520 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



hack, so that the beetle is confined to the ground and can 

 he thus taken care of better in the ground by spraying 

 with poison. 



The beetle larvae seems to prefer a diet of decomposing 

 roots and compost of all kinds. They have, however, been 

 observed feeding on 

 the roots of dock, 

 plaintain, timothy, 

 bluegrass, corn, rye, 

 wheat, clover, dande- 

 lion, willow, violet, 

 elder and azalea. The 

 beetle is very prolific 

 and the total life cycle 

 of the insect is one 

 year most of which 

 time is spent in the soil 

 as egg, grub or pupa. 

 They are omnivorous, 

 resistant to unfavor- 

 ible conditions, strong 

 (liers and very active 

 during warm, clear 

 (lays. They choose 

 grassy or weed\ 

 ground, unshaded by 

 thickets or trees, in 

 which to lay their eggs 

 and prefer moist, 

 loamy soil to dry, 

 sandy soil or swampy 

 areas. In fighting this 

 beetle, great areas have been thoroughly gone over, brush 

 and weeds destroyed and burned and the soil in sections 

 heavily infested sprajed with sodium cyanide to destroy 

 the grubs. Erroneous statements have been published 

 to the effect that the ravages of the beetle were so bad in 

 Nw Jersey that practically everything was being destroyed 

 by them and made unfit for use, and farmers in other 

 parts of the country who desired to buy plants from this 

 locality were dissuaded from doing so by these reports, 

 which were not altogether true and somewhat farfetched. 

 But the fact remains that they have attacked growing' 

 apples and trees, rendering the fruit unfit for market, 

 have caused destruction to certain shade trees and injured 

 such crops as field corn by cutting the green silk and 

 thus preventing fertilization of the grain. 



Future plans to prevent the spread of the insect have 

 been worked out as follows : 



By scouting, to establish as far as possible a limit to 

 infestation. 



By establishing a barrier. 



N 191 1 Supervisor Grandjean procured seed of the 



WORKING TO CONTROL THE JAPANESE BEETLE 



In order to prevent the insects being carried in vehicles or on cloth- 

 ing, the shrubbery is cut close to the ground and then burned well 

 baclj from the roadside in heavily infested areas. 



By treating roadsides in such a way as to minimize 

 the chances of the beetles getting out of the area. 



By killing the grubs in the ground by the use of cyan- 

 ide in solution. 



No absolutely effective poison has been found which 



will kill the beetle, be- 

 cause those so far 

 tested, either ruin the 

 plant foliage, are in- 

 effective poisons, or 

 the beetle is rei)elled 

 by the poison. Thus 

 the beetle has so far 

 proven somewhat im- 

 mune to these usual 

 deadly and effective 

 agents, so the fight 

 now being waged 

 against the beetle is of 

 great economic value. 

 The beetle has been 

 fairly well confined to 

 the section where 

 found and while 

 some few beetles 

 have been found on the 

 Pennsylvania side of 

 the river effective 

 measures have been put 

 forth to conbat their 

 further destructive- 

 ness. A campaign of 

 education will have to be waged, in order to get every- 

 body aroused and interested in the true nature of thfs 

 Japanese Beetle, which has done and can do untold 

 damage. More than $100,000 has already been spent on 

 the life, study, habits and inspection work, and other 

 propaganda relating to the beetle, and by applied work 

 of these thoroughly interested investigators, its ravages 

 have been checked and its nature better understood. The 

 farmers are, as a rule, very enthusiastic in giving eveiy 

 assistance possible to these men, in order to try and rid 

 their farms of the beetle. As this section of New Jersey 

 is one of the richest sections of the United States for the 

 growing of market produce, efficient daily inspection of 

 marketable produce, it is hoped, insures the pest being 

 confined and ultimately wiped out. The young men who 

 worked at Riverton during the past sunnuer all were 

 men who were fully interested in this work, and met with 

 the finest kind of cooperation every day. They lived in 

 tents along the river and here conducted valuable experi- 

 ments which will mean much to this or any other area 

 similarly affected. 



I 



big trees (sequoia Wash'mgtoniana) from San Fran- 

 cisco- He planted these in the Forest nursery and in a 

 couple of years transplanted them on his lots in Boise. 

 Both of the trees are alive and doing well. The larger 

 is approximately twenty feet in height and nine inches 

 in diameter at stump height. {Daily Nczvs, Intcrmoun- 



"VT" OU can't start forests from stumps, any more than 

 * you can start wheat from stubble. If we are to have 



timber in the future, we must grow it as systematically 



as any other crop. 



fT* HE man who is impatient, and will only attempt 

 * what he can see bear fruit, in a very short time 



will only grow success of the pumpkin and squash variety. 



