HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 271 
Here within the last five years a company was formed and incorpo- 
rated under the laws of New Jersey to manufacture a remedy for 
insects on trees, and they had a certain substance which they put into 
the bark. They sold the State rights in New Jersey for about 
$50,000, and the rights in Connecticut for a large sum of money. 
They went into Mr. Henry’s region up there; and their agents went 
around and for $50 treated the trees of wealthy citizens there, and 
when people afterwards looked into the matter, and pulled out the 
plugs and analyzed the contents, they found it was simply sulphur 
treated with charcoal to change the color and make it look like some- 
thing mysterious. But it has no effect whatever on the insects that 
eat the leaves. 
The Cuarrman. Could anything be taken up in the circulation of 
the tree, as in the circulation of the body ? 
Mr. Howarp. I think so. 
Mr. Lams. They did not fool anybody except in New England? 
Mr. Howarp. They did in New England and New Jersey. Down 
South, I think, they would have feared the superior intelligence of 
the Southern people. 
The recommendations of Doctor Hopkins and his assistant have been 
adopted in the Black Hills region in the Northwest, and the people 
there are enthusiastic in their statements to us as to the value of their 
recommendations. It saves not only in the actual losses of timber itself, 
but it means a great deal to them otherwise up there, because they use 
the timber in mining and building houses in that particular region, and 
so it means a great deal to have good reliable methods of treatment. 
Mr. Scorr. Have you accomplished anything in the way of con- 
trolling that pine beetle, or is that what you are speaking of? 
Mr. Howarp. Yes, sir. 
The Cuarrman. Can you arrive at anything that will be practical 
from a commercial point of view? 
Mr. Howarp. Oh, decidedly so. They vary the time of cutting the 
timber. Just some slight variation in the lumbering process will handle 
the whole thing. In the case of many of these insects, they prefer 
trees that are in an injured condition, and therefore oftentimes by 
girdling a very few trees you can attack all the bark beetles, which will 
go into those dying trees in preference to the healthy trees. Then at 
the proper time, after the insects are concentrated on the girdled 
trees, we cut them down. 
Mr. Apams. That is a fact, that they will desert the healthy trees 
and concentrate on the diseased trees? 
Mr. Howarp. Yes,sir. They will concentrate on the diseased trees. 
That is the habit of nearly all insects of that class. They have that 
decided preference. 
Now that is one thing we hope to do. We hope also, with your 
permission, to devote more attention than heretofore to the subject of 
bee culture. 
Mr. Bowre. Before you go from the tree insects to bees, I want to 
ask you one question. How many acres of trees would it be necessary 
to girdle in order to accomplish that result? 
Mr. Howarp. Two or three trees to an acre. 
Mr. Bowrr. So that there would be comparatively little loss? 
Mr. Howarp. Comparatively no loss. 
The CaarrMAN. Is that the hickory beetle? 
