1908.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT- -No. 73. 163 



though most ingeniously worked up, are worthless ; and, as with 

 many other nostrums, the greater the promoter's ignorance of 

 the situation to be dealt with, the more marvelous are the 

 mysterious properties of his own preparation. 



It is not our purpose to discourage the investigation and 

 manufacture of these materials; in fact, this field should be 

 further exploited by the manufacturer. A few banding mate- 

 rials are now in successful use, and we should be glad to ex- 

 amine and test out others that promise well, particularly if there 

 is a prospect of a reduction in the prices prevailing at present. 



The folly of rushing into the market with a preparation not 

 thoroughly tried out in field work was never better shown than 

 in the case of a banding material bearing the euphonious name 

 of " Razzle-Dazzle," of which a considerable amount was used 

 in Winchester and vicinity in 1906-07. This substance was 

 fairly effective in stopping the ascent of the caterpillars ; it also 

 stopped the flow of the sap by girdling the trees, and, as a re- 

 sult, many fine shade and fruit trees have been needlessly sac- 

 rificed. No banding material yet offered which contains mineral 

 oil or its derivatives, such as vaseline, etc., has been used on 

 trees without seriously injuring them. 



THE GYPSY MOTH v. WHITE PINE. 



The fact is well known that the available supply of the white 

 pine, a most valuable timber tree, is being rapidly exhausted. 

 It is equally well known that one stripping of the white pine by 

 gypsy moth caterpillars results in its death. After the gypsy 

 moth swarm has swept through white pine or other coniferous 

 woods they cannot be cut over and the timber marketed any too 

 soon. The trees die quickly, and the borers and bark beetles soon 

 come in to ruin them for lumber. 



From certain field observations in the past we have been led 

 to question the extent to which the newly hatched gypsy moth 

 caterpillars would feed on the white pine. No exact or definite 

 laboratory experiments had been made to test this point pre- 

 vious to this year, yet field observations extending over some 

 years seemed to indicate that the moths did not multiply rapidly 

 on pine alone; in fact, we have never yet had a serious gypsy 



