16 PRIZE ESSAY: 



so weakening the branches it attacks, that, as in Wisconsin in 

 1854, every gust of wind suffices to break off many of the twigs at 

 the point where the locust had deposited its eggs. Mr. T. W. 

 Morris speaks of having seen the tops of the forest trees in 

 Pennsylvania and Ohio, for upwards of one hundred miles, ap- 

 pearing as if scorched by fire a month after this locust had left 

 them, (i) 



17. In some of the forests in South Carolina ninety pine trees 

 out of one hundred have been killed by a small beetle. Great 

 numbers of noble pines, three feet in diameter, and 150 feet 

 high, stand with their naked arms stretched abroad, lifeless, like 

 hundred and thousands of others prostrate on the ground with, 

 out any successors of their kind. ( 2 ) In the great timber region 

 of the Ottawa there is a narrow strip of dead pines extending 

 thirty miles up the river, no trace of fire or any other agent 

 likely to have effected their destruction is visible ; their erect 

 trunks stand in gloomy grandeur almost stript of their branches 

 by long exposure to wind, rain and snow. Although no outward 

 sign is visible of the destroying enemy, yet, no doubt the de- 

 structive pine beetle has been the secret cause of their decline 

 and death. ( 3 > It has long been known that a beetle (Bostrichus 

 typographies) has several times threatened the entire destruction 

 of the forests in the Hartz Mountains. In 1783 a million and 

 a half of trees were destroyed by this insect in the Hartz alone. 

 As many as 80,000 larvae have been found on a single tree. 



18. The palmer worm which visited New England and the 

 eastern part of the State of New York with such unparalleled 

 destructiveness in 1853, is common in Canada. In 1791 the 



(1) Dr. Fitch's Report. 



(2) Trans. Amer. Ins., 1846. 



(3) Related to the writer by a very competent-eye witness, who spent several years 

 with the Lumbermen. 



