xxviii 



THE GYPSY MOTH. 



The streets are usually well provided with shade and ornamental 

 trees, many of which are large and stately elms. In the spring of 

 1891, when work was first begun by the commission, the greater 

 portion of this plain, including the swamp, was covered with 

 a young coppice intermingled with bushes and undergrowth. 

 Near the southern border of this tract the Anderson Pressed 

 Brick Company erected extensive works in 1886 on the ground 

 used more than twenty years ago by Trouvelot for his silk-worm 

 pasture. 



G-ravelly creek runs through the western part of the section near 

 the Forest Street boundary. The northern boundary of the sec- 

 tion lies close to the rocky ledge which marks the beginning of the 

 Middlesex Fells. Near the centre where the insect was first 

 colonized there is a large tract of woodland suitable for the shelter 

 and propagation of an insect pest. Upon the west several streets 

 much travelled, and with gardens and orchards on either hand, lead 

 toward the centre of the town. On the south is a railroad which 

 terminates at the heart of the infested district and is supported by 

 a traflSc with Boston. The principal thoroughfare connecting 

 Medford with eastern towns runs through the heart of the section. 

 Another large thoroughfare marks its eastern border, and a stream 

 which flows north or south as the tides rise and fall rises in the 

 section and flows to the Mystic River. Here we have all the 

 requisites for the sustenance of the insect and all facilities for its 

 transportation in all directions. 



The commission appointed by Governor Brackett to check the 

 spreading and secure the extermination " of the gypsy moth un- 

 doubtedly destroyed large numbers of moths in this section by 

 burning, by scraping off the eggs and by spraying ; yet when the 

 agents of the Board of Agriculture first entered the section, in 

 March, 1891, its condition was, to say the least, alarming. Some 

 parts of the brush and woodland were so infested with the eggs of 

 the species that it was utterly impossible with the men and means 

 at our command to destroy them by hand. There were acres of 

 ground where egg-clusters were numerous. Many eggs were laid 

 on the ground and were found in great numbers in excavations 

 where people had dug out clay or sand. A stone wall which was 

 torn down (the lower surfaces of the rocks being thereby exposed) 

 presented a remarkable spectacle. There being no large trees 

 near the wall, it formed a refuge and concealment for the moths 

 that fed on the neighboring bushes and saplings. On one rock 

 over one hundred large egg-clusters were counted. "When the 

 number of eggs contained in a single egg-cluster is considered, it 

 is apparent that millions of caterpillars would have hatched in 



