110 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the time will come when we can do that. There is but one 

 sure protection against the elm-tree beetle, and that is by 

 thoroughly spraying the foliage, and that applies also to 

 other beetles and insects, as the speaker has said, and he has 

 covered the ground very thoroughly. The apparatus we use 

 with the best success is the one used by the gypsy moth 

 people. I have fourteen small fifty-gallon cask pumps and 

 two of the larger ones, and I shall use two more this season. 

 The importance is in doing the work promptly. The entire 

 city or town wants to be covered within a given time. 

 When one section of the town is ready, it is all ready, and 

 it is important to have sufficient apparatus to cover the whole 

 territory at once as nearly as may be. If it can be done 

 within ten days, all the better. I mean to cover our en- 

 tire section within three weeks, unless weather prevents. 



QUESTION. What insecticide do you use? 



Mr. GALE. Arsenate of lead. 



The CHAIRMAN. Isn't there considerable that can be done 

 by the individual with the beetle ? 



Mr. DRAPER. In the larval state, of course, individuals 

 can destroy thousands by simply brushing them down every 

 morning. We have one lady in our city who is very much 

 interested in the matter, and I cannot say now how many 

 thousands she has gathered, but a great many of them. She 

 has a little cotton band covered by newspaper, where the 

 larvae gather during the night, and every morning she takes 

 them out by the quart, or in great quantities, and destroys 

 them. A great many of the larvae come down trees that are 

 not sprayed. It is not always that they come from the tree 

 they are on. Sometimes they come from other places, where 

 no insecticide is used. We have had experience this season 

 with trees that had been thoroughly sprayed where larvae 

 came down, and it was reported by some of the newspaper 

 people that they were thoroughly eaten up from the larvse 

 of the beetle. Within fifty feet of these trees were two 

 trees on private grounds that had not been treated. Before 

 the larvae had finished feeding, those trees were stripped, 

 while the trees that were sprayed were perfectly green. 



Mr, PRATT, I would like to ask, have you any evidence 



