30 



Probably the first mention of an attempt to utilize the dying and 

 dead timber was by Professor Peck, 1 which is as follows: 



A lumber firm found that their spruce timber was rapidly dying about 1840-1845, 

 and to make their losses as light as possible they made haste to open roads in the 

 forest, that they might draw out and work up as many dead spruce as practicable 

 before decay should render them entirely worthless: but with all of their prompt- 

 ness they suffered no inconsiderable loss, for these dead trees soon became too 

 much decayed to make marketable lumber. 



The next mention of attempts to save the dead timber was by 

 Hough, 2 who referred to a statement in the National Economist of 

 Ottawa, Canada, that k 'one operator in NeAv Brunswick will cut 

 50,000,000 feet of spruce (in 1881) because of the damage done by 

 insects, and to save it from total loss." 



Packard 3 was informed by a lumberman that the owners of the 

 dying spruce on the St. Croix were advised in about 1875 to fell and 

 utilize it. 



REMEDIES AND METHODS OF PREVENTION. 



REVIEW OF PROPOSED METHODS. 



In addition to the published references to remedies and methods of 

 preventing loss already quoted, the following should be mentioned in 

 this connection, in order to call attention to the practical and imprac- 

 tical features of some of them : 



Professor Peck 4 suggests the protection of woodpeckers, which, as 

 subsequent observations by Hough, Cary, and the writer show, is a 

 recommendation of considerable importance. 



STRIPPING OFF AND BURNING THE BARK. 



Peck, 5 Hough, 6 and Packard 7 all recommend cutting the dead trees 

 and stripping off the bark and burning it to clestroy the insect; but 

 Peck and Hough expressed some doubt as to its practicability in this 

 country. This old remedy against insect enemies of forest and other 

 trees has been so often recommended in this and other countries that 

 it is becoming stereotyped, but unless it is positively known whether 

 or not the conditions are favorable, necessaiy, or even possible for its 

 practical application, it should not be recommended or attempted. 



As applied to the spruce-destro} T ing beetle, this remedy would seem 

 to be impracticable in the extreme. Indeed it would be in our Amer- 

 ican forests unsafe under ordinaiy conditions to attempt to burn the 

 bark in summer on account of the danger of starting forest fires. If, 

 on the other hand, as is the case in the Maine woods, the peeling of 

 the logs is adopted as a business polic}^ in the regular logging opera- 



'Proc. Alb. Inst.. 1876, Vol. Ill, p. 295, and Twenty-eighth Rep., pp. 32-33. 



- Report on Forestry, 1882, p. 259. 



'Fifth Report, U. S. Ent. Com., p. 819. 



4 Proc. Alb. Inst, Vol. Ill, p. 299; also 38th Report, p. 36. 



5 28th Report, pp. 36. 37. ^Report of 1877. 



" 5th Report, U. S. Eut. Com., p. 822. 



