Manual OF FbRisfii Fd R £ ST ; pR cyi^E p r ^ 0^:^ DR. SCHLICH'S MANUAL OF FORESTRY. VOLUME lY. FOEEST PROTECTION BY W. R. FISHER, B.A., ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF FORESTRr, ROYAL INDIAN ENGINEERING COLLEGE, COOPERS HILL ; LATE CONSERVATOR OF FORESTS TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ; WITH 259 ILLUSTRATIONS, BEING AX ENGLISH ADAPTATION OF "DER FORSTSCHUTZ," by DR. RICHARD HESS, PROFESSOR OF FORESTRY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GIESSEN. LONDON : BRADBURY. AGNEAA; & CO. Ld., 8, 9, 10, BOUVERIE STREET. 1895. LONDON : BRADBURY, ACNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS, WHITEKRIARS, PREFACE. Dr. W. ScHLicH, C.I.E., has allowed the present book to form Volume lY. of his Manual of Forestry. For this favour I have therefore to thank him, as well as for the kind advice and assistance he has always readily afforded me during the progress of the work. This treatise on Forest Protection, the full scope of which is explained in the Introduction, is an adaptation for English readers of the well-known German Foestschutz, by Dr. Richard Hess, Professor of Forestry at the University of Giessen, in Hesse Darmstadt, to whom I am most grateful for permission to utilize his book and its illustrative plates. I have found it at times necessary to deviate from the original, especially in the chapters on Forest Offences and Rights and Forest Insects, so as to render them more serviceable for English readers. I have also, wherever practicable, exemplified the subject-matter from Britain and India, so that the book might be specially useful to British and Indian foresters. Mr. B. H. Baden Powell, C.I.E., Instructor in Forest Law at the Royal Indian Engineering College, and late Judge of the Chief Court of the Punjab, has very kindly revised Chapters III. and IV. of Part I., which deal with Forest Offences and Rights, and has rewritten the pages on forest property and the general account of forest rights, so as to make them concordant with English law. My own knowledge of insects is too inadequate to enable me to deal properly with Part II., Chapters IV. to VIII. which treat of Forest Insects ; I have therefore submitted my translation of this portion of the Forstschutz to Mr. W. F. H. Blandford, F.Z.S., lecturer on Entomology at the Royal Indian Engineering College, and I here express my great obligation to VI PEEFACE. him for revising these chapters and rewriting many pages of them, so as to make them more distinctly applicable to British insects. While those portions of the work of Dr. Hess which deal with insects unknown in the British Isles have been largely abridged or entirely omitted, it has not been found possible or advisable to remodel the chapters on insects from an entirely British point of view. The scientific names of the insects referred to have been altered, wherever this was required, so as to conform with the nomenclature adopted in the best modern systematic works on British entomology. Dr. H. Marshall Ward, F.B.S., has very kindly looked over Part III. which deals with forest weeds and fungi, in which he has made some corrections. The scientific names of the forest weeds follow Hooker's and Bentham's British Flora, 189'2, and those of the fungi, R. Hartig's Lehrbuch dee Baum- KRANKHEiTEN, being nearly all the same as those adopted by Dr. Hess. My colleague Dr. F. E, Matthews, F.I. C, has very kindly assisted me wherever any special knowledge of chemistry was required, as in the last chapter dealing with the effects of acid fumes on trees, and also in correcting proofs of the whole book. I have to thank Mr. J. W. Sowerby, of the Botanic Gardens, Regent's Park, for information supplied regarding the effects of London smoke on the growth of trees. Miss E. Ormerod has kindly placed at my disposal three plates (tigs. 135, 136, 137) from her "Manual of Injurious Insects; " Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, F.R.S., has lent me a plate (fig. 233), taken from the Gardeners' Chronicle ; and Dr. H. Marshall Ward two plates (figs. 258 and 259), taken from his Croonian lecture, and published in Vol. 47. of the Proceedings of the Royal Society. Due reference will be found in the footnotes to the authors whose works I have consulted. W. R. FISHER. Coopers Hill College, May 1st, 1895. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PREFACE . INTRODUCTION PAGE V PART I. PEOTECTION OF FORESTS AGAINST MAN. CHAPTER I. FOREST BOUNDARIES. 1. The various kinds 7 2. Settlement 8 3. Demarcation .......... 9 4. Survey ............ 16 5. Description . . . . . . . . • • .16 6. Legalisation ........... 16 7. Upkeep 17 8. Cost 17 9. Improvement . . • • .18 CHAPTER II. PROTECTION OF FORESTS AGAINST IRREGULARITIES IN UTILIZING FOREST PRODUCE. Section I.— Principal Peoduce. 1. General account . 19 2. Overfelling • • • • ■ . 19 3. Unscientific felling . 20 4. Careless conver.sion . 21 5. Bad stacking . . 22 6. Careless transport . 22 Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS. Section II. — Minor Produce. 1. General account 2. Bark 3. Turpentine, resin, and gums . 4. Leaves and branches of forest trees 5. Fruits of forest trees (collection) (pannage) 6. Grass and herbage (gi-ass-cutting) „ (pasture) 7. Forest litter 8. Dead branch-wood . 9. Stones, gravel, sand, &c. 10. Other produce . 11. Game and fisheries . PAGE 22 23 23 25 26 26 29 30 43 45 46 46 47 CHAPTER III. PROTECTION OF THE FOREST AGAINST OFFENCES. 1 . General account .......... 48 2. Definition of forest offences 48 3. Classification of forest ofifeuces 49 4. Protective rules 52 CHAPTER IV. PROTECTION AGAINST FOREST RIGHTS. Section I.— General Vieav de Forests as "Estates'" or Pieces of Property II. — General Account of Forest Rights III. — Special Account of Forest Rights . 56 59 68 TABLE OF CONTENTS. IX PART II. PROTECTION OF THE FOEEST AGAINST ANIMALS. PAGE Introductory remarks ........... 82 CHAPTER I. PROTECTION AGAINST GAME. Section I. — General Account ,, II. — Ked-deer ,, III. — Fallow-deer ,, I\. — Roe-deer v.— Wild Pigs VI.— Hares ,, VII. — Rabbits ,, VIII. — Bears, Beavers and Porcupines CHAPTER II. PROTECTION AGAINST OTHER RODENTS Section I. — General Account ,, II. — Squirrels . ,, III. — Dormice „ IV.— Mice .... ,, V. — Voles .... CHAPTER III. PROTECTION AGAINST BIRDS. Section I. — General Account . . ,, II.— Capercaillie, Grouse and Pheasants ,, III. — Pigeons and Doves .... „ IV. — Jays and Nutcrackers ,, v. — Finches and other Small Birds VI. — Woodpeckers 84 86 95 96 97 99 99 101 102 103 107 108 109 120 121 122 12-3 124 126 X TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. FOEEST INSECTS (GENERAL ACCOUNT). I'AGK Section L — Classification 132 II. — Distribution III. — Life-History IV. —Number V. — Useful Forest Insects . 136 , 137 . 141 . 141 . 142 VI.— Injurious Forest Insects 1. Damage done . . . . . . . . . . .142 2. Preveiitive rules (Protection of insectivorous birds, &c. ) . . . 144 3. Hemedial measures .......... 152 4. Treatment of injured woods ........ 156 CHAPTER V. INSECTS USEFUL TO FORESTS (SPECIAL ACCOUNT). Order I. — Coleoptera ,; II. — Hymenoptera .... ,, III. — DiPTERA ,, IV. — Neuroptera .... ,, V. — Orthoptera (Pseudoneuroptera) ,, VI. — Hemiptera 158 162 171 172 174 174 CHAPTER VI. INJURIOUS FOREST INSPXTS (SPECIAL ACCOUNT OF COLEOPTERA). Family I. — Scarab^eid^e. 1. Melolontha vulgaris (Common cockchafer) .... 2. M. hipi)ocastani ......... 3. Bhizotrogus solstitialis (June cliafer) ..... Family II. — Buprestid.s). . 177 . 184 . 185 1. Agrilua viridis 186 2. Other species 188 Family III.— Elaterid^e (Click-beetles) ,, IV. — Lymexylonid.5!. Lymexylon navale . ' . . ' . 189 . 190 TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI PAGE Family V. — Anobiid^. Xestobkim tessdatum 192 Family VI.— Cuuculionid-e (Weevils). 1. AiJoderiLS coryli 2. Bhynchitcs hetulcK 3. Strophosomus coryli . 4. Balanimis nucum (Nut-weevil) 5. Orchestes fagi .... 6. 0. quercus .... 7. CryptorrhyncJms lapathi . 8. Hylobius abietis (Pine-weevil) . 9. Pissodes notatics 10. Other species .... Family VII.— Scolvtid^ (Bark-beetles). («) Subfamily Toinicini. 1. Tomicus typographies 2. T. amitinus 3. T. chalcographus 4. T. scxdcnf.aius . 0. T. laricis 6. T. bidantatus . 7. T. acuminatus . 8. Trypodendron linctdum 9. T. domestiaim 10. Xyleborus dispar {b) Subfamily Hvlesiiiini. 1. Hylastes p)alUatits 2. H. ater . . . . • 3. Hylurgus piniperda (Pine-beetle) 4. H. r/iinor .... 5. Hyhsinus fraxini (Ash-bark beetle) 6. H. vittatiis .... 7. £f. crenatiis .... (c) Subfamily Scolytini. 1. i'coZi/^ti-? (te/!r«ctor (Elm-bark beetle) 2. 5. intricatus ...... Family VIII.— Cerambycid^ (Longicorn.s). 1. Sapcrda carcharias (Large poplar longicorn) 2. .S'. populnea (Small poplar longicorn) Family IX.— CHRYSOMELiD.a: (Leaf-beetles). 1. Melasoma ■poimli (Red poplar-leaf beetle) . 2. Phratora vltcllincc (Willow-beetle) . . 193 . 193 . 194 . 195 . 196 . 197 . 198 . 199 . 205 . 208 210 218 219 221 223 226 228 228 231 232 234 236 237 243 245 246 247 248 250 252 253 255 256 Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. LEPIDOPTERA {Hekrocero, Moths). Family I. — Sesiid^, 1. Sesia apiformis (Hornet clearwiiig-motb) Family II.— Cossid^. 1. Cossus lignipcrda (Goat-nioth) .... 2. Zenzera cesculi ("Wood leopard-moth) Family III.— Bombycid^e. 1. Gasiropacha pini (Pine-raoth) . 2. Bomhyx neustria (Lackey-moth) 3. Dasj/chira 2)udibunda (Pale tussock moth) 4. Porthesia chrysorrhc&a (Brown-tail moth) . 5. Liparis nwnacha (Black-arches or Nun moth) Family IV.— NocTUiDiE (Night-moths). 1. Panolis piniperda (Pine noctua) 2. A(jrotis vcstigialis ..... 3. A, seyelum (Turnip dart-moth) Family V. — Geometkid^ (Loopeis). 1. Bupalus piniarius (Pine looper-moth) 2. Cheimatohia hrumata (AVinter-moth) Family VI. -Tokteicid.e (Leaf-roller moths). 1. Earias chlorana (Green willow leaf-roller) 2. Tortnx viridana (Oak-leaf roller) 3. Eetinia buoliana (Pine-shoot tortrix) 4. IL tiirionana ..... 5. P. resinella ..... 6. Pccdisca ntfimitraiui 7. P. occultana ..... PAGE . 260 262 264 265 272 274 278 280 288 290 292 Family A'II. — Tineid^e. 1. Hyponomcxda yaddla 2. Prays curtiseUus (Asli-t«'ig moths) . 3. Cohophora laricella (Larch-miner moth) 294 296 299 299 301 304 305 306 307 309 310 311 CHAPTER VIII. OTHER ORDERS OF DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. {(() Hymenoptera. Family I. — TEXTHKEDixiuiE (Sawflies). 1. Lophyrua pvii (Fine sa.\\i].y) , ..... 315 TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI 11 PAGE Family II. — Urocerid^ (Wood- wasps). 1. Sirexjuvenciis (Steel-blue wood-wasp) ...... 320 2. S. gigas (Yellow wood-wasp) ....... 322 Family III. — Cynipid^ (Gall-wasps). (b) Diptera. Family I. — Cecidomyiid^ (Gall-gnats). 1. Cecidomyia saliciperda (Willow gall-gnat) 324 (c) Hemiptera. \ Family I. — APHiDiDiE (Plant-lice). 1. Ghermes ahietis (Spruce-gall Aphis) ...... 325 2. Chermes Jaricis (Larch Aphis) ....... 327 Family II. — Coccica; (Scale-insects). 1. Lecanhim racemosum ......... 329 (d) Orthoptera. Family'- I. — Gry'llid^e (Crickets). 1. Gryllotalpa vulgaris (Mole-cricket) ...... 329 Family II. — Acridiid^ (Locusts). 1. Pachi/tylus migratorius CMigratoYy locust) ..... 333 (e) List of Trees "with the Insects -which attack them. PAKT III. PEOTECTION AGAINST PLANTS. > CHAPTER I. PROTECTION AGAINST FOREST WEEDS. Section I. — General Account. 1. Definition 3U 2. Classification ........... 345 3. ftility of certain weeds . . . . . . . . .347 4. Damage done by forest weeds ........ 348 5. Protective rules 352 6. Remedial measures .......... 353 Section II.— Special Account. 1. List of foi'est weeds .......... S.'iS 2. Light-demanding weeds 355 3. Half-shadebearing weeds 359 XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. Skctiox II. — Special AccorNT {continued). 4. Shadebearing weeds . 5. Weeds of wet peaty soil 6. Climbing plants 7. Parasitic phanerogams 8. Weeds acting as hosts to injurious fungi 9. Classification of weeds in order of in juriousness PAGE . 363 . 364 . 364 . 366 . 369 . 372 CHAPTER II. PROTECTION AGAINST FUNGI. Section 1. — General Account. 1. Position of fungi in vegetable kingdom . . 374 2. Classification and importance 375 3. Mode of life 376 4. Distribution 379 Section II.— Frxoi attackino Conifers. 1. Agaricns mcUoiis .......... 382 2. Tramdcs radkipcrda . 385 3. T. Plni . 387 4. Fungi causing red or white-iot . 389 5. Pcridcrmium Pint (corticola) (Pine-blister . 390 6. Cccoma Pinitorquum . 392 7. Cceo'iiia Laricis (Larch needle-rust) . . 395 8. Fungi causing witches' broom . . 395 9. yEcidinvi datinum (Silver-fir canker) . 395 10. Nectrm Gucurhitida ... . 399 11. Peziza Willkommii (Larch-blister) . . 401 12. Pcstalozzia Hartigii .... . 404 13. Pcridcinaium Pini {acicola) . 404 14. ^cidium ahietinum . 405 15. ^. columnare . 405 16. Chrysomyxa Ahictis . 406 17. Hystcruim Pinastri . 407 IS. H. macrosporium .... . 409 19. H. ncrviscquium .... . 410 20. Trlchosphccrla parasitica .... . 411 21. ^Ecidium strohiUnum ... . . . 412 Section III. — Fungi attackinc; Bko.vd-leavp 1) Trees. 1 . Rosellinia querciim .... 413 2. Polyporm sul2)hurcus . 414 3. Other wound-parasites . 415 4. I^'ectria ditissima .... . 416 5. N. cinnabarina ..... . 417 6. Phytophthora omnivora .... . 419 7. Rhytis7na accHmim ...... . 420 S. Mclampsora Hartigii . 421 TABLE OF CONTEXTS. XV PAET lY. PEOTECTIOX AGAINST ATMOSPHEEIC INFLUENCES. CHAPTER I. PROTECTION AGAINST FROST. PAGE Section I. — Frozen Plant-Organs. 1. External appearance ......... 425 2. Explanation of the action of frost on plants ..... 426 3. Damage done ........... 427 4. Register of severe frosts ......... 433 5. Protective measures ......... 433 Section IX. — Frost-crack 435 ,, III. — Frost-canker 439 ,, lY. — Uprooting of Seedlings by Frost ' 439 CHAPTER II. PROTECTION AGAINST INSOLATION. Section I. — Duoitght. 1. Appearance and cause of injury ....... 443 2. Damage done ........... 443; 3. Register of dry years ......... 447 4. Protective rules .......... 448 Section II. — Bark-scorching 450 ,, III. — Heat-crack 454 CHAPTER III. PROTECTION AGAINST WIND. Section I. — Prevalent Winds. 1. Damage done ........... 455 2. Protective I'ules . . . . . . . . . .457 Section II. — Storms. 1- Origin 453 2. Damage done 460 Xvi TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Section II. — Stoems (continued). 3. Register of storms ^^^ 4. Protective rules ^"' 5. Treatment of windfalls *'* 6. Treatment of injured woods 4'"^ CHAPTER IV. PEOTECTION AGAINST VIOLENT RAIN. 1 . Damage done . . . • • • • • • • .4/7 *2. Protective rules 477 CHAPTER V. PROTECTION AGAINST HAIL. 1. Damage done ........... 479 2. Prevalence of hail-storms ......... 480 3. Protective rules 481 CHAPTER VI. PROTECTION AGAINST SNOW. 1. Damage done . . . . . . . . . ' . . 482 2. Record of bad years 489 3. Protective rules .......... 489 4. Treatment of injured woods 491 CHAPTER VII. PROTECTION AGAINST RIME. 1. Damage done ........... 493 2. Record of bad years .......... 494 3. Protective rules .......... 495 4. Treatment of injured woods ........ 