Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-04-08

/ The most discouraging feature Of
! the gypsy moth situation is the in
! crease of infested territory, states
I Major Edward e. Philbrook OF Port
/ land. special field agent in charge of
j the gypsy moth work connected with
i the state Department of Agriculture,
+ in his annual report which was made
public Tuesday. AT the present time
! the known area of infested territory
+ comprises i'll towns located in Is diff
! ferent counties, and as Yet the actual
f limits of the districts infested with
i the gypsy moth are not known, and
+ will not he determined until such
/ time as a more thorough examina-
i ton is made by the trained scouts OF
/ the United States government of the
/ outlying towns.
This condition is due to the fact
/ that the appropriations have not been
! large enough to carry on the work, -
! continues Major Philbrook, and 1
would advise the changing Of the pres
1 ent policy to one of education of the
/ people of the State to handle their
| own infestations and to the develop
ment of parasites for both the gip-
i sv and brown-tail moths. In order
! to carry out the present methods of
I suppression of the moth, very large
/ sum Of money would be necessary,
SO large. in fact, that it would be
! excessive for the State to raise such
/ for this work. From my experience
/ in the work, I believe that we would
/ get better results by educating the
property owner to care for his trees
/ and in the development of parasites.
/ Massachusetts has expended $4,000, 600
in the moth work. This is a large
sum Of money. Massachusetts is a
! rich state and is able 10 spend such
I a sum of money for such purpose,
+ but for Maine, the prospect would he
+ ruinous. Hope must be placed in
/ the development of parasitic enemies,
/ education of the people as to the prop
i er methods Of handling the insect and
I the purchase of high-power spray
] ing machines for the different towns.
/ This is by far the cheaper method Of
handling the work b. the towns both
/ for the gypsy and brown-tail moths.
with high-power spraying ma
! chino II each town the work can be
t dene much mere satisfactorily than
i by any other methods. These same
+ high power machines, which usually
i have tank capacity of 400 gallons
and Il sufficient power to maintain a
pressure Of 500 pounds at the end of
a 15G0-foot length of one-inch hose can
/ be used to great advantage by the
towns for fires. both in the woodlands
and in the residential sections. They
/ can be adjusted to spray directly from
! the brook, pond or tank 50 that they
are adaptable for service when other
equipment would be useless.
In the orchard the gypsy moth is
readily controlled by painting the egg
| masses with creoSote in winter and by
1 spraying the trees with arsenate of
/ lead, five pounds to 80 gallons, of
water, in the early spring when the
eggs are Matching. Where this is
done very little trouble results from
/ the caterpill1rs.
Work of the Year.
Owing to the lateness Of the APP
preparation. which caused delay in
starting work in the field, it was i'm
| possible to cover but small portion
Of the infested region. but an attempt
was made to destroy as many egg
clusters as possible in the towns of
! ~
| Wells and Kennebunk before the cat
erpillars began to crawl. Crews were
started in these towns on the first of
April and the scouting continued until
| the eggs Matched. It did not seem
wise to expend too much of our APP
preparation in scouting new territory
while in the towns mentioned there
was an opportunity to destroy egg
clusttrs by the hundreds of thou
sands. and thus relieve the people
of such towns from caterpillar an
noyance and great damage to wood
lands and orchards as wen as to les
sen the liability of spread to the other
towns to the eastward.
las soon as the eggs Matched and
the caterpillars began to crawl spray
ing was begun and continued until
the latter part of July with excellent
results. In the spraying operations
we used eight and one-half tons of
arsenate of lead and millions OF cat
erpillars We're destroyed. One hun
dred and two thousand trees were
burlapped and $4,000 caterpillars were
taken from under the burlap bands
and destroyed. Many caterpillars
We're destroyed by the burning OF
stone walls and rock piles. Forest
fires in the towns of York, Kittery
Eliot and Wells have destroyed many
thousand caterpillars. Owing to the
lack of funds the work stopped on
August 18th. The men were given a
vacation until Oct Is, when the scout
ing work was again taken up and
continued and is now being carried
on.
During the scouting operations 9oS,
173 clusters were found and destroyed
in the towns Of Kittery. York, Eliot
South Berwick, Wells. Kennebunk
Sanford, Portland, South Portland
WestbrOok Brunswick and Oxford
In this work 400 gallons of creosote
was used in painting the egg clusters
THE State has added to its field
equipment this year high-poweI
spraying machine. With this machine
results have been very gratifying in
the towns of Kittery, Eliot and South
Berwick where it was used during
the year. At the present time, York
| Wells, Kennebunk and Saco have pow
tEf1 col ~