INSECT INJURIES TO FOREST PRODUCTS. 395 



wood immune. Peeling and splitting of the wood before it is piled is 

 also desirable for the same purpose. 



UNSEASONED PRODUCTS IN THE ROUGH. 



Freshly sawed hardwood lumber placed in close piles during warm, 

 damp weather in July and September presents especially favorable 

 conditions for injury by ambrosia beetles (figs. 43, #, and 45, a.) This 

 is due to the continued moist condition of such material. Heavy 

 2-inch or 3-inch stuff is also liable to attack even in loose piles with 

 lumber sticks. An example of the latter was found in a valuable lot 

 of mahogany lumber of first grade, the value of which was reduced 

 two-thirds by injury from a native ambrosia beetle. Numerous com- 

 plaints have been received from different sections of the country of 

 this class of injury to oak, poplar, gum, and other hardwoods. In all 

 cases it is the moist condition and retarded drying of the lumber which 

 induces attack; therefore any method which will provide for the 

 rapid drying of the lumber, before or after piling, will tend to pre- 

 vent losses. It is important that heavy lumber should, as far as 

 possible, be cut in the winter and piled so that it will be well dried 

 out before the middle of March. 



Lumber and square timber with the bark on the edges or sides 

 often suffer from injuries by flat and round-headed borers hatching 

 from eggs deposited in the bark of the logs before they are sawed or 

 after the lumber has been sawed and piled. One example of serious 

 damage and loss was reported in which white pine staves for paint 

 buckets and other small wooden vessels, which had been sawed from 

 small logs and the bark left on the edges, were attacked by a round- 

 headed borer, the adults having deposited their eggs in the bark after 

 the stock was sawed and piled. The character of the injury is shown 

 in figure 54, page 392. 



Another example was reported from a manufacturer in the South, 

 where the pieces of lumber which had a strip of bark on one side 

 were seriously damaged by the same kind of borer, the eggs having 



| been deposited in the logs before sawing or in the bark after the lum- 

 ber was piled. If the eggs are deposited in the logs and the borers 



' have entered the inner bark, or the wood, before sawing, they may 

 continue their work regardless of methods of piling; but if such lumber 

 is cut from new logs and placed in the pile while green, with the bark 

 surface up, it will be much less liable to attack than if piled with the 

 bark down. ' This liability of lumber, with bark edges or sides, to be 



' attacked by insects suggests the importance of the removal of the bark 



i to prevent damage, or, if this is not practicable, the lumber with the 

 bark on the sides should be piled in open, loose piles with the bark up, 

 while that with the bark on the edges should be placed on the outer 

 edges of the pile, exposed to the light and air. 