495 TABLE OF CONTENTS. xvii PART Y. PEOTECTION AGAINST NOX- ATMOSPHERIC NATURAL PHENOMENA. CHAPTER I. PROTECTION AGAINST DAMAGE BY WATER. PAGE Sfxtiox I. — Soil-Denudation 49q ,, II. — Inundations 499 ,, III. — Swamps. 1. Formation 504 2. Damage done ........... 506 3. Protective rules ••........ 509 Section IV. — Drainage. 1. Vertical drainage . . . . . . . . .511 2. Open ditches 512 3. Covered drains 51g CHAPTER II. PROTECTION AGAINST AVALANCHES . . . .520 CHAPTER III. PROTECTION AGAINST SHIFTING SAND. Section I.— Sand Dunes. 1. Description ••-....... 524 2. Construction of littoral dune 526 3. Material for fixing the sand 527 4. Maintenance of the littoral dune 528 5. Protective coast forest zone •....,,. 528 Section II.— Inland Sand. 1. Description ........... 532 2. Protective rules ••........ 533 3. Fixation of the sand 533 4. Stocking the area 535 VOL. IV. l XVlll TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. PROTECTION AGAINST FOREST FIRES. Section I, — Fobest Fiees CArsED by Human Agency. page 1. Causes ............ 539 2. Kinds of forest fires .......... 540 3. Damage done ........... 541 4. Register of fires .......... 544 5. Protective measures ......... 546 6. Rules for extinguishing forest fires ....... 552 7. AVatcliing site of fire ......... 555 8. Treatment of injured woods ........ 555 Section II. — Effect.s of Lightning on Trees 556 PAET VI. PEOTECTION AGAINST CEETAIN DISEASES. CHAPTER I. GENERAL ACCOUNT 562 CHAPTER II. EED-ROT. 1. Description 564 2. Modifj'ing factors . 565 3. Causes 566 4. Damage done ........... .568 5. Treatment ........... 568 CHAPTER III. WHITE-ROT .569 CHAPTER IV. STAG-HEADEDNESS. 1. Description and causes 570 2. Treatment . . . . . .571 TABLE OF CONTENTS. XIX CHAPTER V. ^. ABNORMAL NEEDLE-SHEDDING. PAGE 1. Description 573 2. Modifying factors .......... 574 •3. Geographical range .......... 575 4. Causes 576 5. Damage done ........... 578 6. Treatment . , 578 CHAPTER VI. DAMAGE BY ACID FUMES FROM FURNACES, &c. 1. Description of injury ......... 582 2. Injurious components of smoke . . . . . . .58 3. Damage done ........... 586 4 Remedial measures .......... 592 FOEEST PEOTECTION. INTRODUCTION. 1. Definition of the term Forest Protection. Forests may be protected by two agencies : — By the State, through laws and regulations made for the general welfare of the country and forming the subject of Forest Law. By the Owner of the forest, in his private capacity, and only this part of the subject comes under the term Forest Protection, which may therefore be defined as follows : — Forest Protection Jtas for its object the security of forests against unfavourable external influences, as far as lies icitliin the power of their oivncrs. The measures to be taken in order to protect a forest may be : — Preventive or remedial, according as their object is to ward off certain dangers, or to remedy evils which the forest has already incurred. The essential conditions of successful Forest Protection are : — Knowledge of the phenomena and causes of all damage which may threaten forests. Knowledge of the available preventive and remedial measures. A proper application of the above knowledge to any special case of damage which may arise. VOL. IV. -R 2 FOREST PROTECTION. 2. Position of Forest Protection in Forestry. The position of Forest Protection in the science of forestry will be seen from the following considerations : — Sylviculture teaches us how to form, tend, and regenerate forests ; Forest Protection, how to guard them against injurious external influences, and is followed by Forest Utilization, which shows how to utilize a forest in the most suitable manner. These three branches of Forestry are also included in the term Forest Proclucfion, while the remaining branches are com- prised under Forest Management, which includes Mensura- tion and Valuation of Forests, Working-Plans, and Political Economy applied to forests, which may be termed Forest Policy. 3. Historical Notice. The first trace in history of forest protection consists in that aff"orded to sacred groves and trees. We read of such groves in the Bible and in Tacitus, and they still exist in India, especially in the hill-tracts south of Assam. In Europe, the oak and lime appear to have been the trees looked upon as most sacred, and in the Himalayas, the deodara (God's tree). The Ban forests of the middle ages established by the Emperors of Germany and other roj-al or noble personages who wished to secure sufficient tracts of forest for the preserva- tion of deer and other game, formed the next stage. The Windsor, Epping and Dean forests, the New Forest and some other smaller forest areas are the relics of former extensive tracts reserved as hunting-grounds by the Norman kings of England. The forest laws of the middle ages, besides being chiefly concerned in the preservation of game, contain many provisions regarding boundaries, forest fires, mast, forest pasture, damage to trees, &c. In the Salzburg Forest Ordinance* of 1524, for instance, directions are given regarding boundary marks. In a Bavarian forest ordinance of 1568, the influence of the west Avind on the natural regeneration of forests is referred to, and * H. Eding, Die Rechtsverhaltnisse des AValdes. Berlin, 1874, p. 36. INTRODUCTION. 3 directions are given to leave a protective belt of trees to the west of a felling-area. In 1665, the famous Ordonnance des forcts proposed by Colbert was sanctioned by Louis XIV., and amongst other improvements put an end to the grazing of sheep and goats in the French Crown forests. Hans von Carlowitz in 1713, in his classical work Sylvicultura CEconomica, which is chiefly devoted to sylviculture, describes several measures of forest protection, including a regulation made in 1680 against caterpillars. As regards damage by game, Burgsdorf wrote in 1796 con- cerning the peeling of bark by deer. At the commencement of th^ present century, the damage done to forests by game was very considerable ; in a battue held by King Frederick of Wiirtemberg in 1812 in the beech-forests near Tiibingen, 823 deer and wild pigs were killed in 2 hours. Only since the eventful year 1818 has damage by game to forests in Germany considerably diminished, and become more localised by the constitution of special parks for game. Such was the forest of Compiegne under Napoleon III., where all the forest revenues were absorbed by the cost of fencing the young woods, and where in 1870, several hundred red-deer and thousands of roes, besides much smaller game, were killed. In England, James the First was the first monarch who con- ^ sidered forest trees of more importance than game ; he obtained much unpopularity by enclosing part of Windsor Forest, and put an end to the pollarding of maiden oak-trees, which were lopped in winter to enable the deer to browse off the bark of the lopped branches. None but pollard oak have been lopped in this way since 1608, and most of the hollow old oak pollards in the Windsor Forest were in existence before that date. That King's fondness* for knocking rabbits on the head with a stick would, however, be amply satisfied were he now at Windsor, as rabbits have increased in the most alarming manner during the last 20 years, and have destroyed the valuable undergrowth over large areas of the forest. They render the reproduction of the trees exceedingly difiicult and expensive, and altogether nullify the proper management of the large area of oak forest * Hepworth Dixon, " Royal Windsor." B 2 4 FOKEST PROTECTION. planted for the nation in 1816-25. Such wholesale destruction of valuable woods by rabbits would not be allowed in any other European Crown forest. Forest grazing was regulated in 1585 by the ordinance of Mansfeld, which prescribed a 5 years close season for all coppice woods with 12 years rotation. Grazing and pannage, or the eating of mast by pigs, in forests have greatly fallen off in importance of late years, but in earlier times these forest usages vied in importance with that of hunting. The great damage done to forests by insects was first noted in Germany in 1780, and between that date and 1830 several works on Forest Entomology appeared. That by Ratzebourg was pubhshed in 1837, and that by Altum in 1872. The engineer Bremontier proposed the fixing of the shifting sands on the west coast of France in 1800, and a French law on that subject was passed in 1810. Oberforster von Kropf did a similar service for Germany at about the same time. The* great damage done in 1856 by floods in the Rhone Valley, induced the French to pass in 1860 a law for " rehoise- ment des montagnes." Forest fires were formerly of frequent occurrence in France and Germany, but are now looked upon as national calamities, and rarely allowed to extend over considerable areas. A special law against forest fires in Dauphiny was passed in 1872, and revised in 1893. They are still j)revaleut on a large scale, in Russia and Greece, and in North America. In British India, for the last 30 years, a steadily increasing success has been attained by the Government in its efforts to reduce the area of State forests burned annually, and 24,000 square miles of endangered State forests were successfully protected from fire in 1893. The preservation of birds useful in forestry and agriculture has been furthered by the naturalists of diftereut European countries and by the enactment of special laws. At the same time the British gamekeeper by indiscriminately destroying birds of prey and the smaller carnivora has allowed rabbits and wood- pigeons to increase so enormously, as to become a veritable scourge to forestry and agriculture, to say nothing of even greater danger from mice and voles. Lastly, the researches of Willkomm in 1866, and of Robert INTRODUCTION. Hartig in 1874, have brought to light the causes of many diseases of forest trees which are due to fungi. 4. Arrangement of ^Material. The measures to be taken by the owner for the protection of his forests may be arranged under the following heads : — Protection of the forests against man, animals, plants, atmo- spheric influences (frost, heat, wind, rain, hail, snow and rime) ; against' extraordinary natural phenomena (inundations, ava- lanches, shifting sand and forest-fires) ; and against certain diseases the causes of which are doubtful, stagheadedness, and factory fumes. A detailed list of the headings are given at the commence- ment of this book. It will be noticed that some of the protective measures sug- gested in certain cases are conflicting ; thus woods should be cut from west to east in order to protect them against cutting east winds, but from east to west, when liable to be thrown by strong westerly gales. Stumps must be extracted to prevent the breed- ing of certain insects, but should be left on hill-sides, when there is danger of erosion. The forester will, however, have little difficulty in deciding, for any case, which is the greater danger, and will bear that chiefly in mind in protecting his woods. 5. List of Sciences on which Forest Protection is based. Jurisprudence, chiefly as regards property and servitudes. Zoology, chiefly of game and forest insects. Botany chiefly physiological, and Mycology. Physiography and Meteorology. Other branches of Forestry (Sylviculture, Forest Utilization, and Forest Policy). A knowledge of forest legislation and of game laws will also be useful. (6) PAET I. PKOTECTION OF FORESTS AGAIKST MAX. The damage which may be caused to forests by our fellow- creatures may be classified as follows : — Injuries to forest boundaries. Irregularities in utilising forest produce. Theft of forest produce and damage to forests, or forest offences. Excesses by holders of forest servitudes. It is the duty of the forester to maintain the boundaries of the forest entrusted to his care, to counteract irregularities in utilizing it, to prevent theft of forest produce and damage to the forest, and also excesses in the exercise of forest servitudes. FOREST BOUNDARIES. CHAPTEE I. PROTECTION OF FOREST BOUNDARIES.* A CLEARLY defined and permanent demarcation of a forest stands in the first rank of the protective measures for forest property. It protects the. forest against fraud and damage, and afi"ords security for all the details of forest management. The difi"erent points which require consideration under this heading are : — The various kinds of forest boundaries. Settlement of do. Demarcation of do. Survey of do. Description of do, Legalisation of do. Upkeep of do. Cost of do Improvement of do 1. The Various Kinds of Forest Boundaries. Boundaries are of two principal kinds, inoperty and ad- ministrative boundaries. By the term property boundaries is meant those of separate estates, or of portions of the same estate subject to servitudes. Property boundaries may be either external or may surround enclosures. Boundaries of servitudes separate those parts of an estate which are affected by rights of third parties from those which are not so subject. Administrative boundaries may indicate : — Administrative units, such as beats, ranges, divisions, &c.,or, Working units, as compartments, periodic blocks, working- sections, working-circles, &c. * Eding, H., Die Rechtsverhaltnisse des Waldes : Berlin, 1874. Kalk, R., Die Sichei-uue der Forstgrenzeii : Ebeiswalde, 1879. PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. 2. Settlement of Boundakies. The procedure for settling boundaries differs according as they are j^^'opci'ty or administrative boundaries. Administrative boundaries depend merely on the will and pleasure of the owner of the estate, and the details regarding them are dealt with under Working-Plans. Property boundaries must be accurately defined. This is of the greatest importance to the owner and also to the imhlic, so as to prevent uncertainty, and unnecessary work for the executive and legal machinery of the State. Hence in all civilized coun- tries the procedure for settling property boundaries is laid down by law. Evidence as to the correct boundary consists in existing Fig. 1. Fig. 2. boundary pillars or traces of w^here they have been, statements of old people who know the boundaries, and boundary maps. The settlement is best done by a public surveyor, who may be either chosen by the parties concerned, the adjacent owners, or by the executive State or Local authority. During the boundary settlement the adjacent proprietors should be present personally, or by their legally appointed agents, and boundaries which may be regulated in their absence after a formal summons to be present w-ill be held to have been duly accepted by them. The surveyor should endeavour to lay down the boundary on the ground by friendly agreement between the parties ; if he does not succeed, the competent law-courts or officials must decide disputed points. The surveyor should fix the boundary lines as long and straight as possible, in order to render the estates more valuable, and to keep down the cost of demarcating and maintaining the FOREST BOUNDARIES. 