70 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



February 



James Langford, a Rampart pioneer, 

 has found a vein of mineral of the 

 consistency of chalk and of an indigo 

 blue in color. It can be used as or- 

 dinary chalk. None of the Alaskan 

 mineralogists can identify it and it is 

 being sent to Seattle for analysis. 



There are said to be in Alaska prob- 

 ably a dozen unindentified varieties of 

 minerals, and one of the many benefits 

 to Alaska from the Alaska- Yukon-Pa- 

 cific Exposition, which will be held at 

 Seattle in 1909, will be the assembling 

 and classifying of these now unknown 

 minerals, any of which may be some 

 hitherto undiscovered combination. As 

 original research work will go on all 

 the time the exposition is in progress, 

 one of the first duties of the savants 

 in charge will be the identifying of 

 these unknown elements or combina- 

 tions, and the adapting of them to 

 some commercial purpose. 



Fungus The bark beetle, which 



Checks Bark fQj. several years has 

 ^^ ® been working havoc in 



the valuable pine timber of the Black 

 Hills, S. Dak., has apparently been 

 given a check by a fungus which finds 

 in the dying trees a congenial place of 

 lodgement, and at the same time kills 

 the beetles in the bark. There is hope 

 that the worst of the scourge in that 

 region has passed. 



For ten years this beetle has been 

 sweeping through the Black Hills for- 

 ests, every year invading fresh areas. 

 Its maximum destructiveness was 

 reached about two weeks ago, and it 

 is now on the decline. 



The fungus is a "bark peeler." Ex- 

 perts have claimed all the time that the 

 beetles could be checked if some way 

 could be found to peel the trees in 

 which the young broods are harbor- 

 ing. They live in the inner bark and 

 next to the wood. When the bark is 

 separated from the wood their gal- 

 leries are laid open and they die. Ef- 

 forts have been made in the affected 

 districts to peel standing trees. Ma- 

 chinery has been made for that express 



purpose, and trunks were stripped to« 

 a height of 20 feet. But so large are 

 the affected areas that the few trees 

 peeled were not a drop in the bucket. 



Efiforts were made at different times 

 to cut the dying timber. Tracts were 

 sold to mill men, and large quantities 

 were cut, but not enough to have any 

 appreciable efifect on the beetle inva- 

 sion. Woodpeckers helped the work 

 along. They flocked to the dying trees 

 by hundreds and stripped them of their 

 bark and devoured the young beetles 

 by the million. But that was not 

 enough. The pest had gained such 

 headway that it was beyond the power 

 of barkpeelers, log cutters, and wood- 

 peckers. 



Meanwhile the peculiar fungus was 

 gaining headway and getting in its 

 work. It appears in the form of a 

 grayish slime between the bark and 

 the wood. It makes the bark loose and 

 it falls, leaving the trees bare, and 

 bringing down the multitudes of young 

 beetles to their certain death. Even if 

 the bark still hangs on the trunks, the 

 effect on the beetles is equally fatal, 

 for they die in their galleries and lar- 

 val mines. 



In normal conditions the bark beetle 

 attacks storm-thrown or other dead 

 timber, but it is not numerous enough 

 to kill trees, and its invasion can not 

 gain headway. But when some un- 

 usual condition — such as a hurricane 

 sweeping over a large timber area — 

 gives them a start, the beetles may in- 

 crease in numbers until they are able 

 to attack vigorous trees and kill them. 

 The invasion continues until some 

 enemy reduces the beetles below the 

 point where they are able to kill tim- 

 ber. That puts an end to the invasion. 

 This, apparently, is what the fungus is 

 accomplishing in the Black Hills at 

 this time. 



Insects 

 Are Rivals 

 of Fire 



Most people do not real- 

 ize the immense 

 loss occasioned to for- 

 est trees and to wood in its various 

 forms by insects. It is estimated by 

 competent authorities that the finan- 



