November, 1912 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
305 
Where the wound is small and so situated 
that moisture will easily collect there, it is some¬ 
times advisable to clean that wound thoroughly, 
freeing it from insects and diseases and to fill 
it with cement. In such cases the cement is 
used in mixture with sand at the rate of two 
parts of sand to one of cement. Broken stone 
or bricks are also used in mixture to fill the 
space of the cavity. The surface of the filling 
should be covered with a layer of cement and 
so placed that it will not be flush with the outer 
bark but rather recede so that the living tissue 
which is located immediately underneath the 
bark may grow over the cement and hold the 
cement as a frame holds a picture. It is also 
quite important to cover the surface of the fil¬ 
ling with coal tar so that the weather will not 
crack the cement. 
Last winter many of the lindens and elms suf¬ 
fered from splitting at the crotch or along the 
main trunk. The loss from this cause was 
greater last year than in many years heretofore. 
It is well to bar such trees together to 
prevent greater injury. Do not use bands 
around the limbs for this purpose because 
these soon become too tight for the tree and 
subsequently girdle it. Do not use a sin¬ 
gle bar to hold two limbs together because 
the frequent swaying of the limbs causes friction between 
the bar and the wood which results in large holes through the 
limbs. The best sort of bar consists of three parts. Each limb 
has a short bar passing through it with nuts imbedded in the 
wood below the cambium layer or living tissue of the tree. The 
bark soon grows over these imbedded nuts and the bars become 
fixed parts of the tree. The two bars are then joined by a third 
middle bar and if there is any swaying of the limbs the strain 
rests on the latter, often causing it to bend, but the tree itself 
never suffers in the least. 
With the advent of warm weather about the middle or latter 
part of May, the injurious insects emerge from their winter 
quarters and begin feeding on the trees. The treatment re¬ 
quired will depend upon the man¬ 
ner in which the insect does its 
feeding. There are three ways in 
which all insects obtain their food 
from the trees. 
(1) They may chezu and swallow 
some portion of the leaf; such are the 
common Elm Leaf Beetle and the 
caterpillars of the Tussock, Gypsy 
and Brown Tail moths. 
(2) They may suck the juice from 
the leaf or bark. In this class be¬ 
long the various scale insects like the 
San Jose scale, Oyster shell and 
Scurfy scales and the numerous plant 
lice. 
(3) They may bore inside of the 
wood or bark. The borers like the 
Leopard moth and sugar maple borer 
belong here. 
The chewing insects are destroyed 
by poisoning the foliage with arsenate 
of lead. The sucking insects are killed 
by spraying or washing the affected 
parts of the tree with a solution of 
kerosene emulsion, whale oil soap or 
A rather interesting combination is obtained by the use of a sycamore and a birch, 
place looks homelike, although no vine planting has begun to show 
The 
The ginkgo, with its peculiar fan-shaped leaves, is very 
free from insects and disease, and may be planted close 
patented preparations, all of which act externally on their bodies 
smothering or stifling them. 
The boring insects are killed by injecting carbon bisulphide into 
the burrow and clogging the orifice immediately after the injec¬ 
tion is made, with putty or soap. The fumes generated by the 
liquid carbon bisulphide will then be retained in the cavity and 
destroy everything living within. In case of fruit trees or other 
trees where a gummy substance exudes from the orifice, it is 
impossible to inject the liquid and the method of cutting out the 
insect with a knife should be resorted to. 
Instructions for Spraying, Washing and Injecting: 
Chewing Insects 
1. Before starting out, see that the spraying apparatus is in good 
order and that the nozzles are thor¬ 
oughly clean. 
2. Use five pounds of arsenate of 
lead to each forty gallon barrel of 
water. Keep the contents thoroughly 
mixed. 
3. Wherever possible spray with a 
fine mist, using the Vermorel nozzle. 
4. Begin to spray at the top of the 
tree and come down. Spray thor¬ 
oughly, covering the leaves in the top 
of the tree as well as those on the 
lower branches. 
5. The Tussock moth and most of 
our other leaf-devouring insects feed 
on the under side of the leaves and all 
spraying must, therefore, aim to cover 
the under side of the leaves only. 
6. Do not spray on a wet day or at 
a time when you anticipate rain. 
7. Pay particular attention to the 
horsechestnut and linden, because 
they are the favorite food of the Tus¬ 
sock moth. The elm should also re¬ 
ceive particular attention to guard 
(Continued on page 325) 
