226 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FOREST AND SHADE TREES. 
counted for it by the ravages of insects. The following letter from 
Hon. R. H. Gardiner, of Oakwoods, near Gardiner, Me., written to Mr. 
A. G. Tenney. editor of the Brunswick Telegraph, will corroborate the 
idea that the visitations of bark-beetles are in a degree periodical: 
OakWOODS, August 27, 1881. 
DEAR Str: You requested in the last number of the Telegraph information about 
dying spruces, for the purpose of aiding Professor Packard in his investigation of the 
enemies of the spruce. I can render no aid in the matter, but would remind you of a 
fact that may be forgotten, that in the year 1818 every spruce tree west of the Penob- 
scot was killed by an insect. I cannot remember this, but have often heard my father 
speak of it. From 1833 to 1836 I was interested in the lumber business on the Kenne- 
bec and no spruce were ever seen among the rafts of logs, though spruce from the 
Penobscot was sold in Boston. Now, little else than spruce is cut on the upper waters 
of the Kennebec, but every spruce tree has grown since 1818. 
I would have written direct to Professor Packard, but thought it probable the fact 
I speak of was known to him and I only mention it now to you in case it may have 
been forgotten. 
Yours, very truly, 
Rk. H. GARDINER. 
Similar destruction of forests in Germany and in Scandinavia.—W ide- 
spread devastations in spruce forests have occurred at intervals within 
the past century in Europe, and this has been generally attributed by 
entomologists and foresters to the operations of these timber beetles or 
more properly bark-borers. As bearing on this point we quote from an 
article which appeared in Nature, for October 14, 1880: 
In an article in Danish, entitled ‘‘Om Grantérken og Barkbillen,” by J. B. Barth, 
the author, who is one of the first authorities in Norway on questions of forestry and 
arboriculture generally, explains his reasons for differing from the opinion commonly 
received, that the desiccation and ultimate death of the Norwegian spruce (Abies 
excelsa) are due to the attacks of Tomicus typographus (Bostrychus typographus), which 
is usually regarded as the most pernicious of ail the insect enemies of the Conifer. 
Herr Barth does not dispute the fact that this beetle is to be found often in large 
numbers on trees affected by abnormal drying up, whether still standing or cut down; 
but, in his opinion, although disease in the tree may be the cause, it is not the result 
of the presence of the Tomicus, which he believes to have absolutely no effect on the 
condition of the bark. According to this view the numerous agents employed in 
Germany and elsewhere to eradicate this beetle have no result but waste of labor 
and money, the only remedy against the drying up of the bark being a more scien- 
tific mode of clearing forests, in which the trees often perish either, through over- 
crowding, or, more frequently, through reckless felling by which cold blasts are 
allowed to fall directly on the interior. Herr Barth’s views are in 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 innocuousness 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- 
ition. 
The disease due to bark and timber beetles—From the foregoing state- 
ments the reader will justly infer that the great destruction of spruce 
and forest trees throughout Northern New England in 1879, and four or 
five years following, was due to the attacks of beetles, chiefly the small 
