47 2 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 457. 



our landscape, we ought to follow the broad principles, at 

 least, which Nature plainly lays down. 



Judge Bellinger, in the United States Circuit Court at 

 Portland, Oregon, has recently delivered an opinion in the 

 case of the United States against the Tygh Valley Land and 

 Live-stock Company which is of the utmost importance. 

 The suit was brought by the United States to restrain the 

 defendant from trespassing on the Cascade Forest Reserve 

 by driving and pasturing sheep thereon. The effect of the 

 decision is to declare the right of the Government to pro- 

 tect the forest reserves by civil process, a right which the 

 sheep-men of Oregon have always denied. It has been 

 argued that an implied license to pasture on the forest 

 reserves had grown out of the custom which has existed 

 from the beginning of the Government, by which the public 

 lands have been used as pastures, especially those in which 

 the native grasses are adapted to the growth and fattening 

 of domestic animals. Judge Bellinger has ruled, however, 

 that there is a clear distinction between public lands and 

 lands that have been severed from the public domain and 

 reserved from sale or other disposition under general laws, 

 and that the reservation of these lands is their appropriation 

 to a special public use, and is, therefore, a disposal of them 

 so far as the public domain is concerned. "This appro- 

 priation," he declared, "is for the promotion of the public 

 good. It is claimed for the Government that the pasturing 

 of these lands with sheep will injuriously affect the forests 

 of the reservation and thus tend to defeat the object for 

 which the reservation was made. The object of the reserva- 

 tion is the preservation of the forests of the Cascade Range 

 of mountains, in Oregon, and there is, therefore, no impli- 

 cation of a license to use the reserved lands for the destruc- 

 tion or injury of these forests. The Government, no less 

 than a private party, is entitled to have its interests pro- 

 tected against the threatened trespass and injury." 



Entomological. 

 Lawn and Grass Infesting Insects. — II. 



TDERHAPS the most common and destructive of the larvae 

 *■ found in lawns are white grubs, the larvas of several species 

 of leaf-horned or Lamellicorn beetles. White grubs, both large 

 and small, may be generally recognized by their plump, 

 wrinkled body, nearly equal in diameter or a little enlarged 

 toward the anal end, which terminates obtusely. They are 

 more or less covered with brownish hair and partially curl up 

 when at rest. The head is large, yellow or brown, with very 

 large, powerful jaws and with rather long legs of a dirty yellow 

 color. The body of the insect is whitish, or with a yellow tint, 

 from which it derives its common name. We have through- 

 out the eastern and central states quite a large number of spe- 

 cies of beetles with this kind of larvae, and among them are 

 many that are more or less troublesome. The larva of the 

 rosechafer, or rosebug, is one of these white grubs, and is 

 quite frequently found in grass lands on light soil. The larvas 

 of many of the vinechafers are found in similar situations, 

 while those of the June-bugs or May-beetles are, perhaps, the 

 most common. It is very difficult to distinguish between these 

 creatures, and practically it is not a matter of very much im- 

 portance, but there is one species which is sometimes the chief, 

 if not the only, offender (see tig. 66), differentiated from all the 



travels rapidly on its back, wriggling along much more 

 actively than any of the other species found under similar cir- 

 cumstances. This hairy creature is the larva of Allorhina 

 nitida, also called the fig-eater, or bumble-bee beetle, from the 

 buzzing noise it makes during flight. 



Ordinarily, when we find a white grub nearly a quarter of 

 an inch in diameter and somewhat more than an inch in 

 length, without any hairy clothing, we can take it for granted 

 that it is the larva of one of the May-beetles, or species of 

 Lachnosterna (see fig. 67). These beetles ily only at night, be- 



Fig. 66. The fig-eater, Allorhina nitida. a, the larva ; b, the pupa ; c, the adult or 

 beetle ; d, c,f,g, larval details, enlarged. — After Riley. 



others by the fact that it is very densely clothed with quite long 

 brown hair, and if removed from its home within the soil 



Fig. 67. May-beetle, Lachnosterna species, r, the pupa in its earthen cell ; 2, a 

 larva feeding on grass-roots ; 3. 4, adult or beetle from side and above. — Alter Riley. 



ginning just as soon as it becomes dark, and continuing until 

 midnight or, if it is sultry, until long after that period. They 

 are strongly attracted to lights, and we may often notice them 

 about electric-lamps, or even beating against common gas- 

 lights. In this stage they feed upon the leaves of various trees, 

 and sometimes do quite considerable injury to shade-trees. 

 Occasionally, where a few fruit-trees are grown in a garden 

 more or less surrounded by lawns, they gnaw the stalks of the 

 forming fruit, or even of the blossoms, and so do much 

 damage. Before morning, in every case, they return to earth, 

 burrowing a short distance below the surface in some cases, 

 or crawling deep into grass-tufts, but, at all events, concealing 

 themselves completely. The eggs are laid in the ground itself 

 among the roots of the grass, and the larvas when they hatch 

 at once begin feeding. They live for two or three years in this 

 stage, growing very slowly, and, on the whole, not eating very 

 ravenously. It is only when they become very abundant that 

 serious injury results, or when, after Grass, Strawberries or 

 other plants are set, so that a comparatively few plants replace 

 a great number. An old sod is, however, very apt to become 

 infested by successive broods, and much damage may then 

 be done, the roots being in some cases eaten oft' clean, and the 

 grass becoming brown on the surface and eventually dying. 

 Toward the end of the third summer the larvas go down a 

 little deeper — say, from six to eight inches — excavate for them- 

 selves a clean earthen cell, change to a pupa, and shortly 

 thereafter into an adult beetle, which does not emerge, how- 

 ever, until May or June following. The larva 3 of the fig-eater 

 grow more rapidly, and are often much more abundant than 

 those of the May-beetles, and their work beneath the carpet of 

 sod is sometimes so rapid and so complete that the whole can 

 be rolled up like a rug, every fibre of the roots attaching it to 

 the soil having been destroyed. 



REMEDIAL MEASURES. 



It is always a matter of interest to determine what is causing 

 the injury that we observe ; but, after all, the important ques- 

 tion is, what can we do to check it ? Where land is kept in 

 grass for a year or two only, in the ordinary rotation practiced 

 on the farm, the insects rarely become very abundant, unless 

 the rotation is a bad one — that is, when grass crops follow each 

 other for too long a time. On lawns, where the object is to 

 keep the grass as long a time as possible, the difficulties are 

 enhanced, and where white grubs are abundant, more or less 

 injury will always be caused. Indeed, all the insects infesting 

 grass lawns will have a tendency to multiply, and entire ex- 

 emption from injury can hardly be expected. 



One of the simplest measures is frequent cutting and roll- 

 ing. This has a tendency to drive off the Lepidopterous 

 insects that may be among the grass, and to prevent the lay- 

 ing of eggs. Many of the click-beetles are also destroyed by 

 this process and more are driven off, so that even as against 

 these some benefit may be had. The May-beetles, flying only 



