PLATE XI. Photograph showing method of tying the burlap strips on the trees. The knot is about to be completed. Among the substances used are coal tar, printers' ink, raupenleim, wagon grease, tanglefoot, soft soap, and sticky fly-paper. There are also various forms of mechanical contrivances including cotton and wool waste bands, designed to catch or prevent the progress of ascending insects. Among the sticky substances, coal tar, printers' ink, and wagon grease should not be applied directly to the bark. When utilized they should be applied to a strip of tarred paper or other impervious material wrapped around and tacked or otherwise fastened to the tree. In order to prevent the insects from crawling under this band it is necessary to either smooth off the bark underneath or else apply a band of waste cotton or other material which will fill up the crevices in the bark. Sticky fly-paper lasts but a short time and is of but little use unless the bark is smoothed over underneath the band or a layer of cotton is placed underneath as indicated above. Raupenleim (caterpillar glue) is a German preparation similar to tanglefoot which is made in this country, but not so safe to use as it is more likely to injure the trees. The last-mentioned substance is the best and cheapest remedy on the market. It can be applied directly to the bark with little if any danger of injuring the tree. It is customary to smooth the bark, if very rough where the band is to be placed, to save material, and to apply with a comb-like instrument having flat, flexible teeth. A flat, wooden spatula can be used for applying the material, if the special instrument is not at hand. Mechanical contrivances made of tin, zinc, and copper are sometimes seen, but their use is restricted and is seldom advisable on account of the large initial expense of putting them on, and the close watching which they must have to see that they do not injure the trees or fail to afford the protection desired. GENERAL CLEANING WORK. In addition to creosoting, burlapping, and spraying, a large amount of general cleaning work is necessary. A campaign for the extermination of the gypsy moth is hindered by the presence of rubbish, ill-kept fences and outhouses, and decaying, ill-pruned, and poorly kept trees. In fact, the gypsy moth is favored by just such conditions as our civic improvement societies are deprecating in their campaign for better, cleaner, healthier, and more beautiful cities and towns. If its presence, then, can make our property owners realize that they must improve the conditions of their premises according to the principles of the civic improvement ideas, it will be a slight recompense for the vast amount of trouble and outlay which its presence entails. GROUND WORK. Under this term are included searching picket and board fences, stone walls, shrubs, weeds, rocks, foundation and other parts of buildings, rubbish, and, in fact, objects of every conceivable kind, for the presence of egg clusters of scattered insects. It also includes the gathering and burning of rubbish, burning over brush-land, etc., for the purpose of destroying the egg clusters or caterpillars of the gypsy moth. It may be of interest to note in this connection that this process of burning must be intelligently directed. Burning over brush-land in the winter time is of but little avail, as the fire which can be produced is not of sufficient intensity to destroy many of the eggs. By experiments in Massachusetts it has been found that egg clusters on rocks, to which sufficient heat had been applied to crack them, have partially escaped destruction. It is therefore necessary, except in cases where a great deal of combustible material together with egg clusters can be gotten together in a pile, to burn over the ground shortly after the insects have been hatched. This applies also to "firing" stone walls. For some of this work an apparatus for burning crude oil and producing an intense flame, such as illustrated in Plate XXI, can be applied to advantage, and it will be necessary for the State to procure some of these for the work next spring. In connection with this work it may be well to call attention to the fact that the depositing of rubbish and refuse of all kinds should be thoroughly controlled with a view of placing it where it would be |