60 



THE GYPSY MOTH. 



by the agents of the Board of Agriculture before serious 

 injury had been done. 



Fall Inspection and Egg Gathering. 

 In September, when the moths had laid their eggs, the 

 force of men was reduced. The most expert employees 

 were retained, and these were engaged in destroying eggs 

 in the worst-infested districts of ]\Ialden and Medford, until, 

 by practice, they had become efficient in this sort of work. 

 As soon as the leaves had fallen from deciduous trees, the 

 men were sent into the towns and cities beyond the reo-ion 

 which the moth was known to occupy, and the inspection, 

 which had been interrupted in the spring by the growing 

 leaves, was continued. An inspector was assigned to each 

 town, and instructed to inspect that town hastily, and if 

 moths were found there to proceed immediately to the next, 

 and so on until a wide belt of territory around the infested 

 region had been inspected in which no moths could be found. 

 Eighteen towns and three cities outside of the known infested 

 region were thus inspected in November and December. 

 The moths were found in each of the cities and in four of the 

 towns, and it was reported to the Legislature that whereas 

 in the spring the moths had been supposed to be confined to 

 a few towns, they were now known to be in thirty townships, 

 as follows : Arlington, Belmont, Beverly, Brighton (AVard 

 25, Boston), Cambridge, Charlestown (Wards 3, 4 and 5, 

 Boston), Chelsea, East Boston (Wards 1 and 2, Boston), 

 Everett, Lexington, Lynn, Lynnfield, Maiden, Marblehead, 

 Medford, Melrose, Peabody, Beading, Revere, Salem, 

 Swampscott, Saugus, Somerville, Stoneham, Waltham, 

 Wakefield, Watertown, Winchester, Winthrop and Woburn. 



Results of the Work. 

 During the season of 1891 the work carried on was effective, 

 inasmuch as it destroyed all the large colonies of the moth, 

 and protected the fruit and shade trees of the State from 

 further injmy. The spraying and other treatment of the 

 trees redoubled the fruit crop of the district. The measures 

 used disposed of the annual increase of the moth, and reduced 

 the numbers originally found by about ninety per cent. 



