52 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[February, 



parts of the trunk and branches with a white 

 cottony secretion, under the protection of which 

 myriads of tiny lice live, puncturing the bark 

 with their sharp beaks and exhausting the trees 

 by feeding upon the sap. 



While we are mainly interested in the preser- 

 vation of our mature forests, the future of our 

 country demands that we shall not overlook the 

 young growth on which the lumber supply fifty 

 or a hundred years hence must largely depend, 

 and which it should be the policy of our rulers 

 to protect as far as possible. Most of the gov- 

 ernments of Europe are now fully alive to the 

 importance of this matter, and are annually 

 spending large sums of money in establishing 

 young forests. Two years ago I called your at- 

 tention to an insect then recently discovered by 

 Prof. A. R. Grote, of Buffalo, which was greatly 

 injuring the terminal shoots of both the white 

 and red pines in Western ISTew York ; it was the 

 larva of a small moth, Nephopteryx Zimmer- 

 mani, which fed under the bark, causing a free 

 exudation of resinous matter from the wounds 

 it made, followed usually by the death of the 

 twigs infested. Since then it has been found 

 over a much wider area than was at first antici- 

 pated, and I have no doubt but that it is to-day 

 materially retarding the growth of young pine 

 trees in many portions of our Province. 



At the recent meeting of the Entomological 

 Club of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science (where our Society was 

 represented by your President and Vice-Presi- 

 dent), Mr. S. H. Scudder, of Boston, submitted 

 some observations on another lepidopterous in- 

 sect which is injuring the young pines growing 

 on the Island of Nantucket. It is a species of 

 Retinia closely allied to Retinia duplana of Eu- 

 rope. The moth lays her eggs near the tips of 

 the twigs, down which the young larvse burrow, 

 killing them outright, and thus stunting and al- 

 most destroying the trees. Prof. Comstock, of 

 Washington, also referred to two other species 

 of Retinia which he had observed injuring the 

 pine trees in that city. 



In addition to all these there are a score or 

 two of species of insects which are known to 

 devour the leaves of the pines, damaging them 

 in some instances very much. From the facts 

 enumerated it is evident that we are suffering 

 serious loss in all our lumbering districts from 

 the silent workings of these insidious foes, and 

 since in some measure to be forewarned is to 

 be forearmed, I desire to call the special atten- 



tion of those immediatel}'^ concerned in the 

 prosperity, present and future, of the lumbering 

 interests of our country, to this important sub- 

 ject. Unfortunately it does not as yet seem to 

 be within the power of man to do much directly 

 towards restricting the operations of these ene- 

 mies to our forests ; yet this should not deter us 

 from studying their habits and history, since an 

 intimate acquaintance with these may result 

 much more to our advantage than we now an- 

 ticipate. A few trees, such as a belt, or a group 

 planted for shelter or ornament, may be pro- 

 tected from the leaf and twig destroyers by 

 syringing with a mixture of Paris Green and 

 water in the proportion of a teaspoonful to a 

 pail of water, and the bark lice may be killed 

 by the use of alkaline washes applied with a 

 brush or broom, and a timely application of the 

 same will prevent the operations of the borers ; 

 but it is scarcely possible that such remedies 

 can ever be applied over extended areas of 

 forest. It is, however, gratifying to know that 

 in addition to the numbers devoured by our in- 

 sectivorous birds, that almost every injurious 

 species is in turn attacked to a greater or less 

 extent by insect parasites of the most active 

 habits, who seek out and destroy these pests 

 with ceaseless diligence •, were it not for these 

 friendly insects the destructive species would be 

 far more numerous individually than they now 



are. 



•••> 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Durability of Timber.— Questions of the 

 durability of timber require care in answering. 

 Almost any timber will last forever, " almost," 

 if kept perfectly dry, or always wet. In all coun- 

 tries are old buildings with all sorts of woods, 

 that have kept their timbers fresh for a thousand 

 years. It is the transition from moist to dry, 

 which encourages fungoid growth that destroys 

 timber. When, therefore, one man tells us that 

 he had a post of some tree which was just as good 



for years as the day it was put in, and 



another finds it rotten in half the time, we see 

 how both statements may be perfectly true. 

 There are some timbers that will resist these 

 alternations of circumstances better than others, 

 and this is what most people are after. 



Durability of Wood. — The Scientific Amer- 

 ican says: "A correspondent sends a transverse 

 section of Osage orange wood cut from a stick 



