101 



to third-class lumber; a much less per cent being discarded in this 

 last sawing than in the first. There is now in the yard out of three 

 million reet sawed: 2,000,000 feet of first-class lumber and above, 

 700,000 feet of second-class lumber (piece stuff and weather-board- 

 ing) and 100,000 feet of third-class lumber. This lumber sells here 

 at an average of about $12 per thousand. The third-class sells for 

 $8 per thousand, and we sell more of it in proportion than we do of 

 firsts and seconds. 



PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS. 



From a careful examination of the trees in the healthy and affect- 

 ed districts and of the stumps and tops in cuttings of 1861 and 

 1884-1890, a tolerably correct idea of the durability of the timber 

 was formed, from which, I should judge that where these affected 

 tracts are accessible to a railroad or stream large enough to float 

 out logs, that this timber may be profitably worked within eight 

 years after it dies.* It is therefore possible that much of this timber 

 might be saved. From the fact that large companies are now oper- 

 ating in it, and that thousands of acres of these affected portions of 

 the forests, together with healthy portions, may be bought very 

 cheap, and within the next three or four years no doubt much of this 

 timber could be worked at a profit to operators, and a great saving 

 gained thereby. We would therefore suggest that the districts al- 

 ready dead should be felled and converted into lumber as soon as 

 possible. 



When it is considered that the scarcity of spruce and other tim- 

 ber of the world is becoming an alarming matter, the saving of a 

 portion of the immense amount of timber which is now dead should 

 certainly receive the universal attention of foresters and others who 

 are interested in the preservation of the great forests of West Vir- 

 ginia, for practically every dead tree converted into lumber or pulp 

 'ere it decays saves its value. 



Summary. 



The spruce forests of West Virginia are estimated to exceed 500,- 

 ooo acres. 



Isolated portions in these forests are dead, possibly to the amount 

 of 150,000 acres. 



While conducting an investigation in one of these affected por- 

 tions, all of the characteristic dead trees there bore abundant evi- 

 dence of the attack of insects belonging to the family Scolytidae. 



A number of small trees were found partly dead, and dying near 

 where trees had been cut last summer. 



Great numbers of bark and timber beetles were found in the bark 

 and sap wood of these dying trees both in the green and dead 

 portions, f 



*This statement applies only to this Cheat Bridge region. In other portions of the 

 forests, especially in Tucker county, the timber rots quite soon after death. 

 tPrincipally Polygraphes ruflpennis, Kby.; and Xloterus bivittatus, Kirbey. 



