^8 



HISTORICAL REFERENCES. 



In the following parag)*aplis attention is called to a number of early 

 references to the deatli of spruce in the forests from New York to New 

 Brunswick, probably caused by the spruce-destroying beetle: 



1818. — The earliest reference to dying spruce in the Northeast is 

 probabl}" that contained in a letter from Hon. R. H. Gardner to Mr. 

 A. G. Tenney, editor of tlie Brunswick, Me., Telegraph, and (pioted by 

 Packard.^ Mr. Gardner stated that "he had often heard his father 

 speak of a great destruction of timber east of the Penobscot in 1818." 

 Dr. Packard also states'^ that he was infoi'med b}' Mr. E. A. Coe, wlio 

 got his information from General Smith, of Norridgewock, that "the 

 spruce growth about that town and Waterville early in this century 

 had been diseased and died very much as in the past few years." 



1831-32. — Another early record of dying spruce is that obtained by 

 Mr. Hough from a correspondent, Hon. Daniel W. Taylor, of Sher- 

 burne, Vt."' 



18JfO. — About the year 1880 Hough ^ was informed by a coi-respond- 

 eut in Newport, Sullivan Count}-, N. IL, "that some forty years ago 

 the mortality of the spruce timber was vei'y great on the liills and 

 mountains in that part of the State * * *." 



18JiJf.-1859. — When Professor Peck made his investigations of the 

 dying spruce in the Adirondacks, in 1874,^ he learned that the spruce 

 had been dying for about fifteen years in Lewis Count}^ and that in 

 Rensselaer County the same destruction had been observed aliout 

 tliirty j^ears ago. 



1850. — About 1850 the spruce was said to have turned red and died 

 on about 500 acres at Iraslmrg, Vt. , which was supposed to have been 

 caused by worms." 



1871-1880 — Between 1871 and 1880 gi-eat destruction occurred in the 

 spruce from New York to New Brunswick. Hough in 1882' quoted 

 infornuition from a correspondent in Col ton, St. Lawrence County, 

 N. Y., who says of a journey made in August, 1880: 



After getting about 40 miles tip the river we begMii to t-ome into a region where 

 a large part of tlie spruce was dead and at least half of it had lost its value. From 

 such inquiries as could be made we learned that large portions of this timber were 

 destroyed, including the best qualities and trees of the largest size. These inju- 

 ries had been going on about ten years and were still in progress. The yield of 

 these timber lands was about 6,000 standard of 19-inch logs to the square mile. 



' Fifth Report U. S. Ent. Com., p. HIT. 



•Ibid., p. 820. 



■■' Report on Forestry, 1882, p. 202. 



^ Ibid. , p. 262. 



■'Proc. Albany Inst., Vol. II, 1876. pp. 2'.t4-:!()l ; also Twenty-eighth Report New 

 York State Museum, 1878, pp. 32-38. 



'Information from J. E. Jamson, Report on Forestry, 1882. pp. 202-263. 



■ Report on Forestry, 1882, p. 263: see, also. Twenty-eighth and Thirtieth Reports 

 New York State Museum for much additional information bv Dr. Peck. 



