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Show 1 , j FOR THE HORTICULTURIST. j The Boxelder Leaf-Roller. J (A Warning.) By Dr. E. D. Ball, Director Utah Experiment Ex-periment Station. In traveling through Box Elder County last week, the writer observed in a number of towns on both sides ,of the river that the Boxelder trees were being badly, injured by a lqaf-, lqaf-, rpllcr. M This is a smwll green caterpillar that i folds over the edges of the leaves, and cats "Sff the green covering, leaving only "the white skeleton of the leaf. When disturbed these little caterpillars caterpil-lars come wriggling down on the ends of silken threads, and arc exceedingly disagreeable to pedestrians where the trees arc over walks and streets. When full grown they come dow 1 in the same way, burying themselves in the earth to appear again as little brown moths that wil) later lay eggs for another brood. This insect has appeared in a number num-ber of western communities, and where not attended to has destroyed nearly all of the Boxelder trees. It became so bad in some places, and such a nuisance on sheets and sidewalks side-walks that the town authorities passed ordinances compelling the removal of all Boxcldcrs from such situations. These insects usually last for several years, growing worse and worse until they .completely strip the trees leaving leav-ing them white and withered as if a fire had swept then. They have already al-ready reached this condition in several places in the country and if prompt action is not taken many of the trees will be killed. Remedies. This is an easy pest to handle, feeding as it docs on the surface of the leaves, and spraying with Paris Green or Lead Arsenate will stop their work within a few days. It would pay some of the towns in Northern tJtah, where this insect occurs, oc-curs, to take up this matter at once. A special apparatus should be rigged up with a high platform so that with a long pole and a bend the tops of the highest trees could be reached. One su-ch apparatus would take care of all the trees in any of the smaller towns, and prevent a great fcal of annoyance to pedestrians and the probable loss of many valuable shade trees. A rather laughable circumstance in connection with these outbreaks in other places, was that the toads gathered gath-ered on the sidewalks and streets in order to catch these worms as they came down. In some places the toads became so numcious that it was-almost was-almost impossible to walk on tlw sidewalks and the pedestrians took to the middle of the streets, as much to avoid! the toads as the falling worms, and bicycle riding on sidcwwlks was impossible. 1 oflr-!!- |