128 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Very fine parks were produced, but for twenty years past the old trees 

 have been fast dying out, and no young ones exist to take their places. 



Arthur Bryant. 



^Ir. WiER — The writer says that acorns should be gathered in the 

 fall, kept in damp sand, and planted in the spring. This plan will 

 answer about three years out of four, but not always, as sometimes the 

 acorns sprout in the fall. 



Mr. Bryant — A part of them sometimes start to grow in the fall, but 

 not all. These may be rejected, thougli they are as likely to succeed if 

 kept in a cold place and not too wet — as I have directed — as they would 

 if planted at once. 



Wr. WiER — I have made a special study of the modes of preserving 

 and planting acorns, chestnuts, etc. If they are dry before being 

 gathered, or become so soon after, they should be soaked in ice-cold 

 water for two or three weeks, and then planted. 



Dr. Spaulding would caution against the planting extensively of 

 silver maples, as they are being destroyed in the vicinity of St. Louis. 



Mr. Galusha said his neighbor, Mr. Henry Clapp, has eight or ten 

 acres of sandy land planted to silver maples. Trees are from two to six 

 inches in diameter. There are some trees of all the sizes in the planta- 

 tion injured by the borer, though the damage is not as yet very great. 

 A few have been entirely killed. Generally attacked on the southwest 

 side. 



Mr. ScoFiELD gathers acorns and nuts in the fall ; spreads upon the 

 ground, covering them with litter to prevent drying; plants them in the 

 spring, when they are cracked. 



The borers have attacked his sugar maples. 



Mr. Riley being asked what borer it is that attacks these maples, in 

 reply said it w^as the common flat-headed Apple-tree borer. The trunks 

 of the maple trees should be soaped in May of each year to keep this 

 borer out. This is an effectual preventive. 



Mr. Bryant — This borer is not confined to apple ti*ees, and hard and 

 soft maples, but also attacks various other species of smooth bark trees. 

 The Maple is particularly exposed to their depredations on account of its 

 smooth bark. 



Mr. Spalding has known the borers to attack white maple trees fif- 

 teen to eighteen inches through — working upon them all the way from 

 the ground to where the branches put out, or higher up than he could 

 reach. Some trees had been killed in this way. He feared we should 

 be compelled to stop planting these trees. 



Mr. Bryant — I would as soon think of giving up the apple tree as 

 the maple on this account. 



Mr. WiER — I have no fears whatever of this borer. We owe its 

 presence to the presence of the Colorado potato-beetle. The enemies 

 which formerly preyed upon the borers, keeping them in check, are now 



