The Garden Magazine, August, 1920 
389 
Aster 
Beetles 
Again 
pressure. 
Mass. 
I GET instantaneous and easy relief from 
Pennsylvania blister beetles, aphids, grass- 
hoppers, etc., with either gasolene or kerosene 
oil thrown from a plumber’s blow torch, under 
A few drops kills instantly.— L. A. Seeberger, Brewster, - 
An Tniurimis A GREAT man y Spruce trees growing in 
Pest of gardens are infested by a gall-forming 
■p insect, which renders the tree unsightly. The 
® work of this insect is not specially noticeable 
until it has disfigured each season’s growth for three or more years. 
My attention was called to a sheared Spruce tree a few years ago. It 
had formerly been in a healthy condition, but suddenly- appeared .to be 
covered with little cones or burrs at the base of each season’s growth. 
Examination proved them to be the galls formed by the spruce-gall 
louse. ' This is by no means a new pest, but has seldom received atten- 
tion. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, other evergreens 
were examined, and in many instances were found infested with the 
insect galls. The greatest infection seems to be among cultivated 
Spruces, and with an occasional Hemlock having a few galls on it. 
The greatest damage is inflicted on sheared specimens and hedges. It 
does not seem to kill large trees, but in many instances it ruins the shape 
of the tree by denuding it of the lower branches. The fully grown in- 
sects emerge from the galls about August first. After crawling up the 
new growth, the female settles on a Spruce leaf, and lays about fifty 
eggs. In- about a week the larvae hatch and crawl about and find 
buds into which they burrow for the winter. In the following spring 
their presence in the bud causes it to develop into a burr or “gall” 
instead of the natural twig. When the galls are growing they are of a" 
yellowish green color, but during late summer they assume a brownish 
color. About the time the Spruces are putting forth new growth, the- 
eggs laid by the insects which survive the winter may be found at the 
THE OLD-TIME LA MARQUE ROSE IS STILL OC- 
CASIONALLY SEEN IN GARDENS OF THE SOUTH 
base of a bud covered with a white woolly mass, in about one week 
the eggs hatch, and the young crawl to a gall to rest in the crevices, and 
are soon enclosed by the enlarging gall. Here they remain until the 
gall allows them to escape in August. As the insects in the feeding 
stage are within the water-tight gall, no poison spray can reach them, 
but they may be reached with a miscible oil spray, such as scalecide, 
in early May, while the small lice are crawling, and again after they 
have emerged from the galls in August. The spraying of evergreens 
with oil sprays can be safely performed during this period, using one 
part of miscible oil spray to thirty parts water; the aim in spraying 
should be to cover the entire tree with a film of oil to smother the bodies 
of the lice, and prevent them from burrowing into the buds to form the 
next year’s gall. — G. M. Slack, Conn. 
A CAY! I wish all you could see my Peonies! 
p nJ For the first time in ten years Umbellata 
Record Rosea has been “beaten to it!” Mme. Jules 
Elie opened up ten hours ahead! This is an 
unusual season: Irises, Poppies, and Peonies are all open and in good 
condition at once. — John L. Rea, N. Y. 
The Hardiness 
of Certain 
Peas 
C PEAKING of hardy Peas (in the April 
^ issue), while North last fall I sent some 
seeds down here that 1 had bought from a 
Georgia seedsman. They were called “John 
L.” and their last name certainly must have been Sullivan from the 
fight they put up last winter. Owing to a sixty day drought and “dis 
hyar moon cornin’ into circulation” old Uncle Bill could not plant them 
until November. In December the rabbits got in and ate them down 
unmercifully. In January when they were in flower and too high to 
cover with pine straw, the mercury went below freezing four nights in 
succession (32 0 , 3 1 °, 25 0 , 30°), and again in- March; hut Uncle Bill 
kept at ’em, and we had three or four pretty good messes by the end 
of April from the surviving vines, which bore heavily.^G. D. Beadel, 
Leon Co., Fla. 
Why Is a 
Weeping 
Tree? 
W HO is there who will tell us something of 
the weeping principle or propensity 
shown by certain trees? I have never seen a 
word written about it. What does it mean 
and how does it come about? Would not Mr. Wilson oblige us? We 
have commonly the Weeping Elm, Weeping Willow, Weeping Mountain 
Ash and the Weeping Mulberry. In appearance the foliage merely is 
more or less identical with that of the ordinary upright tree it resembles, 
but not a single shoot in any of these can be made to run upward. 
They all droop in much the same way. I have about the finest Weeping 
Elm in my front yard that I know. The trunk of the upright part is 
about a foot through, the grafted part a little smaller, but perfectly 
joined. Is this peculiar style of growth natural or is it from a human 
device or sport? My Henderson mentions only the Weeping Willow as 
a separate species (Salix babylonica), but gives no explanation. It 
alone seems to have some idea of uprightness. There are of course here 
and there a Weeping Cherry or Beech, but they are not common and do 
not appear to present any new phase of the case. — John W. Chamber- 
lain, Buffalo N . Y. 
— Most weeping trees are natural bud variations or sports from the 
normal type, just as fastigiate forms are excessively upright sports. 
The variation is multiplied by grafting. — Ed. 
. A NY ONE who has raised plants in the 
. . F\ greenhouse has discovered what a pest 
J? , ants are and how hard they are to eradicate 
ree ouse once they obtain a foothold. Perhaps the fol- 
lowing suggestions will help some poor mortal to combat the persistent 
insects. Ants have much the same community life as honey bees. 
The life of the colony depends upon the workers, which are the ones we 
see so industrially engaged in carrying food and excavating homes. 
So if you exterminate these workers the colony will perish. A small 
sponge immersed in some syrupy fluid will attract the workers in great 
numbers. When it is well covered with the insects, it should be thrown 
into scalding water. A greasy bone is a very effective lure and may be 
made use of in the same manner as a sponge. For seed flats or pots 
the best way of preventing the ants gaining entrance is to elevate the 
flats on flower pots and have the rim of the pots resting in a saucerful 
of water. The ants will not cross this barrier of water. There are 
also many poison preparations for ants on the market, but the methods 
I have suggested are simple and cheap and they have been tried and 
found very effective. — J. J. D., Pa. 
