Ii6 Forestry Qimrterly. 



vest but 12,400 Kg. of seed in the face of a demand for 45,000 Kg. 

 As for pine, so too for other species. The seed crop of 1910 

 was unusually poor. Spruce, larch. Silver Fir, Jack Pine, Doug- 

 las Fir, Sitka Spruce, oak, beech and locust all failed to set seed. 

 Maple, alder, linden and White Pine yielded small crops. Only 

 birch, ash and hornbeam seeded rather abundantly. 



The winter weather both at the beginning and end of the year 

 was unusually mild ; the spring was dry until June, then the sum- 

 mer and fall were cold and wet. Plantations throve well, es- 

 pecially where weeds were held in check. Beech mast sprouted 

 well except where they were gotten into the ground too late in the 

 spring. 



The cost of combatting insect pests in the Prussian State for- 

 ests was large in 1910, though somewhat lower than in the record 

 year 1907. To the continued campaign against the pine moth 

 were added campaigns against the nun moth and the bark beetles 

 which always assume theatening proportions after a moth attack. 

 All these campaigns have centered in the Koenigsberg district in 

 East Prussia. The work against the nun moth was successfully 

 concluded in 191 1 and serious damage by bark beetles was entirely 

 prevented by these measures. It is interesting to note that the 

 famous campaign against the nun moth in the middle of the last 

 century lasted eight years ; and that on the average only 40 per 

 cent, of the entire loss was directly caused by the nun, while 60 

 per cent, was done by the concomitant bark beeetle. 



The sale of the large amounts of wood felled during this cam^- 

 paign did not lower the market price seriously. Successful reme- 

 dial measures and a stronger market for wood have dispelled the 

 alarm with which insect pests were once viewed. 



Oak and beech suffered less serious insect attacks during the 

 year. Mice and rabbits contributed more than their usual amount 

 of damage, the mild winters favoring their increase. A frost on 

 the night of June 24 did serious damage. 



Forest fires were notable in 1910 for their rarity and small 

 size. The only considerable one, one in Wildungen, West Prussia, 

 destroyed 313 ha. (770 acres) or more than half the total area 

 burned over in the whole State. The fires all occurred during the 

 spring drought, that is before July i. The average annual damage 

 from forest fires in Prussia ranges from ten to thirty dollars per 

 acre. Even in Prussia, it is impossible to get all fires reported. 



