HO 



early in April, and many thousand adults, both male and female, 

 were eauijht in this band of tar, sometimes over a thousand females 

 on a single tree. 



In many eases the outer bark was scraped away too thor- 

 oughly, makini^- wounils from which the sap tlowed for several 

 weeks. The gas-tar soon dried over in the sun, and many moths 

 then crossed the belt, and later the heat of the sun caused it to run 

 down the trutiks. 



This and similar applications, althoug a made to many trees, 

 were not used extensively enougfh to remove the danger of serious 

 and possibly permanent injury to many hundreds of the magnifi- 

 cent elms for which Jacksonville is noted, and April .>0 an assist- 

 ant of my oflice, Mr. K. C Ureen, was sent to that town with in- 

 structions to inspect the trees, to advise with the citi;;ens, and to 

 report upon the conditions found, with a view to such eniergencv 

 measures as might prove necessary. Many egfg:-masses of the 

 canker-worm were at this time scattered over the trees, and thou- 

 sands of the small caterpillars, from an eig^hth to a quarter of an 

 inch long-, were already feeding- on the slightly opened buds. 



As a result of Mr. Green's visit and his interviews with promi- 

 nent citi::ens I received May 1 a teleg^ram from W. L. Fav. of the 

 "Jacksonville Journal," asking- me to send a spraying- machine 

 and men to spray the elm-trees at Jacksonville with a suitable in- 

 secticide, and otTering' to meet all expenses of the treatment. I 

 also received a letter of the same date from Dr. Winslow, of the 

 Insane Asylum, to the same g-eneral etYect, saying- that more than 

 a hundred elm-trees on the Asylum lawn were in danger, and that 

 the superintendents of the other state institutions at Jacksonville, 

 and the citi;:ens generally, desired to take the necessarv steps to 

 protect their trees. 



The machine sprayer belonging to the oflice being- at the re- 

 pair shop at the time, I sent, in accordance with these requests, 

 three orchard sprayers, with Mr. Green in charge, with the under- 

 standing- that the necessary labor should be supplied at Jackson- 

 ville and that the expenses of the work, including the assistant's 

 salary while engaged upon it. should be met by those interested at 

 Jacksonville. This condition, which I was obliged to make owing- 

 to the fact that the appropriations of the oflice were not available 

 for work of this description, was promptly accepted, the equip- 

 ments were shipped, and May o Mr. lireeu returned to Jackson- 

 ville and made arrang-ements for systematic operations on the city 

 streets and on the grounds of the state asvlums. 



A very severe hail-storm which swept the city Mav 5 seemed 



