New YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 407 
1863 that the moth had been in Albany for several years and 
that rose bushes and large plum trees were stripped of their 
foliage. Rev. C. J. S. Bethunet in 1871 considered this species 
a Serious enemy to the apple trees in Ontario, and stated that 
in the West it had defoliated some orchards and had attacked 
the fruits. A serious outbreak of this kind was reported in 
1895, by Mr. V. H. Lowe,® Entomologist of this Station, who 
received numerous complaints from the growers of Yates and 
Ontario counties of injuries to young apples. In succeeding 
years the presence of the caterpillar has been noticed in many 
orchards but as a rule there has been very little damage to 
the foliage and fruit until the present outbreak. 
THE TUSSOCK MOTH AS A SHADE-TREE PEST. 
It is in the cities and towns that the tussock moth finds 
congenial surroundings and there it thrives and proves most 
injurious. As early as 1848 Harris' reported that the cater- 
pillars damaged the horse chestnuts and other trees about 
Boston. In 1883° shade trees in some of the parks of New 
York City was defoliated. In 1895 Dr. Howard’ noted that 
the moth had been for many years the most serious of the 
shade tree pests in Philadelphia, New York, Brooklyn, and 
Boston, and that the caterpillars of this species had appeared 
that year in Washington, Baltimore and other southern cities 
in such numbers as to make the insect of great importance. 
Dr. Felt® has recorded serious outbreaks of this pest in the 
State of New York during 1898. In Albany, spraying opera- 
tions, conducted by the municipal authorities, were necessary 
to prevent general defoliation of the horse chestnuts. In some 
parts of Troy and in Buffalo the insect was still more destruc-. 
tive. These depredations have occurred so frequently along 
the streets and in the parks of some of our cities that spraying 
1Harris: ‘Insects Injurious to Vegetation,” p. 367. 
* Entomological Society of Ontario. Report 1871-1872, p. 14, 15. 
5N. Y. Agr. Exp. Sta. 14th Rept. 1895, p. 552-553. 
® Canadian Entomologist, 15:168, 169. 
7U. S. Dept. Agr. Year Book, 1895, pp. 368, 375. 
*H. P. Felt. 14th Rpt. State Ent. 1898, pp. 163, 176. 
