LONGLEAF PINE 
61 
INSECTS, DISEASES, AND WIND 
Various insects are known to attack longleaf pine. Damage by 
insects to fertile seeds, before being shed from the cone, has been 
reported. The southern pine beetle is well known because of the out- 
breaks that have occurred in which large areas of pine timber have 
been killed. It seems that the remedy for preventing such losses 
in small operations consists chiefly in not cutting timber in the hot 
season; or, if some must be cut, in removing it without delay and 
either piling the brush and burning it in an opening or scattering it 
to dry out as quickly as possible. The trees infested with the beetle 
should be utilized at once. For information on this subject a copy of 
Farmers' Bulletin 1188, The Southern Pine Beetle, should be re- 
quested from the Division of Publications, United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture ; or a letter may be addressed to the Bureau of 
Entomology regarding this or other insect problems. 
A cone-rust disease is known to be the cause of much injury in 
parts of Florida and for some distance northward. It attacks the 
The question of future longleaf pine forests turns 
largely on controlling fires and razorbacks. Mil- 
lions of acres of young growth have been and are 
being destroyed by these agencies. Is the native hog 
worth while? 
Two experimental tracts at Urania, La., after five 
years of protection against hogs, contained an aver- 
age of 6,440 longleaf saplings per acre, as compared 
with an average of 8 per acre on two similar unpro- 
tected tracts. 
first-year cones and kills them after causing them to grow to an 
abnormal size. In parts of the palmetto region it is probable that 
this disease largely accounts for the scarcity of reproduction. A 
red-spot leaf blight is not infrequently seen defoliating small groups 
of seedlings before they get above the tall grass. The growth is 
checked by this disease,, and occasionally seedlings are killed even 
when growing in the open. 
Wind damage to longleaf pine is heavy, chiefly on turpentined 
timber (PL IX) ; and occasionally tropical hurricanes make almost 
clean sweeps of timber. One of the largest sawmills in the South 
operated for about a year (1915-1916) on such wind-thrown timber. 
The usual loss of old-growth timber from insects and wind is in- 
dicated by the results of the measurement of three " forties " in 1917 
and of their remeasurement in 1920. 10 The timber consists of about 
30 trees per acre, averaging 560 board feet each, or 16,780 feet per 
acre. During the 3-year period, the loss was 41 trees, mostly from 
24 to 30 inches in diameter, scaling an average of 654 feet each, or 
10 The timber was located in the north-central part of Louisiana, and the measure- 
ments were made by members of the Yale Forest School. 
