LOCAL OUTBREAKS. 



13 



The caterpillars would travel on the fences in droves, and we 

 could not go out of doors without getting them all over us. . . . 

 When the caterpillars had cleaned out Mrs. Spinney's trees, they 

 started across the street in droves for the orchards on the other 

 side, and the next morning you could see the path which they had 

 made across the street. (Mrs. W. H. Snowdon, 7 Cross Street.) 



At this time (summer of 1889) they were crossing from Mr. 

 Spinney's by multitudes into yards on the other side of the street. 

 It seemed but a few hours after they left Mr. Spinney's before 

 they were all through my trees. They came literally in droves, 

 and seemed to have a method in their movements. (J. C. Miller, 

 3 Lauriat Place.) 



Another outbreak occurred on Vine Street, one-half mile 

 from the Trouvelot house. This colony extended north 

 across Salem Street to Fulton Street. Miss Helen T. Wild, 

 63 Salem Street, writes : — 



In 1889 the apple-trees in our neighborhood were attacked and 

 stripped by the gypsy-moth caterpillars. They fed on the apple 

 trees until there was nothing more to eat, and then started for the 

 elms on the street. In the morning following the night when they 

 finished the apple trees they were to be seen crossing the fence in 

 swarms in the direction of the large street elms. They were crawl- 

 ing fast, and were plainly heading for the elms. 



Mrs. George Fifield of Fulton Street, Medford, first 

 noticed the caterpillars at the corner of Fulton and Salem 

 streets. They were then travelling in lines along the side- 

 walk. Several of these lines converged upon a large elm at 

 the corner of the street, and a constant stream of larvae was 

 ascending the trunk. A day or two later all the trees in the 

 neighborhood were stripped, and in going toward Glen wood 

 she found the same condition everywhere. 



Mr. J. O. Goodwin, writing in the Medford *' Mercury" 

 in 1890, describes the movements of the caterpillars in his 

 neighborhood on South Street : — 



After devastating my neighbor's trees, they marched in myriads 

 for my premises, fairly covering the fences, houses, out-buildings, 

 grass land, currant bushes and concrete driveways with their troop- 

 ing battalions. . . . The number of worms cultivated on the three 



