320 LOCUST 



care should be taken to secure a suitable location, as it is 

 less reliable outside its natural habitat than within it. Be- 

 sides its exacting demands for acceptable soil and location, 

 it suffers greatly from a species of borer, which attacks not 

 only the stem of the tree, but its branches and even small 

 limbs, and against this assault there is no defense. Pro- 

 fessor C. S. Sargent, in his Silva, says: "The value of 

 Robinia pseudacacia is practically destroyed in nearly all 

 parts of the United States, beyond the mountain forests 

 which are its home, by the borers which riddle the trunk 

 and branches." The author's recent observations in West 

 Virginia disclosed the fact that the borer had invaded that 

 region and was doing much damage. To this must be 

 added that in many localities, including some portions of its 

 natural range, a dark brown beetle commonly called the 

 " locust leaf miner," has recently attacked its leaves. But as 

 there are locations where it does thrive, and where neither 

 beetle nor borer has yet worked serious damage, it is deemed 

 justifiable to treat of its character and the best methods of 

 propagation. 



In its best development trees were found from eighty to 

 ninety feet in height and from three to three and one half 

 feet in diameter, but such dimensions were rare. Its average 

 size does not exceed seventy-five feet in height or more 

 than twenty inches in diameter. It is light-demanding, 

 but notwithstanding that fact it will grow quite tall in the 

 open, while in some localities its habit is to separate and 

 throw out branches low down, each one of which soon sets 

 up a struggle for supremacy as a leader, and unless sup- 

 pressed or removed, the contest will cause the tree to change 

 its form and shoot upward with two, three, or more stems 

 of nearly equal size. This tendency operates strongly against 

 its usefulness, for if all the ambitious stems are allowed to 

 grow, it will require a much longer time for any one of the 

 several branches to reach a useful size than would be ne- 

 cessary if all the wood could be grown in one. Close plant- 

 ing will somewhat prevent this, but cutting back all but 



