REMEDIES AND PREVENTIVE MEASUB] 07 



ter — a tree strong enough to thrive without protection — had been in- 

 closed by the usual form of a wooden tree-box. This was removed, and 

 the inside of the box and the collected rubbish in it was carefully inves- 

 tigated by one of our assistants, Mr. Otto Lugger. This is the result: 

 74 cocoons of H. cunea; 43 egg-masses of Orgyia leucostigma ; 4 co- 

 coons of Acronycta americana, and 1 pupa of Anisota rubicunda. besi 

 innumerable old and empty pupal skins of these and other insects. 

 It is to be added in this connection that this tree grew in a park in 

 Baltimore, aud was not as badly infested as trees in Washington. 



A young tree in a tree-box ought to be firmly fastened at the top to 

 all sides of the box, and this by meaus of tiexible bands, to be renewed 

 from time to time. In this manner a high wind would be prevented from 

 producing any friction of the trunk or branches against the edges of 

 the box. After the tree attains a size of 2 inches in diameter the tree- 

 box ought to be removed, and the members of the city police should be 

 instructed to pay especial attention to their further necessary protec- 

 tion. The shelter afforded by the wooden tree-boxes is, in. my judg- 

 ment, the prime reason why the Web- worm has become such a great 

 nuisance in Washington. They should either be discarded entirely 

 after the trees have attained a trunk diameter of 4 inches, and heavy 

 penalties enacted for hitching horses or for in any way cutting or defac- 

 ing the trunk; or, what would perhaps be safer, and certainly very much 

 less objectionable, they should be replaced as soon as possible by round 

 iron ones like those now in use on Fifteenth street, between Xew York 

 avenue and K street. These will afford less shelter for cocoons, and 

 are in every way less objectionable.*. 



WHITEWASHING OF TRUNKS. 



Whitewash covers a multitude of sins; but sins should not be cov- 

 ered up, they should be eradicated, which a simple whitewashing will 

 not do. A whitewashed tree is an eyesore, aud whole rows of them, or 

 even groves in parks treated in such a way, produce a sight to be de- 

 plored by all people admiring the beauty of nature. One is forcibly 

 reminded of a grave-yard when walking through some of the Wash- 

 ington streets after sunset; the white trunks glisten like the broken 

 shafts in an old cemetery. If the trunks of trees must be covered with 

 lime at all, why not choose at least a color more in harmony with 

 nature, the color of the bark for instance • There is no necessity, how- 

 ever, in Washington to whitewash the trunks of our shade trees. As 

 a protection against tlat and round headed borers (species of Ghryso- 

 bothris and Saperda) it is of value when a certain proportion of arsenic 

 is mixed with it; but the principle "what is sauce for the goose is sauce 

 for the gander" does not apply in this instance, and as a remedy for the 

 Web-worm it is practically useless. Only one of the insects mentioned 

 can be in any wav be lessened by this practice, and that is the species 



