814 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



Maine and some places, and have been collecting information by circulars, correspond- 

 ence, and personal inquiry for two or three years. The same mortality has been going 

 on in the ' North Woods ' of New York for five or six years, and has been made a special 

 study under State authority. In 1868 there was published a report by the French 

 Government upon the injuries done to spruce forests in that country, the principal 

 part of which I have translated for use in my next report. I am under the impression 

 that so far as the ravages of the insect are concerned, the worst is over — at least such 

 is the opinion of lumbermen with whom I have corresponded — although the reality is 

 sad enough. It has not been relatively greater in your State than in New York, but 

 the losses reach to a fearfully great amount in your State on account of the great 

 abundance of spruce in your forests. As for the remedies employed in Europe to check 

 the ravages of insects in the spruce, they are altogether too expensive for us. We 

 can only save what is dead, and the lumbermen are doing this as fast as possible ; but 

 notwithstanding this, a great deal will be lost. I have facts showing that like mor- 

 tality has occurred long ago in other sections of the country, lasting a few years and 

 then disappearing — as this will — perhaps being succeeded by a different growth of 

 timber, as is observed in New York. The replies to circulars sent out last fall, indi- 

 cate that the local extent of its duration will not last so long as apprehended." 



Portions of the Adirondack region were, in 1876, visited by Mr. C. H. 

 Peck, State botanist of New York, who thus reports on the evil in the 

 Tliirtieth Annual Report of the New York State Museum of Natural 

 History for 1877 (Albany, 1879, pp. 23, 26) : 



While on a collecting trip in the Adirondack region, in July and August, my atten- 

 tion was repeatedly arrested by the extensive ravages of the spruce-destroying beetle, 

 Hylurgus rufipennis Kirby, of which a partial account was given in the twenty-eighth 

 report. The green slopes of Mount Emmons, commonly called Blue Mountain, and of 

 several mountains to the north of it, had their beauty, and their value too, greatly 

 impaired by the abundant intermixture of the brown tops of dead spruces. The 

 destruction was also visible along the road between Newcomb and Long Lake, and on 

 the mountain slopes far to the north of this road. Again, on the trail from Adiron- 

 dack to Calamity Pond, there was sad evidence that the little destroyer had invaded 

 also the forests of Essex County. From what I have seen at Lake Pleasant, in the 

 southern part, and from information concerning the Cedar River region, in the cen- 

 tral part of Hamilton County, there is reason to believe that much of the spruce tim- 

 berof this county has already been invaded by the beetle. How much farther this 

 destructive work has exteutled or will extend, it is impossible to say ; but one thing 

 is certain — it is still in progress. For the purpose of gaining more knowledge of the 

 insect, I cut down, at South Pond, a tree that had recently been attacked by it. It 

 was about 20 inches in diameter at the base ; the foliage was still fresh and green, and 

 there was nothing, except the perforations in the bark, to indicate that it was at all 

 affected. The bark peeled from the trunk without much difficulty, the sap-wood was 

 perfectly sound, and the heart-wood also, except a small portion in which there was 

 a slight appearance of incipient decay. Longitudinal furrows, varying from 1 to 6 

 inches in length, were found under the bark, and each furrow was occupied by one or 

 two beetles. The furrows are excavated from below upwards. In the short ones but 

 one beetla was found, and but one perforation communicating with the external air. 

 In the longer ones two beetles (probably the two sexes) were usually found, and from 

 two to four perforations afforded means of ingress and egress. The lowest perforation, 

 which is the one by which the beetle first enters and commences its furrow, is often 

 found closed or "blocked up" by the dust and debris thrown down by the excavator 

 in the progress of the work. The second perforation is generally 1 or 2 inches above 

 the first. I failed to discover whether it is made by the second beetle for the purpose 

 of ingress or by the first beetle. The third and fourth perforations are in a nearly 

 direct line above the other two, and are probably made from within outwardly, but 



