gypsy-moth caterpillars. I 

 think I scraped off half a peck of caterpillars from the sills of the 

 house and from under the porch and from off the trees. (E. 

 Loeffler, Lawrence Street.) 



The caterpillars did much damage in the Cross Street 

 neighborhood. Says Mr. J. C. Miller : — 



The next j^ear (1890) all the orchards in this section were com- 

 pletely ravaged, and there was no fruit. The caterpillars simply 



