352 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 393. 



ness with which commissioners who fall under their influ- 

 ence are induced to expend money for walls, balustrades, 

 columns and statues, and how slow they are to spend 

 even niggardly amounts to fertilize the soil or to improve 

 the turf and trees. 



It is to guard against such tendencies as this that the 

 counsel of Mr. Olmsted should be taken to heart by every 

 one who has charge of urban parks. A broad-minded 

 artist in landscape understands the value of architectural 

 features as well as the natural ones in public parks. He 

 appreciates the fact that there may be cases and places 

 where plazas of dignified architectural character are prefera- 

 ble to woods and meadows. Even in natural parks he 

 recognizes the fact that there are situations where the arti- 

 ficial elements necessary for convenience should be empha- 

 sized and displayed. But behind and beneath all this is 

 the strong and wholesome northern love of the elemental 

 beauty of the natural world instead of the cockney or 

 Parisian contempt for everything essentially rural. These 

 architectural attacks upon rural parks spring from minds 

 with a narrow range of artistic sympathies. The threatened 

 danger does not come from art, but from bad art, and against 

 this" we must offer good art by precept and example. 

 Sound art, high art, in our spacious city parks means es- 

 sentially the development of every possible poetic charm 

 in their natural scenery and the exclusion of every element 

 which conflicts with this purpose. 



Why Certain Hickories Died. 



DURING July, 1894, Mr. J. D. Gallagher wrote me for 

 remedies against certain borers that seemed to be 

 killing Hickories on his grounds at Glen Ridge, a pretty 

 little village near Newark, New Jersey, where there are 

 many handsome trees along the roadsides and in the well- 

 kept grounds bordering them. In reply to the letter I gave 

 a little general information as to methods of treating in- 

 fested trees, and hinted that it was not often possible to get 

 satisfactory results in cases of this kind. In truth, I did 

 not intend to encourage much hope of saving the trees, 

 liecause I had seen so many similar cases, always brought 

 to my attention when the doom of the patient was already 

 sealed. 



But Mr. Gallagher was persistent, and on July 30th he 

 gave the history of the trees as follows : 



In iSgt one of the most vigorous Hickories on my place, a 

 tree twelve inches in diameter, showed a withering- of the 

 leaves, as if they had been stung by some insect. They did 

 not all fall, however, and in 1892 the tree came out in full 

 leaf and had apparently suffered no damage. In tlie spring 

 of 1893 the tree came out in leaf again, and shortly after- 

 ward the leaves showed the old symptoms of 1891 ; hut 

 this time they all witliered up and fell in midsummer. This 

 year (1894) the tree put forth no leaves, although it is trying to 

 throw out some sprouts near the ground. Last September 

 another Hickory on my place, twenty feet from the first, a 

 double tree, united close to the ground, showed in one of its 

 halves a withering of the leaves, which fell off shortly after- 

 ward. The other half showed no symptoms of disease, but 

 remained in full leaf, and the leaves fell in the natural course 

 in the fall ; this also was a large, strong, healthy tree. This 

 spring the last-named tree and another standing beside it, 

 which also had shown no signs of disease last year, failed to 

 put forth leaves, except on some few branches, and these soon 

 fell off. Standing near these trees is another tall, apparently 

 healthy Hickory, about eight inches in diameter, which this 

 spring put forth its leaves in the usual way, sliowing no signs 

 of disease, but within the last ten days the leaves on its lower 

 branches have begun to wither, and it is apparently dying. 

 None of these trees to the eye had the slightest appearance of 

 being sick until last fall, except the first one which I have men- 

 tioned. The loss of these fine trees in front of my door is a 

 serious one to me for many reasons. 



