INSECTS, DISEASES, AND INJURIES 123 



Experience of growers with insects and diseases in this 

 class of plants should be assembled and organized. On the 

 subject of the spraying of conifers, George P. Brett writes 

 as follows: 



"It is desirable that more experiments in regard to the 

 spraying of evergreens should be made, as there is little satis- 

 factory information to be had about it at the present time from 

 the standpoint of the ordinary amateur grower. What is the 

 best spray for the pine weevil, for example, and is there any 

 spray that will check the depredations of pine blister-rust? 

 As far as the pine weevil is concerned, I have tried arsenate 

 of lead, scalecide, and some other preparations, but not with 

 complete success. What is wanted for this veritable scourge 

 of the soft-needle pines is, I should guess, a sort of paint which 

 would prevent the attack, this paint to be applied to the leading 

 shoots at the time of the year when the danger exists, and it 

 ought, with proper experiments, it seems to me, to be easy to 

 find some deterrent which would keep off the attacks of the 

 insect without poisoning the tree. 



"The imported sawfly is easy to manage if you attend to it 

 in time. It mostly attacks the soft-needle pines, and I have 

 seen Cembra, Banksiana, Strobus, and the Bhotan so com- 

 pletely stripped of their needles by the larvae of this fly as to 

 kill the tree, but it can be easily controlled with arsenate of 

 lead, provided care is taken to make the applications frequently 

 enough to care for the broods which appear at regular in- 

 tervals during the summer, the last brood on my place this 

 year, for instance, having appeared in late September, just be- 

 fore we had our first serious frost. The Scotch pine and the 

 hemlock are also attacked by this pest, but little damage seems 

 to be done to these trees, the larvae apparently thriving only 

 on the soft-needle pines." 



