sprucl; BUDVvoRiN'i. 17 



able to ascertain the eastern limits of the ravages of this worm. Sev- 

 eral clumps of spruces which had just died were seen on the Knox and 

 Lincoln Railroad before reaching the Wiscasset Station. At Waldoboro, 

 southeast from the station, was an extensive area of dead spruces which 

 presented the same characteristic appearance as in Cumberland County, 

 and for two or three miles beyond Waldoboro there were to be seen 

 large masses of dead spruces and firs. Beyond Warren no dead spruces 

 were to be seen ; none were observed about Rockland, Camden, Blue 

 Hill, or the Islands of Penobscot Bay; none on Mount Desert, or on 

 the islands from Mount Desert to East Machias, nor on the road from 

 East Machias to Lubec, although the predominant growth is spruce. No 

 dead spruces were to be seen about Eastport, nor along the railroad 

 from St. Stephen's to Vanceboro and thence to Bangor. From personal 

 observation and inquiry it is safe for us to report that east of the 

 Penobscot River, in eastern Maine, south of Aroostook County, there 

 are no areas of dead spruce. Returning to Brunswick from Bangor, 

 the characteristic patches or large clumps of dead spruce and fir were 

 not seen until we reach a point south of Richmond, and near Bowdoin- 

 ham, on or near tide-water on the Cathance River. The general ab- 

 sence of any extensive areas of dead spruces around the Rangeley 

 Lakes and the White Mountains has already been referred to in our 

 report. It thus appears that the injury from this v.'orm has been 

 confined, at least south of Aroostook County, to an area on the coast 

 extending from Portland to Warren, and extending but a few miles 

 inland from the sea to tide-water. 



"The injury resulting from the attacks of the bud caterpillar are 

 characteristic, as we have stated, the trees dying in masses or clumps 

 of greater or less extent, as if the moths had spread out from different 

 centers before laying their eggs and the caterpillars, hatching, had 

 eaten the buds and leaves, and caused the trees to locally perish. From 

 all we have learned the past season we are now convinced that the 

 spruce bud worm (Tortri.r fmniferana) is the primary cause of the 

 disease on the coast. As remarked to us by the Rev. Elijah Kellogg, 

 of Harpswell, Me., who has observed the habits of these caterpillars 

 more closely than any one else we have met, where the worms have 

 once devoured the buds the tree is doomed. This, as Mr. Kellogg re- 

 marked, is due to the fact that there are in the spruce but a few buds, 

 usually two or three at the end of a twig; if the caterpillar destroy 

 these the tree does not reproduce them until the year following. If 

 any one will examine the buds of the spruce and fir they will see that 

 this must be the ca,se. Hence the case with which the attacks of this 

 caterpillar, when sufficiently abundant, destroy the tree. We have not 

 noticed that the spruce and fir throw out new buds in July and August 

 after such an invasion, the worm disappearing in Tune. On the other 

 hand, the hackmatack or larch when wholly or partly defoliated by 

 the saw-fly worm (Ahuiatiis) soon sends out new leaves. By the end 

 of August we have observed such leaves about a quarter of an inch 



