21 
sympathy and support by allowing the necessity of the work and reduc- 
ing his loss to a minimum. The first measure which they have adopted 
in eradicating a woodland colony is to thin out the timber. This lias 
been done in some places much more radically than in others. One 
extensive colony in the vicinity of Woburn it was thought could not 
be exterminated without the destruction of the entire timber growing 
upon a certain hill, and this was done. 1 In other cases about every 
third tree was cut down and its stump cut close to the ground; in still 
others, about half of the trees were thus felled, and in other cases only 
every third tree was left standing. In one exceptional case five-sixths 
of the trees were felled. The wood, as a measure of economy, was 
naturally saved in every case. 
Practically no timber trees have been felled. Only very rarely has 
one been found which it has been necessary to cut. The poorer and 
smaller trees were invariably chosen, and these were cut up into cord 
wood and hauled away, and thus became a source of some recompense. 
After the thinning out, the underbrush was all cut down and the sur- 
face of the ground thoroughly burned over, the egg clusters upon the 
remaining trees being destroyed with creosote, and the trees themselves 
given a raupenleim band in the spring, burlaped where necessary, 
and watched through the ensuing seasons until satisfactory evidence 
was gained that the colony was exterminated. In many cases the actual 
value of the timber patch has been raised by the treatment given it by 
the gipsy moth people. The woods have simply been opened up to some 
extent, allowing more sun to enter and better growth on the part of the 
timber trees through the destruction of poorer soil exhausting vegeta- 
tion, while the sale of the firewood saved has been a profit to the owner 
of the land. In other cases, where the felling lias been more extensive, 
the wood saved has been in the nature of a compensation rather than 
a profit. In certain cases, where owners remained obdurate, men witli 
ready funds and more complaisant dispositions have been found who 
purchased the land and then permitted the work as a strict business 
venture. In still other cases,there was no ultimate intention of preserv- 
ing the woods, and the clearing of the land by the committee has simply 
saved the owner the expense of doing it himself, and enabled him to 
carry out at once his plans of putting the land into cultivation or cut- 
ting it up into building lots. 
'The exact steps taken in this operation were as follows: "The caterpillars 
appeared in the summer of 1895 iu sufticienl numbers to strip the Leaves from the 
I lees on two areas of an acre or more each, and it was found that they had scattered 
over some 15 acres in the immediate vicinity. All of thetives (largely oaks \o to 60 
feet in heighl ) and the undergrowth of nearly 10 acres were burned, and the r» si of 
the wood was cut and Bold. The leaves \\ ere taken ap and burned in the fall of L895, 
and in the spring of L896 tin- ground was all hu inc. 1 over. Although this burning left 
little on the land except stumps and ashes, a tew oaterpillars appeared later in the 
season around tin 1 edges and fed tor a time on the sprouts which made their appear- 
ance after the tire. Here the ground was burned over again, and no traces of the 
insect have since been found." 
