AMERICAN FORESTRY 



235 



logical Branch of the Canadian Department of Agricul- 

 ture. He traveled 400 miles by canoe in Quebec and 125 

 miles on foot in New Brunswick in addition to other less 

 extensive trips. He and his associates went to study the 

 tragedy of the balsam and he has now made his report to 

 Dr. J. M. Swaine, of Ottawa, chief of the Division of 

 Forest Insects in Canada. 



Mr. Graham found that the balsam had been destroyed 

 indirectly by the lumbermen and directly by the balsam 

 or spruce bud moth. Under the methods of logging 

 employed, the balsam, which was looked down upon by 

 the lumbermen when pine and spruce were to be had, 

 was left standing until large districts contained little 

 else than balsam or fir. 



For a time the balsam in its isolation prospered 

 mightily, but eventually its wonderful prosperity led to 

 its downfall. A native insect, which under ordinary con- 

 ditions causes but little damage, bred up to such large 

 numbers when its natural food, the foliage of the balsam, 

 appeared in such abundance, that it forthwith proceeded 

 to defoliate and then to destroy the great forests of 

 balsam which stretched for scores and scores of miles in 

 the wilderness of Quebec and New Brunswick. Not 

 until most of the dominant balsam had been destroyed, 

 when, in other words, the bud worms had eaten them- 

 selves out of house and home, did the destruction cease. 

 Then followed secondary insects, various kinds of bark 

 beetles, which attacked and killed thousands of trees 

 already weakened by the onslaught of the bud worn. 

 These beetles breed in fresh slashings and in order to 

 control them a general policy of slash burning has been 

 recommended by the Division of Forest Insects. 



Balsam deteriorates so rapidly that only a very small 

 fraction of the dead or dying timber can be salvaged 

 and used for pulp. This work is being carried forward 

 on a large scale in New Brunswick, but the time is close 

 at hand when no further shipments of "dead and down" 

 can be made to the mills. When this time comes and the 

 supply of cemmercial balsam is reduced to the minimum, 

 then Canada's contribution of one-third of the supplies 

 of paper, wood and pulp which are used by the United 

 States will be materially reduced. 



"More than 50 per cent of the balsam in Quebec has 

 been killed," says Mr. Graham. "The only balsam trees 

 remaining on extensive areas are the young reproduction 

 and those which are growing in the shade of other trees. 

 The earliest bud worm outbreak began in 1909 or 1910 

 on the headwaters of the Dumoine, Black, Coulogne and 

 Gatineau rivers. This region became a. great nursery 

 where the pest reached its maximum concentration and 

 from which it spread eastward into lands largely denuded 

 of its timber except for the balsam. It was thus that the 

 lumbermen had paved the way for the insect. 



"The outbreak is over because the available food sup- 

 ply of the insect has been used up on large areas. It is 

 probable that very little balsam is left except in the 

 southern part of the province. With a large part of the 

 available spruce cut, and the mills dependent more and 

 more upon balsam for their future supply of pulpwood, 

 this condition is a veritable catastrophe. The damage 



has been done and there is no immediate remedy." 

 Mr. Graham points out, however, that the widespread 

 destruction of the Canadian balsam will have some 

 recompense. "It it nature's remedy," he says, "of bring- 

 ing the forest back from a condition of instability to a 

 safer and more stable condition. The proportion of 

 balsam in the stands has been reduced, while other species 

 of trees have increased in like ratio." 



The need of a constructive forest policy has been 

 brought home to the lumber interests and to officials 

 and specialists of Canada. 



In the end the general forestry conditions may be 

 greatly improved as a sequel of the raid on the balsams 

 by the budworm, but for many years to come the loss 

 will bear heavily on consumers of pulp and paper. 



GERMAN FORESTS STILL GREAT ASSET 

 '"PHAT the famous and well-tended State forests of 

 * Germany figure importantly in the industrial and 

 economic rehabilitation of that country seems evident 

 from recent information received by Gordon Dorrance, 

 of New York, a member of the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation, from Dr. Carl Alvin Schenck, of Hesse-Darm- 

 stadt, for 15 years famous in this country as the founder 

 of the Biltmore School, and a forester of recognized rank 

 in America not less than abroad. 



Doctor Schenck declares that "German forests con- 

 tinue an A-l asset. Our forest policy has been a con- 

 servative one, as you know. It reaps today what it has 

 planted. Were it not for our forests the coal situation 

 would be critical in the extreme. There is no coal what- 

 soever to be had for my house at Darmstadt; here in 

 Lindenfels I have wood and some coke, enough for the 

 time being. 



"We require better economic conditions, safer than 

 those now prevailing with reference to food and living. 

 If our crops fail in 1920 there will be a disaster, a catas- 

 trophe by which the Black Plague of London is a million 

 times repeated. Unfortunately, chances for reasonably 

 good crops are few, and slight. There is no sugar to be 

 had today ; not an egg for the sick ; no meat, of course 

 except for the rich and the very rich. Wages are high, 

 but you cannot buy that thing for a stiff price which is 

 not in any market. 



"Our present forest policy continues to be conserva- 

 tive much too conservative for me. If there were ever 

 a time to empty a saving's box, that day has now arrived. 

 Where the forests stand on farm soil they might well be 

 converted into farms, although the authorities do not 

 seem to approve of the change. Many of our forests 

 might be thinned out twice as heavily as is customary, 

 but the forester does not care to abandon the old prac- 

 tices. 



"The price of forest products is high in paper money. 

 Spruce logs sell in the woods, 15 miles from the nearest 

 railroad, at 2,000 marks per 1,000 board feet. Timber 

 fit for furniture is beyond the reach of anyone. Neverthe- 

 less, the forest authorities do not cut more than the 'sus- 

 tainable yield' or as much as is replaced by our annual 

 growth." 



