16 



and have even made some more or less successful experiments; and 

 these, if continued, as tbey must be from the nature of the case, ^Yill 

 produce an increased interest in and appreciation of economic ento- 

 mology. Insecticide machinery and a knowledge of the application 

 of remedial measures against the more common jiests will be required of 

 each park dei)artment and its employees, and the entomologist will be 

 as important an officer as the landscai^e gardener. This is an optimistic 

 prediction, but I believe it as I believe in myself, and, as you all know, 

 my conceit is unbounded. For confirmatory evidence I refer you to Mr. 

 Grote. 



No new insecticides of value have been introduced within the year, 

 though I have had the i)leasure of testino- a new "potato-bng extermi- 

 nator," originating in Wisconsin, in which the potatoes are rolled before 

 they are planted, and are supposed to absorb qualities which render 

 them proof against beetle attack ever after. Perhaps it is because of 

 tlieir extreme depravity that the New Jersey beetles seemed to take 

 especial delight in eating the plants treated with the Wisconsin prod- 

 uct, and this brings me to a notice of the fact that the idea of poison- 

 ing the plant juice to make it offensive to insects generally seems to 

 appeal strongly to the ordinary mind. We have flourishing in New 

 Jersey, and incorporated under its laws, a "tree-inoculation comi)any" 

 which claims ability to protect trees of all kinds by boring holes in the 

 trunk, near the base, at $1 a hole, filling them up afterwards with a 

 secret compound which is supposed to enter into the circulation and 

 make the wood and foliage so re]nignant that insects refuse to eat it. 

 This seems so plausible and so logical that hundreds of owners have 

 authorized the inoculation of their trees. The result is shown in a 

 letter published in the New York Evening Post of August 12; but the 

 writer, while conceding the absolute failure of the inoculation in his 

 case, considers the method as the only true and logical one. It remains 

 for someone to demonstrate the futility of the systeui in such a way as 

 to be as logical and convincing as the arguments on the other side 

 seem now. 



Sometimes observation lends itself to conclusions such as are claimed 

 for the inoculation method, and this was strikingly illustrated by the 

 results of an experiment made by me at Irvington in 1894. To destroy 

 the pear midge I had applied on an orchard also infested with the 

 sinuate pear borer a top-dressing of kainit, at the rate of a ton to the 

 acre. The material was applied late in June and early in July, just 

 when the young borer larva? were hatching, and, be the cause what it 

 may, neither in the fall of 1894 nor in the spring of 1895 did I succeed 

 in finding any larvae of the 1894 brood. Of several trees cut down and 

 examined in the spring of 1895 not one contained even a single larva 

 of 1894, although plenty of beetles from the 1893 brood. Now, this 

 maybe a mere coincidence, and I am far from even suggesting that the 

 potash applied on the ground had any direct effect on the young larva 



