FOREST BIOLOGY 205 



behaves with the pine as its sister species does with the tamarack. 

 The inspect species seems to have been known before, but there seems 

 to be no previous record of its having done any considerable damage. 

 The infested plantations have been hand-picked and sprayed without 

 regard to expense, and the pest may be "under control" — or may 

 even be "eradicated" — or it may appear in new localities and on 

 larger timber which cannot be sprayed. Then what? 



Considerable areas in the East, which once raised good white 

 pine, are now so badly infested with a tip weevil that practically 

 every specimen of the tree is dwarfed or stunted, and plantations 

 of this kind are no longer considered. Will the weevil extend its 

 range? If so, how rapidly? 



A Dendroctonus, in the western white pine of the Inland Empire, 

 behaves toward its host species much as does the species which attacks 

 the western yellow pine. Old and decadent individuals are "normally" 

 killed by it, but here and there, and over vast areas, heavy stands 

 of mature pine are being killed off. Once started on a considerable 

 scale, it is the rule that practically every pine in the stand, large or 

 small, is killed before the infestation "runs out." One may stand 

 on the divide of many a valley and count the "red-top" spots by the 

 dozen. Investigation will show that some of the dying timber is 

 white pine, some Douglas fir, some Englemann spruce, some lodgepole 

 pine, each, presumably (but not always certainly) being attacked by 

 its own variety of Dendroctonus. The local assumption is that the 

 amount of dying timber is rapidly on the increase. It is certainly 

 serious. Since standing "bug-killed" white pine depreciates very 

 seriously within two years after being killed, on account of season 

 checks and bluing, there is a small margin of salvage time. The wise 

 investor might well hesitate before he bought bonds secured by white 

 pine in a vicinity where the beetles are at work, especially where the 

 timber is inaccessible and cannot well be logged out for many years. 



Cypress and incense cedar are famous for their characteristic 

 decays. They are both intrinsically good species. But would it be 

 advisable to attempt extensive and expensive forest work with them 

 as a major item in the stand? Would proper handling secure utiliza- 

 tion before the typical defects developed very far, or would it be 

 possible to prevent the work of the fungi or to "keep them under 

 control ?" 



Trametes pini is responsible for the bulk of the defective and un- 



