56 
EASTERN SHADE TREE CONFERENCE 
ficient to carry on the scouting and cleanup work in the field except 
from emergency allotments. Men in C.C.C. camps were also detailed 
for work east of the barrier zone. 
In the area from the Connecticut River as far east as the city of 
Worcester, Massachusetts, serious defoliation occurred in a number of 
widely scattered towns in the summer of 1934. It increased until 1937 
when more than 60,000 acres were defoliated. The acreage was some¬ 
what less in 1938 than during the previous year. In towns adjoining 
the Connecticut River on the west, a moderate amount of Gypsy Moth 
feeding was noted in a few towns from 1934 to 1936. In 1937 defoliated 
areas were noticeable in a number of towns contiguous to the river and 
there was a substantial increase in 1938. During the summer, a heavy 
deposit of egg clusters was found in the towns of Montgomery, Russell, 
Granville and Southwick, Massachusetts, and Granby, Canton and 
Simsbury, Connecticut. During the summer of that year more than a 
thousand acres were defoliated in the towns mentioned in Connecticut, 
which is the largest acreage that has ever been reported in any year in 
that state. 
As a result of the work done in territory between the Connecticut 
River and the barrier zone, the increase of the insect was greatly reduced 
and the normal increase of the insect prevented. Hundreds of small 
infestations were eliminated and in many towns no noticeable feeding 
of the insect was apparent. This was accomplished in spite of the fact 
that all emergency and C.C.C. forces have been constantly reduced. 
In 1937 owing to heavy curtailment of emergency funds, all work 
east of the barrier zone was discontinued by the W.P.A. force, except 
in a limited number of localities that were particularly threatening to 
the zone. During the present year the number of C.C.C. enrollees have 
been reduced owing to the abandonment or discontinuance of various 
camps and at the present time, on account of the tremendous damage 
to tree growth as well as to roads and bridges on account of the hurri¬ 
cane and accompanying flood, this force has been reduced by transfer to 
approximately 200 men. 
With the discontinuance of W.P.A. work in a territory east of the 
barrier zone in the fall of 1937, it was impossible to carry on the volume 
of work that was necessary to retard the increase of the insect in some 
sections of this area, and that coupled with the decrease of C.C.C. men, 
and the relatively mild winter of 1937-1938 made conditions favorable 
for increase of the pest. It is true that in the spring of 1938, owing to 
