78 



attack of farm, garden, and fruit insects can not, as a rule, be snccess- 

 fnlly used against those alfeetiug forest growth; neither can many 

 of the successful European methods of combating forest insects be 

 adopted in this country. But there are simple, practical methods 

 known which, if better understood by forest owners and manufacturers 

 of forest products and properly applied by them, would prevent tbe 

 annual loss of many millions of dollars' worth of timber. 



Some of the results recently obtained and facts determined in the in- 

 vestigations now in progress in West Virginia in reference to the proper 

 time to fell timber to prevent detrimental injury by insects, the utiliza- 

 tion of defective material to the best advantage, and the introduction 

 of predaceous and parasitic insects to prevent the undue increase of 

 destructive species lead us to believe that many of the more serious 

 troubles can be easily controlled ^\hen we learn more of the habits of 

 the insects and the various conditions, favorable and unfavorable, for 

 their development. 



ADDITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND 3I0SE SPECIAL, ORIGINAL WORK 



NECESSARY. 



Further original research and additional published knowledge are 

 sadly needed in this branch of economic entomology. As compared 

 with the knowledge of insects affecting other economic plants, scarcely 

 anything is known of the life history and habits of even our commonest 

 forest-tree insects. Consequently, the lield for original work in forestry 

 entomology is a broad one, rich in interesting material as well as in 

 possibilities of important discoveries. 



One of the most important aids townrd advancement would be, in 

 our opinion, carefully prepared monographs of the insects known to 

 infest the different economic forest trees, on a similar plan to that 

 adopted by Professor Forbes in his recently issued part of A Mono- 

 graph of Insects Injurious to Indian Corn. 



Previous to the undertaking of work of this kind, however, further 

 knowledge is necessary in reference to the food habits of the insects 

 found upon or within the different host plants, and whether they are 

 destructive, detrimental, beneficial, or neutral in their economic rela- 

 tions to tbe host. This important information can be best and most 

 reliably supplied by si)ecialists who are studying the different families 

 of insects, and by those who will make a study of the food habits and 

 life history of certain classes of insects which infest forest growth, 

 such as foliage-infesting, bark-infesting, and wood-infesting insects, 

 etc., as special lines of research. 



If specialists in these various lines will keep in mind tbe importance 

 of noting the host relations of the species they collect or observe on 

 forest growth, and will publish the knowledge thus obtained, together 

 with lists of species taken on the various economic forest trees, they 

 will contribute valuable service to the country in the rapid advance- 

 ment of forestry entomology. 



