PARK AND CEMETERY 
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Report of the Forester for 1903, by 
Gifford Pinchot, U. S. Department of 
Agricuture, Washington, D. C. : 
“No previous year has seen such prog- 
ress in forestry as the last,” writes For- 
ester Gifford Pinchot in his last annual 
report. The rapid progress of the senti- 
ment for forest preservation has been 
especially conspicuous in the Western 
States and the value of forest reserves 
for their influence on the stream flow 
and timber supply is being better under- 
stood and less opposed than ever be- 
fore. Work was begun by the forester 
under a recent act of Congress for the 
selection of 231,400 acres of land from 
certain of the Chippewa Indian reserva- 
tions in Northern Minnesota for a for- 
est reserve. A first selection of 104,459 
acres was made and approved by the 
Secretary of the Interior, and studies 
for the completion of the work were pre- 
pared. A working plan for the U. S. 
Military Academy Reservation at West 
Point, N. Y., comprising about 2,300 
acres, was made for the purpose of pre- 
venting further damage by fire and 
gradually improving the quality of the 
forest by judicious cuttings. Working 
plans, based on thorough study on the 
ground, were made for 48 woodlots, and 
field studies for working plans on five 
timber tracts with a total area of 482,- 
321 acres were made. One of the most 
interesting of these was a tract of 39,000 
acres in the southern pine belt in Berke- 
ley County, S. C. 
University of Illinois, Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 89; 
Notes on the Insecticide Use of the 
Gasoline Blast Lamp, by S. A. Forbes, 
State Entomologist: 
The use of the ordinary plumber’s 
torch for the destruction of injurious 
insects on their food plants seems to 
have occurred independently to several 
persons during the last few years, and 
the results of a number of tests, at va- 
rious experiment stations are summar- 
ized. With a blast lamp with five par- 
allel burners Professor Pettit of the 
Michigan Agricultural College, found 
it possible to kill the San Jose scale, 
but great care was necessary to avoid 
scorching the tree, and the same re- 
sults may be obtained much more 
cheaply in other ways. Professor Craig 
of Cornell used a gasoline torch against 
the San Jose scale on a variety of 
trees and shrubs, and found that it 
would kill the insect, but that its use 
was impracticable for large trees since 
several hours would be required for 
each. It was also dangerous because of 
injury to buds and to the bark of thin- 
barked trees. Two assistants of the Il- 
linois State Entomologist made fre- 
quent tests of a torch on several kinds 
of injurious insects, on a fungus para- 
site of the lilac, and on various kinds 
of vegetation. Ordinary orchard scales 
were not killed unless they were prac- 
tically burned off the limb ; and on 
some trees the hark on the smaller 
limbs was blistered before these scales 
were materially injured. Fall web- 
worms and wooly bears flamed until 
the hair was burned off their bodies, 
continued to grow when transferred to 
breeding-cages, and several of them 
changed to the pupa. Cabbage-worms 
could only be killed by a treatment 
which caused the leaves of the plants 
to curl and blacken. 
Annual Report of Director H. D. 
Hemenway of the School of Horticul- 
ture, Hartford, Conn.: 
The season of 1903 at the Hartford 
School of Horticulture was a busy and 
prsperous one. Instruction was given 
during the year to over 1900 persons, 
and a course for adults was offered for 
the first time. In the spring a course 
of six lessons in nature work was given 
on Saturday afternoons. A course of 
ten lectures on botany with field trips 
and a course in window gardening were 
also valuable features of the year's 
work. At the close' of the season an 
exhibit was held and prizes awarded. 
In addition to the exhibit of vegeta- 
bles, flax and hemp were shown in the 
different stages of development from 
the seed to the cloth. The tuition fees 
for the various courses range from $3 
to $12.50, and opportunities for self- 
help are offered to students who desire 
to do work for the school. 
A Patent Tree Guard. 
Daniel H. B. Hooper, of Biddeford, 
Me., has patented an improved expansi- 
ble tree-protector, which is shown in the 
accompanying illustration. Fig. 1 is a 
perspective view, and Fig. 2 a detailed 
plan view of a portion of the fabric. 
The device is made of flexible wire A, 
which is first bent into a ribbon of ser- 
pentine form and then into sections B 
of the required width by bending the 
ribbon transversely to its length back 
and forth until the fabric thus formed is 
of sufficient height, substantially as 
shown in Fig. 2. At either edge C of 
the fabric there will be adjacent sections 
occurring regularly, which are discon- 
nected at the edges. These may be 
united in any convenient manner and the 
PATENT TREE GUARD. 
fabric secured to the tree. The advan- 
tages claimed by the inventor are that 
it is cheap, easily constructed, and read- 
ily applied to and removed from the 
tree. It is also readily packed for ship- 
ping, being adapted to be shipped in a 
flat web and bent when applied to the 
tree. It may wholly surround the tree 
when it is necessary or partially sur- 
round it when it is only necessary to 
protect one side of the tree. In conse- 
quence of the serpentine form of the 
ribbon it readily expands as the tree- in- 
creases in size. (Patent No. 742,431), 
^ ^ ^ 
Four car loads of century plants that 
were planted in the university gardens- 
at Notre Dame, Ind., were recently 
bought by the World’s Fair manage- 
ment. Many of the plants are 10 feet 
tall. They will be used in beautifying 
the exposition grounds. 
