Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1892-09-12

A letter from Luray, Page county,
Va, says;
Imade trip with friend recently
through the Shenandoah Valley to sat
isfy myself as TO the truth or falsity of
the reports that the pine trees were dy-
ing. l found that the trees are not
only dying, but are already dead-mil
lions and millions of them. To see
such wholesale destruction going on is,
indeed, discouraging. Trees that have
been carefully saved for the future use
of the farmer now stand bare and
trimmed of all life, huge monuments of
the work that has been so quickly done
by so small and so Notwithstanding
aninsect. As far as eye can reach each
pine tree can be known from its dried,
burnt-like tops, on which is not to be
seen one green needle. Wherever there
is pine there will be found the small,
busy enemy at work, encircling its body
and eating as it works at its very life.
The same work of wholesale destruction
goes on in the plain as well as on the
mountain tops, and the simple truth Is,
that the pines are doomed.
The worm that is doing this mischief
seems to be, as really it no doubt is, n
new importation, as living pines were
never before attacked here in this way.
Dead ones are frequently attacked
by worms and soon rendered unfit for
use, but even this can be prevented by
removing the bark. The new one is
smaller than the worm found in dead
pines. but little more than half an inch
long, but there are so many of them
and all working in the same way, that
the hardest and largest trees will be
girded in thousand different places, all
unseen and unknown so far as outside
appearances go, and in few weeks
each tree thus attacked dies. The
worm enters through the bark, or, rs
is generally believed, is hatched there
from eggs deposited there by its pro-
genitors, and with its first life begins at
once its work under the bark, in the
direct course of the sap, around the
tree, till it has made the complete cir
cult, and dies at the point where it be-
gan its life. Behind him, as he works,
he leaves track cut from out the very
life-course of the tree-a circular path
way that ends where it began, and
closes up at that point the upward flow
ofthe life-giving sap.
One ring of this kind would hardly
iniure the tree, but when you can
count Il dozen or more of these eaten
pathways in every foot Of the entire
length, it will be seen how complete
is the work of death and destruction.
The strong current of upgoing sap is
too often and too rudely interrupted,
and the strain too much for even these
huge monsters Of the forest, and inch
by inch they die, the victims to the
thousand worthless worms that infect
them.
There has been no remedy even sug-
rested as vet, and if none is shortly
found the pine of the valley is gone.
The only thing to be done is to saw
these dead trees quickly into lumber
and stack it away.
OF course, the lumber is not first
class, but aside from its dotted, dead
like appearance, it is said to be equal
to any for inside work.
The planks can be known ut sight
from the streaks of light purple that
dot and intersect them, and not one
board can be cut from these trees that
is not similarly marked.
The sides of the North Mountain, as
we'll at the Fort and other mountains,
look as though some agency of fire had
caught up and enveloped every pine top
in its embrace. There these trees stand,
the life ruthlessly eaten out of them
the dead, yet standing, monuments
of what may be done by the myrlads OF
enemies, each so small in itself, but so
mighty for harm in numbers.
Wherever you see pine, there you
will see the dry, parched shriveled
top.
This worm is no respecter of trees,
but attacks alike the young twig, the
supple sapling and the stately monarch,
and, when once attacked, death comes
slowly but surely-hence its work is
one of complete destruction. Farmers
who have watched this insect from its
first appearance. only few years ago,
saw the pines are doomed, unless the
remedy is forthcoming, and at once.
Complaints also come from the Blue
Ridge-the home of the useful chestnut
and specially from its eastern slope,
saving that this noble tree is being at
tackled in the same manner, and that
many of them are dying.
Should these complaints prove true,
and they appear well founded, we will
also lose this most useful and necessary
tree; and, with the pine already gone,
lumber, once so plentiful here, will be a
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