The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1907-12-19
FUNGUS CHECKS the
RAVAGES OF timber
, BEETLE IN so. OAK.
Little "Bark Peelers" Driving
Out Destroyers of Black
Hills Forests.

Washington, D. c., Dec. 16.-The bark
beetle, which for several years has
been working havoc in the valuable
pine timber of the Black Hills, South.
Dakota, has apparently been given O
check by a fungus which finds in the
dying trees a congenial place Of lodg-
ment, and at the same time kills the
beetles in the lark. There is hope that
the worst of the scourge in that re-
gion has passed.
For ten years this beetle has BEEN
sweeping through the Black Hills for
ests, every year invading fresh areas.
The total mount Of pine destroyed by
it is reckoned at not less than one bll-
lion feet, board measure. vt the pres
ent stumpage price of green timber IN
South Dakota this loss would amount
to $4,000, 900. 1t now appears that It's
maximum destructiveness was reached;
about two years ago, and 1T is now On
the decline.
Fungus Gusts Beetles.
Two years ago the discovery Wah,
made that a fungus was at work ia
the timber, killed by the beetles, in
which the broods were passing their IN
FAINT stages preparatory to taking flight
to new forests. 1t was noted at that
time that the fungus was fatal to the
young beetles, but the full extent of
the work done by the fungus has just
been made known in a report cover1ngi
Investigations Of many months by the
forest service.
The fungus is a bark peeler." Elk
perts nave claimed all the time that
the beetles could be checked If some
way could be found to peel the trees
in which the young broodS are harbor-
jnpr They jiyp in tho inner bark and
next to the wood When he bark is
separated from the wood their CALLER
les are laid open and they die. Efforts
have been made in the affected dis
tricts to peel standing trees. Ma
chinery has been made for that express
purpose, and trunks were stripped to a
height of twenty feet. But so large
are the affected areas that the few trees
peeled We're not a drop in the bucket.
Mans Inventions Fail.
Efforts We're made at different times,
to cut the dying timber. Tracts We're,
sold to mill men, and large quantities.
We're eut. but not enough to have any
appreciate effect on the beetle in
vasion. Wood peckers helped the work.
along. They hocked to the dying trees
by hundreds and stripped them of their
bark and devoured the young beetles
by the million. But that was not
enough. The pest had gained such
Roadway that 1t was beyond the power
OF bark peelers, log cutters and wood
peckers.
Meanwhile the peculiar fungus was
gaining Roadway and getting in it's
work. 1t appears in the form Of a
grayish slime between the bark and
wood. 1t makes the bark loose and it
falls, leaving the trees bare, and bring
ing down the m~ultitudes of young
beetles to their certain death; or, if the
bark still hangs on the trunks, the eff
feet on the beetles is equally fatal, for
they die in the galleries and larva
mines.
Beetle Is Defenseless.
The habits and life history of this
bark beetle render it defenseless when
attacked by the fungus. The parent
beetle bores a gallery several inches
long in the inner layers of bark, grow
ing the wood. Eggs are deposited at
intervals along both sides of the gal
|>lery, often as many az sixty or seventy.
These eggs hatch, and while in the lar
val state. they bore short galleries at
right angles to the parent unnel. They
remain there " year, eating and grow
ing. Their de~oredations kill the most
vital part of the ree-the cambium,
though the tops and needles do not
succumb at once, and 1t is at that stage
that the fungus appears ana brings the
career Of the beetle brood to a close.
In normal conditions it probably finds
a few lightning struck trees in the
proper decline to suit Its purposes, or
it may attack storm thrown timber,
but it is not numerous enough to kill
trees, and it's invasion can not gain
Roadway. But when some unusual con-
dition-such as caused by a hurricane
sweeping over a large timber area-pro-,
vides a start, the beetles may increase
in numbers until they are able to at
tack vigorous trees and kill them, and
in fact when the epidemic is at it's
height they almost invariably attack
living trees.
Will Save Forests.
That is what has happened in the
Black Hills. The INVASION continues
until some enemy reduces the beetles
below the point where they are able to
kill timber. That puts ar end to the in
vasion. This is, apparently, what the
fungus is accomplishing in the BLACK
| Hills at his time.