dollars, and instructed the Road Commissioners to protect the shade trees. Without experience or the facilities for prosecuting the work, they made little progress. The residents of the infested and adjacent territory decided to petition the Legislature to assist in controlling and, if possible, exterminating this destructive pest. The Governor of the State resided in the infested territory, and in his annual message, January, 1890, called the attention of the Legislature to the matter. Petitions from the Selectmen of Medford and the adjoining towns, Arlington, Everett, Winchester, Stoneham, and Wakefield, from the city officials of Malden and Somerville, the State Board of Agriculture, and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, were presented to the Legislature in January, 1890. The matter was referred to the Committee on Agriculture. The Committee visited the infested locality and reported that they saw walls of buildings and almost every tree covered with the egg clusters or nests.

The Legislature of 1890 enacted a law providing for the appointment of a commission to take charge of the work "to provide and carry into execution all possible measures to prevent the spread and secure the extermination of the Ocneria dispar or Gypsy Moth in this Commonwealth." The Legislature appropriated twenty-five thousand dollars, and the Governor appointed a commission consisting of three men, all residents of the infested territory. They commenced work immediately and killed large quantities of the caterpillars, paying special attention to the trees by the roadsides. to prevent their being distributed by passing carriages. The Commission soon found that the money appropriated would not complete the work over the known infested territory, which was supposed to be about a mile and a half long and two-thirds of a mile wide, and the Legislature appropriated twenty-five thousand dollars The work of spraying was continued as long as the insect continued in the caterpillar state, and afterwards the eggs were destroyed.

more.

In the spring of 1891 the Governor discharged the Commission and the Legislature passed an act placing the work of attempting "to prevent the spreading and to secure the extermination of the Gypsy Moth" in the hands of the State Board of Agriculture, and appropriated fifty thousand dollars to carry on the work.

The efforts of the Committee the first year were directed to destroying as many as possible of the insects where they were liable

to do the most injury; to cleaning the trees bordering the highways, and scouting to ascertain the outside limits of the area infested. During the year scattered colonies were found in thirtyone different towns and cities, bounded as follows: South by Boston and all the towns bordering on Massachusetts Bay to Beverly: on the east by Beverly, Danvers, and Reading; on the north by Bedford, Lexington, and Waltham, and on the west by Waltham and Watertown.

It was then determined that a line drawn on the outside limits of the above towns enclosed the infested territory, and from that time to the present only three colonies have been found outside the above-named limits. Two colonies have been found in Brookline and one in Lincoln.

It will not be understood that all the above territory was infested, but scattered colonies were found, diminishing in number in proportion to the facilities for transportation and the distance from the centre at Medford.

The plan of work pursued from the beginning has been to work from the outside towards the centre for extermination, and reduce the infested area, and, as far as means allowed, to reduce the numbers in the central portions, and to clean trees bordering highways and railroads.

The Committee have each year at the close of the season made a careful survey of the work done and to be done, and if the work was to be continued asked for the least amount of money to do the work absolutely necessary when viewed from an economic standpoint. These estimates have been reduced by the Legisla ture from one-third to one-half, thus causing a change of plans by which portions of the territory must be neglected; and so rapidly does this insect increase, that small colonies become large ones, and others that were greatly reduced, not only regain their former number and extent of ground occupied, but add largely to both.

As an illustration of the fecundity of this insect, I will mention one instance. While making an examination of one of the woodland colonies the past season, an oak tree ten inches in diameter, and from forty to fifty feet in height, was noticed as being thickly covered with nests, and the workmen were requested to count these nests as they destroyed them, and report the number. They reported two thousand and seventy. It has been found by the

examination of these nests that they contain on the average between five and six hundred eggs. This single tree was carrying through the winter a prospective increase of one million and thirtyfive thousand caterpillars in one year. It has been found that ten full-grown caterpillars weigh an ounce, but allowing twenty to the ounce, the above number would weigh more than one and one-half tons. They are omnivorous, eating the foliage from every known tree, plant, and vegetable. They commence hatching about the twentieth of April, and continue until the middle of June, and feed until the last of July.

Strong colonies, if undisturbed, will kill most deciduous trees in two years, and evergreen trees in one year. They not only destroy the first foliage, but continue as the trees put forth new foliage to devour it until the last of July.

