FOREST INSECT INVESTIGATIONS 
F. Ce. Craighead, Entomologist, in Charge 
ion is cooverating with the Bureau of Ento- 
cifferent grades of lime mortars and ccncretes, 
to determine which are most effective for brick or concrete foundations in 
regions where termites cause serious damage to buildings. Among the subjects 
of study will be the physical and chemical properties of the mortars and 
concretes, the results of different methods of slaking and of different pro= 
portions of lime, and related topics, hese tests will probably be duplicated 
at Panama and Hawaii, where a termite (Coptotermes) dissolves lime. ‘The 
service tests, which will probably occupy several years, are being made on a 
series of brick and concrete walls at the eastern field station at Falls 
Church, Vae, near the service tests now under way of woods treated with © 
chemical wood preservatives; the soil here is well infested with subterranean 
termites. 
The National Lime Associat 
mology in a series of tests of a 
On July 1 J. A. Beal, Assistant Entomologist, assumed charge of the 
entomologicai work at the Bent Creek Laboratory, near Asneville, N. 0. Mre 
Beal was graduated from the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1923 and re= 
ceived the degree of M. S. from Syracuse University in 1925. In 1923 and 
i924 he was associated with H. B. Peirson, Forest Entomologist of the State 
of Maine. He spent the summer of 1925 at the Harverd Forest School, in the 
employ of the Bureau of Entomology. During the past school year he studied 
at the New York State College of Forestry, working toward his doctor's degrees 
On July 25 J. A. Beal went to Cranberry, N. C., where, it was recently 
reported, the chestnut trees have for several years been partially or entirely 
defoliated by a lepicopterous larva, and are said to die after the third defol-= 
lation. This prolonged injury has resulted in a forced cutting of the timber, 
A few chestnut oaks were also reported to have been recently defoliated, Mr. 
Beal finds that the injury to the chestnut was caused by the larvae of the 
fall canker worm, Aisophile pometaria Harris. 
In accordance with a request of the Virginia Hardwood Lumber Co., Mr. 
Beal visited Suiter and Bland, Vae, July 27 and 28, to determine the cause of 
the death of some three million feet of merchantable white oak timber. ‘The 
Situation proved to be one of unusual interest. It was found that a single 
hard freeze in May, 1925, had been responsible for the death of some of the 
overmature white oalc in the valleys and hollows, 

