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In the discussion of this subject Mr. Gillette said that he often 
recommended the farmers of his State to grind the diseased and dead 
grasshoppers as finely as possible in plenty of water and then sprinkle 
the water upon plants where the grasshoppers were feeding. In his 
opinion the disease germs are usually present, and the disease will 
make its appearance when the climatic conditions are favorable. He 
believes the only object in scattering the germs is to make more 
certain the spread of the disease when other conditions are favorable. 
Mr. Cockerell was of the opinion that the diseases of insects would 
not be effective in the destruction of scattered individuals, but that 
where insects were crowded together the introduction of disease would 
meet with success. He thought much good would result from the 
dissemination of the diseases of insects. 
Mr. Hopkins then read the following paper: 
INSECTS DETRIMENTAL AND DESTRUCTIVE TO FOREST PRODUCTS 
USED FOR CONSTRUCTING MATERIAL. 
By A. D. Hopkins, Morgantown, W. Va. 
There is constantly increasing complaint among the manufacturers 
and consumers of construction timbers relating to the difficulty of 
securing material that is free from defects caused by wood-boring 
insects. This trouble appears to be due to two conditions—one a 
diminished supply of the best timber, the other that of increased 
injury to forest trees by insects. 
The increase of insects is largely due, it is believed, to prevailing 
crude and wasteful methods of lumbering and general forest manage- 
ment. The old, defective, and undesirable trees are allowed to stand, 
which, with the stumps, refuse logs, and tops in the cuttings, serve as 
breeding places for vast numbers of the kinds of insects which are to 
blame for the injuries complained of, as well as for increased damage 
to the standing timber in the remaining uncut forests. 
THE PRINCIPAL INSECTS. 
The principal insects which are injurious to the wood of forest 
trees and their timber products may be briefly referred to as follows: 
The oak timber worm (Hupsalis minuta) is without doubt the worst 
enemy of oak wood throughout the eastern, middle, and southern 
United States. It breeds in old stumps and logs, dead and defective 
standing trees, as well as in living trees, which it is ever ready to 
enter through the slightest wound in the outer wood, and in a few 
years the larvee of successive broods penetrate the heart wood and 
extend their mines for a long distance above and below the original 
entrance. Under favorable conditions the larve will continue to 
work in the heavy lumber and square timbers cut from trees thus 
infested for many years after it is taken from the woods and placed 
in the structure. Especially is this true with reference to oak timber 
