24 BULLETIN 333, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



trees occurred on stock 1 and 2 years old. Trees that had reached 

 an age of 3 years showed little injury. This difference was probably 

 due to the fact that the trees 1 and 2 years old were planted on 

 recently cleared woodland, whereas the old trees were on old land, 

 though closely adjacent to the badly infested area. Of the trees 1 

 and 2 years old probably one-fourth of the total number had been 

 destroyed during the summer, the injury being almost entirely below 

 ground, although the excavations made by the termites occasionally 

 extended an inch or two above the surface of the soil inside of the 

 tree. Below ground the trees were frequently hollowed out until 

 little more than a shell of bark remained. The insects made their 

 entrance to the trees at some point below ground, the place most fre- 

 quently chosen being the point where the taproot had been cut to 

 cause it to branch out into a larger root system. From this point of 

 entrance the insects worked upward, extending their galleries through 

 the wood and enlarging them until the heart of the tree at the crown 

 was entirely eaten away. Usually the affected trees did not show any 

 indication of injury until they were badly damaged and then they 

 died very quickly, the leaves sometimes drying on the limbs within a 

 period of three or four days.' 



VINEYARDS. 



Injury by termites to vineyards has occasionally been recorded in 

 Algeria, 1 in Bordeaux, France, and in North America. Usually 

 only the weak or old vines with many pruning scars are attacked, 

 or dead or injured parts, or ramifications of the stem or branches 

 invaded by other pests, the healthy ramifications of the stock being 

 exempt from invasion. Signs of attack are sickly foliage or abortive 

 buds, or the injury is observed at the time of cutting down to stock 

 or making graftings. S. H. Scudder records fatal injury to the 

 roots of grapevines in forcing houses at Salem, Mass. 



DAMAGE TO SHRUBS, FLOWERS, AND GREENHOUSE STOCK. 



GREENHOUSE STOCK. 



Termites injure a variety of shrubs, flowers in gardens as well as 

 in greenhouses, and weeds. Hagen states that our common native 

 termite, 2 introduced into Europe, so nearly destroyed one of the 

 largest of the beautiful hothouses at Schoenbrun belonging to the 

 Emperor of Austria that it had to be torn down. Besides the beams, 

 the termites destroyed the tubs in which the plants were set. Hagen 

 states in 1876 that a few years before he had observed termites swarm- 

 ing in clouds in the Botanical Garden at Cambridge, Mass. Manured 



1 By Calotermes flavicollis Fab. - Leucotermes flavipes. 



