183 



other words, practical application must follow and not precede 

 scientific investigation and expert advice, jnst as legislation for 

 the control of forest insects to yield good results must follow 

 and not precede education on the principles and methods of con- 

 trol. 



The steps toward the successful protection of forest trees from 

 their insect enemies are: 



1. Investigations to determine the essential facts about the 

 principal insects which are capable of killing the trees. 



2. Concentration of the investigations on the most import- 

 ant species to determine their seasonal history and habits, and 

 the most economical and effectual methods of preventing serious 

 depredations by them. 



3. Dissemination of authoritative information on the essen- 

 tial facts and principles of control and prevention, by means 

 of circulars, press notices, lectures, special field instructions, and 

 field demonstrations. 



4. Practical application of this information by the owners 

 of affected and threatened timber, under a strict adherence to 

 the recommendations. 



I might pause at this point, to make it clear, that we are con- 

 ducting now and have conducted a number of practical demon- 

 strations to prove that our recommendations will work, and w r e 

 have proved it in a number of cases. In one case last summer, 

 involving the cutting of over twenty thousand trees, over a very 

 large area in Oregon we demonstrated the practicability of con- 

 trolling one of the worst insect enemies of western forests. In 

 one locality in Montana over ten thousand trees were cut by 

 private owners, small owners. They cut the timber and worked 

 it into fuel and burned it during the winter and stopped insect 

 depredations which had been going on for twenty or thirty years 

 and killing an enormous amount of timber. The timber stopped 

 dying the next year. I had a letter informing me, just before I 

 came here, that over one hundred Indians were cutting and bark- 

 ing timber according to our recommendations in an Indian reser- 

 vation in eastern Montana. This is a demonstration project, and 

 the Indians are so much interested that they have authorized the 

 expenditure of ten thousand dollars, and they ar.e cutting the 

 timber and barking it themselves. This, we believe, is almost 



