INSECTS AFFECTING PARK AND WOODLAND TREES 



revealed. The surface of the wood and the inner layers of the bark were 

 abundantly furrowed by the winding and branching galleries of a small 

 bark-mining beetle. ^ . 



Small trees are rarely attacked. In the localities visited, from one half 

 to two thirds of the spruces with a basal diameter ranging from one to two 

 feet, were either dead or dying. Trees of this size are the most suitable 

 for lumber and consequently the most valuable. The smallest affected tree 

 noticed, had an estimated basal diameter of about 10 inches. In this case 

 the attack appeared to be a failure, for so much resin had oozed from the 

 wound that the work was obstructed. The galleries were scattered and 

 single and their authors were found dead, each in its furrow. . . When 

 two trees of unequal size stand in close proximity the larger one seems to 

 be most liable to be attacked. In one instance two trees stood scarcely 

 more than three feet apart. The larger one had been attacked ; the smaller 

 one remained unharmed. In another similar instance the larger of the two 

 trees was dead, having been attacked first ; the other was dying. 



Professor Pecks observations in 1876, are also given in part as 



follows : 



The green slopes of Mt Emmons, commonly called Blue Mountain, 

 and of several mountains to the north of it had their beaut)-, and their 

 value too, greatly impaired by the abundant intermixture of the brown tops 

 of dead spruces. The destruction was also visible along the road between 

 Newcomb and Long Lake, antl on the mountain slopes farther to the north 

 of this road. Again, on the trail from Adirondack to Calamity pond, there 

 was sad evidence that the little destroyer had invaded also the forests of 

 Essex county. From what I have seen at Lake Pleasant, in the southern 

 part, and in the vicinity of Long Lake, in the northern part, and from 

 information concerning the Cedar river region, in the central part of 

 Hamilton county, there is reason to believe that much of the spruce timber 

 of this country has already been invaded by the beetle. How much farther 

 this destructive work has extended, or will extend, it is impossible to say. 

 But one thing is certain, it is still in progress. 



There are other records of extensive injuries to spruce, presumably by 



this species, about this time. Dr Packard reports serious damage about 



Beede's hotel, Keene Flats in the Adirondacks, where the spruces had been 



dying for about 15 years. Serious injury was caused in Maine between 



1874 to 1 88 1, extensive damage occurred about this time on the Allegash 



and other tributaries of the St John river, and dying spruce was met with 



in northern New Hampshire by Fiske in 1897. The damage caused by 