In response to this letter I visited the trees, and found 

 matters much as Mr. Gallagher had stated them. The 

 trunks of almost all the trees showed the sornewhat oval 

 holes due to the issuance of certain Buprestid beetles, and 

 several specimens of Dicerca divaricata were captured 



while parading up and down the trunk, apparently seeking 

 good places to oviposit. Beneath the bark the flat-headed 

 Buprestid larvte themselves were found. A small number 

 of round holes about three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter 

 were found, and attributed to a species of long horned 

 beetle, which I could not get at without an axe ; or, possi- 

 bly, the Pigeon Tremex may have been concerned in the 

 work. Most numerous of all were the small round holes 

 I had seen so often, and which I at once charged to Scoly- 

 tus 4-spinosus, well known for just such injury. Except, 

 possibly, the Longicorn (or Tremex), I considered the in- 

 sects not as primary causes of the condition of the trees, 

 but as results — that is, they took advantage of a weakened 

 condition induced by other causes. And these causes were 

 not far to seek. The trees were situated on a broad well- 

 kept lawn sloping from the house to the street so as to 

 secure rapid and perfect drainage, and so high that the 

 deepest root-level must have been considerably above the 

 street-level. The thick grass on the lawn made a perfect 

 covering. For many years past this condition of affairs 

 had existed ; all the fallen leaves had been systematically 

 gathered as soon as they dropped, and light top-dressings 

 of manure had been applied each year — ^just enough to 

 keep the grass in good condition. In other words, the 

 trees rested in soil with only a small amount of moisture, 

 and on the surface was an excellent trap which captured 

 and assimilated every particle of plant-food, and at the 

 most critical times absorbed every particle of moisture 

 which fell upon it. Under such circumstances no tree 

 could long maintain its vigor. My diagnosis was starva- 

 tion, followed by borers ; prognosis, extremely unfavora- 

 ble. The only treatment that could be suggested was to 

 stimulate the trees actively by an abundance of readily 

 available plant-food. Trees frequently outgrovi' even se- 

 vere injury, and it was only a question vi'hether there 

 remained a sufficient power of recuperation in the trees to 

 enable them to take advantage of the help. 



On this subject a letter from Mr. Gallagher, dated June 

 25th of this year, will prove instructive to your readers, 

 although I can only give a brief abstract of it : 



Under the infected trees I spread last summer 600 pounds of 

 Mapes' fruit and vine manure, and washed it in with a hose 

 and sprinkler. Result, a fine crop of grass, but no apparent 

 effect on the trees. This spring 4,000 pounds of the same fer- 

 tilizer were spread over my lawns, 1,000 pounds being put 

 under the diseased trees. Result, an extra fine lawn, but no 

 effect on the trees, and one tree dead that showed no signs of 

 attack last year. On llie first of June, none ot the eight trees 

 showing any signs of life, I had them all cut down and burned. 

 I hoped that this heavy fertilizing had so strengthened the 

 other Hickories that the pest would not overcome them, and 

 they all looked strong this spring. The other day I found a 

 tree behind my house dying at the top, and this, on examina- 

 tion, showed the holes of the borers. To-day I am having all 

 the top limbs cut off this tree, and am having all Hickory- 

 trees on the place dug around ten feet or more from the tree 

 in each direction, and am putting fifty pounds of fertilizer 

 around each tree on the raw earth and am washing it in with a 

 sprinkler, giving the earth in each case all the water it will 

 take, intending to repeat the watering every three or four 

 days. I send specimens of beetles dug out of the limbs cut 

 from the trees. 



This was not particularly encouraging, but I was com- 

 pelled to acknowledge that I could offer nothing more. It 

 was not a c[uestion of keeping out borers ; not a question 

 of checking a threatened or recent attack, but rather a 

 question of reviving trees that had given up the struggle 

 and were yielding to the horde of pests lying in wait to 

 finish the weak and dying. The beetles sent me were 

 Scolytus 4-spinosus, and their injury (see fig. 49, page 353) 

 consists in making between bark and wood a central ver- 

 tical gallery one to one a half inches in length, from which 

 lateral galleries are made by the larvae in all directions, so 

 that the progeny from one pair of beetles may easily de- 

 stroy the remaining vitality of an area three inches in 

 diameter. No tree can survive for any length of time when 

 generally infested by this insect. It bores in branches 



