New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, 325 
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE. 
Fortunately this insect does not have a wide range of food 
plants or it would doubtless have become of much more economic 
importance than it is. Where cottonwoods, poplars or willows 
are extensively grown, however, it may become a very serious 
pest. In the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, the in- 
sects appear in great numbers, stripping the leaves from large 
areas of these trees, thus causing serious injury throughout the 
districts where trees of this kind are valued for timber. 
In this State the insect is a serious pest to one of the small, but 
important industries. Probably the greatest injury was during 
1894 and 1895. In Onondaga County, where basket willows are 
extensively grown, from half to three-fourths of the crop was 
rendered worthless. In the vicinity of Liverpool alone, the crop 
"was estimated to be about 1,200 tons less in 1895 than in 1894, 
the shortage. being caused by the beetles. As a further example 
one farmer near Liverpool who grows 20 acres of willows, which 
yield under ordinary cireumstances.about five tons per acre, bring- 
ing from $16.00 to $40.00. per ton, harvested in 1894 only about 
$200 worth of marketable willows, and the following year his re- 
turns were but little better. This is but one of many cases of the 
kind that might be mentioned to show ‘the serious injury which 
this insect is capable of doing. Fortunately the beetles were 
somewhat less abundant during 1896 and 1897. 
IMPORTANCE AS A PEST TO NURSERY STOCK. 
Asa rule the cottonwood leaf beetle does but little injury in the 
nursery, especially in the east. There have been a few instances, 
however, where the beetles have appeared in eastern nurseries in 
sufficient numbers to do serious injury. One of the most important 
of these is recorded in Insect Life® by Mr. Thos. B. Meehan, who 
2) BS E- 
