. REPORT ON FORESTS. 211 



Pine needles are attacked by a white scale, Mytilaspis pinifolia, 

 that is responsible for disfiguring and considerably injuring trees 

 in some parts of South Jersey. 



There are, of course, numerous species other than have been 

 mentioned ; it is possible to indicate here only some of the prin- 

 cipal types that may be commonly found feeding or living on 

 the foliage and more actively growing portions of trees. 



But the real enemies of the forest are not usually those that 

 outwardly attack a healthy tree, though these do their share of 

 harm ; but the forms that lie in wait for the weakling, the 

 maimed and the cripple, depriving them of the chance of 

 recovery. 



This is especially true in a State like New Jersey, where the 

 forest areas frequently suffer from fires, large or small, from 

 cattle, from careless cutting and from numerous other causes 

 not found in primitive forest areas. 



Send through a strip of woodland a fire that burns only the 

 leaves and undergrowth, and does no more than scorch the 

 trunk or kill an occasional branch, and watch the result. In a 

 few weeks or months thereafter, according to the season, the 

 undergrowth is renewed, and, superficially, the signs of injury 

 have disappeared. Yet if we examine the trees themselves 

 more carefully, we read another tale : wherever the bark has 

 been scorched and killed, wherever a branch has been burnt, 

 wherever twigs have been charred or deprived of life, and, in 

 short, wherever a wound of any kind has been made, there we 

 find that borers -have entered. Little piles of sawdust at the 

 base of the tree attract our attention, and if we trace them to 

 their source we find little round holes, the size of a pin-head or 

 thereabouts. These go through the bark and either into the 

 solid wood or into the bast or sap-wood. 



The culprits are "shot-hole borers," "bark-beetles," or Scoly- 

 tids — little cylindrical beetles varying from less than one-six- 

 teenth to an eighth of an inch in diameter and from one- 

 sixteenth to three-sixteenths of an inch in length. Their work 

 below the bark and into the wood gives entrance to moisture 

 and germs of decay that weaken a larger area, in which the 

 next brood finds a congenial home ; and, coming out in num- 

 bers that cannot all find entirely suitable areas, they attack and 



