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Page 10
The moth is not a native of this country, but of Germany and Austria,
where vast sums of money have also been spent by the governments in a vain
endeavor to get rid of it.
In 1869 a French naturalist came over to this country and settled in
Medford, Mass.
He had brought some Gipsy moth eggs with him from Europe, and intended
making some experiments with them.
He had the eggs out on his table one morning when he was called away from
his work. He went out of the room, leaving the eggs lying near the window.
When he returned he found that a puff of wind had blown the whole paper of
eggs out of the window.
He ran down into the garden and searched everywhere for the lost eggs, but
in their flight through the air they had become scattered, and he was
unable to find them.
He well knew the dangerous character of the worm which hatches out of
these eggs, and he went all round the village, explaining to every one,
warning every one, and imploring every one to be on the look-out for the
caterpillars when they should appear.
The inhabitants of Medford thought he was a crazy Frenchman, and took no
notice of his warning.
It was twenty years after this before the people began to suffer from the
ravages of the caterpillar, though for several years the neighbors of the
old naturalist had been annoyed and puzzled at the way in which their
gardens were eaten up.
In 1889 the worms became so numerous, and did so much damage, that the
Legislature set aside a sum of money for their destruction, and appointed
a number of scientific men to undertake the work.
Every spring since then the Gipsy Moth Commission has been at work.
One summer, policemen were pressed into the service. They were stationed
on all the roads leading out of the infected districts to examine every
vehicle that drove through, to see that none of the caterpillars escaped
into the surrounding country by clinging to the wheels or the body of the
wagon.
That year there were such myriads of these caterpillars, that they would
fall by hundreds on the vehicles as they drove under the trees.
The moth policemen were both necessary and useful.
The Commission starts in, this year, with several new inventions for
destroying both caterpillars and eggs, and hopes to make good progress.
Thus far Massachusetts has spent nearly $1,000,000 in her effort to rid
herself of the Gipsy moth.
GENIE H. ROSENFELD.
INVENTION AND DISCOVERY.
[Illustration]
Summer trips will be more easy to arrange and pack for, if we have such
space-saving inventions as the travelling or military hair-brush, as the
inventor calls it. It is a handleless brush, the back forming a box deep
enough to contain a comb, and provided with a sliding lid which pushes in
or out like the lid of a child's pencil-box.
[Illustration]
This invention comes from the ever-inventive West, and consists of a
penholder formed of tightly rolled paper which in some ingenious manner
holds the pen permanently in place.
At last we seem to have a mucilage brush that is going to answer every
requirement.
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