BUEEAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. 507 



CACTUS INSECT INVESTIGATIONS. 



The work in cactus insect investigations was completed during the 

 year, and the results are about to appear in a bulletin of the bureau. 



IlsrVESTIGATIONS OF INSECTS DAMAGING FORESTS. 



The work of the bureau on forest insects carried on during the 

 year under the direct supervision of Dr. A. D. Hopkins has related 

 especially to practical demonstrations and direct instructions and 

 advice in the field on the results of investigations which have been 

 carried on in past years. It is fortunate that the work has arrived 

 at the stage where confident directions can be given so that large- 

 scale practical demonstrations can be made with the certainty of 

 beneficial results. The principal work has been carried on from a 

 field station located at Columbia Falls, Mont., and at one located at 

 Baker, Oreg. Investigations have also been carried on by experts 

 in the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, 

 New York, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Ore- 

 gon, California, and Montana. Information has been disseminated to 

 forest owners in nearly all of the States and Territories, and to the 

 Federal officials of this department and the Interior Department, re- 

 lating to damage to timber on National Forests, national parks, 

 Indian reservations, and the public domains. The progress of the 

 work generally has been very satisfactory. 



The principal depredations of the year have been by the Den- 

 droctonus beetles on the pines, spruce, and Douglas fir of the North- 

 west and Pacific Coast States and on the pine of the Southern States. 

 As knowledge increases of the actual losses of merchantable timber 

 caused principally by these beetles, it appears that former estimates 

 have been conservative and that these beetles are in fact one of the 

 principal factors in causing the enormous continued waste of the most 

 valuable timber resources of the Eoclcy Mountains, the Pacific coast, 

 and the Southern States. During the summer and fall of 1910 and 

 the spring of 1911 there has been a very alarming outbreak of the 

 southern pine beetle in the South Atlantic and Gulf States, and it 

 is evident that unless concerted action is taken by the owners of 

 pine in these States during the coming fall and winter a large per- 

 centage of the pine will be dead within the next two years. 



It is significant of the practical nature of the methods of con- 

 trol recommended by the bureau and of the practical demonstra- 

 tions that have been carried on that no complaints of depredations 

 have come to the bureau during the year from the areas in Colo- 

 rado and Montana where control work was carried on in previous 

 years according to the instructions of the bureau. The same may 

 be said for seasoned forest products which are damaged by the 

 powder-post beetles; very few complaints have been made during 

 the year by manufacturers and dealers who have heretofore suf- 

 fered extensive losses from this source. 



DEMONSTBATION WORK AND BEST7LT8. 



The results of the demonstration work carried on last year in co- 

 operation with private owners in the vicinity of Columbia Falls, 

 Mont., in which over 10,000 trees were treated, are most gratifying, 



