106 REPORT OF No. 19 



colony of Nematus larvae. The grove mentioned has lately been felled, and 

 the land it occupied turned into a pasture. 



The Nematus larvae had a preference for the finest growths. The 

 smaller trees of the time were not at first so badly treated by them; and 

 these lingered on, making brave efforts at recovery; but even these have 

 for the most part, now succumbed. Probably the drought of 1903 gave the 

 finishing blow to them. 



Mr. E. B. Brewster tells me that half a mile from Compton Village, 

 there is a tamarack swamp about a mile long and one-eighth of a mile wide. 

 The largest trees in it are ten or twelve inches in diameter. Of all the trees 

 in the swamp, probably 75 per cent, are dead, and about 15 per cent, .^how 

 some signs of feeble life in tufts of sprouts from the stem. The only ap- 

 parently healthy trees are on the borders of the swamp, and form a mere nar- 

 row fringe to it, one or two trees deep. 



Of the dead trees in this swamp, some are only "rampikes, " denuded 

 both of branches and bark. To others the branches still cling. Here and 

 there, among the dead trees, a few balsams (Abies halsamea) and cedars 

 {Thuja occidentalis) are springing up. 



When I visited the swamps in Bury in 1891, the rot had struck into the 

 dead trees for two or three inches. For an account of this visit, and a cal- 

 culation of the damage done by the Nematus, see the Report of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of Ontario for 1891, page 28. 



When the Rutland Railway into Canada was in contemplation, dead 

 tamarack trees lay so thickly in the swamp half way between Alburgh and 

 Noyan, that they had to be hauled out of the way, before the survey for 

 the line could be effected. This was in the fall and winter of 1898-9. The 

 authority for this statement is Mr. Alanson Vosburgh, per Miss May G. 

 Johnson of Miranda, P.Q. 



In the part of Bury where I saw Maddock's gang getting out the knees 

 for vessels in 1891, the land has been brought under cultivation. 



A few notes to tell further of the kinds of trees that are springing up in 

 place of the tamarack may be desirable. 



In the Ditton Swamp, -which is about three miles long and a mile 

 broad, the tamaracks young and old are all dead. Spruce is taking their 

 place. 



In the Spalding Hill Swamp, in Eaton Township, cedar, poplar and 

 some young tamarack are growing. 



In the Harrison neighborhood in Bury Township, in parts where the 

 soil is sandy, white birch and a few balsams are growing; on wet clay, the 

 poplar appears. 



In Long Swamp, which extends through Newport, Hampden, and over 

 to Lingwick, spruce and balsam are growing. 



To those who would see a tamarack swamp in its infancy, I would re- 

 commend a visit to "The Gomin," which lies to the west of Bergerville, about 

 four or five miles from Quebec. In the early Summer it is all aglow with 

 rhodora, sheep-laurel, orchids and pitcher-plants. When I first saw it in 

 1886, it was a broad expanse of sphagnum, unoccupied, save on its out- 

 skirts, by any larger plants than those I have mentioned. I re-visited the 

 swamp on the 10th of July last, and found that it was dotted all over with 

 young tamarack from a foot to fifteen feet high. On the borders of the 

 swamp near the cultivated land there were tamaracks twenty-five feet high 

 or more. 



Doubtless, if left undisturbed, the growth on this tract will, in process 

 of time, become a forest. And so — 



"The old order changeth and giveth place to new." 

 8a EN. 



