42 



other remedy is worth a moment's cousideration except the destruction 

 of the larva3 on the tree trunks or at the surface of the ground after 

 their work is done. This latter remedy, however, can never be made 

 complete; it is only palliative at best, since many must escape. The 

 best way to practice it is to scrape the trunks rather smooth, since other- 

 wise many larvae will never reach the ground, but will transform under 

 every loose bark scale, and then to make some iuclosure around the 

 base of the tree in which the larviie will accumulate and in which they 

 can be killed convenientlj^, either with hot water or strong kerosene 

 emulsion. Even then great numbers of larv.^e will drop to the ground 

 from overhanging terminal branches, and some treatment must be given 

 the whole ground surface covered by the tree if the operation is to be 

 even approximately thorough. 



Where early spraying is neglected, as it was this year here and in 

 New Haven, work of the kind just outlined should be conscientiously 

 carried out, as, indeed, it was in both of the cities mentioned.* The 

 spraying, however, is far more important, both on account of its greater 

 completeness and for the obvious reason that it locks the barn door 

 before the horse, if not stolen, is at least borrowed for the year. 



This remedial advice is so far trite to the members of this association, 

 but they may be interested to know that by means of three early spray- 

 ings the elms on the grounds of the Department of Agriculture, at 

 Washington, have been kept in prime condition this season. The details 

 of this work will be given by Mr. Marlatt in a later j>aper. 



* Eeraedial work was begun in New Haven July 15. At this time thousands of trees 

 were brown and the larv;e had begun to descend to the earth. The subcommittee of 

 the board of public works having this matter in charge authorized Mr.T. B. Kelly, the 

 superintendent of parks, to go ahead and do what he thought best at an expense not 

 to exceed $1,500. Mr. Kelly, fortunately, had posted himself thoroughly on the 

 elm leaf-beetle, and was consequently able to begin work in the most intelligent 

 way. He had kerosene emulsion made on a very large scale, and immediately had the 

 loose bark on the trees scraped off and the emulsion applied not only to the larvie 

 descending the trunk but also to those which had transformed at the base of the 

 trunk, and had the ground saturated under the entire limb spread. Mr. Kelly used 

 the standard emulsion diluted with five parts of water, and this he found to be i>er- 

 fectly successful. In addition to this treatment of the shade trees, all of the news- 

 papers were notified that citizens having affected elm trees on their grounds could 

 obtain the standard emulsion ui)on application to Mr. Kelly. The citizens almost 

 without exception took advantage of this offer and large quantities of the emulsion 

 were given out. In the course of a mouth over 14,000 trees, nearly all of very large 

 size, had been treated by the superintendent of parks. In addition to the use of 

 the emulsion many citizens adopted a cheap, simple, and ingenious band, which con- 

 sisted of hay wrapped around the tree and covered with a cloth held in place with a 

 pin. Every morning the cloth was removed and the hay burned, new hay being sub- 

 stituted. In this way many thousands of larvie were caught and killed. Other plans 

 were use'd by citizens, such as bands of sticky flypaper; but these are not worth men- 

 tion. As there are probably 30,000 elms in the city of New Haven, the work could 

 not have been complete, but a strong popular sentiment has been aroused, and appro- 

 priations will probably be made in time for an active spring campaign. 



