230 GEOLOGICAIv SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



ant measure. It has been already shown how great an attraction 

 is a dying tree to boring insects, hence, as soon as it is dis- 

 covered that a tree has become thoroughly infested, that tree 

 should be at once cut out, removed and used up in some way, or 

 if it cannot be at once used the bark should be stripped so as to 

 expose the wood to the weather. This method will kill all 

 insects which do not flourish in dry wood, and will, of course, 

 prevent further breeding. The importance of this is not in the 

 mere destruction of the insects in the one tree, but in the pre- 

 vention of attack on the others. If a tree so infested be allowed 

 to mature the larvae in it, the resulting adults are apt to try 

 other trees not naturally ready for them. 



So a tree killed by girdling, by fire or in any other way, 

 should be cut out as soon as may be to save the lumber in the 

 best condition ; the longer it stands the more holes there will 

 be, and, of course, the less it will be in value. 



Cord-wood made from live trees, in winter, should not be 

 allowed to remain in the wood during the following summer, 

 because in it so many insects will breed that may, when pressed, 

 attack standing timber. In fact, the rule should be, broadly, to 

 allow no dead or dying wood to stand or lie anywhere about, 

 and the cleaning-up is best done in the early part of July, when 

 the bulk of the wood borers are in the young larval stage. 



It is good practice, also, to girdle a poor tree now and then, 

 to attract what insects there may be about, serving thus as a trap 

 and a protection to the other trees. This girdling should be 

 done in winter for one set of insects, and in spring, after the 

 trees are in full leaf, fojr another. Two trees thus treated will 

 protect a tonsiderable area of forest, and they should be cut out 

 and destroyed the winter following. 



Where a fire has been . through any part of the wood, every 

 tree, no matter how large or how small, that has been at all 

 scorched, should be cut out. Such trees are almost certain to 

 attract borers, and there is no greater ally or provider of insect 

 food than this same fire. No shoot is so small that it cannot 

 nourish some species, and to the entomologist and collector 

 there is no richer ground for variety of species or number of 

 specimens than a field of sprout-land through which a fire has run 

 the year before. Hence such land should always be completely 

 cleared for the protection of parts yet uninjured. 



