STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 227 



absorbing moisture and nutriment for the tree ; and while the tree is exposed to drying 

 wind- and the -mi, evaporating moisture all the time, if the root could not supply that 

 moisture without its small spongioles, it would invariably die. 



Again, the Bmali Bhredsof root- almost invariably gel killed in transplanting, by dry- 

 ing or by rough handling; and if we examine after the tree commences growing, we 

 shall tind that very few of the fibers have lived through the transplanting. In most 

 cases I would rather they would be cut oil*, and give the earth a better chance to pack 

 around the large roots. 



The positions assumed by this paper were attacked by M. L. Dun- 

 hip, and the discussion became quite general and spicy among several 

 members, who soon subsided, having evidently got beyond their 

 depth in the mysteries of Vegetable Physiology. 



THE APPLE BARK LOUSE IN 1866. 



BIRDS VINDICATED FROM THE CHARGE PREFERED AGAINST THEM 



BY THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



By Henry Shimer, M. D. 



The apple bark louse has been the object of much study and writing, from year to 

 year. So that it may appear to most of you, that the subject is quite exhausted ; but 

 we can never know too much of the habits and natural history of any injurious insect 

 of so mucli importance as the apple bark louse. 



Inasmuch as the State Entomologist, Mr. Walsh, in his first annual report charges 

 the birds with being the sole instrumentality, in spreading these noxious creatures from 

 tree to tree, and informs his readers that if all the birds in the world were killed, the 

 bark louse would become extinct by starvation, after having first killed all the trees 

 that are infested. This appears to me as a very bold and striking operation ; one that 

 would materially tend to change our whole course of procedure towards the birds, 

 if true. 



And observing that Mr. Walsh gave no data of observations for such a conclusion, 

 I determined in the early spring, to investigate the subject from an unbiased stand- 

 point ; believing still as I had always taught, that we have no right, in Entomology, 

 to know anything except by observation. We may in our studio reason out many con- 

 clusions, where we have the general principle of science for our premises, but here we 

 are dealing with a simple, minute insect, of whose habits we can know nothing by 

 reading the history of other animals; its habits, modes of life, propagation and distri- 

 bution are so entirely independent as to require separate observation. 



We know that birds lly from tree to tree, but is that a sufficient reason for conclud- 

 ing that they convey the bark lice, and that they are distributed in no other way ? 

 Before uttering such sentiments, we ought to prove them guilty, and not to be able 

 after careful observation to detect any other method for the distribution of the bark 