The difficulty, if not the impossibility, of controlling this insect by ordinary methods has been illustrated in many instances. General Lawrence, of Medford, stated before a committee of the Legislature that he spent more than three thousand dollars in a single season in his efforts to protect his own premises, but failed, and was obliged to call on the State employees for assistance.

Congress, at its last session, passed an act requiring the United States Department of Agriculture to make an investigation of the gypsy moth in Massachusetts. In accordance with that act, L. O. Howard, the head of the Entomological Division, has spent several weeks in making a thorough examination of the whole territory and the methods of work employed by the Committee for the extermination of this insect. His report is now in the publisher's hands, and will soon be issued, and may be relied upon as the judgment of one of the most expert economic entomologists in the country.

This war on the gypsy moth is not for the protection of Massachusetts alone, for if the work is discontinued, and they are allowed to increase along the highways and railroads, they must inevitably be carried into other States; and, judging from our experience in Massachusetts, we shall have the most dangerous and destructive national insect pest ever introduced into this country.

E. W. WOOD,

Delegate.

REPORT

TO THE

STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE

FOR THE YEAR 1897.

By GEORGE CRUICKSHANKS, OF FITCHBURG.

In 1829 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society was organized to encourage the science and art of horticulture. How well it has fulfilled its mission may be seen at the exhibitions that are held at its beautiful hall on Tremont Street almost every Saturday during the year. Besides the Annual Spring, Rhododendron. Rose and Strawberry, Plant and Flower, Fruit and Vegetable, and Chrysanthemum Shows, prizes are offered every week during the summer and autumn months for the choicest products of the gardener's skill. The amount appropriated this year for premiums and gratuities was $8,100.

The year began with a course of Lectures and Discussions on the following subjects:

January 9. Tropical Horticulture, with Illustrations of the Principal Economic Plants of Hot Climates, by Professor George L. Goodale, Cambridge.

January 16. The Structure and Classification of Mushrooms, by Hollis Webster, Cambridge.

January 23. The Chrysanthemum; its Past, Present, and
Future, by Edmund M. Wood, Wellesley.

January 30. Plant Beauty, by Henry T. Bailey, North Scituate.
Sweet Peas, by Rev. W. T. Hutchins, Indian

February 13.

Orchard.

February 20.

Market Gardening, by T. Greiner, La Salle,

N.Y.

H

February 27. Good Food from the Garden, by Miss Anna Barrows, Boston.

March 13. Horticulture in Canada, by Professor William Saunders, Ottawa, Canada.

March 20. Soils and Potting, by T. D. Hatfield, Wellesley.

March 27. The Spread of Plant Diseases; a consideration of some of the ways in which Parasitic Organisms are disseminated, by Dr. Erwin F. Smith, Washington, D.C.

The lectures and discussions are published in full in the Transactions of the Society, which are free to all the members of the Society.

The Spring Exhibition opened March 23 and continued four days. The Lower Hall contained a fine show of early vegetables and winter apples and pears. In the centre of the hall was a rich display of spring flowering greenhouse plants. In the Upper Hall were choice collections of spring flowering bulbs, which included the fragrant hyacinth, tulips, jonquils, narcissuses, and polyanthuses. There were excellent exhibits of perennials, cinerarias, cyclamens, and pansies, and a fine show of orchids.

The Rhododendron Show opened June 3 for two days. The rhododendrons and azaleas were very fine. Fine exhibits were made of carnations, foxgloves, oriental poppies, etc. There were large collections of native plants and an excellent display of orchids. One table was filled with a choice collection of vegetables. A tomato plant grafted on a potato and bearing potato tubers at the bottom and a tomato at the top attracted much attention.

The Rose and Strawberry Show was held June 22 and 23. The exceedingly cold and rainy spring was not favorable to the growth of the best quality of either fruit or flowers; consequently the display was not large and the quality was not as good as in some former years. In strawberries the Marshall took the lead in size and quality. Beautiful collections of orchids were shown; also a very fine specimen (trained) of Bougainvillea, large collections of rhododendrons, and an exhibit of seventy-two varieties of pæonies.

The Annual Exhibition of Plants and Flowers was held September 1 and 2. All lovers of flowers look forward to this annual plant and flower show. The Upper Hall was devoted to pot plants. Much credit is due the Committee of Arrangements for the taste