256 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 2, 1859. 
often be found dead at the end of the channel. About September 
the larvaj, or grubs, are hatched, and they commence feeding upon 
the matter of the inner bark at the edge of the channel, and in a 
very slight degree on that of the soft wood opposite ; advancing 
as they feed into courses at about right angles from the primary 
channel on each side of it. The true food of the insect is the 
inner bark, and the erosion of the soft wood is so slight as to be 
perhaps merely accidental. The course of each individual larva 
on each side of the primary channel is about parallel to the larva 
next to it, and each forms a channel in its feeding that is enlarged 
as the larva is increased in size. When each larva has finished 
its course of feeding it stops in progress, turns into a pupa, and 
then into a beetle ; after which it gnaws a straight hole through 
the bark and comes out. The beetles begin to come out at the 
latter end of May, the year following that in which their eggs 
were deposited. The sexes afterwards pair, and the females, 
bearing eggs, bore through the bark ; and so on from generation 
to generation, and from year to year.” 
The erosions of the female insect and the larvae result in 
cutting off the vital connection between the inner bark and young 
wood ; and when such erosions have become numerous, the tree 
dies from mere prevention of the ascent and descent of the sap. 
It has been said that the scolytus does not attack healthy trees, 
and it does not generally do so. But wo have seen the larvae 
attack vigorous young trees for food, gradually weaken them, and 
bring them into that quiescent state of decay which th'e female 
beetle chooses for the deposition of her eggs. 
The transmission of this pest from the continent to this country 
could only have been by the winds blowing from infected quarters. 
And it is strange, that some twenty years ago we had one tree, a 
fine Elm, attacked. I advised its being felled, the bark was 
burnt , and we saw no more of the insects till 1858, when the 
trees in St. Giles’, Oxford, were simultaneously attacked by the 
same insects ; and many of our trees gave unmistakeable signs of 
its presence, and we fear we shall have to record much loss of 
theso fine trees this year; as many of the surrounding trees ap¬ 
peared weak and sickly in the tops, bearing the appearance of 
being seized by the larvce for food, the usual preliminary for the 
deposition of the eggs of tho female insect. 
But to return to our remark, that the scolytus does not attack 
healthy frees. We deny the truth of this position. We believe 
it to have been advanced in the Gardeners' Chronicle by Charles 
Westerton, Esq., a gentleman of the highest attainments as a 
naturalist, but who seems to possess little evidence of the Scolytus 
destructor. The Editor, too, of that paper, endorses the doctrine 
and makes it law ; but wo must believe what we know to be 
facts. There was at Oxford, in the row of old trees infected, a 
young vigorous tree which shared the fate of its brethren, being 
seized upon for food ; and when paralysed by the effects upon its 
inner bark, and thus weakened, becoming the nidus for the 
females to deposit their eggs in; and, in fact, dying from the | 
attacks of scolyti alone. 
When we take into account the great number of these trees 
which are constituent parts of our finest landscapes, no one can 
for a moment contemplate the bareness of our country sine Elms 
without a thrill of horror. And it is a theme worthy of occupy¬ 
ing men of all talent, to discover a preventive remedy which shall 
rescue this doomed tree from its threatened destruction. In 
Paris, there are hundreds of dying trees in the Champs Elysees, \ 
mmy of them nearly divested of their bark—an operation per¬ 
formed for the destruction of the scolytus, but which seems pretty 
surely to destroy the trees also. 
The application of coal tar has been recommended in these 
cases, but I have no experience of its application. It may, or 
may not, be effectual in arresting the progress of the insect. 
There can bo no doubt, that while the evil is partial and local, 
the destruction of the individual trees is highly judicious, and 
we would urge this vehemently upon those readers of The 
Cottage Gabdeneb who may have recently had a visit from 
these unwelcome guests. Let affected trees be cut down and 
burned. 
All frees affected by scolytus will now be showing it by their 
sickly appearance. Tt should, therefore, be watched for; and as 
soon as the ease is fully established, remove the diseased subject | 
entirely, and burn its bark, thus preventing the migration of the i 
insects to other trees. In too many cases the affected subjects 
will put in weighty claims to be spared ; but all such considera¬ 
tions must not weigh against the general good, and you must be 
content to lose a few trees rather than compromise the welfare of 
the many which you may hereafter lose. 
