INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1909 AND IQIO. gl 
most cases the beds were found to be entirely free from the attacks 
of stalk borers; and when they were not free, it was because the 
infested beds were located in some neglected corner of the park, near 
some weedy patch; it being evident in these cases that the larvae 
had first hatched from eggs laid on the weeds, and later found their 
way into the cultivated flower-beds. In talking with those who had 
charge of the flower-beds, we discovered that these beds were given 
far better attention than is commonly given to flower-beds of pri- 
vate individuals. Most of the perennials in the flower-beds of the 
parks are either taken up in the fall and put out again in the spring, 
or else—in the case of such plants as Golden Glow, which are left 
out-doors during the winter—the beds are raked very carefully, and 
the old dead stalks and stubble all destroyed late in the fall; and, 
of course, this treatment would naturally get rid of the eggs of any 
insect which might have been laid upon them during the early fall. 
This, together with the observations on the number of stalks 
infested by a single caterpillar, and on the distance to which cater- 
pillars travel, makes it very evident that the best means of combat- 
ing these pests is to take good care of the beds; cleaning them up 
well late in the fall, after time of egg-laying of this species is over, 
and clearing up the weeds and keeping them cleared up in the 
vicinity of flower-beds. It is particularly desirable to clear up the 
weeds that start during the latter part of May, and during June, 
in such localities, because then the young larvae, which are at that 
time mining the leaves of the small weeds, are easily destroyed, and 
if the young weeds are destroyed in the vicinity of the beds at this 
time it is not likely that larvae will go from other weeds at great 
distances to attack plants in the beds. Of course, many private 
gardens are so placed that the matter of weeds is one which is diffi- 
cult to control, because the flower-gardens are in close proximity 
to land belonging to other persons than the owner of the flower- 
gardens, and in such cases the owner of the flower-garden cannot 
go upon the other person’s land and clean up his weeds for him. In 
such cases it is desirable to have some means at hand by which the 
borers may be kept out of the flower-garden, in spite of the prox- 
imity of the weedy places. 
Experiments have been conducted, during the season, to dis- 
cover some means of preventing larvae from getting into flower- 
beds in this way. Many different plots, adjoining different sorts 
of plants which are commonly infested by these borers, were laid 
