466 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



could not then be done in that part of the infested wood- 

 land included in the park ; but, in spite of all that was done 

 by the force of men employed in this section, the moths 

 attacked the pines in the reservation, and one of them was 

 very nearly stripped. This large pine made heroic efforts to 

 survive, but in the spring of 1898 it was dead. It is shown 

 in the illustration (Plate IX). Had the ground under these 

 trees been burned over early in the spring of 1896, there is 

 no doubt that this pine might have been saved. Another 

 large pine on Baker's Hill, Maiden, where the ground was 

 not burned over in the spring of 1898, was stripped by the 

 gypsy moth and soon died and was cut down. The work of 

 burning which has been done in the Middlesex Fells Reserva- 

 tion has prevented the destruction of many pines, both large 

 and small. 



The explanation of the death of these coniferous trees is 

 simple. They do not so readily survive the shock of the 

 destruction of their foliage as do the deciduous trees, and 

 they are also particularly susceptible to the attacks of bark 

 beetles when in the weakened condition superinduced by the 

 loss of their foliage. Bark beetles attack them as soon as 

 there is a dearth of sap, and they strike at the very life of 

 the tree. Death before long ensues. If the defoliation of 

 the woods continues for more than one year, other trees than 

 the pines are destroyed. The woodlands in the infested 

 region consist largely of pines and oaks, with some birch, 

 maple, ash and other trees. The only wooded localities 

 where defoliation was continuous for more than one season 

 were grown up mostly to pines and several species of oak. 

 Wherever defoliation has dccurred for two successive seasons, 

 even though lessened by the work of the agents of the Board, 

 at least one-fourth of the oaks have died. This has been 

 true even where the trees were young, sound and vigorous. 

 In one infested locality in the Lynn Woods Reservation 

 (which, owing to the pressure of work necessitated elsewhere, 

 was not discovered until the trees on half an acre or more 

 had been stripped) , all the trees in or near the centre of this 

 spot, where the attack was most prolonged and severe, have 

 since died. There were several localities in the Saugus 

 woods where, by total defoliation for one or two seasons, a 



