TREE-INHABITING INSECT PESTS. 



There is, it is said, not less than seventy-live lunds 

 of injurious insects iniiabitinj" llie apple orcliai-d. Be 

 fore the apple and other fruit trees were introduced 

 to America, many of these insect enemies lived on such 

 forest trees as the oak, elm, wild cherry, maple, ash 

 and willow. 



Forest trees are, a3 Dr. Packard, states, "oarticularly lia- 

 ble to depredations of insects, certain species of which altacl< 

 the roots, others the barii:, some the wood, many tli« leaves 

 and a few the fruit and nuts. 



The oalc harbors between 500 and 600 Icinds of insects; the 

 hicltories afford maintenance to 140 recorded species, the birch 

 to over lOft species, the maple 85. the poplar 72, while the pine 

 yields nourishment to over 100 different kinds." 



BIRDS AND MAMMALS AS A CLASS ARE BENEFICIAL. 



There is, however, no doubt that certain species of 

 birds and mammals are detrimental and their fondness 

 for domestic fowls and frame — bolh furred and featli 

 ered — as well as various kinds of small wild song birds 

 is such that no one who is acquainted with their true 

 life-histories will attempt to defend them. The nuni 

 ber (species) of poultry and game devouring animals, 

 di'essed either in coats of light-weight feathers or of 

 soft warm fur, is small as compared wilh the spccie.s 

 which are serviceable or neutral. 



It is unwise to overlook the great benefits confeireu 

 by the luajoiity of our birds and mammals in tho 

 cultivalcd licld. liic meadow, the forest and the or 

 chard, by destroying the troublesome rodents and mul- 

 titudes of insects, which, as Dr. Elliott Coues well 

 says: "singly are insignificant, but collectively a 

 scourge, which prey upon the ho])t's of the fruit grower, 

 and whicli if utidistui'lMHl would bring hi.'* care to 

 nought." 



