THE GENUS DENDEOCTONUS. 



129 



ber amounts to from 10 to 25 per cent of the total stand and includes nearly, or quite, 

 all the lai^est and oldest trees. They bear evidence of having died about twenty to 

 twenty-five years ago. 



Mr. W. D. Edmonston inspected this timber on September 23-24, 

 1907, and reported to the writer as follows: 



I don't know where Mr. Sudworth observed the old and dead spruce; but I was 

 with Supervisor Blair when he was estimating for a sale of Engelmann and Alpine 

 fir (September 23, 24, 1907) in Bear Park, near Dale's sawmill, 12 miles northeast of 

 New Castle, and we found all through this body of timber that the dead Engelmann, 

 all over 15 inches in diameter, amounted to 25 per cent. I examined this dead timber 

 most carefully. I spent the entire day examining the trees, while Mr. Blair and two 

 of his rangers were estimating. I did not find one single Engelmann that had died 

 within the past twenty-five years that had not been beetle-killed, the galleries of the 

 Engelmann spruce beetle showing plainly on the trunk. I pointed out hundreds of 



Fig, 80. — Engelmann spruce timber evidently killed by Engelmann spruce beetle and subsequently 

 partially burned by fire. Pike National Forest, at elevation of about 10,000 feet. (Original.) 



such trees to Mr. Blair and the rangers. But I failed to find any new work. This 

 timber must have been killed about twenty years ago, if not longer. Old snags, stand- 

 ing and down, all showed plainly the yellow-stained galleries, just like those you 

 pointed out to me the day we were at Clyde, on the road to Seven Lakes, in the Pikes 

 Peak, and just the same as that on the specimen I sent you from near Crested Butte, 

 Gunnison National Forest. 



On January 10, 1908, Mr. W. D. Edmonston reported that the large 

 stands of Engelmann spruce in the White River National Forest 

 showed an average of 20 per cent beetle-kUled throughout. 



In March, 1907, Mr. Frank J. Phillips, forest assistant, of the Forest 



Service, in a report on conditions in the Lincoln National Forest, 



New Mexico, refers to a forest fire of doubtful date, 1892 to 1895, 



which it is claimed killed and weakened portions of the spruce stand 



89536— Bull. 83, pt 1—09 10 



