VISITS OF ENTOMOLOGISTS. 



79 



As soon as possible after the appropriation was available 

 all those experienced and trustworthy men who could be 

 reached were re-employed. The trees were bur lapped and 

 all haste made to prepare the infested trees for the summer 

 work. In many places the caterpillars appeared in large 

 numbers and it required the work of the entire season to 

 hold them in check. 



The hatching and scattering of the caterpillars, which the 

 delay of the appropriation allowed, necessitated the burlap- 

 ping of a greater number of trees and the employment of a 

 larofer force for the summer. There were 624,673 trees bur- 

 lapped during the summer and 265 men were of necessity em- 

 ployed to attend the burlaps. The result was the destruction 

 at a great expense of a great number of caterpillars, many of 

 which would not have existed had the appropriation been made 

 at an earlier date. A large part of the appropriation having 

 been used in burlapping trees and killing caterpillars during 

 the summer, it became necessary to discharge a large part 

 of the force at the end of the burlapping season on August 

 25. Thirty-three men were then discharged and others 

 were discharged in September, so that by October 1 only 

 133 men remained. This force was entirely insufficient to 

 inspect thoroughly the 220 square miles in the known infested 

 region, to say nothing of the belt of territory outside of it 

 which the committee believed ought to be inspected. The 

 men were kept at work during every day when it was possi- 

 ble to work to advantage, and everything was done that 

 could be done with the small force remaining to inspect the 

 outer towns of the infested region. It was found necessary 

 again to neglect the central towns to a certain extent that 

 the outer towns might be inspected as thoroughly as possible 

 and that the moth's spreading might be prevented. 



In June Dr. George H. Perkins of the University of Ver- 

 mont, entomologist of the Vermont State Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, visited the infested region upon invitation 

 of the committee and inspected the work. In July Prof. F. 

 L. Harvey, botanist and entomologist of the Experiment 

 Station at the Maine State College, Prof. J. Henry Comstock 

 of Cornell University, formerly United States entomologist, 

 and Mr. L. O. Howard, entomologist of the United States 



