THE OAK PRUNER. 3 



specified is known to have the same pruning habit, it is practicahy 

 certain that the species under discussion is tlie culprit. 



Of injuries by this species, it has been reported that in 1886 "peach 

 trees in portions of IVIichigan were seriously injured. The twigs were 

 cut off so as to nearly destroy some of the trees." In 1892 the ex- 

 traordinary abundance of this pruner in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 

 and neighboring States attracted considerable attention. At that 

 time carloads of the branches could be gathered up from the ground 

 throughout the oak forests in Bucks County, Pa. One of the striking 

 features noticeable that year in riding through that part of the 

 country lying between Washington, D. C, and New York City was 

 the unusual amount of injury by Elaphidion on oaks. In some local- 

 ities every tree had several dead or dying twigs, and the ground 

 beneath was strewn with branches which had been damaged by this 

 species, and later broken off by the wind. 



In the writer's experience the oak pruner was extremely abundant 

 in years past in the neighborhood of Ithaca, N. Y., and near South 

 Woodstock, Conn., on the shagbark hickory, the severed twigs and 

 branches occurring by the barrelful under a single tree. In one 

 instance a pear orchard at Ithaca, N. Y., had been very extensively 

 pruned. The insect had apparently attacked healthy living twigs 

 and several trees had every appearance of having been killed outright. 



A few of the injurious and other occurrences reported to this 

 Bureau during the past decade may be mentioned: Regarding sup- 

 posed damage to oak, Mr. R. A. Edwards, of Peru, Ind., wrote on 

 March 27, 1901, that he could not observe that the pruner did actual 

 damage beyond cutting off the smaller branches, some of which do 

 not reach the ground, but hang from the limb or lodge upon limbs 

 below and there die. September 5, 1902, Mr. Edmund L. Tyler, of 

 Anniston, Ala., sent a limb of hickory nearly 5 feet in length which 

 had been pruned 3 feet from the end by the oak priuier. The point at 

 which amputation had taken place was an even inch in diameter. 

 April 25, 1903, Mr. Albert M. Boozer, of Columbia, S. C, sent this 

 species, which he thought to be injurious to pecan in that vicinity. 

 It was probably merely concerned in more serious injmy due to the 

 pecan twig-girdler {Oncideres cingulata Say) and to branch and trunk 

 borers. Mr. E. J. Vann, of Madison, Fla., stated, in a letter dated 

 July 28, 1905, that what he considered this species had almost ruined 

 dwarf chestnuts in that vicinity. Miss Alice wS. Ilainsworth, of 

 South China, Me., wrote, July 30, 1906, that this species was destroy- 

 ing the beauty of oak trees in that vicinity. The lawn beneath the 

 oak trees was continually strewn with fallen branches. In 1907 

 report of injury to oak in South Carolina was received. During 

 1908 the depredations by this species were widespread and general 



[Cir. 130] 



