MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 55 
objects, found on the under side of twigs and branches. In 
the spring they start to excrete a mass of white cottony 
material. ‘These scales will usally be found several in a 
cluster, and later on many hundreds of them may be found 
on a single leaf. The insect can be attacked by spraying 
with whale oil soap (one pound to two gallons of water 
when used in the winter time; one pound to four or five 
gallons of water when used in the summer). The most 
_ efficient way is to brush the scales from the trees whenever 
they are noted. 
Fungous diseases of trees are apparently not very preva- 
lent in St. Louis; the few serious forms of leaf fungi not 
appearing until the latter part of summer. Wood-rotting 
forms are more common. Their attack usually takes place 
through wounds caused by improper pruning or by 
mechanical injuries due to various causes. Where a tree 
shows hollows or rotten places, the City Forester’s office 
should be notified, so that proper preventive measures may 
be applied. 
RULE OF THE CITY FORESTER’S OFFICE. 
During the last year the City Forester’s office had an 
appropriation of $26,725.00. The number of men em- 
ployed was one forester, one assistant forester, one clerk, 
two inspectors, four overseers, sixteen laborers, four teams 
and one spraying machine. 
The number of trees cared for on selected streets was 
33,828. The number of trees handled during the year, aside 
from spraying, was 63,022. The number of trees sprayed 
against leaf-eating insects was 4,749. 
The field hands of the Forester’s office carried on general 
pruning on selected streets (meaning by this, streets on which 
citizens had selected special species of trees). They treated 
trees for borers, so far as the limited facilities would per- 
mit, on all streets where the trees were sprayed against leaf- 
eating insects. They cultivated all young trees on selected 
streets, removed low-hanging branches and dead and danger- 
ous trees from all streets; inspected trees and shrubs on pri- 
vate as well as public property on request of property owners, 
and supervised the trimming of trees to clear wires while 
work was being done by the wire-using companies. 
