99 



ber was cut was carefully noted. Every species of insect which 

 seemed to be in any way connected with the spruce as taken, and 

 notes made on their habits as far as observed, (which will be re- 

 ported later). 



Past history of the ravages of these insects in the spruce forests 

 of this and other countries and the information that I have ob- 

 tained from personal observation and inquiry, indicate that such 

 wholesale destruction of timber always follows some great injury 

 to the forest by storms, fires or drought. This we may account 

 for in the following manner : The species of scolytid bark and 

 timber beetles, which are supposed to be the main cause of the 

 trouble, no doubt have a preference for injured trees or recent 

 prostrated limbs, in which they are always more or less plentiful, 

 and in such they may continue to breed for many generations, in- 

 creasing or decreasing according to the supply naturally furnished 

 by an occasional uprooted tree or broken limb, never being allowed 

 in the natural order of events to increase sufficiently to attack and 

 and kill the healthy trees. When, however, something un- 

 usual occurs to injure any large amount of timber, nature is then 

 thrown of her balance, and no longer preserves natural order, and 

 an equal division her species. The insects which have so long been 

 prevented from increasing to their full extent by the meagre supply 

 of natural food, lack of favorable conditions, and occasional attack 

 of their enemies, now furnished with abundant breeding ground, 

 and favorable conditions in the injured forest, increase with astonish- 

 ing rapidity. * By the third year, they will have increased to count- 

 less numbers, taking the character of an invasion, attacking trees 

 and continuing on their march of destruction like a victorious army 

 through an enemies country until checked by reinforcements in the 

 ranks of their natural enemies. 



It is therefore possibly a fact, as is generally supposed, that the 

 extreme drought of 1882 and 1883 had something to do with the 

 wholesale death of the trees which occurred in certain localities in 

 the Cheat mountain forests between 1882 and 1886. The timber on 

 the extreme rocky points no doubt was thus very materially injured, 

 many of the trees dying from the effects of the drought alone, thus 

 forming a nucleus from which an invasion of the beetles might ex- 

 tend to and destroy living trees. This was evidently the case in the 

 locality mentioned. Points were found here so rocky that it seemed 

 almost impossible for the roots of the trees to find either soil or 

 moisture. Trees that once flourished on these points were now 

 dead, and in an advanced stage of decay. Were these dry points 

 the only places where trees were found to be dead, we might safely 

 infer that the drought was the cause of their death; such we found 

 was probably not the case, as the characteristic dead trees were ob- 

 served on river bottoms, deep and fertile soil and even in swampy 

 places in the infested districts. 



These affected portions of the forest from 50 to 1,000 acres in ex- 



*It is estimated that these scolytid* whi increase from one female at tfcw rate ui 1. w< 

 the first year, 8,010 the second year, and 729 million the third year, 



