SB 
818 
C578 
ENT 
15, SECOND SERIES. 
United States Department of Agriculture, 
DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 
GENERAL WORK AGAINST INSECTS WHICH DEFOLIATE SHADE TREES 
IN CITIES AND TOWNS.* 
The question of proper work against the insects which affect shade 
trees in cities and towns naturally divides itself under two heads: (1) 
What can be efficiently and economically done by city governments ? 
(2) If city or town administrators will not appropriate a small amount 
of money to carry on work of this kind, what can citizens who are 
interested in the question of shade trees do ? 
INTELLIGENT SUPERVISION DESIRABLE. 
The planting of shade trees seems to be considered a legitimate func- 
tion of the board of public works in every municipality. It is some- 
times done by a specially appointed officer, under the control of the 
superintendent of streets and sewers; or it is sometimes placed in 
charge of a subcommittee of the board, or a special commission of out- 
siders is appointed to superintend the work. Admitting that the plant- 
ing of shade trees is a public matter, their care should also be a public 
duty. Yet in not one of the larger or smaller cities of the Eastern 
United States, with which the writer is familiar, is any proper amount 
of work done by the public authorities against shade-tree insects. New 
York is the only city in the country where a man of entomological 
knowledge is employed to direct operations against shade-tree insects, 
either in the streets or the public parks. That New York’s investment 
is a good one no one who knows the work of Mr. E. B. Southwick can 
doubt. By this remark the writer does not wish to be understood as 
advocating the appointment of a paid entomologist under every city 
government, although where the parks are large in cities situated within 
the region of greatest shade-tree insect activity, such a course would 
always be desirable. With an intelligent and industrious superintend- 
ent of parks, or a city forester, or whatever he may be termed, and 
the wise expenditure of a comparatively small amount of money each 
year, the shade trees of any city could be kept green throughout the 
summer. The amount of money to be expended in this direction 
would naturally vary with the number of trees to be attended to, as 
well as with the variety and the size of the trees and the geographical 
location of the city. Even in Brooklyn, however (and this seems to 
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*In advance, from an article entitled ‘‘ The Shade-tree Insect Problem in the 
Eastern United States,’’ to be published in the Yearbook of the Department for 
1895, 