9 boundary. This maxim should not, however, be carried too far, when by so doing, boundary points would be situated in im- passible places, such as swamps, &c. All boundary points which have been finally settled should at once be marked by durable posts, and by digging narrow trenches in the direction of the boundary lines (fig. 1), or in a circle round each post (fig. 2). During the progress of the boundary settlement, the surveyor should make a rough plan of the boundary line, and keep notes of the evidence brought before him. Fig. 3. Partition of an island by tbe line M j\I, mid-stream, between two adjacent owners, A and B, into two parts A, B^. Fig. 4. Partition of a river-side accretion C, by the line a b c. 3. Demarcation of Boundaries. The demarcation of boundaries is eiiected by natural, artificial, or mixed boundaries. Property boundaries require to be more permanently marked than administrative boundaries. 10 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. (a) Natural Boundaries. Natural boundaries are : — Water-partings, Water-courses, Marked trees, &c. With the exception of the first, all these natural boundaries are liable to changes. Streams frequently alter their course, and trees are liable to die or be blown over or cut down. At the same time, wherever the course of a stream is fairly well fixed, as in a deep valley, such a natural feature forms a good and economical boundary between two properties. In the case of water-courses, mid-stream is generally considered the boundary as in fig. 5. Where deposits of new land occur, they belong as a rule to the pro- prietor who owns the shore along which they occur. If several Fig. 5. Water-ccurse with boundary marks. oivners participate in the shore, the new boundaries are indicated by producing the original boundary line through the new accre- tion to the water-side as shown in fig. 4. In the case of erosion and re-deposit, laws differ ; in some cases, the owners can claim the area thus lost and re-deposited. In other cases, as in certain parts of British India, new islands formed in the middle of a river belong to the State. Owners are allowed to prevent erosion by artificial works, fixing the banks, &c. It is not, however, permissible to induce deposits by artificial means. For greater security natural boundary lines may be marked by numbered marks similar to those described below for artificial boundaries. If the centre of a stream is the boundary, the boundary marks are placed alternately on either side of it, as in fig. 5, but only on one side of it if the bank be the boundary. FOREST BOUNDARIES. 11 Fig. 6. (b) Artificial Boundaries. Artificial boundary lines consist of: — Roads, or lines of boundary marks. The line of a road may have to be changed, especially at certain points to reduce too steep a gradient, and this may be an objection in some cases to a road as a permanent boundary, but a well alligned road forms an excellent and economical forest boundary, and facilitates the export of produce from the forests on either side of it. Lines of boundary marks may be demarcated by mounds of earth or stones ; by wooden or iron posts, masonry pillars, or cut stone blocks. All boundary marks should be numbered consecutively, and the numbers on them painted black or white according to the colour of the marks. The marks for each separate forest property are usually numbered from north to west and by south to east, and on property boundary marks the initial letter of the owner's name may be added. Every enclosure in a forest belonging to another owner than that of the forest should be surrounded by similarly numbered boundary marks. In case of any addition to a forest involving fresh boundary marks being interposed between two formerly existing marks, letters a, b, &c., may be added to the earlier number to denote their position. Fio-. 6 shows the usual mode of representing a line of boundary marks, on a map. The nature of the boundary will diflfer according as the ad- joining estate is woodland, or cleared for agriculture. In the former case, a strip of a certain breadth inside the boundary may have to be kept clear of forest growth. The choice of the kind of boundary mark depends on circumstances, but stone or masonry pillars are generally to be preferred. In cases where a rapid 2 □- □ Artificial boundary line. 12 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. Fig. 7. .R .v. P.' Fig. demarcation is necessary, and cut stones or even bricks are not easily procurable, as in some backward districts in India, conical mounds of earth or of stones, with posts in the centre, are sometimes used, at any rate until more permanent marks can be supplied. In constructing such mounds, the post made of heartwood only, and of the most durable timber available, is first planted in the soil, the portion in the ground having been charred, or the whole post tarred so as to ensure greater durability. Round the post two circles are then traced in the ground, and earth to be heaped up must be dug from beyond the outer circle and placed within the inner one. Other- wise the heap would soon settle down into the trench. The mounds may be made of stones if available. The slope of the mounds will correspond with the natural angle of repose for the class of ma- terial employed, and their height should be about four feet. Earthen mounds should be carefully pro- tected by placing sods on their sur- face. Wooden posts without mounds may also be used as boundary marks, but they are then more liable to be thrown down by cattle, or wild animals, or to be removed. In either case the posts should bear current numbers, a very durable form being a cast iron plate, in which the number has been cut out, or the numbers may be painted on the posts. Hess gives a useful kind of iron boundary mark as shown in fig. 7. The lower and upper plates can be removed to facilitate transport. Stones are heaped on the lower plate after it has been put into the ground to the required depth. Z>'^i->^-i'^ Boundary stone. FOREST BOUNDARIES. 13 The best of all boundary marks are generally hewn stones (fig. 8), or masonry pillars. The former may be prismatic, or rectangular with a rounded top. The lower portion to be placed in the ground should be left rough and be of larger bulk than the cut portion, so as to ensure stability. A line should be cut in the top of the pillar to show the direc- tion of the boundary, and serial numbers cut on one of its faces. Care should be taken to select durable material such as granite, basalt or quartzite for these stones. "Where hewn stones are not available, pillars of brick and mortar masonry may be erected, a sufficient foundation being of course provided. The current number is carved on a small flat piece of stone or slate inserted in the sloping top of the pillar. This is greatly preferable to inserting the number on a pris- matic piece of stone let into the apex of the pillar, as is some- times done. Such pieces are easily loosened by boys engaged in tending cattle or sheep near the forest boundary. These pillars should be formed of cubes with a side of 2| to 3 feet, surmounted by a pyramid 6 to 9 inches high. It is customary in India to bury a quantity of charcoal under boundary pillars, so as to assist detection of any fraudulent change in their position. In all lines of boundary marks, one mark should be placed at each angle, and whenever two angular points of the boundary are too distant to be seen from one another, a sufficient number of intermediate pillars should be erected. If the boundary is merely a line, the pillars are placed along its centre, but if pillars are placed along a road, the middle of which forms the boundary, they should be alternately on either side of it. After boundary lines have been laid out, their exact position may be more clearly defined by rows of trees, hedges, fences, ditches, walls or forest rides. Boies of trees are injurious to neighbouring fields by their shade and the spread of their roots. Hedges are difficult to keep in order, and rarely answer their purpose in keeping out cattle along a lengthy forest boundary. Fences are expensive, but their use is sometimes unavoidable where browsing by game, or 14 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. grazing is to be feared. Details as to the different kinds of fences are given in Schlich's Sylviculture, Vol. II., pages 12—20. Walls may be used where stones can be collected on the spot, and where ditches are not practicable on account of the steepness of the slopes. Such walls should be 1 yard broad at the base and from a height of 18 inches should gradually taper off to the top. The stones should be placed with the thick end outside. Forest boundary rides as well as boundary marks are necessary where two forests adjoin. Unless the ride is also to be used as a road, a breadth of 4 to 8 feet will suffice. Along Fig. 9. L^' a a> !-l o Fig. 10. a Fig. 12. Fig. 13. Fig. 11. i Boundary-ditches. o such rides it may be advisable to dig out all stumps, to prevent the growth of coppice-shoots, and the ground may be roughly levelled and drained, and even narrow bridges erected, so as to convert the ride into a bridle-path to facilitate inspection. Boundary ditches (figs. 9 to 13) give a clearly cut line and prevent encroachment by ploughing or grazing when the forest boundary runs along a field or meadow. Such ditches can be dug everywhere except on very stony ground ; they either run along the entire boundary line from point to point or are inter- mittent. In either case they should stop a few feet from the boundary marks. The earth dug out of the ditches should be placed on the FOREST BOUNDARIES. . 15 forest side of the ditch and a few feet from it (fig. 10), or in the case of intermittent ditches it may be placed between them as shown in fig. 13. Intermittent ditches (figs. 12 and 13) are usual on slopes to prevent the formation of ravines. Fig. IL Fig. 15. Template or mould-frame for ditch. Ditching -spades. The section of the ditches depends on the nature of the soil, but is generally 2 — 2i feet wide at the top and 8 — 10 inches at the bottom and the same depth. The boundary line may be the centre of the ditch, or one of its sides ; in the latter case the Fig. 17. Fig. 18. Boundary- ditch serving as a drain. ditch belongs to the proprietor on whose land the earth from it is thrown, which is generally towards the forest. Special kinds of spades are used for ditching, as shown in figs. 14 and 15. 16 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. A wooden model of the ditch-profile is also useful (fig. 16), and is termed template or mould-frame. In case the ditches are also used as drains, care mu§t be taken not to allow the boundary marks to be undermined. Thus the arrangement shown in fig. 17 should be followed to protect the boundary marks from erosion, and not that shewn in fig. 18. 4. SuEVEY OF Boundaries. The best survey is that carried out by the theodolite and a chain, or measuring staff, but for preliminary work a less accurate instrument, such as the plane-table or prismatic compass, will suffice. From the survey a boundary map should be drawn up, the usual scale of such maps being 18 or 36 inches to the mile in Germany. These maps should show : — All boundary marks with their numbers. The course of the boundary lines. The names of adjoining properties, and the nature of their cultivation, or otherwise. 5. Description of Boundaries. This should be prepared in a tabular form, and should show : Name of forest and of proprietor. Names of adjoining estates and of their proprietors. Current number and nature of boundary marks. Angle at each corner in degrees. Distance from one mark to the next. Direction of boundary line from mark to mark with reference either to that of the magnetic needle, or true north. Other remarks worth recording, such as crossing points of streams and roads, or reference to any permanent objects near the line, such as trigonometrical pillars, &c. 6. Legalisation of Boundaries. It is desirable to cause the boundary map and description to be recognized by the proper State authority, according to the law in force. FOREST BOUNDARIES. 17 7. Upkeep of Boundaries. The boundaries once laid down must be maintained in good order ; the following measures being specially necessary : — (a) Periodic clearing of the boundary line, so that one mark may be visible from the next. In case the boundary line be a road, bridle-path or ditch, repairs to these become necessary from time to time. (h) Periodic inspection of the lines by the forest officials, to whose charge definite lengths of boundary should be allotted according to their rank, and each official should from time to time submit reports to his superiors, on the condition of the boundaries. (c) Immediate repair of all defects in the marks, repainting fading numbers, etc., before any j)oint becomes doubtful. Marks which may have been removed can only be replaced with the consent of both owners or by order of a Court of Law. (d) Immediate report of all tampering with established boundaries and prosecution of the offenders. 8. Cost. The cost of erecting and maintaining forest boundaries should be divided between the adjacent owners, unless there is any legal provision to the contrary. These costs vary so much according to circumstances, that it is difficult to lay down any general estimates ; the following figures may be considered approximate. One man can erect in one day an earth boundary mound 4 to 5 feet in diameter and 3 to 4 feet high, and can sod about 3 to 6 such mounds, and repair from 6 to 9 of them. Hewn Hmestone boundary stones cost 2 to 3 shiUings each, and 20 such stones can be carted by two horses. Iron boundary posts cost from Is. 6d. to 2s. 6^. each. In loam, a man can dig in one day 30 to 40 yards of boundary trench, 10 inches wide at the base, and of the same depth. In light soils, the labour is from 10 to 15 per cent, heavier. VOL. IV. \^ ]8 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. Boundaiy works are generally done by contract, and on the continent of Europe repairs to forest ditches are frequently executed by petty offenders in lieu of fines. 9. Improvement of Boundaries. Advantage should be taken of every opportunity to con- solidate forest property and thereby to improve its boundaries. This can be done by purchase, disposal or exchange of land, so as to cut off inconvenient corners or narrow strips, to alienate detached pieces, or to acquire enclosures belonging to other proprietors. Some of the advantages of consolidation are : — (a) Greater facility for keeping the boundary line in order, and at a reduced cost. (h) Saving in protection expenses, in work of staff, and less liability to cases of misappropriation and damage by outsiders, especially in the case of danger from fire. (c) Increase in the productiveness of the forest. Fewer roads are required ; damage is reduced, whether it is caused to the forest by frost, storms, etc. or to adjoining farm-land by over- hanging trees, or by game sheltering in the forest. IRREGULARITIES IX UTILIZATION. 