818 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



allowed to fall directly on the iuterior. Herr Earth's views are ia opposition to those 

 of the majority of the working foresters of Germany and Scandinavia, but his exten- 

 sive acquaintance with home and foreign forests, his great practical experience, and 

 his reputation as a naturalist, entitle them to all possible respect, although it is not 

 to be supposed that his plea for the innocuousnoss of the Bostrychus typographus will 

 be admitted without much sifting of the evidence, seeing that this insect is generally 

 believed by German foresters to have been the cause of the destruction of the forests 

 of the Harz Mountains, when between 1780 and 1790 two million trees died of desicca- 

 tion. 



In pursuance of the work of the last season, I visited the Adirondack 

 region of New York in Jane and July of the present season, and then 

 made an extended journey through Aroostook County, Me., visiting 

 the Moosehead Lake region, and spent the remainder of the summer at 

 Brunswick, Me., and on the shores of Casco Bay. My object in visit- 

 ing northern New York and Maine in the latter part of June and early 

 in July was to ascertain whether the Spruce-bud Worm described in 

 my last report was concerned in the widespread destruction of spruce 

 and fir in those important lumbering regions. The result showed that 

 this caterpillar, which has in former years been so destructive to the 

 spruce and fir in Cumberland and adjoining counties, has not been at 

 work to any appreciable extent in the northern forests. Indeed, not a 

 caterpillar of this species ( Tortrix fmmferana) was to be found after 

 diligent search in the Adirondacks nor in Aroostook, and at Moosehead 

 Lake but a single specimen was captured, early in July (the 7th), show- 

 ing that it was much less common this year than at the Eangely Lakes 

 last season. Here it may be remarked that the same caterpillar was 

 found late in June (the 22d) to be less common about the shores of Casco 

 Bay than in 1883. This shows that this destructive insect is gradually 

 becoming scarce. During 1884, 1885, and 1886 the young trees were ob- 

 served to be growing up, and to have already, in some degree, effaced 

 the desolate appearance of the tracts which had been destroyed and 

 from which the dead timber had been cut. In 1885, 1886, and 1887 not 

 a single specimen either of the caterpillar or moth could be found on 

 the shores or on some of the islands of Casco Bay. 



The destruction of spruces in northern New York in 1884. — I spent 

 about two weeks in the middle part of June in the Adirondacks, i)ass- 

 ing through the more mountainous portions, from the Ausable Chasm 

 to Schroon Lake, spending most of the time at Keene Flats, at Beede's 

 Hotel, in the heart of the forest region. Mr. Beede, who was formerly 

 a lumberman and guide through these forests, informed me that the 

 spruce had been dying for the past fifteen years, and that on the mount- 

 ains surrounding the hotel about one spruce in ten had died ; and from 

 our observations and those of George Hunt, esq., of Providence, who 

 kiudly accompanied me on this journey and who has visited these woods 

 for many years i)ast, we should judge this to be a moderate estimate. 

 The trees had not died in masses or clumps, but simply individually, 

 and in places only were the dead trees especially thick. That they had 



