14 College of Forestry 
maple, beech and hemlock. On the higher areas a few white 
pines are scattered among the hardwoods. Only in two areas 
is the larch to be found. This tract of timber is practically 
in a virgin condition, doubtless owing to the fact that it is 
owned by the railroad. The area has : apparently never been 
lumbered and presents fairly good forest conditions — that 
is the general conditions are excellent for tree growth. 
As previously stated the larch is to be found in two 
separated areas, a western group having between thirty and 
fifty trees, and an eastern one of between four and five 
hundred trees. These two areas, which are lower and there- 
fore moister than the surrounding woods, are about two 
hundred and fifty yards apart and between them is a dense 
undergrowth consisting principally of poison sumach, willow, 
ete. In these areas, the larch predominates, the total number 
of larch outnumbering all other species of trees combined. 
All sizes of larches are present, from saplings up to trees 
of about 14 inches D. B. H. Reproduction is good although 
of course many of the smaller trees have been killed by 
suppression due to shading. 
A number of the larger larch trees (6 inches D. B. H. and 
up) have been weakened or killed each year for a number 
of years by the removal of the bark by farmers. A decoction 
made by steeping this bark is thought to make an excellent 
spring tonic for horses and is used by the farmers of this 
locality for that purpose. On all parts of the tract, trees 
may be found from which more or less bark has been stripped 
— these often being completely girdled from the ground up 
to a height of about six feet. Trees completely girdled in 
this way are of course killed immediately while trees stripped 
of their bark on one side only, are not killed outright but 
are greatly weakened. Both dead and weakened trees serve 
as favorable breeding places for many different sorts of 
insects, and’ it is with insects entering the tree under such 
conditions that we deal with principally in this paper. 
Aside from these trees killed or weakened by the stripping 
off of the bark, the larch trees are under conditions such as 
exist in practically virgin timber. This means that many 