19 CHAPTEE 11. PROTECTION OF THE FOREST AGAINST IRREGULARITIES IN THE UTILIZATION OF FOREST PRODUCE. Section I. — Principal Produce. 1. General Account of Damage done. The standing-crop or soil of a forest may be endangered during fellings and in the conversion and transport of timber in the following ways : — By overfelling, bad felling, careless con- version or bad stacking of timber and firewood, and careless transport. The methods for fixing the annual yield of a forest are ex- plained under Working -Plans, and how timber should be felled and converted under Forest UtiUzation ,- here, only the pre- ventive measures necessary to obviate irregularities will be considered. Irregularities of wood-cutters, cartmen, etc., may be dealt with either by regulations made by the forest owner, or by the forest laws of the country. In a general way, it should be noted that some damage must be done during fellings, conversion and transport, and it is only by experience that a forester learns how mach damage is un- aivoidable. Too stringent conditions should not be enforced on woodcutters or timber purchasers. 2. Overfelling. All forest operations must be Carefully watched, and their results recorded, so that only the fixed yield prescribed by the working-plan is cut annually. At the same time, at least in c 2 20 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. private forests, it ma^y be advisable to cut more than the fixed yield in seasons when the price of timber is exceptionally high, and reduce the fellings when it is low. In order to keep within the limits of the fixed annual yield, trees to be felled should be properly marked in accordance with administrative rules, and after the fellings, the stumps of felled trees should be examined and counted in order to detect possible irregularities. In some cases, as in Coppice-with-Staudards, the trees to be reserved are marked instead of those to be felled. The practice in France of marking such trees by cutting ofi" a portion of the bark and stamping on them with a steel hammer may give rise to attacks of fungi and defects in the wood at the base of the tree. In the case of large^ felling-areas, it may be necessary to employ an extra forest]'guard in addition to the guard of the beat to supervise the woodmen, and when trees are sold standing, the purchaser may be allowed to appoint a special guard with temporary police powers and a badge of office. This necessity for special supervision applies to all the succeeding sections, referring both to the removal of principal and minor produce. 3. Bad Felling. Measures for the prevention of mischief are : — (a) Employment of competent and trustworthy woodcutters, and careful supervision of their work. It is generally advisable to employ the same men year after year, and to withdraw from the gang all those who fell badly, and encourage the best men by instruction and higher wages. (h) Cessation of the work during unfavourable seasons or weather ; for instance, when the trees are in sap, except where bark is being harvested ; during absence of snow on the ground to break the fall of the trees and spare natural regeneration ; during seasons^of hard frost, when the stems may be broken, or during strong winds,iWhen the direction of the fall of the trees is uncertain. In northern India, fellings are frequently stopped during the hot dry months of May and June, from fear of forest fires which may be caused by the workmen. (c) Avoidance of damage to seed-bearing trees in regeneration fellings, and to standards. IRREGULARITIES IN UTILIZATION. 21 (d) Throwing trees on to bare spots and not amongst young growth. (e) Renaoval of branches and crowns of trees before felHng, to prevent the trees from crushing valuable undergrowth. (/) Preservation of young growth during the removal of stumps, and putting earth into holes thus caused to prevent their being tilled with water. (f/) Careful felling of coppice with sharp instruments and with a clean and sloping cut. (Ii) Leaving stools on steep slopes where erosion is to be feared, and also on shifting sands. (/) Avoidance of throwing felled trees on to rocks, stones or other stems ; felling uphill or sideways so that there may be a minimum of breakage. ( j) Tropical woody climbers should be cut two years before a felling is to take place, as otherwise they bind trees together, and the fall of any tree may involve that of a group of surrounding ones. The soft- wooded climbers, however, rot in about two years' time. (k) Trees are sometimes, as in the case of teak in Burma, girdled two or three years before being felled, so that the wood may dry and lose weight, and become floatable. Care must be taken that this is not done to trees liable after girdling to be bored by insects. 4. Careless Conversion. Here may be mentioned : — ((/) Quick conversion and removal of felled trees, especially in the case of natural regeneration and in coppice ; protection of young growth in both cases. {b) Use of the saw instead of the axe to prevent waste. (c) Quick removal of bark to prevent insect-attacks. {(l) Repairs of any damage done to young plants, which, if of broad-leaved species, may, when injured, be cut back close to the ground so as to get a strong regrowth. Otherwise, replanting must be effected with strong transplants after the felling-area has been cleared. 22 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. 5. Bad Stacking of Timber and Firewood. Employ specially trained men for stacking firewood, as ordinary woodcutters generally stack loosely. Stacking should be done on blanks, or along the edges of felling-areas, on roadsides, &c. Withes for binding up faggots should be cut from suppressed stems, or taken from cleanings or special plantations. 6. Careless Transport of Timber and Firewood. Attend to the timely construction and repairs of the necessary roads, slides, etc., which should be ready when the fellings commence. Kemove material from the felling-area at favourable seasons, when snow is on the ground ; not in hard frosts, nor when the trees are in sap and the bark of standing trees is easily abraded by the wheels of the carts, etc. Avoid damaging methods, such as rolling, etc., among young growth. Fix a period during which the material must be removed, say from November of one year to the end of winter in the next, so that the ground may be cleared in time for the spring-growth of the second year. At the end of this period, all injured plants should be cut-back, blanks planted-up, and all ruts on temporary cart-tracks filled-in. Certain rules should be made for the protection of roads and other means of transport. These are, that new roads should not be used until the earth has settled, and they have, if possible, been macadamised. Notices closing roads under con- struction or repair should be posted up, and bars put across such roads. Dragging along ordinary roads should be disallowed. All transport should be carefully supervised, if necessary, by extra forest guards. Section II. — Ireegularitiks in utilizing Minor Forest Produce. 1. General Accownt oflJamaf/e do)ie. Whenever the minor produce is less important than the principal produce of a forest, it should be harvested in such a IREEGULARITIES IN UTILIZATION. 33 way as not to endanger or diminish the supply of the latter. The following are the chief items of minor forest produce : — Bark, turpentine, resin and gums, leaves, fruits of forest trees, dead hrancli-icood, grass and herbage, litter, stones, gravel, sand and earth, peat, forest cultivation of cereals, berries, edible fungi, game, fish, wild honey and ivax, etc., etc. 2. Bark. Bark is chiefly used for tanning, or for dyes, but the bark of certain species, such as the paper-mulberry {Broussonetia 2)apyrifera) , may be made into paper-pulp, or, as in the case of Betula Bliojpatra in India, into hats and umbrellas. The inner bark of the lime and of many tropical trees is used for rope- making or mats. In the case of oak-bark used for tanning, the following rules should be observed : — {a) Secure a clean and slanting cut of the stems in order to protect the stools against moisture. {b) Prevent any tearing of bark from the stool, by making a clean cut near the ground, before the bark is peeled from standing poles. (c) Eemove peeled stems expeditiously, so that the new shoots may harden before early frosts occur. (d) Carefully stack and quickly dry the bark, so as to avoid loss of tannin by rain, and ensure rapid clearance of the felhng- area. Wherever bark is used for any of the other purposes above referred to, similar rules, modified for the species in question, should be observed. 3. Turpentine, Resin and Gums. The present chief sources of the supply of turpentine and resin are the pitch pine (P. australis) and other pine-trees in the Southern States of North America, and the cluster pine {Pimis Pinaster) forests in the west of France. Tappings for turpentine and resin on a moderate scale have, however, been started in the forests of the long-needled and blue pines of the Himalayas (P. longifolia and excelsa). Some turpentine is still obtained from the spruce in Germany and the north of 24 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. Europe, but as this tree only yields it in small quantities and the process of tapping it is extremely injurious to spruce timber, its tapping should be absolutely prohibited. The following remarks, therefore, only apply to species of pine which yield turpentine abundantly, and to the extraction of gums and caoutchouc from several species of trees in hot countries. (a) Lessees of turpentine or gum must be pecuniarily respon- sible for all damage done in forests by their workmen. (b) Tapping should generally be confined either to trees like the Ficus elastica, which are hardly of any value except for the gum they yield, or to trees too remote from means of transport for their timber to be of any marketable value as compared with the value of the turpentine or gum which may be extracted from them. In other cases, it should be confined to trees which will be felled for timber within a period of from ten to twenty years, as when young trees are tapped no considerable increment of growth may be expected. For the same reason the best shaped and most promising trees should not be tapped. In seeding-fellings, a certain number of the seed-bearers should remain untapped, as tapping is prejudicial to both the quantity and quality of the seed. (c) Rules regarding the size and number of cuts and the depth of cut to be made in each tree will vary with the species, and are given in detail under Forest Utilization. In tapping pines for resin, there should not be more than two points of attack, unless it is intended to kill the tree, when as many as six may be opened. There should be from 8 to 12 inches between each cut, and the cuts should not be more than 2 inches broad and in one year only about 3 feet long. (d) Tapping must be intermittent, so as to allow recovery of the trees before a fresh tapping is allowed, unless it is intended to tap the tree to death before felling it. The interval between successive tappings will of course vary with the species in question. In Europe, all tapping should cease with the first early frost in August or September, and not be resumed till the spring. (e) Tapping should rarely be attempted on poor soils. IRREGULARITIES IX UTILIZATION. 25 4. Leaves and Branches of Forest Trees. Leaves of forest trees are used for fodder, manure, tliatcliiiifi, tanning, dyes, &c. Leaf- fodder is extensively used for cattle in countries where sufficient grass is not available, as in the centre and south of France, where hedge-row oaks are annually pollarded for this purpose. A similar practice prevails in the Himalayan districts of India during winter, evergreen oaks, elms and species of Celtis, Primus, &c., being thus utilized. During the season of rest, leaves of evergreen trees are rich in reserve nutrient material, and afford valuable fodder. In seasons of drought in Central and Western Europe, as in 1893, leaf- fodder from hornbeam and other deciduous trees is also exten- sively used instead of grass. In the north of India, camels, buffalos and elephants are chiefly fed on branches and leaves of trees during the cold and dry seasons. Oaks and other forest trees were also formerly ex- tensively pollarded in European deer-forests to afford fodder for the deer, which ate the bark of these branches when the ground was covered with snow. The important points where the use of leaf- fodder prevails are: to allow trees to be lopped only after the principal growth of the year is over, to restrict lopping, as much as possible, to inferior species of little or no value as timber trees, and to prevent the lopping of trees until they have attained a certain size. Wher- ever the restriction is practicable, only side-shoots should be lopped and the leaders spared, and the trees lopped only every third year. In forests, lopping should, if possible, be restricted to compartments which will be shortly cut over. Where the demands for leaf- fodder are large and cannot other- wise be met, a regular system of pollarding should be intro- duced, with a fixed rotation, the length of which will be decided by local experience. In India and other hot countries, the foliage of woody climbers may be used for leaf- fodder to the actual benefit of the forests. In certain parts of India, green branches and leaves of trees are used to manure the rice-fields, under the term of rah ; this subject will be referred to again under the heading Forest Servitudes. In hot countries, leaves of various ^o 26 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. forest species are used for tanning, dyes, drugs, hat and umbrella making, plates, and for feeding silkworms. The last is a very im- portant and valuable industry, and the trees utilized are generally of much less value for timber than for their leaves, and therefore rules should be made which will afford the greatest possible quantity of leaves at the time required, and in a way most easily accessible to the silk producers. Thus pure coppice is adopted with very short rotations, even of one year in the case of the mulberry in Bengal. As regards the other demands for leaves, forest officers would do well not to be pedantic in stopping in- dustries dej)endent on their forests which can be supplied without serious injury to the trees by the exercise of a little ingenuity and suitable control. o. Fruits of Forest Trees. Fruits of forest trees are collected for sowing ; for the food of men or animals ; for extracting oil, dyes, tannin, &c., or they may be eaten on the ground in the forest by swine (pannage), or by deer. The rules for the protection of the forest are as follows : — A. Collection by Hand. Where regeneration by seed is expected, or where swine or deer are to be fed in a forest, fruits should not be collected for other purposes. All injuries to the trees during the collection of the seed must be strictly forbidden. These are : beating trees with axes ; dragging down fruit-laden branches ; use of climbing irons, &c. The bad effects of the latter on the quality of the wood may be seen from fig. 19, each wound made by the iron introducing decay into the timber. Smooth- barked species such as beech and Weymouth pine suffer most in this way. The work must be stopped during frost, wben the brunches are easily broken. B. Pannage. Pannage, or the feeding of swine on the mast of a forest, con- sisting of fallen acorns, beech-nuts, chestnuts, &c., was formerly a very important industry, but is now becoming less frequent PAXNAGE. 