210 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
poplars are on the outside, and lastly trim- 
ming all the old poplars as fast as pos- 
sible, 
(To he continued.) 
A Bas Le Poplar? 
From Nezvark Shade Tree Commission 
Report. 
Sorry are we to say a hard word against 
any tree whatever. But, in very truth, 
sentence of exile niust be uttered against 
the poplar as a city street tree. Not to cite 
other offenses, it does play “hob” with 
sewer pipes. This is good, of course, for 
our friend, the plumber, entailing largess 
unto him, but for our other friend, the prop- 
erty owner, it means a decreasing of his store 
of shekels. We say nothing of the unsani- 
tary conditions arising from broken sewer 
pipes and stalled sewerage. Suffice it — the 
poplar (affectionately called “pop”) must 
go. Accordingly, during the year , we 
caused the removal of a number of trees 
Massachusetts. 
The only insect which has been of seri- 
ous consequence on shade trees in our 
vicinity for the last year or two has been 
the elm-leaf beetle. We are thus far just 
out of the range of the gypsy and brown- 
tail moths. In dealing with the elm-leaf 
beetle we find that early spraying with 
arsenate of lead is the best practice. We 
have been using a small sprayer for this 
work and have found it fairly satisfactory. 
We believe, however, that in city and park 
work the larger and more powerful ma- 
chines are to be preferred. 
F. A. Waugh, 
Amherst, Mass. Mass. Agl. College. 
* * * 
New York. 
The Tussock moth caterpillars were pres- 
ent in some sections of Buffalo. They were 
not numerous, however, and for the most 
part the trees were kept in good foliage. 
The past five years has virtually changed 
the aspect of the city’s trees — as at the 
present time it is unusual to see a street 
tree entirely defoliated — whereas in pre- 
vious years it was no unusual sight to see 
a whole street barren of foliage in June and 
July. 
I have come to the conclusion that we 
can never eliminate the past entirely, as 
there is no general spirit of co-operation 
on the part of property owners to destroy 
the caterpillars on trees within the prop- 
erty line. Buffalo is a city of trees, and 
every home has from one to fifty trees sur- 
rounding it. There is not more than one 
person in twenty who makes any attempt 
to destroy the caterpillars on his own 
grounds, hence these yards continue to be 
a constant breeding place for countless mil- 
lions of ravenous caterpillars, which in- 
crease five hundred fold each generation. 
They soon find their way to the street trees 
of this variety, and none were set out by 
us except a few in a factory district where 
no sewer pipes were jeopardized and where 
no other variety of tree would grow. 
The accompanying picture will “give an 
idea” of why “Brother Pop” must go. It 
illustrates a noteworthy case. A poplar 
tree, planted about ten years ago, stood 
fifteen feet from a sewer. The sewer was 
an eight-inch vitrified pipe. A root of the 
poplar found its hungry way into the pipe. 
It liked the habitat, settled down to a good 
time, gorged itself on the sewage, and 
waxed big in bulk and girth. Now, the 
sewer was a main, so that not merely one 
household, but the entire neighborhood, was 
afflicted with clogged sewerage. Imagine 
the odoriferous and sweetly hygienic result. 
Imagine also the placid feelings of the 
populace. In fancy hear ye not the echo 
of their outcries? Well, sirs, the sewer 
department had to find out what the mat- 
ter was. They found it — found “the root 
after they have devastated all of the foli- 
age in the yards. This is to be regretted. 
Time and time again sporadic outbreaks in 
certain sections of the city can be traced to 
trees on private property. The Tussock 
moth is a very prolific breeder and will 
multiply a thousand times each succeeding 
generation. 
In the absence of the power to spray 
trees on private property, it becomes nec- 
essary for us to spray the street trees 
wherever it is needed, owing to the gen- 
eral apathy on the part of the average 
householder. This, however, is not a great 
expense and is uniformly successful, unless 
the work is too greatly hampered by high 
wipds and heavy rains. These forces some- 
times necessitate going over the work a sec- 
ond time. The spraying campaign was fol- 
lowed up by gathering and destroying the 
cocoons and egg-masses, wherever they 
could b,e found — on trees, fences, houses, 
etc. 
Owing to the extremely dry summer of 
1911 the maple, and elm trees became quite 
badly infested with aphis. This pest was 
present in great numbers and caused pre- 
mature falling of the leaves. It became 
necessary to spray some of the trees in 
July and August in order to preserve the 
foliage. 
This insect pest, while not as a general 
rule harmful to the trees, nevertheless 
caused much extra work in order to satisfy 
the people that we had it under control. 
H. B. Filer, 
Buffalo, N. Y. City Forester. 
* * * 
Elm-leaf beetle, Tussock moth, hickory- 
bark beetle, two-lined chestnut borer, oyster 
shell scale and leopard moth have been very 
injurious in this vicinity; Cecropia and 
eguthia moths, bog worm, tent caterpillar, 
phenoccocus aceris, cottony maple scale, tu- 
of the matter,” so to speak — that glutton- 
ous and piratical poplar root. For a dis- 
tance of ten feet it filled the main com- 
pletely and then tapered to its end. Con- 
trary to practice, it had not tried to find 
its way out through pipe intersections. 
This is a favorite trick of the poplar root 
and thereby it anchors itself. Anyhow, 
there it was, all snug enough, but un- 
fastened, so it was comparatively easy to 
pull it from, the pipe. Engineer Rankin, 
of the sewer department, said it was the 
largest root of which he had any record in 
his archives of sewer work. It was 
cleansed of the mud and solidified muck 
which had accumulated about it, encasing 
it. Then it was photographed. When held 
by two men for this purpose, it looked like 
a monster fire hose. It weighed some one 
hundred pounds. 
The poplar as a street tree, must it go 
then? Yes, children, the poplar as a street 
tree must go. 
SPRAYING 
lip scale and golden oak scab have been 
prevalent, but not so serious; there have 
also been slight infections of thrips, San 
Jose scale and scurfy scale. I spray from 
May 25 to July for caterpillars, etc., feed- 
ing on foliage ; spray in early May for 
most of the sucking insects ; also use lime 
and sulphur in winter. I use gas and gaso- 
line spraying machines, but mostly the for- 
mer, operating by compressed air. Use 
arsenate of lead prepared to suit my own 
formula for all leaf -eating insects; kerosene 
emulsion, whale-oil soap, lime and sulphur 
and scalecide for sucking insects, and car- 
bon bisulphide and a knife for all boring 
insects. J. J. Levison, 
Forester, Park Dept. 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
* * * 
North Dakota. 
Cottony maple scale has been prevalent 
in this vicinity. We spray with kerosene 
emulsion, 1 to 8, in early spring, before 
leaves appear. Used barrel sprayer on 
wagon. Treatment successful. 
We pruned or cut out the tops of box 
elder trees that had been attacked by a 
fungus ( Septoria sp.) and sprayed with 
corrosive sublimate. Nearly all of the trees 
in three different towns were treated. 
Agricultural Exp. Station. 
Fargo, N. D. 
* * * 
Cottony Maple Scale in Illinois. 
The cottony maple scale is an insect that 
for the past ten years has been a serious 
enemy to thousands of beautiful and val- 
uable trees in Chicago. The pest has also 
done serious damage to shade trees in other 
sections of Illinois, particularly in La Salle, 
Will, Lake, Winnebago, McHenry, Cook, 
Kane, Dupage, Ogle, De Kalb, Bureau, 
Henry, De Witt, Montgomery and Sanga- 
mon counties. 
BRIEF REPORTS ON SHADE TREE 
