19 
In the banding work it was soon found that the burlaps were most 
successfully used on well-kept trees with smooth, round trunks and 
branches. If the trees were originally in such condition or were first 
properly prepared, the insect was eradicated from many localities by 
the banding method alone, but when trees with decaying blanches, 
hollow trunks, or rough or loose bark become infested the caterpillars 
frequently prefer the shelter afforded by such cavities or inequalities 
to that afforded by the burlap. As a result, the employees in placing 
the burlaps upon the trees throughout an infested region were obliged 
to prepare the tree in many cases. Dead branches were cut off, cavities 
were filled up or covered tightly with tin, and the rubbish and weeds 
were removed from the ground about the tree. This work was onerous 
and consumed much time, but it paid in the long run not only by bring 
ing about the ready destruction of the worms under the burlap, but by 
greatly improving the health and appearance of the trees. The writer 
has seen many trees whose lives were undoubtedly saved by this sani- 
tary treatment by the gipsy-moth workmen. 
Experimental work was carried on sufficiently against the pupae 
within their cocoons and against the moths to show that economic work 
against the insect in either of these stages could not be as successful as 
in other stages, although as a matter of fact thousands of the pupae 
and moths are incidentally destroyed each year. 
We have thus mentioned the mam methods used against the insect 
in any one of its specific stages of life. Quite as important, however, 
has been the general work of the committee in the wa} r of clearing up 
the breeding places and rendering the localities swarming with large 
colonies of the moth uninhabitable by them, or at least easy to treat 
successfully. Rubbish heaps have been cleaned up and neglected door- 
yards, pasture lots, and waste lands have been thoroughly renovated 
or burned over. The general work, however, which has been carried 
on in the woodlands has been still more arduous and important. Any 
one visiting certain places in the Middlesex Fells or in the Lynn woods 
Park or any of the dense forest areas lying to the northeast of 
Boston, would be apt to say that an extermination of any species of 
insect in such jungles of vegetation would be impossible, aud perhaps 
so it would were the Gipsy Moth scattered generally through this 
region, as seems to be the prevalent impression. Few people who have 
not visited the locality realize the character or extent of the woods in 
the outlying (owns of Melrose, Lynnfield, Peabody, Med ford. Stone 
ham, Wakefield, Saugus, Woburn, Winchester, and Lexington. 
Although the country is very thickly settled — so much so that in 
driving along many of t lie roads one seems to be almost traversing a 
continuous village — yet standing upon some point of vantage like 
Castle lvock or Bear Hill, the whole country for miles around has almost 
the appearance of a virgin forest. The Gipsy Moth, however, is not 
generally distributed throughout this region, but occurs here and 
there — frequently at great intervals— in isolated and restricted spots, to 