27 in the forests of Europe. It still prevails in Epping Forest, where about fifty pigs are turned into the woods annually from the 14th Sept. to the 8th Nov. Swine damage forests in the following ways : — (rt) Eating-up mast in seeding-fellings. (b) Uprooting young plants, breaking off weak stems, abrading the bark off poles, and exposing and gnawing roots of valuable forest species. All these injuries are chiefly felt in natural regeneration-fellings, and in thinnings in young woods, on loose sandy or shallow soils, on steep slopes, kc. Fig. 19. Section of a Scotch pine injured by climbing irons. (a.) Points of injury. {b) Concave annual rings of wood occluding wounds. (c) Brown-coloured wood below the wounds, showing consequent decay. Swine are useful to forests in the preparation of the soil for seed, by removing the covering of dead leaves and ex- posing the mineral soil, and by burying acorns and other fruits ; also by trampling dead leaves into the soil, which is of importance in places exposed to winds, and by destroying mice and certani insects hibernating or moving in the soil-covermg. 28 PEOTEOTIOX AGAINST MAX. The protective rules for pannage are : — (a) Exclusion from the following places : Seeding-fellings ; dry loose soils in the case of swine driven in to feed exclusively on fungi, worms, insects, &c. ; places where the mast is reserved for deer or wild-pigs. {b) Compartments opened for pannage should as nearly as possible adjoin one another, so that the swine may not wander uselessly through the forest. They should not be allowed to remain long in compartments without mast, as they then proceed to bark the trees. (c) The place where the swine pass the night should be care- fully selected. In such places scarcely a root escapes injury. (d) The number of swine to be allow'ed in a forest must depend on the quantity of mast available. Each full-grown animal requires from two-and-a-half to seven-and-a-half acres of forest. (e) Limitation of pannage to the period of the year from the middle of October till the end of January. It should not commence till sufficient mast has fallen, as otherwise the swine become thin from much wandering about, are not easily kept together, and do much mischief. On the other hand, it must cease when the mast is no longer sufficiently plentiful, and it is in the spring that the greatest damage is done by peeling the bark and roots. During the a/termast, after Christmas, the acorns become more digestible, and are specially suitable for breeding-animals. ( f) The admission of swine into a forest should only be on condition that they are perfectly healthy, and guarded by trustworthy swineherds ; two hundred swine for each man, and an assistant for every hundred additional swine. (//) The owners of the swine should be made collectively responsible for all damage which may be done to the forest. In Epping Forest all swine admitted to pannage are ringed. 6. Grass and Herbage. Grass and herbage, dry ferns, heather, &.C., may either be cut and removed from the forest and used for fodder, or litter for cattle, or, with the exception of the ferns, may be utilized on the spot as pasture by grazing animals. GRASS-CCJTTING. 29 A. Grass-cutting. Grass and herbage may be cut for fodder, or to form thatching material, paper-pulp, &c. Dead ferns, especially bracken, are largely used for litter, and heather for litter or thatching. The protective rules are : — (1) Limitation to persons who have obtained a formal permit from the forest manager, and, as a general rule, on certain fixed days, when the forest guards can supervise the cutting. When a number of people are together cutting herbage in the forest, they should be held collectively responsible for any damage which may be done. (2) Kestriction of cutting to places with a moist fertile soil, which can bear the removal of the mineral constituents of the grass, &c. In such places, planting in lines between which grass can easily be cut is more suitable than naturcil regenera- tion. In some cases, heather and broom protect young plants from frost and insolation and should be left intact. High grass, on the contrary, as will be seen further on, greatly increases radiation, the intensity of frost and the drying-up of the soil by the sun, so that it is frequently more advantageous to have it removed. Its removal also furnishes additional security against forest fires. (3) The use of scythes should not be permitted amongst young growth, where grass should be cut with sickles or pulled up by hand. In India, a flat cutting-instrument called a hhurpa is frequently used by grass-cutters to scrape out the rhizomes of the grass, which are highly nutritious ; this practice should not be allowed in forests. Scythes maybe used in older plantations, but on the condition of leaving a narrow zone of grass round each plant. On rides, extensive blanks, road-sides, &c., there need be no restriction as regards the instruments used for grass-cutting. (4) In hot countries, grass which springs up after forests have been burned furnishes better thatching or paper-material than when cut from unburned forest containing much dead and decayed grass, dead leaves, &c. Hence, in forests under fire protection, grass can only be used with advantage from oft roads, fire-traces or blanks which are cut every year. 30 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. B. Forest Pasture.* (1) General Account. Forest pasture, except in mountainous districts, where the area of cultivable land is very limited, is no longer so important as formerly ; cultivators object to their cattle becoming thin and wiry in roaming about the forests, to their cows yielding less milk than when kept at home, to the loss of valuable manure, and to the increased danger from disease. In backward countries, however, forest pasture is still pre- valent, and it is therefore necessary to draw up rules for its exercise with the least possible amount of injury to forests, as, when unrestficted, it is incompatible with the existence of forests. To a certain extent, however, some good may be done to forests by cattle, by keeping down a rank growth of grass and herbage, which interferes with reproduction, and by break- ing through and scattering the dense layer of needles in coni- ferous forests, and exposing the mineral soil for the roots of seedlings. Browsing on advance-growth of subsidiary species, or softwoods which it is desirable to keep in check in favour of more valuable species, may also be sometimes useful. "f" The damage done to forests by the grazing and browsing of domestic animals extends to the soil, especially on slopes, and standing-crop ; to the roads and other means of communication, and the boundaries, ditches, fences, &c. The soil of a forest suffers chemically, becoming impoverished in potash, phosphorus, and nitrogen, by the removal of the grass ; and physically, becoming hardened owing to the tread of the grazing animals, and the consequent insufiicient aeration of the humus in process of formation. The woods are injured by the animals browsing on young plants ; biting-ojff buds, leaves, and shoots ; breaking-off coppice-shoots and gnawing the bark of trees ; trampling on, bending down and breaking young growth ; exposing and destroying roots, &c. * Hundeshagen, J. C, Die Wakhveido u. Waldstreu : Tubingen, 1830. f In Forest Utilization, p. 137, Fernandez states that goats are useful to regeneration in mature Acacia arahica (babul) forests. When the pods are falling, the seeds swallowed by the goats and exereted germinate without delay, whilst other seeds require at least a whole year to sprout, during whieh they are exposed to destruction, chiefly by insects. FOREST PASTURE. 31 Roads, ditches, slopes, hedges, and fences, are especially liable to injury by grazing animals. The extent of the damage done by grazing depends on a number of factors. Among the chief of these are : — Species of tree, age of tree ; system of management, nature of locality, species of grazing animal, number of animals, season of the year, state of the weather. The amount of damage varies greatly according tv circumstances. Thus Hundeshagen * estimates the ordinary loss of increment due to cattle-grazing at one-tenth. Krain states that goats in 15- to 35-years-old spruce, Scotch pines and hornbeams prevent almost any growth from taking place. (2) According to Species of Tree. Broad-leaved species are more exposed than conifers, but re- cover more readily from browsing than the latter. Most exposed to damage are : ash, maples, hornbeam, beech. Next to them : lime, sallow, and poplars. Less still : oaks, elms, Pyriis sp. Least of all : birch, alder, horse-chestnut and robinia. Of conifers, the silver-fir suffers most, then larch, the dif- ferent species of pine, and the spruce. The above scale is drawn-up chiefly as regards horned cattle, but if we consider the preferences shown by other grazing animals, it should be noted that — horses prefer oak-foliage and avoid that of the lime ; sheep appear to prefer light-demanding species, even the birch and Scotch pine ; young lambs, the leaves of robinia ; goats are not particular, and even browse on the poisonous yew without injury, in India, however, they succumb to the foliage of Rkododendron campanulatum. Another peculiarity of horned cattle is to prefer plants intro- duced into pure woods, such as ash or hornbeam in beech forests, or exotics planted among native woods. The vegetable monstrosities resulting from browsing are very striking to the eye ; rounded bushes, w'hich sometimes broaden out till some leading shoots in their centre escape and grow into trees, are frequent eyesores wherever forest grazing is practised. * Encyclopadie der Forstwi.ssenschaft. I. Forstliclie Productiouslelire, 3 Aufl. Tubingen, 1835, p. 512. 32 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. Shallow-rooted plants such as the spruce, in spring, suffer most from the tread of the animals. (3) A(ie of Tree. Young plants suffer most. In older woods, without under- growth, the chief injury is done by the hardening of the soil owing to the tread of the animals. The trees suffer from browsing until the foliage is beyond the reach of the animals, and the age at which this happens depends on the rate of growth, the conditions of the locality and the kind of animal. (4) System of Manacjement. In the case of the Selection si/stem, grazing is most dangerous ; then come in descending order of danger : Group system, CoppiCi-icith-Standards, Coppice, Shelter-iuood Compartment and Clear-cutting systems. PolianUng is the most favourable system to adopt on land open to grazing, as young pollard- shoots are out of the reach of the cattle ; pollards are re- generated by planting taller transplants, or cuttings, than in other systems, and the plants should at first be securely fenced against cattle, which might injure them by rubbing against them, or gnawing their bark. The uneven-aged systems of High Forest, such as the Selection and Group systems, suffer most of all, as in the former, young growth is scattered all over the forest, and in the latter, it is scattered in patches over very large areas. If grazing be allowed under the Selection system, regeneration can usually be effected only by fencing-in patches of ground where large trees have been felled, and planting them with strong transplants, which will be out of the reach of the cattle by the time the fences are no longer effectual. Coppice-with-standards suffers more than pure coppice, on account of the necessity for preserving numerous seedling plants to replace the standards as they are felled. Coppice suffers more than even-aged High Forest, because stool-shoots branch out lower, and are less firmly rooted than High Forest poles ; in the even-aged systems of High Forest all pole-woods can be opened to cattle without much danger. In regular plantations, damage done by grazing is less than in irregular artificial, or FOREST PASTURE. 33 natural reproduction, and planting in lines somewhat far apart in one direction is most favourable, as the cattle can readily graze between the rows. It has also been observed in grazed forests in hill-tracts, that mound-planting gives better results than pit-planting. (5) Locality. On moist and fertile soil, the damage done by grazing is minimised, because a strong growth of herbage generally springs up on such localities, and the cattle have less inclination to attack woody growth, moreover the trees grow faster, and are sooner out of their reach. Binding or heavy soil becomes all the more compact by the tread of the animals, and less susceptible to the entrance of air and water, and the roots lying immediately below the soil- covering are ex- posed to damage. Very loose soil becomes still looser from the tread of cattle, as they destroy the herbage which binds the soil together. The greatest damage by grazing animals is on shifting sands. On level ground, damage is less than among hills, where it is increased if the soil be loose, or the slopes steep ; very wet slopes are also endangered by the sliding of the feet of the cattle. The steeper a slope, up to a certain point, the more erosion is caused ; larger plants are also reached by cattle from above, on slopes, than on level ground, and the damage by browsing, bending and breaking is greater. Scantily wooded, dry, hot aspects are obviously unsuited for grazing. (6) Density of Forest Growth. In dense woods, little or no grass is to be found, so that more damage is done to woody growth than in more open forests, where herbage grows under the trees. (7) Species of Grazing Animal. Among European animals, goats show the greatest preference for woody plants, and their mode of feeding is most injurious. They even devour woody plants when there is plenty of herbage VOL. IV. D 34 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. available, and beat down saplings M'ith tbeir forelegs till they can reach the leading shoots, on which they brow'se ; they can thus reach plants 12 feet in height. They also peel the bark from stems in spring. Their constant movement on the steepest slopes is another great source of damage. To take some out of many instances of the destruction of forests by goats : — In the Tyrol and southern Switzerland, and in the Himalayas, fine forests have been completely destroyed by them, and in Ajmere and Merwara, whole hill-sides where vegetation once flourished have been laid almost bare, with nothing left but deformed, thorny shrubs. In France, since 1665, goats have been excluded from all forests managed by the State Forest Department, and no legal right can be enforced to graze goats in private forests, as the grazing of these animals is considered incompatible Avith the maintenance of the under- wood. The sJwej) is less injurious than the goat, holding its head low, and preferring grass, but sheep browse freely on woody plants, and injure forest soil and the roots of shallow-rooted species by their short tread and sharp feet. Horned cattle generally confine themselves to grass and herbage, and only attack woody plants in the absence or scarcity of the former. The buft'alo in India is, however, frequently fed during the cold season by loppings of evergreen or winter-green trees. Cattle do much injury to forest soil, slopes, roads, and ditches owing to their weight and size, and also break down seedlings and saplings ; these injuries are aggravated in the case of the bufi"alo, which is a heavier animal than common cattle. Oxen are more destructive than cows, and young beasts are worse than older ones, as they gnaw woody growth, partly out of pure mischief and partly to develop the formation of their teeth, and are much more active. Horses can reach higher, and are fonder of leaf-fodder than cattle, and do much damage to roots by their tread. Foals occasionally peel the bark from trees. Camels eat almost everything that grows within their reach, to a considerable height, and can feed readily on thorny species owing to their hard mouths. Much damage has been done to forest growth in Northern and Central India by camels. FOREST PASTURE. 