1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



461 



been taken to combat this beetle pest. 

 General!}' the cutting of timber is being 

 restricted as far as practicable to beetle- 

 infested tracts and almost entirely to 

 timber completel}^ killed. Since the 

 dead timber, however, furnishes no 

 breeding ground for the beetle, this 

 restriction is beneficial only in so far as 

 it affects the danger from fire, and does 

 practically nothing to restrict the de- 

 structive insects. To remedy this mat- 

 ter it has been strongly recommended 

 by Dr. Hopkins and Dr. von Schrenk, 



sion and removal of the infested timber 

 will sufficiently reduce the number of 

 insects so that their natural enemies will 

 be able to take care of the rest. In ac- 

 cordance with these recommendations, 

 the Department of the Interior has de- 

 cided to allow the sales of the infested 

 material together with the killed timber. 

 Certain restrictive measures have also 

 been removed, so that sales may be 

 effected more expeditiously and the 

 consumption of this material thereby 

 encouraged. Unfortunately the pres- 



REPRODUCTION OF PINE IN THE BI^ACK HILLS FOREST RESERVE. 



of the Department of Agriculture, as 

 well as by Capt. Seth Bullock, super- 

 visor of the Black Hills Reserve, that 

 not only the beetle-killed, but also the 

 beetle-infested (green living trees at- 

 tacked by the beetles) should be in- 

 cluded in timber sales and removed as 

 rapidly as possible. According to these 

 authorities, it appears that the removal 

 of the bark during the winter season 

 will effectuall}' destroy the insects hiber- 

 nating in the larval state, and it is be- 

 lieved, therefore, that the rapid conver- 



ent market is very limited, and the cut- 

 ting and peeling of this timber beyond 

 what may be sold would require an un- 

 usually large outlaj' of money. To 

 enable a rapid disposition of this ma- 

 terial it is necessary that Congress 

 modify the present law in so far as it 

 pertains to the shipment of reserve tim- 

 ber. In view of the extraordinary cir- 

 cumstances, it is hoped that the bill in- 

 troduced for this purpose during the 

 last session of Congress will meet with 

 more favor during the coming session. 



