LARCH IN MAINE THREATENED BY INSECT DEPREDATION 



By H. B. 



CONSIDERABLE attention has been called to the 

 browning of the larch or tamarack in eastern Maine. 

 In many localities large stands of larch appeared as if a 

 fire had swept through, whereas a few weeks previous 

 they had been green. In places where the larch occurs 

 in large stands, making up a high percentage of the 

 forest, whole hill-sides and valleys looked brown. 



The first thought was that the larch sawfly was again 

 sweeping over the state. This insect destroyed practi- 

 cally aW of the ilarch in the stalte in 1882 and has nearly 

 made the larch tree extinct in some of the Eastern states. 

 Within the last few years, however, large quantities of 

 larch have again begun to seed in on old pastures. The 

 larch is an extremely valuable tree, the wood being 

 very durable, so that it is used for the upper knees of 

 small vessels, telegraph poles, fence posts, and railroad 

 ties, besides being used in cabinet work and for interior 

 finishing. 



Examination of the stands of larch have shown that 

 the trees are being attacked by a comparatively new 

 insect to this region. It is known as the "Larch Case 

 Bearer" and is very common throughout Europe where 

 it is a serious pest. It was first recorded in this country 

 in 1886 where it had probably been brought on European 

 Larch, a tree that is quite widely planted in the North- 

 eastern United States. At this time it caused consider- 

 able injury to a thirty-year-old stand of larch in North- 

 ampton, Massachusetts. It has been known for a good 

 many years at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, and 

 has also been observed in Albany, New York. At no 

 time, however, was it found in sufficient numbers to 

 cause any grave apprehension, as it apparently did not 

 multiply rapidly. At the present time very little is 

 kniown as to the ife history of tihe insect and observa- 

 tions are now being carried on by the Maine Forestry 

 Department in an effort to determine whether the insect 



Peirson 



is likely to prove serious or not. 



There is apparenrt'ly but one generaltion of the insect 

 a year. The delicate gray moths started to emerge 

 from the small cigar-shaped cocoons about June twen- 

 tieth. The moths, which are only about three-sixteenths 

 of an inch in length, lay their eggs on the new needles 

 and the young larvae hatching out immediately begin 

 to tunnel or mine within the needle, causing it to turn 

 yellow and then brown, starting from the tips. When 

 very numerous, practically all of the needles on a tree 

 may be injured and in many cases destroyed, as in the 

 present outbreak. As soon as the mine is long enough 

 to form a case, a portion of the needle is cut off and the 

 larvae proceeds with this protection to another leaf. 

 When attacking a needle the larvae first cuts a circular 

 hole through which its head and later its body may ex- 

 tend for feeding purposes. The case, which at first is 

 whitish, gradually becomes gray with age, and is lined 

 by the larvae with silk upon the approach of cold 

 weather, when the larva, carrying its case, retires to a 

 sheltered place on the branches or beneath bark and 

 lichens. It becomes active early in the spring and con- 

 tinues feeding. Owing to the fact that nearly all of 

 the feeding is done within the leaf, it will probably 

 prove a difficult insect to check. There is at present 

 every indication that considerable damage may be done 

 to the larch, for the insect is becoming extremely nu- 

 merous. 



Our native larch, known scientifically as Larix lariciiia. 

 is called by a large number of common or local names. 

 In Maine it is commonly referred to as Hackmatack or 

 frequently as Juniper, but this name is very misleading 

 as two real species of Juniper occur in this state. West 

 of Vermont it is most frequently called Tamarack, 

 so that both this name and larch are recognized as the 

 proper names for the species. 



Big Buffalo Bull Goes to Uruguay 



"DISO is unhappy! 



*-' He is to be deported, thrust from the land of his 

 birth, torn from his wives and children and doomed to 

 live in exile for the rest of his days. 



Secretary of Agriculture Wallace has decreed that 

 he must go ; the Forest Service has arranged his trans- 

 ports and Biso is inconsolable. 



Biso is the buffalo bull that for fifteen years has 

 been the admiration of visitors to the Wichita National 

 Forest and Game Refuge in Oklahoma. The city of 

 Montevideo, Uruguay, has asked that its zoological 

 garden be supplied with an American bison and the 

 Forest Service men who have charge of the buffalo on 

 the Wichita say that Biso will be an excellent represen- 

 tative of this typical North American species whose 



once mighty herds roamed the great plains from Mex- 

 ico to northern Canada. 



In 1907 fifteen bison were "planted" in the Wichita 

 National Forest and have since increased to over 150 

 head. This herd promises to maintain the type and 

 stamina of the original bison, since the animals are kept 

 at all times under natural conditions. They subsist en- 

 tirely on wild grasses and live within so large an in- 

 closure that they are under practically no restraint. 

 So Biso has been well content and is reluctant to 

 leave. Yet many of the younger buffalo bulls are cast- 

 ing envious glances at the old fellow. It would be very 

 pleasant, they think, to doze idly beneath a palm tree 

 and be served with fresh cut grasses or have their 

 wrinkled noses patted by some dark haired senorita. 



But Biso has his doubts. 



