;o FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION February 



James Langford, a Rampart pioneer, purpose, and trunks were stripped to 



has found a vein of mineral of the a height of 20 feet. But so large are 



consistency of chalk and of an indigo the affected areas that the few trees 



blue in color. It can be used as or- peeled were not a drop in the bucket, 

 dinary chalk. None of the Alaskan Efforts were made at different times 



mineralogists can identify it and it is to cut the dying timber. Tracts were 



being sent to Seattle for analysis. sold to mill men, and large quantities 



There are said to be in Alaska prob- were cut, but not enough to have any 



ably a dozen unindentified varieties of appreciable effect on the beetle inva- 



minerals, and one of the many benefits sion. Woodpeckers helped the work 



to Alaska from the Alaska- Yukon-Pa- along. They flocked to the dying trees 



cine Exposition, which will be held at by hundreds and stripped them of their 



Seattle in 1909, will be the assembling bark and devoured the young beetles 



and classifying of these now unknown by the million. But that was not 



minerals, any of which may be some enough. The pest had gained such 



hitherto undiscovered combination. As headway that it was beyond the power 



original research work will go on all of barkpeelers, log cutters, and wood- 



the time the exposition is in progress, peckers. 



one of the first duties of the "savants Meanwhile the peculiar fungus was 



in charge will be the identifying of gaining headway and getting in its 



these unknown elements or combina- work. It appears in the form of a 



tions, and the adapting of them to grayish slime between the bark and 



some commercial purpose. the wood. It makes the bark loose and 



it falls, leaving the trees bare, and 

 bringing down the multitudes of young 



SS Bark ?* *** be f e ' W / beetles to their certain death. Even if 



Checks for s e v e r a 1 years has the bafk stm h Qn th trunl the 



been working havoc in effect Qn thfi ^^ i f 



the valuabk pine timber of the Black for th dig ifl thdr ^^ ^ } 



Hills, S. Dak., has apparently been ya j mines 



given a check by a fungus which finds In nQrmal conditions the bark bgetle 



in the dying trees a congema place of attacks storm . thrown or other (]ead 



odgement, and at the same time kill dmb but it {& nQt numerous e h 



the beetles m the bark There is hope tQ kiu tfe &nd itg invasion can * 

 that the worst of the scourge in that in head But when some un . 



region has passed usual condition _ such as a hurricane 

 For ten years this beetle has been j over a large timber area- 



sweeping through the Black Hills for- iyes them a star ^ beetles ma in _ 



ests, every rear invading fresh areas. crease jn numbers until th ^ 



Its maximum destructives to attack vi s trees an / kn] them 



reached about two weeks ago, and it The invasion continues until SQme 



is now on the decline. enemy reduces ^ beedes bdow the 



The fungus is a "bark peeler.' po int where they are able to kill tim- 



pert< have claimed all the time that the her. That puts an end to the invasion 



beetles could be checked if some way This, apparently, is what the fungus is 



could be found to peel the trees in accomplishing in the Black Hills at 



which the young broods are harbor- this time, 

 ing. They live in the inner bark and 



next to the wood. When the bark is Insects Most people do not real- 

 separated from the wood their gal- Are Rivals ize the imrnense 

 lenes are laid open and they die. Ef- loss occasioned to for- 

 forts have been made in the affected est trees and to wood in its various 

 districts to peel standing trees. Ma- forms by insects. It is estimated by 

 chinery has been made for that express competent authorities that the finan- 



