REPORT OF THE SOCIETY 37 



Utilization of dead and mature balsam 



It is evident that the dead, dying and mature balsam should be utilized 

 wherever and as rapidly as this is commercially feasible. As a matter of eco- 

 nomy, as much as possible of the standing dead material should be utilized. 

 The balsam and spruce are usually perforated by the large tunnels of wood 

 borers within two years subsequent to their death, and the action of fungi des- 

 troys the quality of the wood very rapidly, more quickly in the balsam than in 

 the spruce. 



Control of beetles 



As already stated, although the budworm itself has disappeared from the 

 greater part of the province, the balsams are still dying rapidly in many places 

 through attack by the secondary barkboring beetles and the sap-rot fungus. 

 These attack the bark of the trunk and kill the trees in one year, causing them 

 to turn red. The control of these beetles should be feasible under some circi ms- 

 tances. When these red-top trees are becoming abundant and a valuable stand 

 of balsam is apparently threatened, it will evidently be profitable to cut out 

 the infested trees during winter and put them in water in early spring and thereby 

 prevent the spread of the injurj^ This is being carried out on a considerable 

 scale by one Quebec company this winter. 



One of the beetles concerned, the Balsam Bark-beetle, breeds in slash and 

 burning the slash will destroy, in addition, other boring insects and heart rot 

 fungi which are injurious in the forests. This is an additional reason for urging 

 that slash burning must form a part of any permanent forest policy. 



Cutting out the red tops will be profitable only in special cases. Slash-burning 

 is only a help in this matter of control. In badly injured areas where balsams 

 are still dying rapidly, the policy should be to concentrate on the balsam cutting 

 in so far as is feasible, so as to salvage as much of it as possible and also thereby 

 leave the future stand in a young and thrifty condition. 



Direct Control Methods 



Direct control for an active outbreak of this nature spreading over hun- 

 dreds or thousands of square miles is almost inconceivable. This could be 

 accomplished only by destroying most of the caterpillars in the badly infested 

 sections through fire, through extensive cuttings of infested trees, or by means 

 of poisons. Of these, the distribution of poison dust by an air machine flying 

 low over the trees is the only plan that seems theoretically feasible, and it is 

 hardly so at the present time. A somewhat similar experiment was carried 

 out in the Eastern United States this summer in which a block of 5,000 catalpa 

 trees affected by caterpillars was treated with poison dust distributed from an 

 aeroplane, and it is reported, with complete success. Before the next bud- 



