THE DYING OF PINE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 11 
ing living timber. This work has been prosecuted in such a 
manner as to convince the majority of the owners of pine within 
the areas covered by the representatives of the Bureau of Ento- 
mology that the southern pine beetle is a menace to the pine forests 
of the Southern States. There is now a general and widespread 
interest manifested throughout the worst affected sections, and there 
is every prospect that if general action is taken by the owners, in the 
utilization or treatment of infested trees according to the reeommenda- 
tions of the experts of the Bureau of Entomology, the beetles can be 
controlled this winter at slight expense, and that the remaining living 
pine will thus be protected from further depredations. 
CHARACTER AND RANGE OF DEPREDATIONS DETERMINED. 
Since the location of forest-insect field station 7 at Spartan- 
burg, S.C., on July 5, 1911, the agents of the Bureau of Entomology, 
United States Department of Agriculture, detailed to the station have 
been very active in the study of the character and extent of the 
depredations by the southern pine beetle in South Carolina, Georgia, 
Alabama, North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Virginia, 
Louisiana, Maryland, Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee. Observa- 
tions by the agents and information conveyed by correspondents 
from all sections of the South show that in the aggregate a vast 
amount of timber has been killed by the southern pine beetle during 
the past two years. The dying and dead trees occur as scattering 
individuals or in clumps, large patches, and in some places whole 
forests. All are more or less conspicuous by their fading, red, black, 
or denuded tops, plainly indicating the presence of the beetle or the 
progress of its work. 
PATCHES OF DYING PINE A MENACE TO THE HEALTHY TREES, 
Tt has been found that each patch of dying trees with their fading 
and greenish-brown tops located anywhere in the Southern States 
is a menace to the living pine within a radius of 3 or 4 miles. The 
broods of the southern pine beetle developing in the bark of the trees 
of one such center of infestation may swarm in any direction and 
settle in the healthy timber. Thus one or more additional patches 
is killed until nearly all of the large as well as the small pine over 
an extensive area is dead. 
When these centers of infestation are numerous within the confines of 
a county, or even a larger section of territory, they can only be com- 
pared with the starting of so many forest fires, and, as has been 
demonstrated, they may lead to far greater destruction of merchant- 
able pine than has ever been recorded as resulting from fire in the 
Southern States. Therefore they demand similar prompt and radical 
action on the part of the owners in order to protect their living pine. 
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