TREE PLANTING ON STREETS AND HIGHWAYS. 2g 



The insects which kill or injure shade trees may be divided into three general 

 classes: (i) the leaf-devouring or masticating species; (2) the leaf-piercing, non- 

 masticating, or sucking insects; (3) the borers. Prof. Felt, in the previous reports* 

 of the Forest Commission, gives a minute description of the tussock moth, forest 

 tent caterpillar, leopard moth, maple borer, maple tree pruner, cottony scale insect, 

 elm leaf beetle, bag worm, fall web worm, spiny elm caterpillar, elm borer, elm bark 

 louse, and elm snout beetle. These descriptions are accompanied by colored illus- 

 trations showing the insects at each stage of transformation ; also, formulas for 

 insecticides, spraying mixtures, and emulsions, together with the details of other 

 methods that have proved effective. 



AVQnictpal Control. 



In towns where there are no well-organized tree-planting or village improvement 

 societies the planting of street trees and their subsequent care should devolve on 

 the city or village government, preferably, if in a city, on the park commissioners, 

 as the officials in that department would be better qualified for the work, farther 

 removed from political influences, and would be more apt to have the long tenure 

 of office necessary to the proper management of the work. The planting and care 

 of street trees belongs to the city government as much as street paving. Under 

 the stimulus of local improvement societies individuals often do some planting ; but 

 when they sell their property or move away the trees are apt to be neglected. 

 Moreover, it is difficult without municipal control to secure the concerted action 

 necessary for planting a street its entire length with uniform and properly selected 

 species. 



Then, again, under the management of a special city department, properly sup- 

 plied with funds, the spraying of trees and suppression of insect pests can be suc- 

 cessfully accomplished ; but it is doubtful if our trees can be preserved from this 

 evil through the partial and disconnected efforts of individuals. As in Washington 

 and Paris, every city should establish nurseries, supported by municipal appropria- 

 tions, in which the various species best adapted to street planting can be propagated 

 and grown with special reference to such use. 



In some of our cities- — New York and Brooklyn for instance — valuable and 

 effective work has been accomplished by tree-planting societies ; and their intelli- 



* Insects Injurious to Shade Trees. E. P. Felt, D. So., State Entomologist. Fourth Annual 

 Report, Forest, Fish and Game Commission, Albany. i8g8. Also, Insects Injurious to Elm Trees, by 

 same author. Fifth Annual Report of Commission, l8gg. See, also, Prof. A. S. Packard, Fifth Report 

 of the U. S. Entomological Commission, pp. 31-47. Washington. 1890. 



