332 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



author also found that the precipitation itself is effective only when- 

 accompanied by abundant summer fog, which greatly reduces transpira- 

 tion and evaporation. In securing the precipitation records, a type of 

 rain gauge was used in which kerosene was employed to prevent evapo- 

 ration of the precipitation, making possible the summation of rainfall, 

 records covering long periods. C. F. K. 



Rainfall and Fog. The Plant World, vol. 20, pp. 179-189, June, 191 7. 



SILVICULTURE, PROTECTION, AND EXTENSION 



Mr. Swaine calls attention to the enormous 

 Balsam losses occasioned by a combination of insect and 



Fir fungus pests in balsam fir in certain sections of 



Diseases Quebec, losses which exceed the losses by fire. 



"We have a most disheartening example of com- 

 bined insect and fungus destruction sweeping through the balsam for- 

 ests of eastern Canada at the present time. Upon hundreds of square 

 miles of forest the balsam has been very seriously injured or killed 

 within the last eight years, and on large areas of this practically all the 

 balsam is already dead." 



Eight years ago the spruce budworm began the work on both spruce 

 and balsam, but in three of four years died out. The spruce usually 

 survived the attack, although tops were killed and increment lost. The 

 injury to the balsam was very much more severe, and was followed by 

 two rot fungi, a bark beetle, and a weevil to finish the destruction. 



The red rot {Poly poms schzvciuitaii?), common in eastern balsam,, 

 has run riot in the budworm-infested trees. "Injured trees die gradu- 

 ally from the bottom of the crown upward, showing here and there 

 dead branches, the foliage generally thin, and the trunk and branches 

 bearing an abundant growth of pale green lichens, or 'moss.' " 



The second fungus is a sap rot, which, when its mycelium reaches 

 and surrounds the base of the tree, checks the sap flow, killing the tree 

 rapidly, and is responsible for the red top, as is also the bark beetle, 

 which finds in slash and fire-killed trees a satisfactory breeding ground. 



"The second bettle is a snout-beetle, or weevil, which may be called 

 the eastern balsam weevil, one-third of an inch in length and grayish 

 in color. Its eggs are laid in the green or dying bark individually 

 in groups of punctures. The punctures bleed and the balsam drying- 

 on the bark in whitish glistening patches betrays the disease. The 

 injury is new to this province. It was found to be spreading rapidly 

 in green timber in some localities this summer and will prove without 

 doubt a serious enemy to the balsam." 



