O ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 1934 
The funds allotted for this work, amounting to $2,020,620, were reduced by 
$459,282 as previously stated, so that $1,561,338 was available for the fiscal year 
1934. It is estimated that not less than 80 percent of the work originally planned 
for the full amount of funds has been completed, and in the New England area the 
largest and most threatening colonies, particularly those in the woodland, were 
treated before the end of the fiscal year. These results were accomplished in spite 
of the fact that during the winter weather conditions were abnormally severe. 
In many sections of New England where the work was carried on, record-breaking 
subzero temperatures continued for extended periods, and the snowfall was above 
normal. Progress could not have been made in many of these areas without 
equipping the men with snowshoes and, although 1,200 pairs were in use, serious 
consideration was given at one period during the winter to discontinuing the work 
until there were better conditions for traveling. All woodland scouting in New 
England was done on the 40-foot strip method, while in Pennsylvania the wood- 
lands that were covered were given a more intensive inspection. 
The opportunity afforded by the allotment of emergency funds to do much- 
needed constructive work on the gypsy moth project has made it possible to 
determine with reasonable accuracy the menace that exists in the territory adjoin- 
ing the barrier zone. The treatment that has been applied to the infestations 
found will give temporary relief, but cannot be expected to afford continuous 
protection to the zone unless control work is carried on annually in a systematic 
way. The work in Clinton County, N.Y., makes it possible for the Department 
to consider the elimination and release from the barrier zone of the territory in 
northern New York west of the Vermont State line as far south and including the 
towns of Putnam and Hague, an area embracing 1,056 square miles. Certain 
territory in Vermont may in addition be released from the regulated area on the 
basis of the scouting in that State. In Pennsylvania treatment of the known in- 
fested area has prevented defoliation this year and has resulted in the discovery 
and treatment of outlying infestations. The quarantined area in that State can 
now be extended so that material passing from all the infested territory can be 
inspected in order to protect the uninfested parts of Pennsylvania and other 
States. 
THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH 
Observations made in the summer of 1933 showed that 20 towns in Maine, 
outside the quarantine line, were infested with the brown-tail moth (Nygmia 
phaeorrhoea Don.) ; 18 towns in New Hampshire outside of the line showed infes- 
tation, and 5 towns in Vermont were infested. Much of the southern half of 
New Hampshire and extensive areas in southern and eastern Maine were heavily 
infested, and the trees were severely defoliated. Late in the fall hibernating webs 
were extremely abundant in the above-mentioned sections of the two States. In 
Massachusetts most sections of the quarantined area were lightly infested, but 
here and there towns were found with spots of heavier infestation and some 
defoliation. 
On December 1, 1933, the Civil Works Administration approved an expenditure 
of $870,850 for a brown-tail moth extermination project, to be carried on as a 
Federal project in the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Mas- 
sachusetts, under the supervision of the Bureau of Plant Quarantine. This 
extermination project was one on which large numbers of men could be given 
useful employment in cutting and burning the hibernation webs present in abun- 
dance on the trees in many sections of the infested area. 
The work was organized very rapidly, and eventually more than 4,500 people 
were employed. The project was discontinued on February 15, 1934, although 
the work had not been completed in any of the States. Approximately $515,000 
was expended on this project, and the plan could have been completed if an 
extension of time had been allowed. More than 95 percent of the funds used 
were expended for personal service. 
Webs were cut in towns inside the quarantined area in Maine, New Hampshire, 
and Massachusetts; also in a few towns outside of the quarantined area in New 
Hampshire and Massachusetts. As the quarantined area did not extend as far 
west as Vermont, all towns in that State in which work was done were outside of 
the quarantined area. 
As the work progressed very heavy infestations were found in many towns in 
southern Maine and New Hampshire. In these two States there were a number 
of towns containing from 200,000 to 300,000 webs, and there were also many 
towns from which over 100,000 webs were cut. In Massachusetts the towns were 
not so heavily infested as in Maine and New Hampshire, but some towns yielded 
