184 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

 DISEASES AND ENEMIES OF FOREST TREES. 



SECTION I. — GENERAL REMARKS. 



General Remarks. — Four-footed Enemies of Forest 

 Trees. — Insects and Diseases. 



BOOKS have been written on this subject by such authorities 

 as Hartig, Marshall Ward, Schlich, and others, to whose works 

 we must refer the reader for a full account of the almost 

 endless list of plagues that attack trees. Here we propose only 

 to give prominence to those diseases and insect pests, etc., 

 that do most damage to the timber trees recommended for 

 planting in this work, and for the names and descriptions of 

 some of these we are indebted to the authorities named. 



We hope we shall not be considered as under-rating the 

 services of able and patient investigators of forest tree enemies 

 and diseases if we say that the subject looks much more for- 

 midable on paper than it does to the practical forester, either 

 in this country or on the Continent. The name of the plagues 

 that are now described as enemies of forest trees is " legion," 

 but in this country the number the forester has reason to fear 

 and be really anxious about might almost be counted on the 

 fingers of the two hands, and these few, rabbits and the 

 like excepted, he has hardly any practical means of 

 combating except by giving effect, as far as he can, 

 to those conditions relating to climate, soil, exposure, and 

 choice of species, etc., that control tree life. Preventive 

 measures of a practical kind are not likely to ever extend 

 further, and such authorities as Hartig and Marshall Ward 

 seem to realise that The latter, in his preface to the 

 English edition of Hartig's " Diseases of Trees," says, that the 

 practical forester may object that the author gives too little 

 information as to the details of combative or therapeutic treat- 

 ment of the special diseases, but that it is not necessarily the 

 duty of the scientific pathologist to devise plans of remedial 

 treatment, which may or may not be true ; but it might 

 be replied that a mere list of names is of no service to the 



