INSECT DEPREDATIONS IN NORTH AMERICAN FORESTS. 77 



recommendations. An expert in locating infested timber, working 

 under instructions from this Bureau, gave instructions to the mana- 

 ger of the estate in locating and marking the infested trees and in 

 the essential features in the methods of utilization to destroy the 

 necessary number of beetles; he also marked infested timber on an 

 adjoining estate and on the National Forest. Five months later, in 

 May, 1908, this expert reported that the larger clumps of infested 

 trees on the estate had been converted into lumber and the slabs 

 burned, and that the marked trees on the adjoining estate and National 

 Forest had been cut and barked. In November, 1908, another inspec- 

 tion of the forest on the estate and surrounding area was made by 

 the expert, and on December 1 he reported as follows : 



Nothing could be more satisfactory than the results obtained by the cutting 

 of the infested timber on the estate. Your recommendations and InstmctiOTis 

 submitted to the owner, and carefully followed by the manager of the estate, 

 have clearly demonstrated that insect infestation can be controlled, and at no 

 expense to the owner of the timber involved ; in fact a very satisfactory price 

 was realized, resulting In a net profit, I understand, of over $5 per thousand 

 feet, board measure, on the 240,000 feet cut. This, of course, does not Include 

 the profit of the milling operations, but for the logs sold at the mill, after de- 

 ducting the expenses of cutting and logging. The sawmill was owned and oper- 

 ated by an Idaho Springs firm, and the manufactured article sold in that town. 

 I spent six days on the estate, November 18 to 23. After a very thorough ex- 

 amination of the timber, I found only three infested trees. Isolated Individuals, 

 and over a mile from where the large clumps of infested trees were cut. With 

 the exception of those three trees, there Is no new Infestation on the estate. I 

 also examined the adjoining lands, but no new Infestation was observed. The 

 Infested trees which I marked in December, 1907, had been cut and barked. On 

 the Pike National Forest, contiguous to the first mentioned estate, where you 

 will remember I marked some clumps of infested trees, no new Infestation was 

 found, not one tree. 



This most gratifying result demonstrated two important things: 

 One, that an extensive outbreak by the most destructive barkbeetle 

 enemy of the pine timber of the central Rocky Mountain forests, in- 

 volving in this case more than 1,000 infested trees, can be controlled 

 without expense, and even at a profit, whenever the conditions are 

 favorable for the utilization of the infested timber; the other, that 

 the essential details of the recommendations and expert advice, based 

 on the results of scientific research, can be successfully applied by a 

 manager of a private forest or by the rangers of national and state 

 forests. It also indicates quite conclusively that the widespread dep- 

 redations in the Black Hills National Forest could have been prevented 

 with very little expense to the Government if the matter had received 

 prompt attention in 1901, when the first investigations were made 

 and essentially the same recommendations submitted. But, through 

 the lack of public appreciation of the importance of the problem at 

 the time, and the lack of sufficient authority and funds later, the out- 

 break was allowed to extend beyond practical control, and in conse- 



