Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-20
FRIENDS OF THE PINE.
Beetles That Bore the Trees May Be
Knocked Out by Tiny Foes
BROUGHT OYER FROM GERMANY.
A West Virginia EntomOlogist Finds Y
Way to Protect Forests.
THE EXPERIMENTS PREsAGE SUCCESS

WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY, MoR-
GANTowN, W. VA, Nov. 19.-During the
past two years the owners of extensive pine
timber tracts in West Virginia and Virginia
have noticed that there existed an un-
healthy condition of the trees in certain
sections, and the rapid spread of this in
fection from the less valuable to the more
valuable species of pine gave rise to grave
alarm. As the trouble was first noticed In
the northern part of the great pine belt,
that extends from the northern boundary OF
Pennsylvania through to the southern part
of the United States, the matter was re-
ferred to the West Virginia Agricultural
station for investigation.
Prof. A. D. Hopkins, entomologist OF the
station, made several tours of investig gationi
through the infected districts. and discov-
cred that the trouble was no due to q dis
eased condition of the timber, but that i'll
was caused by the ravaged of a beetle, the
Dendroctronus frontalis, to which he gave
the common name of 'The Destructive Pine
Bark Beetle"
How the Trees Are Affected.
The first trees attacked in the spring will
die during the fall, but most of the others
will remain green until the following
spring, when the leaves will be noticed
turning yellow near the top, and is 8 short
time the entire tree will show the killing
effects. Prof Hopkins found that while
the Scrub" pine yielded quickly to attack,
the more valuable of the timber pines ap-
peared to be able to longer resist the attack;
but it was manifest that after the beetles
had gained sufficient strength otnumbers in
the scrub pine they could easily attack and
destroy the other species.
From these facts it was decided that if,
. fhrArf orff nj
PRODUCTION, some disease or insect could be
obtained that would prey upon the destruc-
tive beetle, and thus keep its numbers re-
duced, the destruction might be checked.
1t appears to be necessary that the beetles
kill the trees in which they breed, and il
at any time there would not be enough Of
them to kill the trees their power for re-
production would be gone and they would
gradually die out.
An Insect That Knocks Them Out.
By correspondence with entomoIogists and
forest officials in Germany, Prof. Hopkins
learned that certain insect in Europe was
very destructive to insects similar in aD-
peararce and habits to our destructive pine
bark beetle. The experiment of introduc-
ing this beneficial species into this country
to check the trouble in question was recon-
mended to the station officials and to the
owners of forests. The proposition met
with favor, and in order to hasten the ex-
pertinent the station, assisted by the tim.
Der owners, sent Prot Hopkins to Germany
to make personal investigations.
His visit to Germany was at the time of
the cholera epidemic, and on account of the
strict quarantine he decided that it would I
not be possible to get sufficient numbers of
the insect into this country to introduce
into our forests this fall. Arrangements
were accordingly made for extensive collec-
tions to be made and sent to this country
during this winter and next spring. Prot.
Hopkins returned recently with 1000
specimens. Since his return he has been
conducting a series of experiments, and
finds that when they are placed with our,
destructive beetle they attack them vigor-
only.