LOBLOLLY OR NORTH CAROLINA PINE. 47 



begun to emerge. The Bureau of Entomology of the United Stato 

 Department of Agriculture gives the following method of control in the 

 summer when a. group of trees is infested and begins to die. Trees 

 which are infested should be promptly cut and the bark peeled and 

 burned. In addition, "if felled and girdled trees are provided at the 

 proper time, so that the beetles will be attracted to them at the period of 

 their greatest flight, they will attack such trees in preference to the 

 living, uninjured ones ; then, after they have entered the inner bark and 

 the broods are partially developed, that is, before they have entered the 

 outer bark, it will only be necessary to remove the bark to effectually 

 destroy them and thus protect the healthy timber. If, however, the 

 removal of the bark is neglected until the broods have entered the outer 

 dry portion, it will be necessary to burn it as soon as it is removed." 



A weevil occasionally destroys the terminal shoot of the young tree, 

 causing a forked or crooked stem. 



The wood of trees which are blown down in storms or which are killed 

 by fires is quickly attacked and tunneled by sawyers, the larvae of 

 longicorn and other beetles. In order to save such timber, if it can not 

 be promptly used, it should be cut and put in water, or if this is impos- 

 sible, cut and peeled of the bark. 



SENSITIVENESS TO FIRE. 



During the first few years of its life the delicate tissues of the young 

 pine are entirely consumed by even a light grass fire. After the young 

 trees, however, attain a diameter of several inches, the bark around 

 their base thickens so rapidly that they are seldom seriously injured by 

 winter fires. The inner bark or growing tissue becomes active several 

 weeks later in the spring in the loblolly pine than in the longleaf pine, 

 and for this reason also large loblolly pines are less injured by early 

 spring fires than are longleaf pines. It is an exceptional case, there- 

 fore, for old trees of loblolly pine to be severely injured by early spring 

 fires unless they are crown fires. In winter or early spring before the 

 sap is active, young trees may even have much of the foliage consumed 

 without the fire killing the trees. Late spring and summer fires, after 

 the growth of the tree has begun, are far more destructive. 



The fact that loblolly pine generally grows on moister soils than the 

 longleaf pine undoubtedly contributes to its greater freedom from fire 

 injury; at times, however, even the wet lands and swamps, particularly 

 those with peaty soils, are badly burned during dry periods in summer 

 or in autumn. Such fires are extremely destructive when the humus is 

 thick and undergrowth dense. To protect mature timber from the 

 disastrous fires, it is customary to burn the underbrush during calm 

 weather each winter, and in this way to prevent its accumulation. On 

 loose, level, sandy soils having the water table near the surface, where 

 the trees do not suffer from drought, the yearly destruction of a large 

 portion of the litter probably affects but slightly the growth of the 



