154 PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



the neglect of grubbing up the stumps and roots in places where 

 it does not pay to utilise them as fuel, have all contributed to 

 favour in a great degree the numerical increase of this most 

 dangerous insect. Other calamities, too, to which the forests have 

 from time to time been exposed, as, for instance, extensive throwing 

 of timber by storms and breakage from heavy snowfall, have had 

 an injurious influence ; for it is often impossible to get rid of the 

 enormous masses of stumps and root-timber, despite the fact that 

 they offer the most favourable breeding-places for the reproduction 

 of this insect. 



But in face of such possible danger, it is all the more the duty 

 of the forester and the sylviculturist to do everything that lies in 

 their power to hinder and prevent the reproduction of the rostral 

 beetle. The safest of all means lies, of course, in the careful 

 grubbing up and disposal of all stumps and roots as fuel, for 

 where this can be carried out there is little danger of complaints 

 being heard about its prevalence. Felling of the timber in the 

 pan that is, felling it by cutting through the main roots with the 

 axe, and not in such manner with axe and saw as will leave a 

 stump protruding above the soil is not of itself sufficient, as even 

 then too many thick roots remain in the ground. 



Where only small numbers of these beetles are still noticeable, 

 the time at which the grubbing up of the stumps and roots may 

 take place is a matter of comparative indifference ; but when they 

 already occur in large numbers, the stumps can be utilised as 

 decoy places, and grubbing out had best be seen to during the 

 later half of summer, after the bulk of the ova have been deposited, 

 or, if more convenient, can be arranged for early in the following 

 spring. Where it can conveniently take place, the utilisation of 

 the land for agricultural purposes for a year or two is an excellent 

 means of obviating attacks from this beetle, for it necessitates the 

 clearance of the stumps ; but unfortunately it is impracticable on 

 any ex tensive 'scale. 



In order to obviate danger to young plantations, it is better to 

 let the soil lie fallow for one, or still better for two years after a 

 clear fall of mature timber has been made ; for if the fall be at 

 once planted up, both breeding-places and feeding-grounds are 

 conveniently afforded to the beetle on the same area, whilst the 

 injurious effects are all the more marked if it has not been possible 

 to grub up the stumps in anything like a complete manne 



