238 WEST VIRGINIA EXPERIMENT STATION. 



its benefactor in making the first attack. This fact, together 

 with the clumps of dying trees to be seen in all direc- 

 tions, scattered throughout the spruce region, presented condi- 

 tions that were really alarming. The pine beetle had already 

 killed the greater part of the pine in Pendleton, Grant and 

 Hardy counties. It was playing havoc with the white pine 

 forests in Pocahontas and Greenbrier counties, as well as that 

 in the southern section of the spruce area, and had crossed over 

 the mountains and was spreading through the western part of 

 the State ; thus demonstrating beyond question its destructive 

 powers. This, in connection with the known habits and sus- 

 pected destructive powers of the spruce bark beetle, presented 

 a combination of destructive forces which it was easy to see 

 would cause the death of all of the spruce timber within a year 

 or two, if nothing intervened to prevent. 



A CIRCULAR LETTER TO LUMBER COMPANIES. 



It was this condition of affairs that led me to issue on July 

 14th, 1892, a circular letter to the owners of pine and spruce 

 timber, calling their attention to the true character of the 

 trouble, and suggesting: the importation of beneficial insects as 

 the only move that appeared to offer any possible means of 

 combatting the trouble and of saving the healthy bodies of 

 timber. (See copy on another page, Part II.) Response was 

 made to this circular letter with liberal contributions of money, 

 from the W. Va. Central & Pa. R. R.. a company which consols 

 or owns large bodies of spruce timber in Randolph, Webster, 

 Pocahontas, and Greenbrier counties ; the Condon Lane Boom 

 & Lumber Co., then owners of one of the finest and largest 

 bodies of spruce in the State, on_the waters of Cheat, Potomac, 

 and Greenbrier rivers ; and the St. Lawrence Lumber Co., 

 owners of spruce on waters of Greenbrier river: which, to- 

 gether with contributions from other companies interested ex- 

 clusively in pine, and a like- appropriation from the Station 

 funds, made it possible for the writer to conduct the experi- 

 ment of importing beneficial insects, which is referred to in de- 

 tail in the report on pine investigations. 



