ENTOMO LOGIC. 



BARK INSECTS. 



By Pkof. Otto Lugger, State Entomologist. 



It has taken a long time before the American nation has realized that 

 it is not only very important to protect such trees as are still found in our 

 more or less ruined forests, but that it is also equally necessary to plant 

 trees to re-forest the more denuded portions of our country. The most 

 strongly expressed objection to engage in planting and fostering forests 

 has been a question of dollars and cents. It was and is claimed, and 

 not without reason, that it requires too many years to grow trees of a 

 sufficient large size to be converted into lumber, and that the duration of 

 a human life was not long enough to enable those planting forest trees 

 to harvest the crop or to realize on the investment. Such has been the 

 opinion of the generations before us, and as they simply cut down trees 

 but did not plant any, or take the proper care of those planted by nature, 

 they left the present generation no inheritance. In fact, the last gen- 

 erations have done what we are doing now: living simply for the present, 

 not caring for the future. Our case is like that of King Louis XV., who 

 said: li Apres moile deluge," after me the deluge. But this period in a spend- 

 thrift's life has to come to an end, and whether we like it or not, this 

 generation has to make good what former ones have neglected, or have 

 blindly destroyed. But this is not the space to discuss this matter; it 

 has been discussed again and again in these pages. "To grow a forest, 

 it is simply necessary to plant a large number of trees in a more or less 

 regular manner;" this seems to be the idea most persons have of producing 

 a forest. But this is by no means the correct one. It is not only necessary 

 to plant trees, but it is equally important to protect them against their 

 numerous foes, both animal and vegetable, and also to take proper care of 

 the trees that already form forests. Of course, it is not even possible to 

 mention the names of the mammals, birds, insects and other animals that 

 are more or less intimately connected with a forest, both as friends and as 

 enemies. But among the most important enemies of our trees, we have a 

 large number of insects that belong to the order of beetles, and which are 

 usually called bark-beetles. This name does not, however, indicate that 

 they simply live in the bark of trees, or that other insects may not occur 

 there. A glance at the illustration will give a good idea of the insects and 

 their work, sufficiently, at least, to make it unnecessary to give a long, 

 technical description of them. 



