CONTROL WORK ABANDONED. 9 
The efficient work which was carried on by the Massachusetts State 
Board of Agriculture during the early nineties rendered the con- 
tinuance of vehicle inspection unnecessary, as the moth had been 
greatly reduced in numbers and very few badly infested localities 
could be found. At the time the work was abandoned in 1900, 34 
towns and cities surrounding Boston were slightly infested. A few 
isolated colonies were present outside of the limits of this area, but 
in most cases these had been reduced almost to the point of ex- 
termination, and in several colonies none of the insects had been 
found for two or more years, in spite of the fact that careful examina- 
tions were made annually. It should be said that very little if any 
of the territory in the infested area was what would be considered 
now as badly infested, and owing to the thorough manner in which 
the work was prosecuted the danger of spread was reduced to a 
minimum. 
CONTROL WORK ABANDONED. 
In the winter of 1900 suppression measures were abandoned by the 
State of Massachusetts, but during the next five years considerable 
individual effort was expended to protect the trees in the residential 
sections, particularly by owners. The infestation became so serious, 
however, in the summer of 1904, and the depredations of this insect 
were so severe, owing to its remarkable increase in numbers, that 
action was taken by the State in the spring of 1905, and money pro- 
vided for the purpose of affording relief and preventing the destruc- 
tion of trees in towns and cities as well as of attempting to control 
the moth throughout the infested area. 
The State force was organized by Supt. A. H. Kirkland, and con- 
ditions in the territory, which was the central part of that which was 
infested when the work was stopped, are well described by the follow- 
ing extract from his first annual report. 1 
As would have been expected, during the year 1900 and 1901 but little notable 
damage was caused by the gipsy moth, although evidence was not wanting to 
the trained observer that it was, rapidly multiplying in woodlands and on 
neglected private estates. It was apparent that nonresident property owners 
particularly paid practically no attention to the increase of the insect and that 
farmers and others owning infested woodland areas were unwilling, because of 
the expense, to fight the insect. In 1902 numerous estates were severely injured 
throughout the central district, while woodland colonies of some magnitude had 
developed from which the insects were swarming in all directions. The summer 
of 1903 showed that the moth had established itself again in alarming numbers 
in various parts of the infested district. Serious colonies had developed in the 
woods of Arlington, Medford, Saugus, and Maiden, and the Lynn Woods colonies 
had assumed notable proportions. In 1904 it was apparent to all that the gipsy 
moth had developed to a remarkable extent, reinfested the areas from which it 
had been cleared, and even extended its bounds into previously noninfested 
1 First Annual Report of the Superintendent for Suppressing the Gipsy and Brown- 
Tail Moths, 1906, p. 12. 
