REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I9II 10/ 



a farmhouse may be badly injured. Many of these places are 

 along highways traversed by numerous automobiles, and it 

 seems very probable that the comparatively recent general use 

 of these vehicles has also been of material service in distributing 

 this pest. 



The exceptionally dry weather of the last few years has had 

 a serious effect upon many trees and has doubtless accentuated, 

 by reducing the vitality of the trees, the injury inflicted by the 

 elm leaf beetle. It is also possible that climatic conditions have 

 been unusually favorable for the increase of this pest. Never- 

 theless, present conditions Avould seem to justify the expectation 

 of more widespread and general injtiry in the future than has 

 obtained in the past. The experience of communities infested 

 by the elm leaf beetle for a decade or more has shown that unless 

 the trees are adequately protected, many are bound to suc- 

 cumb to attacks by this insect. Thousands of elms have per- 

 ished during the last twenty years from this cause alone in the 

 cities of Albany and Troy and many more are in a- precarious 

 condition owing to lack of adequate protection in recent years, 

 due either to no spraying or indifferent work. 



The problem at the present time is to secure the general 

 recognition of the necessity for protecting our elms if the trees 

 are to be kept in even a fairly good condition. Repeated de- 

 foliations in the past have resulted in the wholesale destruction 

 of trees, and under the changed conditions of the last decade 

 or thereabouts, even more general injury may be expected in 

 the future. A number of communities in the Hudson valley 

 have been spraying their elms for some years and, in some 

 instances at least, those interested in the work have been in- 

 clined to blame the failure to secure good results upon the insect 

 itself, climatic conditions or some other than the true cause. 

 The facts of the case are that thorough spraying with a modern 

 equipment should result in keeping the leaves green, vigorous 

 and practically intact throughout the season, even in localities 

 where the elm leaf beetle is exceedingly abundant and not ex- 

 cepting trees adjacent to those practically skeletonized by the 

 pest. The essentials are tim.ely and thorough sprayings. 

 Examinations of conditions in several communities the past 

 season force us to the conclusion that most of the unsatisfactory 

 results following spraying operations are due to careless or 

 slovenly work. It is impossible to stand at a distance and 

 spray an elm tree in such a way as to secure approximately 



