1S7 



trees. So that the others live in various ways. If a lot of in- 

 sects is found in a diseased tree, W(; must know wliich of tliese are 

 the insects tliat attack tlie living bark and which <'onie in after 

 the bark begins to die, or after it is dead, and wiiether or not any 

 of them can carry s])ores aflcr they (ransformcd into the adult 

 stage and come out. I doubt wiiether tlie relation of insects is 

 as important a factor as has been suggested, because as a rule 

 when insects develop to the adult or winged stage, and emerge 

 from the bark, they fly away very quickly, as if to escape some 

 enemy. They do not as a rule crawl al)out over tlie bark before 

 they fly. 



MR. W. HOWARD RANKIN, of Ithaca, New York : Can you 

 tell us whether in your estimation, the Leptura species of borer 

 precede infections of the blight, or follow it? 



DR. HOPKINS : That is a problem we are working on, but 

 we are not ready to form an opinion on it. It will require a sum- 

 mer's work before we can state definitely just what relation they 

 have to the disease and the dying of trees. 



MR. RANKIN : I would also like to ask the Doctor if he is 

 acquainted with some chestnut trouble in Otsego county. New 

 York? There is a lot of chestnut dying in that locality from 

 what I took to be insect trouble. 



THE CHAIRMAN: Mr Rankin calls attention to apparent 

 losses caused by insects in Otsego county. New York 



DR. HOPKINS : The matter has not yet come to my atten- 

 tion. 



THE CHAIRMAN: Are there further questions? 



PROFESSOR CLINTON : I would like to ask Dr. Hopkins if, 

 during the past few years, the insect troubles of trees in general 

 have been on the increase or decrease, over the previous ten or 

 fifteen years? 



DR. HOPKINS: I have been studying the subject in rela- 

 tion to dying timber for the past twenty years, or since I started 

 to study forest insects, and the question of climate has been one 

 to which we have given considerable attention; because every 

 time trees start to die someone comes up and says they are dying 



