THE GIPSY MOTH AS A FOKEST INSECT. 17 



as really typical. So far as they go, however, they indicate that the 

 gipsy moth is not to be feared outside the range of the oak or in 

 forests inside that range provided the oak, and possibly one or two 

 other species of unimportant trees, be eliminated. 



There are, therefore, two phases of the complex problem of gipsy- 

 moth control in forests which must be considered. First, how best 

 to eliminate the oak and secure its replacement by other and, if 

 possible, more valuable trees; and, second, how best to protect the 

 oak from serious injury in localities where little else can be grown to 

 advantage. 



In a large portion of the area at present infested by the gipsy 

 moth the solution is almost absurdly simple. This is the natural home 

 of the white pine, one of the most valuable tmiber trees to be found 

 in the whole Temperate Zone. In a way the oak is an interloper. 

 Over a large part of New England the white pine was once preeminent, 

 and it would become so agam were the country to be deserted by 

 civilized man. The pine reproduces freely, if given half a chance, 

 but there are thousands of acres in the aggregate in which a natural 

 reproduction of pine is being retarded, destroyed even, thi'ough the 

 mere circumstance that the oak chanced to secure a running start, 

 by sproutmg, when the land was last cut over. The German forester 

 who would permit such conditions to prevail would be considered 

 hopelessly, even criminally insane. Under such circumstances oak 

 is to be considered as a weed, and the advent of the gipsy moth as a 

 blessing when, as sometimes happens, it takes the oak and leaves the 

 pine. If it would always do just that and nothing more its progress 

 might be watched with a certain degree of complacency. But it does 

 not always stop at that and, what is worse, injudicious cutting not 

 infrequently results in greater damage than would be done by the 

 gipsy moth itself. The larger pines are apt to be cut or broken down, 

 and the smaller ones, unable to compete wath the rapidly growing 

 oak sprouts, are quickly in no better condition than before. 



The natural program, therefore, in every pine and oak mixture, 

 is so to eliminate the oak as to afford the pine a better opportunity 

 to take possession of the ground. How this may best be accom- 

 plished depends entirely upon the individual characteristics of any 

 particular wood lot. And, furthermore, it is strictly a problem in 

 applied forestry and one for the forester, not for the entomologist, 

 to solve. 



In a great many localities where the white pine does not grow 

 naturally, or in wMch it has been destroyed through injudicious cut- 

 ting and extensive forest fires, there is to be found a stand of oak 

 mingled with other hardwoods. In these forests the solution is not 

 reached quite so easUy or so satisfactorily, Cliestnut (saving only 



