18 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 428 



In all parts of the State where diseased trees are found, surveys are made in 

 the immediate vicinity and recommendations furnished to public and private 

 agencies concerning desirable control measures. Although recommendations 

 are made for particular conditions, they may be summarized as follows: 



1. Keep elms as healthy as possible. 



2. Spray elms to control elm leaf beetle and other insects. 



3. In particular, if elms are cut, remove and burn the bark immediately. 

 The bark beetles which carry the disease fungus breed in the bark of 

 freshly cut elm. 



4. Avoid piling elm wood in the open unless it is peeled. Don't transport 

 elm wood with bark attached. Piled elm wood is more dangerous than 

 standing dead trees. 



Other methods of disease control are being explored, and, in cooperation 

 with the Department of Entomology, means for control of carrier insects are 

 under investigation. 



Other Tree Problems. Fifty-four diseases of thirty species of trees including 

 eight diseases of elm were identified from approximately 350 specimens and 

 inquiries received during the year. The Cephalosporiiim wilt of elm was reported 

 from two additional municipalities in which the disease has been found in Massa- 

 chusetts. Verticillium sp. was isolated from several species of wood plants. 



On September 14, 1944, a hurricane struck southeastern Massachusetts with 

 devastating force. Along the coast the water did not invade and undermine 

 property to the extent of the hurricane of September, 1938, but not until long 

 after the excitement of the storm had passed, and in some instances not until 

 the spring of 1945, was the complete effect of salt and wind on trees fully realized. 

 In Barnstable, Plymouth, and Bristol counties thousands of trees were uprooted 

 or shattered. Transportation and communication facilities were suspended or 

 impaired for days or weeks while conditions were righted amid complications of 

 shortages in labor and materials. A visit to the "graveyard" of almost any tree 

 department is a revealing picture of trees lost. As for trees which withstood the 

 storm, in the course of clearing operations they were sometimes left in hopelessly 

 mutilated condition. Inadequate repair of injured trees always paves the way 

 for future failure of damaged limbs. In limbs and crotches a hurricane rends the 

 weak spots and creates additional ones. Viciously enough these in turn often 

 become casualties of lesser storms. Events of recent years serve well to emphasize 

 the need for better tree care and the detection of minor tree defects which may 

 be corrected at limited expense. Neglect of current needed work is an expensive 

 and indeed a deceiving false economy. 



In many communities of Massachusetts on April 23 and 24, 1945, early morn- 

 ing frosts injured foliage of trees on which leaves had developed in response to 

 warm spring weather. Damage varied from extensive on fruit trees to limited 

 on some shade and ornamental trees. 



Leaf diseases have been unusually prevalent on shade trees during June. The 

 regularity with which rains occurred favored the development and dissemination 

 of fungi involved. In some instances leaves damaged by frost, wind, and fungus 

 infection had already fallen by July first, to a conspicuous extent. 



During a severe electrical storm in Amherst on June 15, 1945, the following 

 trees on the State College campus were struck: a large elm south of the tennis 

 court near the cold storage plant, a large elm on Stockbridge Road west of 

 French Hall, a sycamore northwest of Butterfield House, a linden east of North 



