196 



THE GYPSY MOTH. 



land, as the cost of the labor would be more 'than the value 

 of the wood. If precautionary measures have been neg- 

 lected, and the caterpillars appear in swarms, they may strip 

 the trees before arriving at an age when they will seek the 

 burlap. 



When small caterpillars are very numerous upon the trees, 

 spraying with arsenate of lead at the rate of thirty pounds 

 to one hundred and fifty gallons of water will destroy most 

 of them. If arsenate of lead is not at hand, two or three good 

 sprayings with Paris green in May will greatly lessen their 

 numbers. The trees may be afterwards burlapped, and the 

 caterpillars killed as they gather day by day under the bur- 

 laps. A small burning tank with a cyclone burner might be 

 used to stay the march of an invading host of these cater- 

 pillars, and would check them anywhere. (See Plate XX.) 

 The care of trees and the general cleanliness of grounds will 

 do much toward rendering an orchard an unfit dwelling-place 

 for the gypsy moth, and will facilitate the moth's destruction. 



The Axnual Ixspectiox. 



The inspection and egg- killing in the infested district and 

 the inspection in the towns in its vicinity during the late fall, 

 winter and early spring are the chief means of preventing 

 the dissemination of the moth, and the first and most impor- 

 tant steps toward extermination. It is by examining the 

 trunks and the lower surfaces of large limbs of trees during 

 this search that most of the conspicuous egg-clusters are 

 found. In this way most of the colonies of the moth have 

 been discovered.* It is for the prosecution of this work 

 that the most efficient and experienced men are retained. 

 The inspection goes on through the winter months, except 

 when interrupted by severe storms, deep snow or the ex- 

 haustion of the appropriation. 



So long as there are moths in the district at present in- 

 fested, just so long will there be danger of their distribution 

 throughout that district and to adjacent towns ; the danger 



* Webster defines a colony (under the head of natural history) as a number of 

 animals or plants living together beyond their usual range. In the gypsy-moth work 

 the word " colony " has been applied to the moth when it has been found isolated 

 from others of its kind by a belt of uninfested country. 



