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the object being simply to knock the insects from the trees Dy means 

 of a strong stream of water. By such means as this the Superintend- 

 ent of the Military Academy kept the elm trees green at West Point 

 several years ago. In every large city, where the fire department is 

 necessarily kept in the best condition, an engine is occasionally retired. 

 The transfer of such a retired engine to the street department could 

 no doubt be readily made, and a little work by a competent steam fitter 

 could transform it into a most admirable insecticide machine. In this 

 way the .initial expenditure for machinery would be avoided. 



When the spraying apparatus has once been provided, the funds 

 necessary for the purchase of insecticides and the necessary labor at 

 the proper time must be available. If the work is not done promptly 

 and at just the right time, more or less damage will result, and a 

 greater expenditure will be necessary. During the latter part of May 

 and the first part of June, in the case of nearly all prominent shade- 

 tree insects, one or two thorough sprayings must be made. In fact, a 

 a second spraying, begun immediately after the completion of the first 

 one, will in ordinary cases be as much as need be expected. In addi- 

 tion to this spraying work, a force of men must be employed for a time 

 in July to destroy the elm leaf -beetle larvae as they are descending to 

 the ground and to burn the webs of the first generation of the fall 

 webworm. This will finish the summer work. The winter work will 

 consist of the destruction of the eggs of the white-marked tussock 

 moth, the cocoons of the fall webworm, and the bags of the bagworm. 

 The number of men to be employed and the time occupied will depend 

 upon the exigencies of the case. Upon the thoroughness of this work 

 will depend, to a large extent, the necessity for a greater or less amount 

 of the summer work just described. 



We have now to consider what can be done by citizens where city 

 governments will not interest themselves in the matter. It is unrea- 

 sonable to expect that a private individual will invest in a spraying 

 apparatus and spray the large shade trees in front of his grounds. 

 Therefore, in spraying operations where large trees exist in numbers 

 there must be combination of resources. This affords an opportunity 

 for the newly invented business of spraying at so much per tree. A 

 resident of Bridgeport, Conn. , who was formerly, and is yet for the 

 greater part of the year, a roofer and paver, has constructed several 

 cart sprayers, and during the months of June and July (at a time, by 

 the way, when the men in his employ are apt to be out of work) he 

 sprays trees on the grounds of private individuals and along the 

 streets in front of their grounds, under contract, at so much per tree, 

 guaranteeing to keep the trees in fair condition during the season. 

 His work has been directed solely against the elm leaf -beetle, since 

 that is the only insect of great importance in Bridgeport. In the 

 month of July, 1894, the writer, in driving through the streets of 



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