35 Elephants are chiefl}' fed by loppings from species of Fictis and other trees, as well as on grass and herbage, but the number of tame elephants admitted to a forest is limited, and their browsing can be easily controlled. Wild elephants are very destructive in bamboo forests. The relative damage done to forests by European grazing animals has been estimated as follows b}^ Hundeshagen : — Horse's foal . . .150 Horse . . ... 100 Young cattle ... 75 Old cattle . . . . 50 Goat ..... 25 Sheep . . . . . 15 This list is drawn up on the understanding that the animals are freely grazing in forests where the crowns of the trees have grown beyond their reach. The fact that the goat is only estimated to do a quarter the damage of the horse does not controvert the former statement of its being relatively to its size the most harmful beast, for its weight is only about l-14th of that of the horse. (8) Number of Cattle admitted to the Forest. The number of cattle admitted to graze in a forest must be regulated by the species and amount of herbage available ; it should be so fixed that the latter is sufficient to nourish the cattle, or else they are certain to attack the trees. Hundeshagen has calculated for the complete nourishment of large milch cattle for the whole summer, night and day, that 10 to 12^ acres of good pasture is required ; for merely grazing by day, 2| — 5 acres, and he reckons 2 to 3 young cattle or 10 sheep as equivalent to one head of fall-grown cattle. He esti- - mates for their daily requirements, 18—20 lbs. of hay for a cow weighing four hundredweight, 10 to 12| lbs. per head of young cattle, and 1| — 2 lbs. for a sheep. (9) Season of the Year. In Europe the greatest amount of damage is done to forests by grazing in the spring, when the young leaves and shoots are most tempting and the herbage scanty. The strong D 2 36 PEOTECTION AGAINST MAN. appetite and restlessness of the beasts after the long winter stalling has also to be considered. The least damage is done in the autumn, but as the grass at that season is hard and unnutritious, forest-pasture is chiefly used when the herbage is best and most plentiful, from the end of May till the middle of July. In the plains and lower hills of extra-tropical India, forest grazing is chiefly confined to the cold and dry seasons, but varies with localities. In the Himalayas, grazing is carried on in the upper forests from 8,000 to 10,000 feet above sea-level, between May and September, the animals coming down below the snow-level in the cold season. (10) State of the Weather. During very dry or very wet weather, or in the morning, while heavy dew is on the ground, cattle jjrefer the leaves of trees to herbage. The damage done to the roots of trees by the tread of cattle is also greatest in wet weather. (11) Other Considerations. Milch cattle require the best grazing grounds, and those nearest to the villages ; then come young cattle. Beasts of draught can go further and put up with inferior pasture. Sheep can go furthest of all. Horned cattle and especially buff'aloes like moist pastures, and the latter will eat very coarse herbage. Horses prefer short grass on old roads to that grown on loose forest soil. Sheep prefer even drier herbage, in elevated lands exposed to full light, such as heather-land, and are very liable to disease if fed on moister lands. Horned cattle will not graze readily after sheep, and attack woody growth in preference to grass where sheej) have been grazing. Cattle accustomed to forest grazing do more damage than others which seldom come into the forest. Less damage is done when the herds are kept well together, and this is most difficult to secure in the case of goats. FOREST PASTURE. 37 When one considers all the various circumstances which affect the damage done by grazing, it is not surprising that practical foresters should differ greatly in their estimates of its amount in difterent cases. Whilst a forester having coppice- with-standards to deal with may consider the amount of damage done as very considerable, another in charge of spruce forest under the clear-cutting system may look upon it as quite trifling. It is, however, clear that from the experience of grazing in so many mountain forests in the Hartz, Black Forest, &c., where thousands of head of cattle have grazed for centuries, and the forests are still flourishing, that well-regulated forest grazing may be admitted wherever its necessity for the welfare of the people is very pressing ; a great resource in times of drought may also be secured to the people by opening portions of State and other forests for pasture at such seasons. Under certain circumstances, where the ground under a seeding-felling is covered with tall herbage, or a dense mass of dead leaves and moss, temporary driving-in of cattle may prove useful, and also in the case of a plague of mice, or of insects, when their larvae or pupae are on the ground. (12) Protective Measures. The regulation of forest pasture may be considered under the headings : close-time, arrangement of grazing areas, duration of grazing, species of animal, number of animals, control, and protective staff. (a) Close-time. Close-time is the period during which a wood should not be opened to grazing. It commences with the regeneration of the wood, and terminates when the young trees can no longer be reached by the animals, in the pole stage. The length of the close-time depends on the species of tree, the system of manage- ment, the circumstances of the locaHty, and the kind of grazing animal. Broad-leaved species, especially slow-growing ones, require a longer close-time than conifers ; high forests, a longer 38 PKOTECTION AGAINST MAN. close-time than coppice. In the case of mixed woods, the length of the close-time will depend on the most endangered species. On poor soil, in exposed places, longer close-periods are required than for good soils, sheltered positions, and mild climates, since trees then grow faster. Sheep can be driven into a forest earlier than cattle or horses. The calculation of the open area in a forest is given in the following formula : — Let F = area of forest, / = closed area, /i = F — / = open area, ' s = close-time, r = rotation of forest. Then,/=F '1 I. r /i = F-/=f(i-^-) =F('rJ^... II. For example, a forest of 1,000 acres area, with a rotation of 100 years, and a close-time of 25 years : 25 The closed area = 1000 - =250 acres. 100 The open area = 1000- =750 acres. ^ 100 Speaking generally, according to G. L. Hartig, the following areas should be closed : — Broad-leaved forest . . . | to ^. Coniferous do. . . . ^ to ^. Coppice do. . . . ^ to §. According to Hundeshagen, the close-time should be as follows : — FOREST PASTUKE. 89 System of Management. Species of Cattle. Broad-leaved High Forest. Coniferous Forest. Coppice with Standards. Coppice. Horses and horned cattle Sheep . . . Years. |l8— 24 14 18 Years. 12 20 9 16 Years. 14 18 10 12 Years. 6—14 4 10 In this table the minima are for good localities, and for species not much endangered by grazing, and the maxima for inferior localities, and for species preferred by the animals. When the animals are simply driven through a forest, much younger woods can be opened, but in such cases the gradient of the slopes and the consistence of the soil should be considered. (b) Location of Grazing Areas, Every year a new tabular form showing the areas opened to grazing should be drawn-up and publicly advertised amongst the grazing villages which use the forest. In preparing such a form, the open compartments should be arranged so as to make it possible for the animals to pass through old woods from one grazing ground to the next, or drift-roads should be laid- out between them wherever young woods intervene, and suffi- cient time allowed for the grass to grow in a grazed area before its turn for opening recurs. Marshy places, loose soil and steep slopes are to be excluded. Localities with under- growth which is valued for regeneration must not be opened to sheep. Where trampling is to be dreaded, horned cattle must also be excluded. Attention to the requirements of the animals when drawing up the plan of grazing will also tend to restrict damage. The closed areas must be marked on the ground with notice boards, or protected with fences or ditches, the latter to be 3 feet 40 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. Fio. 20. wide and Ih feet deep, with the earth thrown up on the side of the closed area. If drift-roads are required from one part of the forest to another, they should he from 15 to 24 feet wide, according to the number and species of grazing animals. Wherever these roads pass through very young growth, ditches, earth or stone walls, or dry thorn hedges, should be placed on either side. The earth from the ditches should be thrown up towards the closed area to assist in keeping out the cattle. Wherever such protective works are not made along a drift road, the nearest rows of young plants should be protected, as in fig. 20, each with three rough stakes with the jagged sides pointing out- wards. When for the removal of a strong growth of herbage, or other reasons, pasture in young growth is considered advisable, this should be allowed only from the 1st of July after the year's shoots have com- menced hardening, and in dry weather. By multiple planting at each spot, in threes or more, there is more chance of success in grazed forests, than when single plants are used. In grazed selection forests, the only certain system of reproduction is to plant in groups where old trees have been removed, and fence-in each group until the plants require no further protection. (c) Duration of Pasture. The usual duration of pasture in Europe is from May till September. The period for grazing varies in different countries, being, however, much the same in the mountainous parts of Northern India as in Europe. In hot countries a great diffi- culty consists in the custom of firing the dry grass in forests for spring-grazing, in order to get fresh young shoots from the rhizomes of the grass, as the dead cold-weather grass is un- uutritious. In certain forests, however, some of the grasses remam green, long after the grass outside the forests has dried Protection for young plants. FOREST PASTURE. 41 up, especially when the forests are at a certain altitude and on northern aspects. Owing to unsuitability of the unburned grass for pasture, certain inferior areas of forest and blanks may have to be given up as grazing-grounds, and burned annually for this purpose. It is found by experience, that, owing to constant grazing, coarse grasses gradually disappear from these areas, so that eventually they need not be burned, the non-inflammability of the finer grasses then assists in the protection of the valuable parts of the forest from fire. It is, however, always preferable to try and induce the people to cut and remove the grass before it has become dried-up, and preserve it as hay or ensilage for use during the dry season. This plan has had great success in Ajmir, in India. In the Alps, forest pasture only lasts for ten or twelve weeks, and sheep-grazing on the high forest pastures of the Himalayas is of a similar nature, these pastures not being burned. The winter pastures in the N.-W. Himalayas, in forests of Pinus longifolia, are generally burned, both in order to destroy the dead needles, and to produce a fresh crop of grass. Forests so treated must eventually disappear, and the magnificent repro- duction of Pinus excclsa in the middle altitudes of the Himalayas between 6,000 and 8,000 feet, since fire protection has been introduced into the forests, is most remarkable. In wet weather, forest grazing must be stopped, or only carried on in old woods. The usual daily grazing should only commence after the sun has dried the dew, and night-grazing is not generally allowable. If cattle are to be driven through young growth, this should be in the afternoon, after they have already had a good meal. (d) Species of Grazing Animals. Goats, horses, and camels must not be allowed to browse in valuable forests, but their fodder should be cut and brought to them. The French Government excludes sheep as well as goats from all forests managed by the State Forest Department, but sheep may be admitted to graze in forests in certain localities under special sanction. Elephants may be admitted into forests with their keeper, and their fodder cut and brought in by them. A 43 PPtOTECTION AGAINST MAN. list of climbers and inferior forest trees suitable for the fodder of goats, camels, elephants and buffaloes should be drawn-up and circulated amongst all keepers of these animals who obtain fodder from a forest, and the fodder, as far as it consists of woody plants, should be restricted to these species. As regards other grazing animals, the number to be admitted into forests must be carefully controlled. This number will be determined by considering the amount of their requirements and the available quantity and quality of the herbage in the forest. Wherever tender grasses are available, these are exclusively grazed on. No diseased or sick cattle should be admitted, and from one- tenth to one-fifteenth of the animals should be provided with bells, those inclined to wander from the herd being chosen. The animals should only be driven into the forest in flocks or herds under the care of trustworthy herdsmen, who must see that they do not crowd together, nor stray too far apart. A few horses may be attached to a herd of cattle, but cattle and sheep should never be kept together to graze. The herds must not be too great, not above 100 to 150 head. All crowding and fast driving, and especially driving cattle with dogs through young growth, must be forbidden. On slopes grazing animals are driven straight up from below, and very slowly, in order, as much as possible, to avoid damage by their tread. Shady places in old woods without undergrowth should be selected for rest in the middle of the day, and must be near water for the animals to drink. (e) Herdsmen. Well-reputed, trustworthy jjeople must be selected as herds- men, and the owners of the cattle held responsible for damage or breach of regulations, any failing in this respect being at once reported. The forest manager should secure for himself a certain in- fluence in the appointment of the herdsmen, and endeavour to get them to take interest in the welfare of the forest, by rewards for good behaviour, and discouragement if they are careless. If FOREST LITTER. 