264 FORESTRY IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



Bohemian side, and covered with forest to the summits. In some of the 

 mountain recesses of the Boehmerwald primeval forests exists to this very 

 day. But almost every year the damage from this cause is considerable. 

 Full statistical tables for 1885 give its extent at more than 600,000 cubic 

 meters of wood, valued at 2,600,000 florins. The area affected was 23,258 

 hectares. 



2. Insects.— Oi the different species of insects hurtful to forests the com- 

 mon bark-beetle (bostrychus typographus) has proved to be the most destruct- 

 ive. The calamity caused by the same in the Boehmerwald is supposed to 

 have had its origin in the heavy windfalls occasioned by the storms of 1868. 

 In the year 1870 there was another visitation of severe storms, causing such 

 extensive windfalls that the ground could not be cleared of the fallen timber, 

 which became a hotbed for the breeding of the insect, so that in the follow- 

 ing years it made its appearance in enormous numbers. In the years 1873 

 and 1874 the calamity reached its culmination. It became necessary for the 

 government to interfere with energy, and to adopt systematic measures to 

 stop the ravages. A central committee was formed, with the governor of 

 Bohemia as chairman, and subordinate committees in the different districts, 

 each composed of three members, with the addition of the necessary number 

 of district managers and forest commissioners as their executive organs. 

 Several meetings were also held with foresters from the neighboring countries 

 of Upper Austria and Bavaria for the mutual exchange of experiences gained 

 in the struggle against the destroyer, and to agree upon a general plan of 

 campaign. An entomologist was sent by the government to the Boehmer- 

 wald to investigate the plague and to report the result. 



The best means to exterminate the insect is the rapid removal of the 

 affected trees, or the charring of such trees, before the insect matures. But 

 this cannot always be done in time, and the next best proceeding is the 

 stripping of the fallen or felled trees of their bark, which is then burned, 

 before the insect is developed. It has also been shown that the undeveloped 

 beetle cannot stand fresh air, its eggs and larvae perishing by the mere ex- 

 posure of the stripped bark. The use of so-called fang baume (literally, 

 "catching-trees" or "decoy-trees,") has been resorted to with success. 

 Trees are felled and placed upon supports in sunny spots to catch the swarms 

 of developed insects about to lay their eggs, and they are stripped of their 

 bark when the larvae of the insects are changing into chrysalides. Such 

 trees must be carefully examined to carry out the stripping process at the right 

 time. In 1874 the windfalls were all worked up before the middle of Octo- 

 ber, and in the damaged areas the moss was raked in heaps and burned. 

 The heaps were found swarming like ant-hills with the insect. 



The first sign of the presence of the bark-beetle is the dull color and loss 

 of luster of the leaves, which afterwards turn red and the tree dies, its inner 

 bark or liber being destroyed. 



The whole extent of the destruction caused by the bark-beetle in the 

 years mentioned was 9,012 hectares of forest, containing 3,632,000 solid 