I have never seen this inseotnipon other species of Elms. I 
believe it to be peculiar to our English Elm. If any of your 
readers have found it attack other kinds of Elm, your pages will, 
I am sure, readily record an account of their experience. For in 
theso matters the accumulation of evidence is very important, and 
one fact is worth many conjectural opinions. 
I now take my leave of this subject for the present, hoping 
again to touch upon it at some future day, when I shall be further 
guided by experience. Every coming day will afford me an 
opportunity of watching the progress in the already-affected trees. 
Certain it is that the appearance of this insect is very mysterious ; 
and it is indeed difficult to account for its appearance here 
twenty years ago, its disappearance since that time, and re¬ 
appearance last year, unless we suppose that we killed them all 
by burning the bark, and that we had a new importation of them 
in the year 1858.—H. Bailey, Nuneham. 
USES OF COCOA-NUT FIBRE. 
About one half the refuse of the cocoa-nut outer cover is like 
mahogany sawdust, the other half is of small wiry fibres. A 
quantity of it wetted and put together in a heap (a cart-load for 
instance) would not get dried through in ten years, supposing 
the weather all the time to be as hot and dry as it was in June 
and July. This fibre is free from any acid, saline, or tannin 
principle. Worms do not like it; and snails and slugs cannot 
well crawl over it, as it sticks to them, the surface of it being 
as dry as powder when the weather is anyways dry. It is tho 
best mulching stuff in the world; and two inches thick of it on a 
Vine-border would keep the surface of the border as moist as 
need be a whole season, with no danger about keeping the air or 
the heat of the sun from the soil. Every plant, bush, and tree, 
over whose roots o' couple of inches of it are placed, will root up 
into it in one season, and every root will “ fox-tail” in it. Very 
old sickly Yews, Hollies, Oaks, Cedars of Lebanon, and all 
manner of such trees, could be wholly renovated by bringing up 
thus young roots to the surface, on which rich soil might then be 
placed to feed these roots. There is hardly any feeding in the 
fibre itself; but being so very porous, so retentive of moisture 
that it cannot be burnt at all, and so free from taste, smell, and 
qualities which roots dislike; also, that it holds a sufficient 
quantity of rain water, from one rain to another, to keep the 
roots going; every kind of root runs freely in it, and feeds 
abundantly on the moisture it holds. 
For plunging pots in in summer, it is better than anything we 
know—no fungus, no worm, snail, or slug, bothers one in this 
stuff. Mr. Standish, of Bagshot, is the only wise nurseryman 
whom I know to use it thus for plunging. The stiffest clay 
land could be made as light with it ns Wimbledon Common, and 
it is the best dressing for very sandy soil, to make it hold 
moisture. When it is mixed with the soil the sawdust part soon 
rots, say in two seasons, but the fibre holds good five or six 
years; and where much of it is used, the soil cannot be dug with 
the spade—a steel fork is the tool for it. 
The fibre dressed out of the sawdust-like stuff is as good, if 
not better, than hair for all kinds of plastering, and it is freely 
used here for that purpose. If the fibre could be had as cheap 
and plentiful as flax, it could be as finely run out, and made into 
better, and much more durable linen, with a gloss upon it like 
silk. 
All kinds of brushes are made of it here, from the tooth-brush 
for the Empress to the great water-brush in the stable-yard, and 
they are sold all over the world. String, twine, rope, and cablo 
made of it do not “give and tako” in wet and dry weather like 
our twine and ropes ; but it is all spun abroad by some process 
so cheap that we cannot come in competition with it. Perhaps 
there are five or fifty thousand waggon-loads of the refuse from 
all this lying idle at Kingston. It will not pay to send it out, or 
even to load the carts ; when you want it, therefore, send hands 
and forks to fill the carts. As much as a one-horse cart can hold, 
pressed down, and running over, costs 2s .: but for many purposes 
about a garden the load is worth just six times the amount. 
Some of it holds together in large lumps, and it must be 
pounded down to the state of common Bawdust to make the 
most of it, which is easily done. 
The more recent or fresh it is the longer it will last, and the 
better it is for pots and cuttings out of doors. An inch or two 
of the top soil mixed with it, half and half, are the proportion for 
Rose cuttings, and all kinds of cuttings ; then put half an inch 
