Xll 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



HOW THE TREES HAVE BEEN DISFIGURED ON ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL STREETS 



IN STAMFORD. 



ance. It is a common practice to scrape 

 apple trees more or less, and while it 

 may do some good in this case they 

 sometimes scrape them so close that 

 it does harm An apple orchard, how- 

 ever, is planted in such a way that it 

 has a conventional appearance, and 

 where one is spraying for scale, etc., it 

 is better to have a smooth surface to 

 spray on, but there is no excuse what- 

 soever for disfiguring' shade trees in a 

 town by scraping them. Only an in- 

 significant number of insects would be 

 harbored under the bark. A few pupae 

 of the elm leaf beetle may get under 

 the outer bark of elms, but the de- 

 struction of the pupae by hot water, 

 and other ways is absolutely valueless 

 in controlling the pest. Anyone who 



has studied nature in all its phases 

 knows that there is no greater delu- 

 sion than the idea that every insect 

 killed means one less next year. All 

 that we can do at present for the con- 

 trol of insect pests like the elm leaf 

 beetle is to spray the trees to pre- 

 serve the foliage so that the leaves 

 may manufacture food sufficient to 

 keep the tree in a healthy condition. 



Finrdly, I will say that I consider 

 the scraping of elm trees not only use- 

 less and expensive but one likely to give 

 a hideous appearance to the tree. 

 Yours verv truly, 



' G. E. Stone, 

 Department of Vegetable Pathology 

 and Physiology, Massachusetts Agri- 

 culture! Experiment Station. 



