2O6 



THE FORESTER. 



September, 



tack. The creature has, it is true, prefer- 

 ences, and until it becomes crowded will 

 feed on certain species only. When it 

 has so far increased in numbers that it is 

 pressed for food, every green thing will be 

 devoured. If need be it will eat the leaves 

 of the poisonous species of the R]ms, both 

 the R. toxicodendron and the R. venenata. 

 While in general it prefers the foliage of 

 the broad-leaved trees, when pressed it 

 readily resorts to the conifers. In fact, it 

 sweeps a wood as effectively as a fire. 



For a year the secondary buds of most 

 trees, buds that put forth after the crop of 

 caterpillars has matured, serve to maintain 

 the life of the forest, but the plants are 

 rapidly weakened by the tax, and perish 

 after two or three seasons of the infliction. 

 It appears likely that in five years none of 

 the aboreal forces would survive. There- 

 fore we may assume that if the Gypsy 

 Moth becomes firmly implanted in our for- 

 ests, these forests are in a large measure 

 likely to disappear. The processes will 

 probably be slow, for the rate of dissemi- 

 nation of the insect is not great, yet the 

 moths if plentiful will invade railway cars 

 and other vehicles, so that the new colony 

 may be planted at a distance of hundreds 

 of miles from the fields where the species 

 have become abundant. 



It is not unlikely that some of the curi- 

 ous alterations in the distribution of forest 

 trees which geologists have recognized 

 may have been due to the development in 

 former ages of the Gypsy Moth or other 

 like destructive species of insect. Thus in 



the early Miocene Tertiary Europe was ten- 

 anted by a host of arboreal species closely 

 akin to those that now form our admirable 

 American broad-leaved forests. The Mag- 

 nolias, the Gums and the Tulip trees, etc., 

 were then as well developed in Europe as 

 they are in this country. Suddenly all these 

 species disappeared from the old world. 

 There is no reason to believe that the 

 change was due to an alteration in cli- 

 mate. There are many evidences indeed 

 that such was not the case. It is a very 



*i 



reasonable conjecture that that alteration 

 was brought about by the invasion of an in- 

 sect enemy which may have been the an- 

 cestor of the Gypsy Moth. 



What has been said above may make it 

 plain to the reader that if the Gypsy Moth 

 is allowed freely to extend itself in this 

 country, the consequences are likely to be- 

 come most serious. They may indeed at- 

 tain to the height of a calamity. It is pos- 

 sible that effective enemies of this species 

 may be developed in course of time, but 

 the past twenty years has failed to show 

 any such. It is possible that some change 

 of climate may reduce or destroy the spe- 

 cies, but for more than a score of years 

 they have in no wise suffered from frosts 

 or drouth or excessively wet seasons. It is 

 the part of wisdom to face the issue ; we 

 should see that our generation has in this 

 matter no right to trifle with the right of 

 the generation to come. Our forests are 

 next after our fields the natural basis of 

 our prosperity. It is evident that they are 

 endangered by the presence of this enemy. 



THE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 



BY WILLIAM R. DUDLEY, 



Stanford University, California. 



A few weeks since the Editor of Tin: 

 FOIII.STI.I: addressed me a note requesting 

 a di.M -u^ion of the present condition of the 

 BigTrc in the Sierras, plans for, and 



theprospecl of their permanent preserva- 

 tion. This courtesy was greatly appreci- 

 ated for the reason that I have spent a con- 



siderable portion of three summers, since 

 1894, camping beneath the shade of the 

 larger and the little known groves south 

 of the Kings River, and travel has led me 

 through from one to three other groves, 

 in each of three additional summers or 

 springs. 



