E3* NUTTY AUTUMN 



thus affected, then another, then a third, till, looking 

 round the fields, it seemed as if every fourth or 

 fifth tree had thus been burnt. 



It began with the leaves losing colour, much as 

 they do in autumn, on the particular bough ; grad- 

 ually they faded, and finally became brown and of 

 course dead. As they did not appear to shrivel 

 up, it looked as if the grub or insect, or whatever 

 did the mischief, had attacked, not the leaves, but 

 the bough itself. Upon mentioning this I found 

 that it had been noticed in elm avenues and groups 

 a hundred miles distant, so that it is not a local 

 circumstance. 



As far as yet appears, the elms do not seem 

 materially injured, the damage being outwardly 

 confined to the bough attacked. These brown 

 spots looked very remarkable just after the trees 

 had become green. They were quite distinct 

 from the damage caused by the snow of October, 

 1880. The boughs broken by the snow had 

 leaves upon them which at once turned brown, 

 and in the case of the oak were visible, the fol- 

 lowing spring, as brown spots among the green. 

 These snapped boughs never bore leaf again. It 

 was the young fresh green leaves of the elms, those 

 that appeared in the spring of 1881, that withered 

 as if scorched. The boughs upon which they 

 grew had not been injured ; they were small boughs 

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