128 Report of the Forest Commission. 



blight seldom attacked trees under 32 inches in diameter. 

 The younger spruces which were spared, and which form a large 

 part of the forest to-day, afford now comparatively few specimens 

 of seamy timber. 



About 25 years ago, the black spruce throughout the great 

 forest of northern New York began to show signs of blight, 

 the first appearance of which was noticed in 1868. During the 

 next ten years this blight spread through most of the forest, 

 only a few localities remaining untouched. Competent authori- 

 ties who had made a study of the matter on the ground, esti- 

 mated that at one time one-third to one-half of the matured 

 spruce in the Adirondack region was dead. In some townships 

 there was a recurrence of the evil after an interval of 25 years, 

 the time of the first appearance being fixed by some observers 

 at a date earlier than 1868. 



When the trees were first attacked by this scourge, the leaves 

 commenced falling while they were yet green. The foliage 

 remaining on the tree soon turned to a reddish-brown, whose 

 hues made the mountain slopes and forest areas of the valleys 

 appear as if a scorching fire had swept over them. About 1884, 

 there was a noticeable cessation in this destruction of timber, 

 and since that time there has been no recurrence of the evil. The 

 dead trees have mostly fallen, although here and there some tall 

 " stubs " remain as reminders of the calamity. The young trees, 

 which everywhere escaped, now display their green foliage where 

 the brown dead leaves of the blasted spruces were seen, and but 

 little evidence remains of the blight that wrought such a wide- 

 spread destruction in this class of property. 



The cause of this decay or death of the spruce has been the 

 subject of much discussion, various reasons for it having been 

 advanced. Some — among them, men who had been close ob- 

 servers of the blight from its beginning — attributed the death 

 of the trees to drought ; but this reason was hardly satisfactory, 

 because the disease killed the timber growing in damp, moist 

 places and swamps, as well as ia localities where drought might 

 have affected them ; also, on northern as well as on southern 

 slopes. Moreover the alleged drought did not affect in any way 

 the other species, both deciduous and coniferous, which were 

 growing in company with the diseased spruces. 



