814 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
Main* and .some plftoet, and have beeu collecting information by circulars, correspond- 
enoe, and persona] Inquiry foe two or three years. The same mortality has been going 
on in the ' North Woods' of New York for five or six years, and has been made a special 
study under State authority. In 1868 there was published a report by the French 
Government upon the injuries done to spruce forests in that country, the principal 
pari of which I have translated for use in my next report. I am under the impression 
that so far as the ravages of the insect are concerned, the worst is over — at least such 
is the opinion of lumbermen with whom I have corresponded — although the reality is 
Bad enough. It has not been relatively greater in your State than in New York, but 
the losses reach to a fearfully great amount in your State ou account of the great 
abundance of spruce in your forests. As for the remedies employed in Europe to check 
the ravages of insects in the spruce, they are altogether too expensive for us. We 
can only save what is dead, and the lumbermen are doing this as fast as possible ; but 
notwithstanding this, a great deal will be lost. I have facts showing that like mor- 
tality has occurred long ago in other sections of the country, lasting a few years and 
then disappearing — as this will — perhaps being succeeded by a different growth of 
timber, as is observed in New York. The replies to circulars sent out last fall, indi- 
cate that the local extent of its duration will not last so long as apprehended." 
Portions of the Adirondack region were, in 1876, visited by Mr. C. EL 
Peck, State botanist of New York, who thus reports on the evil in the 
Thirtieth Annual Report of the New York State Museum of Natural 
History for 1877 (Albany, 1879, pp. 23, 26) : 
While on a collecting trip in the Adirondack region, in July and August, my atten- 
tion was repeatedly arrested by the extensive ravages of the spruce-destroying beetle, 
Hylurgus rufipennis Kirby, of which a partial account was given in the twenty-eighth 
report. The green slopes of Mount Emmons, commonly called Blue Mountain, and of 
several mountains to the north of it, had their beauty, 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, and on 
the mountain slopes far to the north of this road. Again, on the trail from Adiron- 
dack 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 from information concerning the Cedar River region, in the cen- 
tral part of Hamilton County, there is reason to believe that much of the spruce tim 
ber of this county 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. For the purpose of gaining more knowledge of the 
insect, I cut down, at South Pond, a tree that had recently been attacked by it. It 
was about 20 inches in diameter at the base ; the foliage was still fresh and green, and 
there was nothing, except the perforations in the bark, to indicate that it was at all 
affected. The bark peeled from the trunk without much difficulty, the sap-wood was 
perfectly sound, and the heart-wood also, except a small portion in which there was 
a slight appearance of incipient decay. Longitudinal furrows, varying from 1 to 6 
inches in length, were found under the bark, and each furrow was occupied by one or 
two beetles. The furrows are excavated from below upwards. In the short ones but 
one beetle was found, and but one perforation communicating with the external air. 
In the longer ones two beetles (probably the two sexes) were usually found, and from 
two to four perforations afforded means of ingress and egress. The lowest perforation, 
which is the one by which the beetle first enters and commences its furrow, is often 
found closed or ' 'blocked up" by the dust and debris thrown down by the excavator 
in the progress of the work. The second perforation is generally 1 or 2 inches above 
the first. I failed to discover whether it is made by the second beetle for the purpose 
of ingress or by the first beetle. The third and fourth perforations are in a nearly 
direct line above the other two, aud are probably made from within outwardly, but 
