222 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FOREST AND SHADE TREES. 
which are more exempt than any other coniferous trees from the at- 
tacks of insects, so much infested. 
Yhe death and destruction of spruce forests were reported to us at 
Rockland, Me., and at Calais, Me., the destruction having been observed 
by Mr. Sewail at the latter town in 1879. From these facts there is 
good reason to suppose that perhaps a third of the spruce and fir for- 
ests from near Portland to Calais have been destroyed by insects, most 
of the work of destruction having been accomplished four or five years 
ago, during 1878-’79. 
Similar damage has been done at points ten or twelve miles from the 
sea and in the interior of the State. The injury was especially noticed 
in North Topsham, near the Bowdoinham line. According to the state- 
ments of Mr. Willis, the agent of the Feldspar works in North Tops- 
ham, forwarded by Dr. C. A. Packard, of Bath, Me., the spruces were 
in 1879 attacked by borers and also by small caterpillars, ‘not measur- 
ing-worms” (probably like those observed by Mr. Alexander at Harps- 
well). The trees thus defoliated leaved out, becoming green again; and 
in 1880 and 1881 the evil seemed to be diminishing, as has been noticed 
at other places. 
We were also informed by A. G. Tenney, esq., who in August visited 
the Rangeley Lakes, that he observed many dead spruces about the 
shores of the lakes, and from him we learned that the evil had attracted 
the attention of the local press in Aroostook County in Northern Maine. 
Mr. Tenney also kindly handed us the following extract from the 
Home Farm, for July 14, 1881, published at Augusta, Me.: 
Some time ago two or three articles appeared in our journal concerning the injury 
to the spruce timber in the northern portions of our State, caused by a minute little 
insect about whose history little seems to be known. Since then we have received 
inuch information concerning them from a most intelligent gentleman resident in 
Northern Somerset, who lias been extensively engaged in lumbering for many years, 
and who has visited the spruce forests summer and winter, and observed the working 
of this very destructive insect. 
The gentleman informs us that the first appearance of the insect was in 1874, and 
he has reason to believe it is now much on the increase, as he thinks on some town- 
ships there are now thirty dead trees from this cause, where two years ago, on adjoin- 
ing townships, there was but one. The insect appears about the 1st of June, andon 
landings and jambs of spruce; the air is full of them. They are about as large as a 
black fly, and are of a brownish, or dark snuff-color, the head half the size or length 
of the body. They are very tenacious of life, being hard and horny, and it is almost 
impossible to crush one between the thumb and finger. They are seen for about two 
or three weeks, during which time the logs and standing trees in the wood are bored 
full of holes about the size of a timothy straw, in which the eggs are laid, the larve 
of which appear the next summer. In felling trees in winter, thousands of these 
grubs drop out, from one-sixth to one-eighth of an inch long. The chickadees are 
very fond of them and may constantly be seen following the lumbermen and picking 
up their food. If the spruce are cut the first year they are attacked, they make very 
good lumber, but the second year, or after the sap-wood has turned black, they are 
quite worthless, unless the tree is two and one-half feet through, in which case the 
heart-wood is worth something for lumber, after the sap-wood is dead. The rapidity 
with which the wood of standing trees that have been punctured by these insects 
