46 LOBLOLLY OR NORTH CAROLINA PINE. 



and thoroughly drained that there is frequently insufficient moisture for 

 sprouting, and if the seed germinate the young plants speedily succumb 

 to drought. Fields which have been abandoned or left a few years to 

 fallow, logged over areas, and burns all form suitable seedbeds. 



FUNGOUS DISEASES AND INSECTS. 



So far as known the older trees of loblolly pine are subject to few 

 destructive fungous diseases. On some low, flat lands, especially where 

 fires have burned around the collar of the trunk, the trees are attacked 

 by a root rot caused by a species of Hydnum, which may gain entrance 

 through fire scars. Only trees large enough to have heartwood are 

 thus affected. The upper portions of the stems are also occasionally 

 affected by redheart, produced by Trametes pint, which gains entrance 

 chiefly at broken limbs and knot holes. Trees less than 75 years old 

 are rarely affected by redheart, which is characteristically a disease of 

 old age. Another fungus, Polyporus Schweinitzii, occasionally attacks 

 the heartwood. Seedlings seem to be very free from diseases. They 

 frequently turn an olive green or copper color in the spring, but this 

 discoloration is not a disease. 



While comparatively free from fungous diseases, loblolly pine is sub- 

 ject to the attacks of the pine bark beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis, 

 Zimm.}, which kills trees through girdling them by the galleries made 

 beneath the bark chiefly in the middle part of the trunk. A few weeks 

 after the attack the leaves begin to brown, generally at the top of the 

 crown. Stands in which rapid natural thinning is taking place are par- 

 ticularly subject to attack. Not only are the dying and weakened inter- 

 mediate and suppressed trees thus attacked, but sometimes also the large 

 and healthy dominant trees are killed. During summer lumbering 

 many young trees which are left become infested by the beetle, which 

 breeds freely in the green slash, particularly that lying in the shade, 

 and spreads from it to living trees. Trees which are bruised by falling 

 timber or in skidding are first attacked. Several broods of the beetle 

 are produced each season. The broods, which develop early in the 

 spring, emerge and attack sound near-by trees, and as the different 

 broods develop new centers of infection are established. In forests in 

 which there is a large admixture of broadleaf species the damage to the 

 pine by this insect is less than in pure stands, especially in the old-field 

 stands. Many of the old-field stands are connected with farms and 

 where the distance is not too great to permit fuel to be hauled, all trees 

 which show by the discoloration of their foliage any signs of being 

 affected by the bark beetles should be promptly removed. If infested 

 trees are located during the winter and are cut and removed before 

 spring the brood will be destroyed. This will check the propagation of 

 the insects and prevent them from increasing in number and passing 

 to other trees. Wherever it is possible to remove such attacked tree- 

 without great cost they should be promptly cut. It is more difficult to 

 check an epidemic during the spring and summer after the broods have 



