Timbers and How to Know Them. By Dr. Robert 

 Hartig, translated by William Soinervilte. Edinburgh : 

 David Douglas. Pp. 83. Illustrated. This neat little 

 hand-book affords the means for the identification of 

 timbers from characters of the wood itself. The illus- 

 trations represent sections of wood magnified five times, 

 or as they would appear under an ordinary 

 Timber pocket lens, and upon the features thus 

 Book. brought out, in connection with more obvious 

 characters, the classifications and determina- 

 tions are made. This method, although seemingly some- 

 what arbitrary, nevertheless brings natural groups to- 

 gether. It is just such a little hand-book as We need in 

 this country. The book will serve the American student 

 a useful purpose, although comparatively few of the 

 species described are common to America. 



The Tree Planting and Fountain Society of 

 Brooklyn [N. Y.]. Pp. 44. "In the spring of 1882 a 

 number of citizens of Brooklyn, interested in having the 

 streets of the city beautified with shade trees, met * * 

 to consider ' the most practical method of establishing a 

 regular system of shade-tree planting on the avenues 

 and streets of our city, thereby adding 

 Tree Planting to its attractions as a place of residence, 

 in Brooldyn. the pleasure, comfort and health of the 

 people.'" "Meetings were held, cir- 

 culars issued, and articles calling the attention of citi- 

 zens to the importance of tree culture were published in 

 the daily papers. Nurserymen were communicated with 

 to learn the varieties of trees in stock, and prices at 

 which they could be obtained. At the approach of 

 spring, the society secured a store and kept specimen 

 trees from various nurseries on exhibition, and suitable 

 persons in attendance to wait upon people calling, and 

 to give all information desired relating to the planting 

 of trees, varieties, and places where they could be ob- 

 tained at rates most favorable. When desired, the so- 

 ciety furnished trees at cost price, and, when requested 

 to do so, sent men to plant them, charging for such ser- 

 vice only the amount paid for labor." Great success 

 has crowned these efforts, and the society secured the 

 passage of the law creating arbor day in New York. The 

 pamphlet gives several legal enactments concerning tree 

 planting, and instructions as to what, when and how to 

 plant. A rejjort is also made upon the scale insect which 

 attacks shade trees. 



Bulletin No. 9, Iowa Experiment Station. Part 

 IV of this bulletin records the work of C. P. Gillette 

 upon spraying for the plum curculio and plum gouger. 

 Observations were made to determine how late the cur- 



culio continues to lay its eggs, and it was found that 

 eggs were deposited in plums certainly until August 22. 

 These eggs were laid by belated females ; there is no 

 evidence to show that the insect is double brooded. It 

 was found that the curculio has a decided preference for 

 the old varieties of plums, as compared with the native 

 varieties. The fruit of Prunii.^ Siiuoni was not attacked. 

 The curculio seems to like the Olden- 

 burg apple, and the eggs laid in the Studies of 

 apples are just as sure to hatch as Plum Curculio. 

 those laid in plums, notwithstanding 

 a common notion to the contrary. The puncture of the 

 curculio upon the apple is not often crescent-shaped, 

 but is "only a broad puncture or slit running obliquely 

 into the flesh of the fruit. Such punctures as these are 

 not very uncommon on plums." The Wier theory that 

 curculio larvae do not develop in the native plums is not 

 true. "Those who have studied this subject most thor- 

 oughly and carefully know no curculio-proof plums." 

 The idea that the most succulent and quickest growing 

 plums are least liable to curculio injury, because the 

 growth of the fruit is supposed to compress and kill the 

 eggs and larvae, is not only untrue, but just the opposite 

 is the fact. 



The plum gouger, an insect rarely if ever found east 

 of Lake Michigan, is often more serious than the curcu- 

 lio. It appeared last year fully a week be- 

 fore the trees were in bloom. The puncture The Plum 

 of this beetle appears as a little black speck. Gouger. 

 This insect shows a decided preference for 

 the native varieties. ' ' The plums infested by the gouger 

 do not, so far as my observations have gone, ripen or 

 fall prematurely, and all stung fruit that falls before the 

 2oth of June will not mature the perfect insect. So, 

 gathering the fruit as it falls will be of no account as a 

 remedy. There is one remedy, aside from jarring and 

 collecting the beetles, that seems to me to be a very 

 practical one, and that is to gather and destroy all stung 

 fruit as soon as possible after July i, and before August 

 10. This might seem, at first thought, to be too labor- 

 ious a task, but it should be remembered that if all the 

 trees in a district could be once thoroughly gone o^ er 

 with in this manner it would mean practical extermina- 

 tion of the gougers in that localities for years, for at this 

 time every gouger in the country is imprisoned in the 

 plums. London purple is of little avail in fighting thts 

 insect. 



Bulletin No. 10, Missouri Experiment Station. 

 Analyses of Apples at Various Stages of Groioth. Bordeaux 

 Mixture for Grape Rot. Comparative Tests of Small 



