t SECRETARY'S REPORT. 151 



and the wood, and in them many httle reddish-1)rown and hlack 

 beetles, scarcely one-tenth of an inch long, very much resem- 

 bling a very short bit of fine wire, so closely does the thorax fit 

 to the wing covers, the head being almost concealed and the 

 feet very short. This insect has been named by Dr. Fitch, 

 Tomicus mali, or the bark-beetle of the apple. 



Another of this group, the Tomicus pyri, of Peck, or pear- 

 blight beetle, injures the trunk and the twigs of the apple, pear 

 and other fruit trees in a similar way, and even continues its 

 excavations deeper into the wood, commencing its operations 

 close to a bud where the egg is laid. It is of similar appearance 

 to the last species, but about twice its size. Some of the bur- 

 rows and galleries mined beneath the bark by this group of 

 minute creatures are of singular regularity, one excavating a 

 perfectly straight gallery for several inches, and then con- 

 structing little cells, or short burrows on each side, like courts, 

 leading into a main street. The burrows of another species from 

 their reseml)lance to letters, have obtained for it the name of 

 ti/pog-raphus, or the printer bark-beetle. In some cases, the 

 injury done by these little animals is so great that the only 

 remedy seems to be the cutting off and burning of the limbs 

 affected, but where the possibility of preventing it occurs, we 

 shall find the thorough painting of the twigs and branches with 

 thick soap-suds especially useful. With low branching trees, this 

 may be easily done before the leaves have made their appear- 

 ance, and the dipping of the ends of the shoots into a pail of 

 the mixture, will better insure this reaching into every joint 

 and crevice. When the tender leaves unfold their green sur- 

 face to the spring sun, and begin to breathe in the warm and 

 exhilarating atmosphere through every pore, starting the sap to 

 renewed life, and increasing in size and beauty every hour, 

 we find hundreds of hungry creatures, ready and anxious to 

 begin their work of devastation and revel in the rich supply of 

 succulent food spread out before them. Among the first are 

 the little web-worms, or tent caterpillars, who have escaped 

 from their winter quarters a day or two before the leaves, and 

 have been living since then upon the nutritious gelatine, which 

 their mother provided some eight or ten months before for the 

 double purpose, and spread over the embryo brood to serve as 

 a warm blanket through the winter, and two or three days 



