450 
Ravages of Insects on, Fines. 
turn brown iu ouc division of this plantation, wliile none of tlic young- 
trees in the division on the other side the road were similarly affected. 
I chanced to meet a friend who is skilled in natural history, and pointed 
out to liim this grievance. lie told me tliat on examining the tips of 
the branches where they became dead I should find a perforation, and 
on tracing the pith upwards I should find a small black beetle. I found 
the enemy he had described. I was still at a loss to account for the 
yoimg trees on the other side the road being entirely free from this 
infliction ; but on mentioning to my friend the particulars I have 
before stated, he informed me at once that the Scotch firs which had 
been left on the ground so many months were the som-ce of the mis- 
chief. On reference to the ' Treatise on Insects,' by Vincent KoUar, 
I find this beetle is the Hylesinus (Hi/lurgns) piniperda," which 
attacks the Scotch pine and its allied species iu preference to any 
other pines. His account exactly agrees with my case : he states : — 
" The .abode and place of propagation of the perfect beetle are in the 
pith of the young shoots of the pine, particularly in the side twigs. 
The beetle bmi-ows for one or several inches below the terminal bud 
on the yoimgest shoots, eating out the pith straight upwards, and 
gnavidng out again near the bud or through it. The eggs are laid 
under the bark of sicldy and felled pines, in the bark of which the 
maggot also lives. The maggot lives on the stagnated fermented 
juice under the bark. The larvfe feed on the trunks of dead or dyinej 
trees, and the beetle only places her brood on liealthj trees when 
necessity compels her to do so. In young woods, cutting off the 
attacked shoots and burning them is the only successful method of 
destruction." 
I shall be glad if this lesson of the importance of removing from 
plantations any Scotch firs as soon as they are felled or show symp- 
toms of ill condition, may save others the infliction I have experienced. 
Cirencester^ Nov. 18, 1861. Charles Lawrence. 
XXII. — Report on the Exliihition and Trials of Inqdements at the 
Leeds Meeting. Bv H. B. Caldwell, Acting Senior Steward. 
As the Senior Steward of Implements I have great pleasure in 
being able to speak of the perfect success of the Rojal Agricultural 
Society's Meeting at Leeds, which exceeded that of all preceding 
Meetings, so that the most sceptical must now be convinced that 
the working arrangements of the Society have fully carried out 
the objects of its first promoters, whether for the improvement of 
the existing Implements of all classes, or the introduction of 
new ones. In both respects the efforts of the Society to aid the 
vigorous enterprise of the makers have been eminently suc- 
cessful, until, as a crowning success, the anplication of steam- 
