240 Forty-second Report on the State Museum. [98] 



nozzle at its end, and tied, for convenience of elevation, to a long 

 bamboo or other light rod. If the highest portion of the tree may 

 not be reached in this manner, a portable spraying apparatus holding 

 four or five gallons, such as is advertised and illustrated in some of 

 the agricultural journals, may be strapped upon the back, and, ascend- 

 ing the tree with a ladder, the spray distributed from its principal 

 limbs. 



The proportion of London purple to be used would be one pound 

 to 200 gallons of water. To the above eight quarts of flour might be 

 advantageously added, the effect of which would be to cause the 

 arsenite to adhere better to the leaves and prolong its usefulness. 



It is quite important that the spraying should be done early — even 

 before the first traces of injury to the foliage are discovered — as soon 

 as examination shows that the eggs of the beetle are being deposited 

 on the leaves, usually on the under side. They can readily be seen, as 

 they are of a yellow color, oblong-oval in form, and placed on end — 

 sometimes but two or three together, but more often in clusters of from 

 ten to twenty. By early spraying, a less strength of the arsenite is 

 needed to poison the young larva as soon as it hatches from the egg, 

 and the foliage is less liable to sustain injury, as there will be at the 

 time no eaten and raw edges of the leaves to absorb the poison rapidly, 

 and thereby causing greater harm. 



If the spraying be properly done at the right time, it should not 

 be necessary to repeat it, unless a heavy rain occurs very soon there- 

 after. If the foliage shows continued depredations, a second spray- 

 ing should follow in ten days or a fortnight. 



Sulphur for the Elm Beetle.* 



W. H. Dodd, of Orange, N. J., says that he has demonstrated to his 

 satisfaction that the annual attack of the elm beetle upon elm trees 

 in this country can bo thwarted by an extremely simple and inexpen- 

 sive process. He addressed a meeting of interested citizens in Bloom- 

 field on Tuesday night, and described the plan which he used last 

 year, not only upon a large elm, but upon fruit trees which were 

 infested with insect pests of various kinds. He says that in the early 

 spring he bores one-inch auger holes, five inches apart and in a circle 

 around the trunk of the tree, about eighteen inches from the ground, 

 taking care that the holes do not penetrate beyond the sap-wood of 

 the tree. Then he fills the holes with flowers of sulphur or powdered 

 brimstone, and loosely plugs them up. He says that the plan worked 

 to perfection last year. His idea seemed to be that the sap took up 

 the sulphur and carried it into the leaves, making them distasteful to 

 the worms which hatch out on the under side of the leaves from the 

 eggs deposited there by the beetles. The plan involved little trouble 

 or expense. — New York Sun. 



* Communicated, by request, to the Country Gentleman of March 15, 1888. 



