i8o 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



tate against such a belief. A study of the Gannett map, above referred 

 to, seems to me, on the contrary, to give a marked confirmation to the 

 theory. From the loops and curves of the loo-feet contour lines which 

 elsewhere define the northern boundary of the Upper Austral zone, fol- 

 lowed along the southern and eastern New England sea-coast and inward 

 along the river valleys, it appears in every way probable that Amherst, 

 Nashua, and Magnolia in reality fall within the Upper Austral, and will 

 be so indicated in future corrected and extended hfe-zone maps. It will 

 be of interest to recall the fact that the last-named locality is indebted 

 for its name to the wild growth there of the Magnolia glauca at the most 

 northernmost natural habitat of any American Magnolia. 



Relief Afforded Through This Limitation. 



If this limitation of insect ravages by our accepted life-zones shall be 

 established, it will relieve us from the fear of the spread of certain insects 

 over entire States into which they have been introduced; and, as of still 

 greater importance, of an unnecessary expenditure of labor and money 

 for the extermination of a pest, when its wide distribution will be pre- 

 vented by constant climatic conditions. Thus, Upper Austral zone in- 

 sects, if such there be, could not establish themselves over much the 

 larger portion of the New England States and New York — in the latter 

 limited, outside of Long Island, to a narrow strip along the Hudson river 

 reaching nearly to Saratoga, and the larger area taking in Oneida lake 

 and the smaller lakes of Western New York, and the territory northward 

 and westward from the east of Oswego along Lake Ontario, the Niagara 

 river, and a narrow strip bordering Lake Erie, possibly not quite to the 

 southwestern corner of the State. In Plate IV, the Upper Austral life- 

 zone in New York and contiguous portions of adjoining States as out- 

 lined for me by Dr. Merriam on a section of the " Gannett Map,'' is rep- 

 resented in crosshatching upon a New York State Weather Bureau map 

 received from Director E. A. Fuertes. 



If the San Jose scale is not to be exterminated in our State, — while 

 the famed " apple belt " bordering Lake Ontario and the fruit region of 

 the Hudson River valley will be exposed to it — there would still be rea- 

 son for thankfulness that it is subject even to this degree of limitation. 



The Upper Austral Life-Zone in New England. 



In view of nearly one-half million of dollars ($475,000) already ap- 

 propriated by the legislature of Massachusetts for the extermination of 

 the gypsy moth, it would be a matter of rejoicing if this costly foreign 



