REMEDIES AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES. _ 67 
ter—a tree strong enough to thrive without protection—had been in- 
closed by the usual form of a wooden tree-box. This was removed, and 
the inside of the box and the collected rubbish in it was carefully inves- 
tigated by one of our assistants, Mr. Otto Lugger. This is the result: 
74 cocoons of H. cunea; 42 egg-masses of Orgyia leucostigma ; 4 co- 
coons of Acronycta americana, and 1 pupa of Anisota rubicunda, besides 
innumerable old and empty pupal skins of these and other insects. 
‘It is to be added in this connection that this tree grew in a park in 
Baltimore, and was not as badly infested as trees in Washington. 
A young tree in a tree-box ought to be firmly fastened at the top to 
all sides of the box, and this by means of flexible bands, to be renewed 
from time to time. In this manner a high wind would be prevented from 
producing any friction of the trunk or branches against the edges of 
the box. After the tree attains a size of 2 inches in diameter the tree- 
box ought to be removed, and the members of the city police should be 
instructed to pay especial attention to their further necessary protec- 
tion. The shelter afforded by the wooden tree-boxes is,in my judg- 
ment, the prime reason why the Web-worm has become such a great 
nuisance in Washington. They should either be discarded entirely 
after the trees have attained a trunk diameter of 4 inches, and heavy 
penalties enacted for hitching horses or for in any way cutting or defac- 
ing the trunk; or, what would perhaps be safer, and certainly very much 
less objectionable, they should be replaced as soon as possible by round 
iron ones like those now in use on Fifteenth street, between New York 
avenue and K street. These will afford less shelter for cocoons, and 
are inevery way less objectionable.* 
WHITEWASHING OF TRUNKS. 
Whitewash covers a multitude of sins; but sins should not be cov- 
ered up, they should be eradicated, which a simple whitewashing will 
not do. A whitewashed tree is an eyesore, and whole rows of them, or 
evel groves in parks treated in such a way, produce a sight to be de- 
plored by all people admiring the beauty of nature. One is forcibly 
reminded of a grave-yard when walking through some of the Wash- 
ington streets after sunset; the white trunks glisten like the broken 
shafts in an old cemetery. If the trunks of trees must be covered with 
lime at all, why not choose at least a color more in harmony with 
nature, the color of the bark for instance? There is no necessity, how- 
ever, in Washington to whitewash the trunks of our shade trees. As 
a protection against flat and round-headed borers (species of Chryso- 
bothris and Saperda) it is of value when a certain proportion of arsenic 
is mixed with it; but the principle “what is sauce for the goose is sauce 
for the gander” does not apply in this instance, and as a remedy for the 
Web-worm it is practically useless. Only one of the insects mentioned 
can be in any way be lessened by this practice, and that is the species 
that Washingtonians are just now least concerned with, viz, the Orgyia. 
* Since this was written a very simple and excellent mode of protection has been 
adopted by the Parking Commission of the District, viz.,encircling the trunks with 
woven galvanized wire. 
