224 ANNUAL EEPOETS OF DEPAETMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



Douglas-fir pitch moth. — ^The Dous^las-fir pitch moth has been 

 found to be the cause of great losses to the manufacturers of lumber 

 m many localities through pitch seams, gum checks, or gum spots, 

 and similar defects in othenvise clean stock of merchantable-sized 

 trees, through its injury to young trees. Investigations show that a 

 large percentage of this loss can be prevented in the future by remov- 

 ing the young larvse from the bark of young to medium-sized trees. 

 The investigator estimated that one man could clean and keep clean 

 an area 50 miles square, or about 1,600,000 acres. 



European pine-shoot moth. — The European pine-shoot moth is 

 a pest recently introduced in nursery stock from Europe. It has been 

 fomid to be sufficiently established in nurseries, parks, and private 

 grounds of some of the eastern States to be a serious menace to North 

 American pines, but if the method recommended for its control is fol- 

 lowed its injury can be greatly reduced. 



Termites. — "Wliite ants" or termites, which are exceedingly de- 

 structive to crude, finished, and utilized products in the Tropics, are 

 also very destructive in the eastern and southern United States to 

 the woodwork and contents of houses, including furniture, books, and 

 papers, to poles and posts set in the ground, and to many kinds of 

 crude and finished wood products. Extensive experiments and study 

 of these insects have shown that a very large percentage of the losses 

 which they are capable of causing can be prevented by treatment of 

 the wood with chemical preservatives and by using the proper pre- 

 cautions in the construction of buildings. 



Demonstrations. — The success of the Klamath River instruction 

 and demonstration project in the Klamath National Forest, Cal., 

 which included privately owned tmiber, conducted in 1912 and 1913 

 and finally and thoroughly inspected during the past year, has fur- 

 nished final and conclusive proof of the efficiency and economy of the 

 percentage principle of control. This project involved a treated area 

 of 32,400 acres and, including the adjacent mitreated but infested 

 area, a total area of 82,000 acres of yellow-pine timber where during 

 the past 25 j^ears more than 60,000 trees have been killed by Den- 

 droctonus beetles. The treatment by feUing and burning the bark 

 of 1,098 uifested trees, or about 27 per cent of the infestation of the 

 entire treated and untreated area of 82,000 acres, resulted in a reduc- 

 tion of the infestation within the entire area of over 91 per cent below 

 that in the area in 1911. This is considered a complete control. It 

 has served to convince foresters and others who heretofore were skep- 

 tical as to the importance of the prmciple, and may be considered as 

 one of the most important results of the year. 



Smce 1905 the demonstration and other control projects against the 

 Dendroctonus beetles, carried on under specific recommendations or 

 instructions, have involved the treatment of over 200,000 infested 

 trees, representing over 40,000,000 board feet, on a total area of over 

 1,500,000 acres, at a cost to the Forest Service and private owaiers of 

 about $75,000, the cost per tree ranging from nothing to $4, and in 

 one case the treated timber sold and converted into lumber showed 

 a balance to the credit of the o^^^ler of $1.12 per tree. In no case 

 was more than 75 per cent of the infestation of the treated and adja- 

 cent untreated areas removed. In fact, it is estimated that the aver- 



