REPORT OF THE BOTANIST. 37 
A few were seen at work on the affected spruces of Specu- 
lator Mountain, and if not. interrupted they will probably in 
due time succeed in checking the ravages here also. The pro- 
tection of these birds is to be enumerated among the means to 
be employed in checking the malady of the spruces. They 
are the friends of the forest and the allies of man. How insig- 
nificant the insect yet how capable of injury. How lightly 
we esteem the wood-pecker yet how indispensable are his ser- 
vices. 
A remedy employed in similar cases in Europe is to cut 
down the affected trees, strip off their bark and burn it with 
its destructive tenants. Though it is somewhat doubtful if 
the owners of large tracts of timber land can be induced to 
adopt this method of checking the destruction of their spruces, 
it is certainly to be recommended. The loss from its omission 
would soon far exceed the cost of its employment, but care 
should be taken not to engage in this work in a dry time lest 
the destruction from forest fires should be greater than that 
from insects. 
A brief extract from the Entomology of Kirby and Spence 
will show that the ravages of insects upon forest trees in 
Europe have sometimes been serious, and that it is none too 
soon for us to note well what is transpiring in our own forests. 
‘‘The bark-borer of the oak is a small beetle of an allied 
genus, Scolytus pygmeus which with us does no great harm, 
but so abounded of late years in the Bois-de- Vincennes, near 
Paris, that 40,000 trees were killed by it; and many of the 
finest elms in St. James’ Park and Kensington Gardens as 
well asin the promenades of various cities in the north of 
France, have fallen victims to another of this tribe, Scolytws 
destructor, whose trivial name well characterizes the frequency 
and severity of its ravages. The ravages of Tomicus typo- 
graphus in the pine forests of Germany, have long been 
known under the name Wurmtrdkniss (decay caused by 
worms), and they sometimes attack the inner bark in such 
numbers, 80,000 being sometimes found in a single tree, that 
they are infinitely more noxious than those insects that bore 
into the wood. About the year 1668 this pest was particu- 
larly prevalent and caused incalculable mischief, and 
in 1783 it is estimated that a million and a half of trees were 
destroyed by it in the Hartz forests alone. At this period 