43 the herdsman chooses the proper moment, when the beasts show an incHnation to attack woody plants, to drive them on to another pasture, and when to graze in young woods, and selects old woods in wet weather— in fact, if he has the necessary power of observation a^iid will use it for the benefit of the forest, the damage done by grazing may become quite in- considerable. (13) Geese, etc. As regards domestic birds, geese, fowls and pigeons may damage a forest, the former spoiling the pasturage, and the latter devouring forest seeds ; but certain blanks may be found suitable for geese, and the damage done by fowls and pigeons is inconsiderable, 7. Forest Litter * As the removal of litter consisting either of the soil-covering of dead leaves, needles, humus, moss, etc., or of branches of forest trees in full foliage, is the most hurtful form of utilization of minor forest produce, its permission must be looked upon as altogether exceptional, and only to be granted under the most pressing necessity (scarcity of straw, etc.). The then requisite protective measures are : — Limitation of the quantity of litter to be removed to what is absolutely required by local farmers and peasants. Not a word should be heard in favour of selling the litter to others. If the rides, roads, ditches, places from which the wind would inevitably blow av/ay the litter, and hollow places where it becomes heaped up unnecessarily deep do not suffice for the requisite supply of litter, then felling-areas with high herbage should be opened, but growing woods only as a last resort. Only places with fertile, deep and fresh soil can bear a limited deprivation of litter. On poor, shallow, easily dried, hot soils and on sunny aspects, the collection of litter must be uncon- ditionally refused. Woods which have not yet attained their maximum height- growth must be closed against the removal of litter. The neces- * For an account of the value of humus in the soil of a forest, see Schlich, Sylviculture, Vol. I., pp. 129 and 143. 44 PEOTECTION AGAIKST MAN. sary close-time depends on tlie species, the locality, and the length of rotation (r) ; it should be at least J r for High Forest and Coppice-with-Standards, | r for Coppice, but for exacting species, such as the beech, we must wait up to h r even in high forest. Woods the quality of which is under 0'7, where unity stands for best quality, must not be used for litter. The repetition of the utilization of litter is only allowable after a certain close-time, which varies from five to ten years according to species of wood, quality of locality, rate of growth, etc. Removal of leaves should not be permitted two years before or after a thinning, and in the case of natural regeneration there must be a close-time for litter some years before and after a seeding-felling. This, however, implies such a state of de- composition of the soil-covering, that seedlings can strike their tap-roots into the mineral soil. Wherever deep layers of unde- composed humus prevent this, they must be removed so as to expose the mineral soil. The most suitable time for removing litter in Europe is on sunny dry days in September and October, shortly before the fall of the leaf. This rule will require modifying where, as in hot countries, some of the trees lose their leaves in the spring. Iron rakes must not be used for collecting litter, as they go in too deep and may injure the roots of the trees ; bi'ooms also remove too much litter. Only the uppermost undecomposed layer of litter should be removed. Cutting and removal of sods of grass with the roots must be forbidden. As regards moss, species oi Hijpjmm should bo removed only in strips during the spring, so that the regeneration of the moss on the bare places may be facilitated from the strips left un- touched ; this happens, when the soil is fertile and moist, in about six years. Then the old strips of moss may be removed, and another six years left for the bare places to recover, and so on. Species of Polytrichum and Spliagnum, which generally grow in patches on wet soil, cause swamps and are hurtful rather than useful, and can therefore always be removed. Branch loppings for litter, best from silver-fir, should be con- ceded only from felled trees or from those just about to be felled. DEAD BRANCH-WOOD. 45 During removal of the litter, the forest must he carefully watched, and wherever annual permission for litter is given, a scheme must be drawn up, allotting the open areas for suc- cessive years. By careful economy in the preservation and use of all manures and by the use of straw and provision of fodder-crops for stock, the demand for forest litter may be reduced ; it is the duty of the State to impart public instruction in this respect, and in the extreme impoverishment of forest soil by the constant removal of litter. Among the worst instances of damage to the soil by the removal of litter are the State forests near Nurem- burg in Bavaria, where even Scotch pine, in the worst j)arts of the forest, can now only grow as a dwarfed scrubby tree almost useless except for fuel. 8. Dead Branch -wood. "Wherever the removal of dead branch- wood is not a right of usage, but is permitted under certain conditions by the forest manager, the following rules apply : — Written or printed permits for the removal of the dead wood must be held by each person so engaged in order to prevent the concession from becoming a right, and generally, people too poor to purchase fuel should be favoured in this respect, but they should not be allowed to sell the wood. Very poor or exposed localities in the forest should be excluded from the use of this concession, as the dead branches increase the humus in the soil. As a rule, no tools should be used, but where removal of dead branches from standing trees is allowed, they should be sawn off close to the stem. In order to facilitate control, the removal of dead wood should be allowed only on certain days, and not between sunset and sunrise, and the forest carefully watched on those days. Wherever game is of importance, the privilege must be sus- pended during the breeding season. It may be necessary to prescribe the removal by certain roads in order to facilitate control. The removal of fallen dead wood is not so harmless as many 46 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. people think, as a considerable amount of humus is formed from it. Thus sapwood, of which young branches are chiefly composed, contains far more potash than heartwood. In the Crown forests of Hesse the privilege of collecting dead wood gratis is subject to the following rules : — All dry fallen wood which in the opinion of the forest manager is unsuitable for sale, may be taken. Also dead branches which can be broken off by hand by one person without climbing the trees, provided it be- not over 6 cm. (2^- inches) in diameter. Only poor people provided with formal permits are admitted between sunrise and sunset to this privilege. All tools are excluded, and no sale of the wood allowed. Transport is by head-loads, or in hand-sledges. The privilege is stopped during May and June. 9. llcmoral of Stones, Gravel, Sand, etc. The following rules should be enforced : — All quarries, sand, clay and gravel pits must be properly demarcated, and the boundaries strongly walled or fenced to 23revent accidents. Proper precautions must be taken that neither roads, nor streams, nor the forest outside the quarry are imperilled by quarrying. Stones lying about on the ground should be collected only where their removal is not prejudicial to the forest, and when removed, the ground where they were lying should be levelled. Removal of loose stones should not generally be allowed on the sites of fellings, especially on loose sand or calcareous soil which dry up easily, as stones retain moisture in the soil. Places must be assigned where the stones may be stored and roads designated for their removal. Sand, clay, and gravel pits which have been abandoned should he levelled or sloped-off to prevent accidents, and if possible planted-up. This rule is especially applicable to experimental pits abandoned as not sufficiently profitable. 10. Collection of other Items of Minor Produce. Collecting berries, such as those of bilberries, wild straw- berries, raspberries, etc. ; edible fungi ; empty cones lying GAME AND FISHERIES. 47 on the ground; grass- seeds ; medicinal herbs or fruits, and other such produce, the collection of which is not worth the trouble of the forest owner, must be so regulated that only persons provided with formally written or printed permits should be admitted, and the j)eriod of collection should be fixed. In hot countries, some of those products attain a much greater importance than in temperate regions, and certain special rules may be necessary, as in the collection of wild honey and wax in India, where care must be taken to prevent the collectors from firing the forest, so that it may be necessary to prohibit the collection altogether except during seasons when the grass and soil-coverins in the forest will not burn. ^& 11. Game and Fisheries. Leases in forests of the right to hunt or shoot game and of fisheries frequently produce considerable annual revenues, but whilst little or no damage is done by pheasants and other birds, deer and ground- game (hares and rabbits) may do a great amount of harm to a forest. The measures to protect forests against these animals will be given further on. The protection of game and fisheries is dealt with in special treatises, and would take up too much space in the present book. In most civilised countries there are special laws relating to game and fisheries, and these should be so framed as not only to prevent wholesale destruction of useful wild animals and fish, especially during their breeding season, but also to afford compensation to owners or tenants of land bordering on a forest, for damage done to their crops by any excessive head of game which may be preserved in the forest. They should also fix a minimum limit to the area on which a man may claim the exclu- sive right of shooting on his own land ; this is especially required in countries where landed property is much subdivided. 48 PKOTECTIOX AGAINST MAN, CHAPTER III. protection of the forest against offences. 1. General Account of the Subject. The theory of forest legislation and the law of forest police is dealt with under Forest Law.* There are of course a numher of acts which constitute an infringement of the rights of the owner in a forest, which may be only remediable by a civil court : — either by a suit for an injunction to the offender not to repeat his act, or for damaf/es. Of such cases it is not necessary to speak in detail ; but a word may be said about " trespass." Ordinarily an entry on a man's property which is not lawfully warrantable gives rise to an action for damages ; but under the English laAv (and so in India) trespass cannot be prosecuted criminally, unless there is proof that the entry was with intention to do " mischief" or commit a legal offence of some kind. When, therefore, in forests, it is desirable (owing to the special circumstances) to make penal the mere act of climbing a fence and aimlessly wandering (off regular paths) in a compartment, or a young plantation, it can only be done by an express enactment of a suitable prohibition and (light) penalty. 2. Definition of a Forest Offence. Under the term " forest offence " is here included any act done in a forest which is punishable under an existing forest or other law, and by which damage is done to the forest or the interests of its owner are threatened. Offences which affect or threaten forests (or the produce of them when converted and stored, or in transit) or which interfere with control, are naturally some- times of a kind which might occur in respect of anij property, * Reference may be made to "Forest Law," by B. H. Baden-Powell, CLE., London (Bradbury, Agnew, & Co. Ld.), 1893, wliicli also refers to the principal works on the subject. FOREST OFFENCES. 49 and sometimes of a special character : i.e. tliey only happen in forests and are not attempted elsewhere ; or else are exceptionally dangerous or injurious when done in a forest (or with regard to forest property generally). Hence in most systems of law, "offences" are jmrtly punishable under the provisions oi a. forest law, and partly under the ordinary " Penal Code " or the statute and common law of the country. In India, for example, such offences will sometimes come under the Forest Acts; sometimes under the Penal Code ; some- times under either. And it is a matter for the law manuals to tell us when one law or the other should be had recourse to. In the British Isles there is no special forest law ; accordingly all " offences " that are punishable (as distinguished from acts w4iich give rise to a claim for damages) are so under the ordinary (Criminal) Common and Statute Law. 3. Classification of Forest Offences. Forest offences may, therefore, be classified as follows : — («) Damage : Unintentional. Wilful. (h) Misappropriation : Simple. Accompanied by damage, (c) Contraventions of forest police. The subjects of forest offences are sometimes the forest soil, or its covering ; the stock of wood or minor produce, whether standing or converted ; houses, roads and other works and appliances used in forest business. (a) Damage. Unintentional damage occurs in a variety of ways, as for instance :— damage to standing trees through clumsy felling of other trees, to young growth during fellings or removal of material ; cutting up valuable timber into firewood in ignorance of its value ; cutting seedlings during grass-cutting ; driving carts over boundary marks, through ditches, down embankments, etc. The number of cases which may occur is so great, that to VOL. rv. E 50 PKOTECTION AGAINST MAN. draw up a complete list here is impossible. In many cases no legal offence is committed which is i^wnishahle criminally ; but the doer of the damage is liable to make reparation. In the case of ivilful damage, the motives may be wantonness, revenge, selfishness, even suj^erstition.