No. 4.] SHADE-TREE IXSECT PROBLEM. 119 



Professor BROOKS. Many of you know that all trees or 

 shrubs which come from Japan are, as a rule, free from the 

 attacks of our insects. The Japanese insects prey upon 

 them to the same extent that ours do. When I came from 

 Japan I brought a few Japanese elms that I found growing 

 wild about the country where I lived. I do not know 

 whether I have the only tree of the kind in the country or 

 not. I think perhaps Professor Sargent has them now, 

 because he has been over the same ground recently. This 

 tree that I speak of was planted where it stands, behind my 

 house, in the spring of 1890. It is now about seven or 

 eight inches through at the butt and about thirty feet high, 

 a very shapely tree. All the elms I saw in Japan were 

 shapely trees, perhaps not equal to ours, but very 

 shapely. This tree is not attacked by the beetle. It stands 

 in the midst of native elms. This past summer those elms 

 were stripped, while the Japanese elm was not injured 

 appreciably. This is a point some horticulturist or nursery- 

 man may like to know. I hope efforts will be made to 

 introduce the tree here, because it is a means of enlarging 

 our resources. It is a handsome tree, altogether apart from 

 whether it proves permanently to be free from insects. 



Prof. C. H. FERNALD. I have a word to say very briefly 

 upon what Professor Brooks has said. A year ago last 

 summer, while in Plymouth, Mass., I went to the famous 

 old graveyard, and there saw the elm trees being defoliated 

 by the elm-beetle, and after they had stripped those they 

 went to the maple trees and stripped the maple trees. That 

 is why I asked Mr. Gale the question, to see whether the 

 elm-tree beetle has been found going to other trees. If 

 they would take the American and the English elm trees 

 and strip those, and then go to the American maples a 

 red maple, I suppose it was and strip those, I should 

 doubt whether any species which came from any country 

 would be safe. They would naturally have a preference for 

 that food plant, and would take our American elms first ; but 

 after they had done w r ith that food I should doubt, from 

 what I saw in Plymouth, whether they would not eat the 

 other trees as well. 



