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FOREST ENEMIES. 

 INSECTS AFFECTING FOREST TREES. 



Mr. W. Saunders, of London, Ontario, the well-known entomologist, 

 states that forest trees in every locality, in common with all other vege- 

 table growths, are more or less liable to the depredations of insects. 

 Insignificant frequently in size, they make up in numbers what they lack 

 in individual power. Some attack the roots, feeding upon or boring into 

 them, and thus sap the foundations of the tree's existence, others burrow 

 under the bark, eating out channels or galleries through the sap wood, 

 materially interfering with the flow of sap, or girdling the tree and so 

 causing its death. Others, diminutive in size, attack the smoother bark 

 of the twigs and branches, and puncturing their surface, suck the sap, the 

 life of the tree; others burrow into the terminal shoots and cause their 

 death, while a large army of others feed openly on the leaves, consuming 

 their substance, and materially retard the growth of the trees they attack. 



FOREST FIRES. 



Fires raging season after season through the forest have caused a greater 

 and more irreparable destruction than all the devastation caused by the 

 combined lumber industries. Many of these fires are caused by careless- 

 ness, neglect, or utter indifference. Fire is in every country the greatest 

 enemy of the forest, especially the pine forest, on account of its resinous 

 and inflammable nature. Once fairly started, man is powerless to extin- 

 guish it. It sweeps onward as long as it can find food to consume, leap- 

 ing over rivers, and is only brought to bay .when it reaches lakes or rocky 

 barren ground where there is nothing to burn. The first effect of these 

 fires is the total destruction of the pine seedlings, which together with the 

 younger growth are not strong enough to resist the effect of the scorching 

 to which they were exposed. Another effect leading pecuniarily to enor- 

 mous losses is the arrest of the growth in the trees exposed to these con- 

 flagrations. Another most pernicious effect resulting from the recurring 

 fires is the total destruction of every particle of organic matter in the 

 surface soil reducing it to a state of arid, barren sand of absolute sterility 



CATTLE. 



The injuries resulting to the forest from the inroads of live stock are 

 scarcely less destructive to its preservation than that sustained by fire. 

 The unrestricted pasturing of cattle tends slowly but surely to its final 

 destruction. The direct injuries result from the browsing and eating of 

 the tender plants in their youngest state, and of the young shoots ; the 

 tearing, breaking and trampling down of the small growth, tending to its 

 mutilation and decay, or being killed outright ; in short, to the impossi- 

 bility of the propagation of the forest by its natural seedlings. In pine 

 lands these injuries are lese apparent, the young trees not being eaten by 



