CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 37 



fence was a regular abattis. Trees in a line were felled one upon another, and the 

 interstices filled in with smaller trees. It can readily be bedieved that under such 

 conditions forest fires were not infrequent. A fire of this kind on one occasion gave 

 me a fright. I was driving home at night when I saw a great glow of fire in the direc- 

 tion of the church. I whipped up my horse and reached the top of a commanding hill. 

 Yes, I said, it is the church; the fire is mounting the rafters and the steeple. But, 

 on coming yet nearer, I perceived the dark outline of the building against the glow, 

 which was that of a forest fire climbing the mountain beyond. 



At the present day the pulp manufacturer is undoubtedly a great boon to the 

 small farmers. We see piles of prepared logs at nearly every country station along 

 our railways. I have often wondered whether "the bark from these, and the brush and 

 tree-tops, are left scattered through the woods, to take fire some day, and spread devas- 

 tation over the land. 



But I must without further preface come to the consideration of my subject. 



Insects fall -naturally under two heads: biting insects, Mandibulata, and sucking 

 insects, Haust&llata. To the former belong the borers in the tree-trunks, the twig- 

 girdlers, and the leaf-devourers ; to the latter, the cicadas, the scale-insects and the 

 plant lice. Ft is difficult to tell which of the two orders is the more hurtful to vege- 

 tation. In ' God's great army ? the most insignificant corps becomes occasionally, by 

 force of numbers, a formidable array. 



In the summer of 1881 the maples presented a strange appearance. Their foliage 

 became brown and withered, as if autumn had come before its time. On examination 

 it was found that countless multitudes of the larvae of a minute species of moth, 

 Depressaria acerifoliella, Haworth, had assailed the foliage. The lava of this spe- 

 cies bites disks from the leaves and binds them together with a silken filament, so 

 constructing a case for itself. It protrudes its head and forelegs from its case, and 

 moves about the leaf eating away the parenchyma. 



In 1893 another remarkable insect attack upon the maples was witnessed: nearly 

 every leaf of the trees was drawn out of shape its edges being fastened together with 

 a fine web. Within the tent thus formed was a curious brown case, somewhat in the 

 form of cornucopia; and snugly ensconced within the case was a green larva with 

 an amber-coloured head. This truly was one of the most economical of insects ! 



Longfellow has said: 



' O thou sculptor, painter, poet ! 

 Take this lesson to thy heart : 

 That is best which lieth nearest, 

 Shape from it thy work of art.' 



And this larva Tiad used up its exuviae and excrementa in forming a case for it- 

 self an inner retreat. The leaf was its shelter and store of food ; for it fed upon the 

 parenchyma, and left only the veins and skin. The case was its stronghold. The 

 name of the insect is Semasia signatana, Clemens. 



Our native insect pests are bad enough, but the insect foes that we most dread 

 are the foreigners the immigrants, for the reason that, ' It is better to have to con- 

 tend wqlh the devil you know than with the devil you don't know' 



The advent of Nematus Erichsonii is an old story now. This pest destroyed our 

 tamaracks in the eighties, and it 



' still goes marching on.' 



Mr. A. H. D. Ross in his excellent article on ' The Forest Resources of Labrador 

 Peninsula,' tells us that, ' Of late years the European larch saw-fly has destroyed most 

 of the larch between Lake St. John and Lake Mistassini, and the pest is spreading 

 northward.' Can. For. Journ. V. I, No. 1, page 32.) 



The Gipsy moth, the Brown-tail moth, and the Leopard moth are new importa- 

 tions to the country south of us. 



So great a plague has the Gipsy moth been in Massachusetts that the legislature 

 in four years (1890-94) expended $275,000 in the effort to exterminate it, and had 

 not succeeded; and further appropriations were required. 



