PARK AND C EM ET ERY.. 
43 
HIGH POWER SPRAYING ON 3,200 ACRES OF TREES 
One of the most successful, thor- 
ough and extensive works of spraying 
of woodland and roadside trees is that 
which has been carried on for several 
jears past on the beautiful north shore 
woods and drives in and about the 
towns of Beverly, Manchester and 
Gloucester, Mass. 
The policy of the committee in 
charge of this work has been to con- 
centrate their efforts in preserving the 
woods directly back of the shore for a 
reasonable distance, and attempting to 
preserve a strip of woodland alongside 
the beautiful wooded drives. Such a 
strip has been cleared upon something 
over thirty miles of road. 
Work was done all the way from 
Beverly nearly to Gloucester Harbor. 
The city of Gloucester co-operated by 
putting into the state treasury $2,500 to 
be used in the North Shore Gypsy 
Moth Work, and the state, through 
Governor Foss, put in an equal amount, 
and a like sum was raised from the 
summer residents at Magnolia. Almost 
all of the work there was done on the 
land adjoining the sea and directly back 
of it and on the sides of the state high- 
way down beyond Fresh Water Cove. 
By another year, if the work is con- 
tinued, it is expected to have nearly a 
continuous block of woodland cleaned 
up. 
Many parasites have been put 
out in various places in the back 
woods. It is too early to say how 
the different kinds will thrive and 
what they will accomplish, but 
this season they hope to see good 
results. The so-called wilt dis- 
ease was not as prevalent last 
year as in former years, probably 
because of the dry season. It did, 
however, kill many caterpillars in 
some of the back colonies. 
The parasites have all been set 
out in woods that were not to be 
sprayed and where they could de- 
velop freely. As soon as they do 
develop they will spread on to the 
adjoining property and thereby di- 
minish the work which has to be 
done to preserve the woods. 
The work consisted of clearing 
out the underbrush and poorer 
trees in order to be able to spray eco- 
nomically and to do thorough work in 
creosoting. In the bad colonies the 
eggs have been creosoted, in some cases 
the ground has been burned, and 
then as early in the season as pos- 
sible the woods have been sprayed. 
Conditions throughout the territory, 
as a whole, are better than they have 
ever been. The warm, dry season, 
however, made the caterpillars on 
some places pupate earlier than usual, 
and the result was that a few of the 
colonies have more nests now than 
they had last year because it was im- 
possible to spray them early enough 
in the season to kill all the caterpil- 
lars before they pupated. 
Over 3,300 acres were sprayed dur- 
ing the season, At one time there 
were over twelve spraying machines 
actively at work. The superintendent 
found that the new spraying machines 
were doing much more efficient and 
economical work than the older ones. 
They actually threw over the tops of 
the trees and made a finer spray, and 
were more economical because, with 
their additional power, nearly double 
the territory could be covered in one 
day with the same labor cost. 
The same arrangement that has 
been made with the Commonwealth 
in former years was continued. The 
State Forester’s Department took 
charge of the entire work, and the 
following appropriations were se- 
cured : 
From the city of Beverly $ 5,000 
From the town of Manchester. 5,000 
From the city of Gloucester... 2,500 
From the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts 12,500 
Contributed by committees 12,500 
$37,500 
This money was all paid into the 
state treasury for moth work on the 
North Shore, to be used by the State 
Forester’s Department. 
The balance of the money necessary 
for the work was provided one-half 
by the commonwealth and one-half 
by citizens’ committees. 
The actual work was in charge of 
the State Forester’s Department, un- 
der Mr. F. W. Rane. Mr. L. H. 
Worthley, superintendent of the 
browntail and gypsy moth work, su- 
pervised and laid out the work, and 
he was most ably assisted by Mr. Saul 
Phillips, Mr. William A. Hatch, and 
Mr. Walter F. Holmes. William D. 
Sohier, 15 Ashburton Place, Boston, 
has issued an interesting report on 
the work. 
In the spraying season, which is 
all too short, the work is ex- 
tremely arduous. It was no un- 
usual occurrence for some of the 
men in charge of the machines to 
work practically all night in order 
to prepare a spraying machine so 
that it would be ready for use the 
next day. They realize much more 
fully than we do that a day’s de- 
lay might mean the destruction of 
ten to twenty acres of woods. They 
were interested in their work and 
the territory was most efficiently 
covered by the inspectors, all of 
whom had motorcycles. 
Roughly speaking, about 1,000 
acres of woodland were cleared 
and sprayed in 1908, about 2,100 
acres in 1909, about 3,000 in 1910 
and over 3,200 in 1911. 
HIGH POWER SPRAYER AT WORK ON CAPITOL 
GROUNDS AT WASHINGTON, D. C. 
Note Difference in Height of Stream Due to 
Difference in Size of Nozzles. 
