burgess: gypsy moth and barrier zone 
55 
lieved from the expense of treating for this insect, or of suffering serious 
losses to shade, park and forest tree growth. Protection has also been 
accorded to the states adjoining or more remote from those already 
mentioned, as the insect would have undoubtedly become established 
and flourished prior to the present time in remote areas and possibly in 
distant states, if work in the barrier zone and the outlying colonies, 
together with careful inspection of products that might carry the pest, 
had not been vigorously enforced. This statement is corroborated by 
the fact that in the year 1912 a vigorous colony was found in Geneva, 
New York, another near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1920, and a third 
in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914. All of these colonies were promptly 
exterminated but if no protective work had been done the insect would 
have been present over a very large portion of the eastern United States 
at the present time. 
It is obvious that the heaviest infestation of this insect is in the regions 
nearest the Atlantic seaboard, particularly in eastern Massachusetts 
where the insect first became established, and in New Hampshire and 
Maine where it spread shortly after 1900. Prior to 1933 the insect did 
not occur in large numbers west of central Massachusetts or west of 
central New Hampshire. It is true that small infestations have been 
found in many towns west of this area but a sufficient amount of treat¬ 
ment was applied, or climatic or other conditions prevented abundant 
increase of the insect. Since that year weather conditions during the 
winter have been on the average unsually favorable for the protection 
of the insect which caused a heavy increase during the summers which 
followed. In the winter of 1933-34 the temperature in most of this 
area and particularly that to the north and northwest, dropped to a 
point below -20° F. which in most cases will destroy egg clusters, but 
heavy snow and ice afforded effective protection. The increase in the 
number of egg clusters was accompanied by an increase in the acreage of 
defoliation the following summer and fear was expressed as to the con¬ 
ditions existing in the territory between the eastern boundary of the 
barrier zone and the Connecticut River in Vermont, Massachusetts and 
Connecticut. 
As soon as emergency funds were available in 1933, examinations 
were made in much of this territory which indicated that the infestation 
there was more general than had been previously anticipated. Further 
emergency funds were not allotted for this work until 1935 at which 
time the regular funds of the Bureau for Gypsy Moth work were insuf- 
