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National Geographic : 1914 Jul
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Photo from U. S. Department of Agriculture INTERIOR OF PARASITE BREEDING SHED WHERE ONE MILLION TINY FLIES WERE REARED IN 1913: MELROSE HIGHLANDS, MASS. (SEE TEXT, PAGE 66) In woodlands where the oaks predomi nate, however, the problem is a much more serious one and may mean ultimate reforestation. In reaching the present rather promis ing situation, an enormous amount of work has been done. It must be realized that when, after a period of five years, the State of Massachusetts began once more, in 1905, to attempt to check the gipsy-moth, conditions within the infested territory were almost unlivable. The or chards and the shade trees were dying, the parks and the dooryards were stripped of all kinds of foliage in June, the wooded hillsides were brown when they should have been green, and in the villages and towns during the latter part of May and through June caterpillars were crawling everywhere-on the sidewalks, on the sides of houses, and even into houses. Methods of hand destruction were used in all of the infested towns. The new State law provided in general that each town should do its own work and should be recompensed by the State to the ex tent of one-half or more of the amount expended. CONGRESS DECIDES TO HELP When the moth began to spread be yond the boundaries of Massachusetts the Congress of the United States was importuned to make appropriations. By this time it had become evident that ex termination was out of the question with out the expenditure of enormous sums of money, and appropriations were subse quently made by Congress, not to attempt extermination, but to prevent, if possible, the further spread of both the gipsy-moth and the brown-tail moth. The female of the gipsy-moth does not fly; its body is too heavy (see page 50);
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