Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-06-11
THE SPRUCE BORER
Said to Have Again Appeared
in the Forests Of Maine.
One Authority Thinks Il Has Come
for Another 5 Years Sojourn.
Mr.. Monroe Tells How Ne Discovered the
Pest in 1878.

Waterville, June 1O.-(SpeciaD. In
these days when pulp mills, hunters
and fishermen's fires are the source of
almost constant alarm among the lum-
bermen. the decrease of spruce timber
for the building market is the subject
of the greatest interest to investors in
timber lands. For several years there
has been more or less talk about the
depletion of the Maine forest by the
inroads made upon it by the cutting of
small timber for use in the pulp mills
and the unguarded campfire. Names
lumber industry is Of the greatest inn
portance, and the great losses expert
enced in past years from the causes
mentioned have led some to believe and
to say that the forest is fast receding
before the onslaught of the woodsman's
axe. Whether or not this be the lact,
it is certain that the lumbermen are
watching closely everything that Will
tend to dcplete the forest.
So carefully are they guarding their
interests in this direction that nothing
escapes their notice and therefore the
reported prevalence of the spruce borer
is the matter uppermost in their minds,
today. The borer is reported to have
again come to Maine and is making it
self felt in some sections of Somerset
county in particular. This pest was
prevalent in the Allagash section for
five years from 1878. 1t made big in
roads in the spruce timber just the
same as did the juniper borer of years
before. This latest borer attacks moth
ing but spruce just as the potato bug
assails but the plant of the garden.
William ]. Lannigan, a well-known
lumber prospector and riverman, tells
the Journal that he believes the spruce
borer has come again for another five
years sojourn in the Maine woods. Mr..
Lannigan says that he believes that
some sections or townships are affected
by these borers from Is to 20 per cent.
of their value. Some sections or town
ships are entirely free as yet. The
presence of the borer at this time is
| known to only a few prominent pros
pectors.
To gain as much knowledge as pos
sibe on this subject, the Journal visited
several of the prominent timber land
owners in Bangor, the other day. Most
| of the people called upon knew nothing
whatever of the presence of the borer
at this time, and all were inclined 70
believe that it is needless scare to cir
culate the story. Mr.. Boardman of the
firm of Dwinall & Boardman. Exchange
| block Bangor said he did not know
that borers had again appeared in
Maine and was of the opinion that they
had not. Mr.. Boardman kindly re-
ferred the newspaper man to William
Monroe, a noted lumberman and pros
pector, who is supposed to know more
about such things than most anyone
else, as he was the man who discovered
the borer on it's first appearance in
Maine in 1878.
Mr. Monroe was found at the dock Of
Adams & Co. where he is in charge OF
the shipment of the product of the firm.
Mr. Monroe is 81 years old and has
passed the most of his life in the woods
and on the river. He is one of the best
known prospectors of the Penobscot
waters and his Judgment counts every
day in the week, including Sundays 4
To the Journal he said that the borer
was no stranger to him and that it was
he that had first called the attention of
the forestry commission to the pest in
1878 He was in the woods and noticed
what resembled black hornet light
upon spruce tree and act queerly. He
watched the insect closely and soon
learned that it was not the hornet but
a strange beetle that apparently was
living on the wood.
He watched it for hours and finally
decided that he discovered the real
cause for so many trees dying 50 young,
a fact that had been noticed and COM
mented upon by lumbermen generally.
Mr. Monuroe's discovery was made on
one of the tributaries to the Allagash.
In watching the insect he found that it
required but about 20 seconds for the
beetle to penetrate the sap of the tree
and deposite the germ from which the
trouble sprang.
But" said Mr.. Monroe this Is not |
the borer that generally follows the |
next year, the beetle evidently prepar-
ing the tree for the borcr. This de- |
post forms into small worm about |
Mof an inch long. with a white body |
and a red or pink head. The worm does |
not penetrate the tree but insteads cir |
cles around it or, as we say, girdles it. |
."rhen comes the miller or what some |
call a butterfly, and the egg of the |
borer is deposited. You will find that |
the work of the insect is performed on |
the east and south cants of the land. |
You will find them at work only during |
the months of June and July and the |
first 10 days of August, after that they |
go away.
IT know of one township on the Ala
cash that was practically destroyed by |
the borer some years ago. AT least |
10000. 600 of spruce was des-
troved there 1t puzzled everybody. |
The trees died off and most everybody |
believed that they died of old age but
when discovered the borer the secret |
was out gave specimen of the |
beetle and the borer to member of the
United States forestry commission and
prof. Fernald of the Maine State col
lege."
Mr.. Monroe said that he watched |
tho work of the borer to ascertain If it |
was to be permanent thing to con-