104 [Assembly, 



It was my privilege several years ago to follow an attack of this 

 insect on a row of maples at Schoharie, New York, which I passed 

 daily, and had for years observed with pleasure their vigorous and 

 healthful growth. As adding to the testimony of Dr. Packard of 

 the attack of healthy trees {Insects Injurious to Forest and Shade 

 Trees — Bulletin No. 7 of the United States Entomological 

 Division, p. 103, 104), I herewith copy the record made under date 

 of November 30, 1859: 



" I have noticed this autumn, for the first time, that our sugar 

 maples, which we have always regarded as our most valuable shade 

 tree, from the almost complete immunity which they have enjoyed 

 in trunk and leaf from insect depredation, have been attacked by a 

 borer so pernicious in its work as to threaten their destruction 

 unless some means shall be found to check its ravages. 



In its simplest form it reveals itself by the bark parting longi- 

 tudinally and breaking away, disclosing the wood of the tree in a 

 narrow strip for some five or six inches in length. On the sur- 

 face of the wood can be seen the furrow of the grub, cut to a 

 slight depth, gradually increasing in its dimensions as it descends, 

 and at the lower end entering the trunk of the tree. Over the 

 borders of the groove the growth of sapwood made since the 

 injury, impinges. This, I presume to be the work of a grub pro- 

 ceeding from an egg deposited late in the season and compelled 

 to seek an early refuge by approaching winter. A wound no 

 more serious than this, would close over in two or three years and 

 no permanent injury result. But when the grub has had full 

 time allowed it tor its work the injury is far more important. 



In several instances I have traced the furrow, packed tightly 

 with fine powder tor two feet or more in extent, with an average 

 breadth at its lower portion of over half an inch and nearly one- 

 fourth of an inch in depth. To render it the more serious' the 

 grub almost invariably before entering the tree, leaves its downward 

 path and winds nearly horizontally around the trunk until it com- 

 pletes about half a circuit. It then enters the trunk an inch or 

 thereabouts back from the end of its burrow, ascending at an angle 

 of about ten degrees. The perfect insect emerges from the tree 

 above through an opening which can be probed horizontally for 

 three of four inches, the mouth of which is smoothly cut and 

 somewhat elliptical, the broadest diameter being about .35 of an 

 inch. I 



One maple which I have examined, of some ten inches diameter 

 at the base, which has been more seriously affected than others, 

 and probably the first to be attacked, has been nearly destroyed. 

 Several of the grubs have commenced their ravages side by side, 

 and by their united cuttings have in places exposed the trunk for 

 over a hand's breadth. The tree has been attacked in various 



