THE BORERS OF CERTAIN SHADE TREES. 
BY A. S. PACKARD, JR. 
IN no way can the good taste and publie spirit of our citi- 
zens be better shown than in the planting of shade trees. 
Regarded simply from a commercial point of view one can- 
not make a more paying investment than setting out an 
oak, elm, or maple or other shade tree about his premises. 
To a second generation it becomes a precious heirloom, and 
the planter is duly held in remembrance for those finer quali- 
ties of heart and head, and the wise forethought which 
prompted a deed simple and natural, but a deed too often 
undone. What an increased value does a fine avenue of 
shade trees give to real estate in a city? And in the country 
the single stately elm rising gracefully and benignantly over 
the wayside cottage, year after year like a guardian angel 
sending down its blessings of shade, moisture and coolness 
in times of drought, and shelter from the pitiless storm, 
recalls the Létddiost associations of generations after genera- 
tions that go from the old homestead. 
Occasionally the tree, or a number of them, sicken and 
die, or linger out a miserable existence, and we naturally 
after failing to ascribe the cause to bad soil, want of mois- 
ture or adverse atmospheric agencies, conclude that the tree 
is infested with insects, especially if the bark in certain 
places seems diseased. Often the disease is in streets 
lighted by gas, attributed to the leakage of the gas. Such a 
case has come up during the past year at Morristown, New 
Jersey. An elm was killed by the Elm borer, Compsidea 
tridentata of Olivier, and the owner was on the point of su- 
ing the Gas Company for the loss of the tree from the sup- 
posed leakage of a gas pipe. While the matter was in 
dispute, Mr. W. C. Baker of that city took the pains to 
peel off a piece of the bark and found, as he writes me, 
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