INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION 47 



the size when it is most valuable, and the importance of preserv- 

 ing the shade trees of our city streets cannot be too strongly 

 emphasized. 



It is highly desirable that citizens should band together in 

 the interest of good shade. A most excellent plan was recently 

 urged by one of the Washington newspapers. It advocated a 

 tree protection league, and each issue of the paper through the 

 summer months contained a coupon which recited briefly the 

 desirability of protecting shade trees against the ravages of in- 

 sects, and enrolled the signer as a member of the league, pledging 

 him to do his best to destroy the injurious insects upon the city 

 shade trees immediately adjoining his residence. This was 

 only one of several ways which might be devised to arouse 

 general interest. The average city householder seldom has more 

 than half a dozen street shade trees in front of his grounds, and 

 it would be a matter of comparatively little expense and trouble 

 for any family to keep these trees in fair condition. It needs 

 only a little intelligent work at the proper time. It means the 

 burning of the webs of the fall web worm in May and June; it 

 means the destruction of the larvae of the elm-leaf beetle about 

 the bases of the elm trees in late June and July; it means the 

 picking off and destruction of the eggs of the tussock moth and 

 the bags of the bagworm in winter, and equally simple opera- 

 tions for other insects, should they become especially injurious. 

 What a man will do for the shade and ornamental trees in his 

 own garden he should be willing to do for the shade trees ten feet 

 in front of his fence. 1 



REFERENCES 



Economic Entomology, by J. B. Smith. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia. 



Injurious Insects, by W. C. O'Kane. The Macmillan Co., N. Y. City. 



Insect Pests of Farm, Garden, and Orchard, by E. D. Sanderson. John 

 Wiley and Sons, N. Y. City. 



Bulletins and Circulars published by the Bureau of Entomology, U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture. 



1 Howard, L. O., Circular 15, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture. 



