﻿62 BULLETIN 13, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



gunny sacks, green branches, or some similar article. Chemical ex- 

 tinguishers are useful wherever available. Where the woodland is 

 much broken up by roads, the fire-fighting apparatus may be carried 

 in a fight, four-wheeled wagon. Such an outfit is especially useful 

 in well-settled regions where fire endangers buildings. 



A crown fire, that is, one burning in the tops of the trees, is the 

 most serious. It is always accompanied by surface fires. An ordi- 

 nary crown fire will jump a wide fire line, and has often been known 

 to cross wide rivers. Under such circumstances back-firing becomes 

 absolutely necessary. It can also be done where other methods of 

 fire fighting can not be used, or where they fail to stop a fire. It 

 should, however, be a last resource. 



STOCK. 



A pine forest is less liable to injury from cattle than is one com- 

 posed of deciduous trees. Old pastures often grow up to a fair stand 

 of pine even while being grazed, cattle preferring the broadleaf 

 species. If it is desired to raise timber, however, cattle should be 

 excluded for four or five years, or until the young growth obtams a 

 good start, since they are certain to do more or less injury to the 

 growing trees. 



White pine when injured shows considerable powers of recupera- 

 tion, as exhibited in the ready reestablishment of a broken leader 

 and the healing of wounds. In the latter case the prolific resin exu- 

 dations assist by keeping out water and fungi. 



WHITE PINE WEEVIL. 



There are a number of insect and fungous enemies of white pine 

 which may do more or less damage to the trees. This bulletin 

 treats briefly of but one of these sources of injury, the white pine 

 weevil, 1 Pissodes strobi, an insect which does a good deal of damage 

 to white pine practically throughout its range, but especially in the 

 East. The weevil is a reddish-brown beetle, about one-quarter of 

 an inch in length, which, like all weevils, has a proboscis or snout. 

 It always attacks the terminal shoot or leader of the tree and kills 

 back the growth of one or two years. Though a new leader begins 

 to develop the next year, through one of the side branches assuming 

 a vertical position, there remains a more or less pronounced crook. 

 Crooked branches, when of fair size, often saw out surprisingly large 

 amounts of round-edged box board lumber, but the loss in badly 

 infested stands is nevertheless great. The damage shortens the 

 length of boards which can be sawed out and, of course, interferes 

 with subsequent growth in quality. This is especially the case 

 when, as often happens, the same trees are repeatedly attacked. 



i The white pine weevil, its habits and methods of control, are described in Circular No. 90, of the Bureau 

 of Entomology, by A. D. Hopkins. 



