FOREST LIFE. 99 



tions than among the noble Pines in the north and east. There 

 is a cancerous disease peculiar to the Pine-tree, to which lumber- 

 men give the original name of "Conk" or "Konkus." The man- 

 ifestation of this disease on the outside of the tree, usually sev- 

 eral feet from the butt end, is a small spot of a brown color, 

 sometimes resembling gingerbread in appearance and texture, 

 protruding as a general thing only to the surface, and varying in 

 size from a ninepence to the crown of a hat. In some clumps 

 of Pine, all that indicates the presence of this disease is a little 

 yellow pitch starting out through the bark and trickling down 

 the outside. 



The uninitiated would be led to suspect but little, if indeed any, 

 harm from an appearance so slight and unnoticeable as that pre- 

 sented by the konkus. It exerts no influence either upon the size 

 or beautiful proportions of the tree, as those most seriously af- 

 fected, in outward appearances, are as handsomely grown as the 

 most perfect, which leads to the conclusion that the disease does 

 not much affect them until quite mature. 



On cutting one of these trees, the infection is found to spread 

 itself, more or less, throughout the trunk, turning the wood to a 

 reddish color, making it spongy in texture ; and while the fibrous 

 portions of the wood retain their thread-like straightness, the mar- 

 rowy portion or flesh-like membranes, and intermediate layers be- 

 tween the fibers, appeal dry and of a milky whiteness. Some- 

 times the rot shoots upward, in imitation of the streaming light 

 of the Aurora Borealis; in others downward, and even both v 

 preserving the same appearac 



Large families, and even communities of the Pino, are thus in- 

 fected, so thai in a group of thirty trees pert than 

 half a <!<»/.en short Logs can be obtained. 



Frauds are sometimes practiced upon those who pure 1 

 by driving a. knot 01 piece of a Limb of the same tree into the 

 konkus and hewing it off smoothly, so that it has the appeal- 



