The Locust. 257 



blossoms, the solidity and durability of its wood, have heretofore 

 led to high expectations of great profit in its planting ; and in the 

 early settlement of the prairie region of Illinois and elsewhere, it 

 ■was for many years a great favorite. 



1016. These hopes were in many regions so effectually disap- 

 pointed by the "borers" that the trees not wholly destroyed by 

 them were to a great extent cut down, and the planting discon- 

 tinued. The most destructive of these borers are the larvae of the 

 CyUene picta,^ already noticed [§ 721], although there are two or 

 three other species that commit great injuries. One of these is a 

 little reddish caterpillar, that bores into the pith of the twigs, which 

 become spongy and brittle. Another is a large grub of an insect, 

 which in its perfect state is a moth. These bore upwards and down- 

 wards, in oblique directions, in the solid wood, the holes increasing 

 in size as they grow, and finally coming through the bark to the 

 outside of the trunk. 



1017. The locust does not generally succeed well when grown in 

 company with other trees. It is, however, thought by some that 

 when planted alternately with the box-elder, it is less liable to the 

 attack of borers.* The age at which a locust coppice should be cut 

 depends much on the uses to which it is to be applied. At ten or 

 fifteen years it yields excellent poles for fencing and other use, but 

 the timber is of greatest value when kept properly thinned out, at 

 forty or fifty years. Upon the banks of streams, and in light shift- 

 ing sands, it takes a remarkable growth, as it also does upon shel- 

 tered slopes in a hilly region, where it gets a good exposure to the 

 air and light. It is more profitable to plant it in clumps or groups 

 in these tavorite spots than over great areas. Its strong tendency 

 to sprout renders it inconvenient on the borders of cultivated 

 grounds. 



1018. The locust, under cultivation, produces many varieties, 

 some with upright and others with pendant or twisted and deformed 

 branches. It is in some varieties thornless, and in others the leaves 



1 Known as the Cossus Robinae, as named by Professor Peck, by whom it 

 was supposed that it remained three years in the caterpillar state The 

 same insect, or some one very nearly like it, perforates the trunks of the 

 red oak. 



'Iowa Forestry Annual, 1881, p. 15. 

 17 



