IWIT^D^ TAT E S 

 ^^^^^tPAR T M E N T 



WITH UNCnS Si\l.l'S NAtUHALISTS 



Friday'-, June ^U, 19^0" 



AI^lTOsINCB.IEIIT : Any of you who have ever "been in the woods know there 

 are insects in there. Today our Wildsman is going to tell us something 

 about them. He has been to Uncle S£m' s touTalists: As the saying goes, 

 theyWe put a biig in his ear. He is not going to keep what they told 



him to hinself, however. He's promised to tell us All right; 



Mr. Wildsman? 



■t^1^^^^■^^. 



Let's lose ourselves in the woods a few minutes. 



As the poet says: "liVhether we look, or whether we listen; we hear 

 life murmur, and see it glisten." 



Here are big trees, and little ones. The birds twitter in the 

 heavy canopy of leaves above us. At our feet, a young seedling seems to 

 be getting a good start toward one day being a tree. Over there is a fallen 

 stem of a once mighty monarch of the forest. 



Trees have their troubles. Dr. F, C. Craighead, in charge of the 

 Forest Insect Division of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, tells me 

 that at no stage in a tree's growth is it entirely free from insect enemies. 

 There are insects which attack it only in the seed. Others in the seedling 

 stcLge^ Still other insects attack only young trees. Others come on 

 when the tree is mature, and help Nature make way for the new growth. 



Some attack the foliage. Others burrow into the bark. Others bore 

 into the stem. One insect lays its egg in the terminal buds of a birch tree. 

 The grubs mine their v/ay downward and in a few ^7eeks make channels all the 

 way from the top to the roots. Those channels make the birch pitch flecks 

 which lower the grade of lumber cut from such a damaged tree. 



• 



You see, many of ottr woods insects are specialists. Different kinds 

 attack different kinds of trees. But all the insects in the forests are not 

 bad for the trees. Some are good. By destroying the damaging insects they 

 act as the friends of our forests. Some are parasites v/hich help by attack- 

 ing destructive insects from the inside. Others aid by eating up the trees' 

 insect enemies. 



That is one of the main reasons. Dr. Craighead tells mo, that insect 

 damage is not so heavy at all times. Like a lot of ovir human troubles, 

 forest insects often come in seemingly sudden outbreaks or epidemics or 

 plagues. When they get so plentiful, the good insects which feed on thorn 

 begin to prosper and multiply too. Then, it generally happens, the ,;ood 

 ones become so thick tliat they begin to thin out the numbers of the forest 

 enemies. Hiat means less food for them. Having cut off their ov/n food 

 supply, the good insects die off in large numbers. That gives the few 



