The Bug and the Timber 



Results Given in Annual Report of Bureau of Entomology 



WESTERN FIELD WORK 



"An especial investigation of the insect damage 

 to crude spruce products for airplane stock in the 

 Slates of Washington and Oregon showed that the 

 greater part if not all of the damage could be pre- 

 vented by proper methods of logging and production 

 with little or no additional cost. 



"A special study was completed on the interrelation 

 of forest fires and insects on an area of about 8,000 

 acres in southern Oregon. This area had been under 

 observation since 1914, and the fire had burned over 

 about 800 acres in 1918. The records show that prev- 

 ious to the fire the insects had killed 485,000 board 

 feet of timber. The fire killed 170,000 feet, and sub- 

 sequently the slightly fire-injured as well as the unin- 

 jured trees in the burned area were killed by beetles, 

 which were attracted from the surrounding areas. It 

 was noticed that the infestation in the burned area 

 increased more than 1,000 per cent, but it was found 

 that tin 1 infestation in the surrounding areas decreas- 

 ed. It was also found that the broods of the beetles 

 in the fire-scorched trees failed to develop to much 

 beyond the original number that attacked the trees. 

 So the fire did not contribute to an increase of the 

 beetles iii the general area or to the starting or ex- 

 tension of beetles. This result is of extreme interest 

 and hardly to be expected. 



"The most careful study ever made of the history 

 <>f an epidemic infestation by tree-killing beetles was 



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