10 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FORESTS. 
phone-pole borer was found in several poles, and this beetle was evi- 
dently just beginning to attack these poles. There was some damage 
by a round-headed borer.* No white ants or termites were present, 
and this is evidently too far north for these destructive borers. A 
report by inspectors of the American Telephone and Telegraph Com- 
pany and the Forest Service on the remainder of the poles in this 
test line (between Jamestown and Buffalo, N. Y.) not personally 
inspected by the writer, showed that these conclusions can be applied 
to all the poles in the line with the exception that there was super- 
ficial injury by small black ants to two poles treated by brush treat- 
ments of carbolineum avenarius and to two treated with wood creo- 
sote; also, as the inspection progressed, injury by the chestnut tele- 
phone-pole borer became more abundant and serious, and the borers 
seemed to be established in the poles. The poles treated by the creo- 
sote “‘open-tank’”’ method of impregnation and by brush treatments 
with creosote and with ‘S. P. F.” carbolineum remained uninjured. 
Methods of treating poles superficially by brushing with various 
preservatives have proved to be temporarily efficient in keeping 
wood-boring insects out, if the work is thoroughly done and not only 
the butt, but also the base, is treated. If the pole is not thoroughly 
brushed, insects enter through the untreated or imperfectly treated 
portions, especially through weathering checks and knots. Where 
the base is left untreated, insects, especially white ants or termites, 
enter the pole from below ground and, avoiding the treated portions, 
come right up through the pole. 
The few poles of southern yellow pine in a line near Bartley, N. J., 
inspected on July 15, 1910, which had been impregnated with creo- 
sote by the Bethell cylinder-pressure process, 12 pounds of oil to the 
cubic foot, and had been set in the ground since February, 1903, 
were apparently absolutely free from signs of decay or damage by 
wood-boring insects. In another line, running between Norfolk, Va., 
and Washington, D. C., the few poles (12 years old, of squared— 
with the sapwood cut away—southern yellow pine) inspected on 
August 10, 1910, near Portsmouth, Va., which had been impregnated 
with creosote by the Bethell cylinder-pressure process, were also 
apparently absolutely sound. 
Thus, it is evident that impregnating the poles with creosote by 
some standard process (either the open-tank or the cylinder-pressure 
processes) will keep wood-boring insects out and preserve the poles 
for a much longer period than they would last untreated. In the 
open-tank method only the area most subject to the attacks of wood- 
boring insects and deterioration in general (i. e., the basal 8 feet) is 
treated, while by the cylinder-pressure processes the entire pole is 
impregnated. Alternating less susceptible juniper (red cedar)? poles 



« Priorus sp. b Juniperus virginiana. 
