The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1894-02-03
n GYPSY MOTH.
How an EntomoIosist Set Loose .
Deadly Enemy to Trees.

Deadly Enemy to Trees.
Not 80 very long ago a scientific
w~iseacre OF Massachusetts, who had
never had the pleasure of meeting
with a gypsy moth, since the friyol-
Gus creature had not journeyed into
the old Bay State at the time, sent
word to a friend in a far-away land,
the home Of the insect, saying:
Z" Please send me a gypsy moth right
away; | want to look at him | want
TO study him." SO the friend, who
was an obedient chap, went into his
garden, and with no trouble caught a
gypsy moth, n Of Il large band Of
the moths who were encamped there
and had eaten about everything in
the neighborhood, except the house
and toughest part of the fence, and
he put him in n ventilated box
and mailed him to the entomologist
in Massachusetts,.
The gypsy moth arrived safely at
his destination, and the scientific
sharp went TO work with his Jack
knife at his cage to disentomb him.
He was so lively that he easily stood
on his head and scraped his hind legs
together in the air, so that the wise
man might know, perhaps, that he
was glad to know him. He was Just
as lively after he had been carved
out Of his mummy case, but the en-
tomologist was light-fingered also,
and he eXpcrtly caught his visitor by
his tail feathers, and then went out
on his veranda to scrutiniZe him in a
strong light through his magnifying
glass. But the gypsy moth was
smarter than the scientific man, evil
IDENTIFY very much smarter, and he
hadn't travelled over land and water
several thousand miles to be stuck on
a pin and TO make an chronological
Roman holiday. He bided his time;
and when the learned man had
Tipped him over on his back, holding
him still by the tail, but with a
slightly slackened grip, and was about
to chuck his microscope down upon
him, prestol he suddenly gathered
himself into a knot, systematically
yanked himself away from the glass,
slid down to the veranda floor, and
was off into the garden in n jiffy.
The scientific man gaped at him in.
credulously for an inst.nt, and then
set off along the garden walk and
across the green sward, treading
down sweet peas and clover blossoms
in a perfectly futile endeavor to re-
capture him. The gypsy moth got
entirely away and never came back,
and keen and sore was the disap-
pointment of the entomOlogist
thereat.
Sore, also, has been the disappoint-
ment of the old Bay State therefor
ever since the luckless escape of the
gypsy moth took place a number OF
Years ago. But though he is gone he
is by nc mea forgotten. The gypsy
moth Of the scientific man followed
the Biblical injunction Multiply
and replenish the earth :" and the
point Of this history is in the fact
that that little incident by which the
entomologist let 90 the tail feathers
of his gypsy moth, has cost the State
of Massachusetts, over $500, 900 in the
past four years. Soon after the gypsy
moth got away the Bay State had to
appoint a State Commission, whose
business il was to 90 and find him,
together with his progeny, and the
Commission found him easily and in
a large majority. Each year now
they keep on looking for and finding
him in n steadily augmenting horde.
No trouble at all. He is always on
deck. Last years work of the Com
mission, according to a Springfield
paper, "included the examination of
1000, 600 trees and the destruction
of 5000 egg clusters, all belonging
to the gypsy moth, and over 900, OOC
caterpillars. Now" comments the
same journal, IAN appropriation OF
$50, 600 with which to find and fight
the gypsy moth is asked, and it is a
choice between constant fight to the
determination, and the loss on the
other hand Of something like 81, 000,-
GOO yearly by the ravages of the pest"
New York Sun.