50 



This amounts to the sprayiug of the trees every ten days or two weeks 

 over a i)eriod of two and a half mouths for the first brood, and if this 

 is carried out universally through a district or town the result should be 

 of so decided a character that the second brood would be of no particular 

 moment. 



The necessity of prompt spraying at the first appearance of the leaves 

 is emphasized by the experience of the pre^^ous year, when the work 

 was postponed until the larv.T appeared. In the meantime the adults 

 had so thoroughly riddled tlie young and delicate foliage that the 

 appearance of the trees was already seriously marred, and such a quan- 

 tity of eggs was deposited and larvae developed that, with the interfer- 

 ence of frequent rains, the trees were practically ruined for the season 

 before the poison could take eftect. 



I am convinced that early spraying for the adults is a most important 

 measure and, for the southern range of the beetles at least, the key to 

 the whole question of control. 



THE ELM LEAF-BEETLE IN ALBANY. 



By J. A. LiXTNER, Albany, X. Y. 



For more than a decade past I have watched with interest the steady 

 although slow progress of this destructive insect northward along the 

 Hudson l\iver Valley. When it was first observed in the State of New 

 York does not appear on record, but as early as 1879 the elms in 

 Newburg (60 miles to the north of New York City) were nearly all 

 stripi>ed of their foliage by " an insect new to that locality," which 

 proved to be this insect. In 1883 many accounts were received of its 

 destructiveness and remarkable abundance in Westchester County, in 

 portions now embraced within the limits of New York City. In 1887 

 it created considerable alarm in Poughkeepsie, 74 miles from New York 

 and almost midway between that city and Albany. In 1890 the citizens 

 of Hudson became excited over its advent. In 1891 it was seen in New 

 Baltimore, and a year later it reached and commenced its operations in 

 the southern portion of Albany. 



^Yllen first observed in AJhany. — The first example of the beetle to 

 come under my notice was taken on a window within my house on the 

 25th of September, 1891. It was learned later that its operations had 

 arrested the attention of Superintendent of Parks Egerton in 1893, 

 while engaged in the construction of a new park near the southern 

 limit of Albany. And still later, upon visiting a locality where the 

 insect had been very destructive, a little to the north of the new park, 

 it was learned that the injury to the elms had commenced in the spring 

 of 1892. 



