ELM-TREE BORER. 



S47 



while the thighs are unusually swollen. The antennas are 

 about two-thirds the, 

 length of the body, flat- 

 tened towards the end, 

 and somewhat serrate. 

 The body above is velvety 

 black, and brown-black 

 beneath. The head is 

 black, and coarsely punct- 

 ured, and the prothorax 

 is covered with short, 

 dense, black hairs, like 

 velvet. The wing-covers 

 are Prussian blue in color, 



bent, corrugated, with an FlG . 13.-sot-iv« Borer 



interrupted ridge just outside of the middle of each cover. 

 They are covered with fine, black hairs, bent over. There is a 

 pair of parallel, short honey-yellow lines in the middle of each 

 wing-cover, with a third one a little in front, making in all six 

 streaks. The legs and feet are black. It is a little over eight- 

 tenths of an inch in length. 



THE COUNTY SOCIETIES. 



The returns of the various county societies, an abstract of 

 which is presented as the second part of this report, indicate a 

 high degree of prosperity. The policy, which has now been 

 adopted by nearly every society, of owning land and fixtures, 

 has involved many of the associations in debts of varying 

 amounts, but in most cases the real and personal property great- 

 ly exceeds the debts, while, in prosperous years, a considerable 

 reduction of the latter is quite practicable. It must be appar- 

 ent that any considerable amount of liabilities is a source of 

 embarrassment, curtailing the usefulness and efficiency of a 

 society, and preventing many expenditures which are desirable 

 and calculated to promote the good of the community. 



The amount set apart for the printing and distribution of the 

 Transactions, for example, is, as a general rule, far too small. 

 The volume of Transactions is the permanent record of the so- 

 ciety, the standard by which it will be judged in the future, and 



