6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



O'us European elms along our streets were completely defoliated 

 once, the second growth of foliage was seriously injured, and some 

 trees had their third set of leaves attacked. This condition of 

 affairs was observed in Albany and Troy and was true to a greater 

 or less extent in many other places along the Hudson river. The 

 leaves are the breathing organs of a tree. Their removal or de- 

 struction weakens it seriously, and to have that occur even once 

 a season for successive years, means the earl}^ death of the un- 

 fortunate elm. The number of magnificent shade trees killed by 

 this insect in Albany, since its advent, may be estimated at over 

 a thousand, and had not the city taken action to protect the elms 

 many more would have succumbed in the next year or two. 



It is useless to hope that another season the pest may not be 

 as destructive. It shows a remarkable vigor and prolificacy in 

 our climate. At Washington, D. C, it has been known for a long 

 series of years and still is very injurious. In New Jersey, New 

 York city, New Haven, Conn., and other localities it has been 

 found necessary to spray the trees with a poisonous mixture in 

 order to avert serious injury. Parasites, diseases of various kinds 

 and predatory enemies seems to have little effect in reducing its 

 numbers. The valley of the Hudson river as far north as Sara- 

 toga lis now included in the sa:me life zone as that of the latter 

 places named. 



Distribution. This insect is common over a large part of 

 Europe, but it is injurious only in the southern portions of Ger- 

 many and France and in Italy and Austria. The records of the 

 earlier entomologists indicate that the beetle must have made 

 its way to this country about 1834, because in 1838 it was re- 

 ported as very injurious to elms in Baltimore, Md. It is now 

 found from Charlotte, N. C, to north of Salem, Mass. Up to 

 1896, so far as known, it was limited to territory east of the 

 Appalachian chain of mountains. In that year it was found es- 

 tablished at Elm Grove and Wellsburg, W. Va., by Dr Hopkins 

 of the Agricultural experiment station of that state. Its prog- 

 ress up the Hudson is interesting to follow, indicating, as it does. 