* Damage of this kind includes : — peeling the bark from standing trees, girdling, cutting-off leading shoots, lopping branches or exposed roots ; lopping branches from trees yielding mast, or from cone -bearing trees in order to facilitate the removal of their fruit ; wilful damage to boundary marks, fences, forest nurseries, or other forest appurtenances. (b) Misapproiyriation. Under this heading is understood illegal appropriation of forest property still belonging to the forest owner. In most systems of law "theft" and "larceny" refer to "personal " or *' moveable " property: such as a watch, fire- wood in a stack, a log, or a beam ; and there is (or may be) a difficulty about prosecuting cases of lopping, or the oftence of cutting a standing or growing tree, bush, or sapling ; generally, therefore, i\\e forest law (if there is one) will specially provide for these cases, and will leave " theft " of forest produce (stored), cut timber, etc., to the ordinary law. t Where there is no special forest law, the cutting of standing trees would at any rate con- stitute " wilful damage " or " mischief." Simple misappropriation (in the general sense of the term) is unaccompanied by any damage to the forest, so that no loss of increment, no impoverishment of the soil, results from the offence, but merely the loss of the property illegally taken away. In this is included the illegal removal of dead standing trees (provided no damage is thus done to living trees) ; of dead branches or windfalls ; of fruits not required for natural reproduction ; of * About thirty years ago a deodar forest in Jaunsar, in the N.-W. Himalayas, was deliberately burned to propitiate the goddess of small-pox. t In India, a technical distinction is drawn between "theft" and "misappro- piiation," for which see "Forest Law" (pp. 118, 426). It is provided, how- ever, in the Indian law, that though "theft" can only be of "moveable" property, — and a standing tree is not such, — still the act of cutting and severing the tree from the soil may make the object moveable and also eifect the moving with dishonest intention that is nece.ssary to constitute "theft." * FOREST OFFENCES. 51 grass from rides, or roads ; of stones lying on the ground, berries, edible fungi, etc. Misappropriation accompanied by damage is committed when the forest owner, in addition to the loss of the articles abstracted, suffers physical damage to his property, which may differ greatly in degree according to circumstances (species, age of wood, system of management, density of growth, locality, etc.). To offences of this class belong, as regards principal produce : — cutting and removal of standing timber, or parts of standing trees, involving loss of increment and irregularity of management, or introducing decay into the wood ; removal of mother-trees in regeneration-fellings, or of standards in stored coppice, resulting in delay in the reproduction of the wood, deprivation of shelter against atmospheric influences for the young growth, exposure of the soil, etc. Some of the most harmful of these offences are digging up green stools from coppice, and removal of young plants from plantations, as thus the care taken to restock a wood is frustrated. As regards minor produce : — peeling bark, tapping for turpen- tine or gum, lopping branches for fodder, grazing, raking-up litter, cutting sods, and appropriation of the resultiug produce, are common offences. In many of these cases, as for instance in the removal of litter, the damage done to the forest far exceeds the value of the material abstracted. (c) Contravention of Forest Police Regulations. The offences comprised under the above heading are in- fractions of police regulations made for the public welfare, or in the interests of forest conservancy. No damage need result from such offences, as for instance from kindling a fire in a forest which may become extinguished without causing a forest fire, although there is an imminent probability that such a calamity will happen, and this necessitates the stringent pro- hibition of such an act. Offences of this nature may be placed in the following groups : — (i) Offences against forest control. — Examples : removal of wood without permission, at a forbidden time, or by a closed E 2 52 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. road ; collection of dead fallen wood without a permit, on forbidden days, or with prohibited tools, etc. (ii) Offences endanfjerinr/ the forest. — Examples : lighting a fire ; leaving unextinguished a fire lighted with permission of the forest manager ; carelessness in burning charcoal or lime ; smoking pipes without covers ; going into a forest with torches, etc. (iii) Acts preparatory to a forest offence, which are conse- quently prohibited: — Examples: trespass by climbing over fences, carrying axes or saws in a forest without permission, injury to notices, etc. Forest trespass (in closed places, off regular paths, etc.) where this is made penal by law. Many forest offences comprise damage or misappropriation, as well as contravention of regulations ; as for instance injury to growing trees by transport on a prohibited road, kindling a fire in a forest with misapj^ropriated wood, etc. Such complications may involve several heads of charge in the prosecution case, or call for severer punishment than offences of a simpler nature. 4. Protective Measures. Protective measures against forest offences may be either direct or indirect. The latter chiefly involve removal of the cause of offences, and the former are directed against the offence itself ; it is, however, difficult to draw the line between them. Unfortunately forest offences are always considered less culpable than those against the penal code, as many German proverbs show. This results from the former communal pos- session of many forests, and the small value of forest produce in earlier times. Even now, the appropriation of Christmas trees, birches for Whitsuntide and sallow branches in bloom for Palm Sunday, are frequently considered justifiable. The forester should not be too exacting regarding certain innocent practices ingrained in the popular mind, and he should endeavour to become acquainted with all local customs which prevail near his forests. The following are the protective measures against forest offences : — (a) Removal of Causes of Ofence. Want of occupation and consequent povert}' often leads to an FOREST OFFENCES. 53 increase of forest offences. As a population increases, without more opportunities for employment arising, and as the clearance of communal and private forests causes a rise in the price of forest produce, the temptation to commit offences is increased. They are also more frequent near populous towns than elsewhere, as the trade in stolen forest produce is thus facilitated. At Hard- war in N.-W. India, in 1882, unmarked forest produce brought into the town was regularly priced lower than properly certifi- cated produce, as the former was suspected of having been misappropriated and might get the purchaser into trouble. Insufficient education, careless watching of a forest, bad forest legislation, and a feeble execution of justice on the part of magistrates, may all combine to increase forest offences. The subject of Forest Policy comprises a study of the above factors, and only the energetic action of the State can ensure thorough protection to forests against forest offences. Under Forest Protection, we can rely only on means within the power of the private forest owner, which are as follows :— (i) Careful utilization of all forest produce, so that all local wants may as far as possible be supplied. Frequent sales of pro- duce, and in small lots, and credit given for a certain part of the purchase-money until the purchaser can begin to realize the value of his purchase, are useful measures. (ii) Provision should also be made for the sale, by printed or written permit, of kinds of principal forest produce which fre- quently form the object of misappropriation, such as hop-poles, props for fruit-trees, cart-axles, wood for ploughs, pea-sticks, thorny bushes or stakes for fences, bast for rope-making, Christmas trees, faggots, etc. (iii) Permits, if necessary without payment, to remove certain minor forest produce as far as is consistent with the safety of the forest, should also be obtainable throughout the year. For instance, to cut grass ; for dead fallen fuel ; to collect berries, edible fungi, cones ; to utilize some kinds of litter the removal of which is not harmful ; in certain cases for the temporary culti- vation of crops. Tall coarse grasses may frequently be removed to the advantage of a forest, and thus may be secured less danger from frost and fire, more heat and moisture in the soil, and loosening of the surface, all of which are important for plantations. 54 PEOTECTION AGAINST MAN. In the case of temporary cultivation, potatoes are to be pre- ferred to cereal crops, as they impoverish the soil less. (iv) Supplying labour in the forest in bad times. Roads, drainage, ditching and removal of stumps, will furnish employ- ment, in addition to the ordinary felling and planting work iu a forest. (v) In the case of communal forests we have moreover to secure economy in the use of firewood by introducing the use of improved stoves, ovens, etc. The firewood store-depots should be centrally situated, so as to facilitate removal of the material by the householders. The wood should be delivered dry and in the smallest quantities in demand. (vi) Improvement of agricultural methods, so that agriculture may depend as little as possible on the forest. Common-land should be used to the best advantage ; technical instruction in agriculture should be aff"orded, etc. (vii) Something may be done by the exercise of tacfc and kindness in the administration of a forest, to prevent the ignorant peasantry from feeling the forest to be a hostile insti- tution in their neighbourhood. This need not impair the effec- tiveness with which important rules are enforced and the safety of the forest ensured. It is possible so to act as to make the people not dislike the control, by using discretion in enforcing particular prohibitions. Ignorant peasantry will always dislike forest conservancy ; but they need not feel it a grievance : there is an irritating kind of exactness which tends to provoke a spirit of malice and a desire to injure the forest ; whereas, a judicious management will in time disseminate the idea that the forest is after all a benefit, and that the forester is not the enemy of the people. (b) Direct Dealing with Forest Offences. (i) The forest should be subdivided into beats of suitable size and shape for 2)atrolUn(i and keeping watch against trespassers, or against the causes or origin of fire ; in Germany, the area of a beat ranges between 500 and 1,800 acres, the latter in Wiir- temberg, the mean area being 1,150 acres. Trustworthy forest guards should be appointed, who should be allowed sufficient pay and houses well situated as regards their beat, also allot- FOREST OFFENCES. 55 ments for a garden and potato-field, and pasture for one or two cows on forest rides and blanks. Proper control of the guards, and promotion and reward of good men must be seen to by the forest managers. (ii) Wood-cutters and contractors employed on work generally should be induced to participate in the protection of the forest. The forest should be constantly inspected, and all workmen employed in it supervised. Proper rules regarding forest fires must be duly made known and strictly enforced. (iii) All forest ofi"ences must be promptly reported, and the ofi"enders prosecuted. There are some particular offences against which special remedies may be adopted. Where tappings for turpentine have been illegally effected, they may be smeared with lime-water, which stops the flow of turpentine. Where removal of litter is to be feared, stumps may be left somewhat high at the thinnings, or stakes driven into the ground to impede progress. All stumps of stolen trees should, on dis- covery, be marked with a special hammer to facilitate control. 56 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. CHAPTER IV. PROTECTION AGAINST DANGER FROM FOREST RIGHTS. Section I. — General View of Forests as " Estates " or Pieces op Property. 1. WJiat is Property ? A DISCUSSION cannot here ]be attempted of the legal definitions of property, or the questions involved in legal possession, and so forth, with which the whole subject is hound up. "NYe com- mence with the practical consideration, that in modern times most things that are available for use have, or are presumed to have, an owner. In particular all land (in countries where there is a civilized government) has come to be recognized as the " property " of someone : even an open moor or waste is owned by someone. This ownership implies the following elements : — {a) That within certain limits or boundaries, (/;) the " owner " has certain iwsitlve rights : wjiich other people have not. (c) He has also the negative right that other persons are bound not to interfere with his rights. In either case there is a legal remedy, which the owner can invoke in the case of an infringement of his right. {d) It is possible that some other persons (without actually infringing the owner's right) may have certain rights of their own which limit the enjoyment of the owner ; if so, these rights must be known and certain. Where these conditions are not yet legally existing there can- not be, for any practical purposes of management or control, an estate or property. Where the owner's right (a and h above) is not limited by the FOREST RIGHTS. 57 existence of other rights under {d), the lawyers shortly express the sum of his rights as owner, by saying that he has the use (every possible advantage from the estate) ; the abuse (the right to destroy and make it a waste, unless some express law pre- vents him) ; the fruits, i.e. all produce and accessories ; and lastly, the right to let, hire, alienate, and maintain any kind of legal action necessary to defend his property. 2. Of the Persons wlio are Owners. Forest property may belong to an individual owner, or to a partnership or body of co-owners, or to the State ; or to what is called an artifc.al or legal person, namely, some body of men, or individual holding a peculiar position, or even an official trust, or some institution, which the law regards as if it Avere one single person, taking (as regards the property owned) no thought of the individual member or members comj)osing it. The corporation, as a legal person is called, is exemplified by the " Crown," the " rector of a parish," a town corporation, a college, charitable, or other body, which is by law, or by a Hoyal Charter declared to be corporate. In such cases the law or charter specifies the officer (chairman, secretary, kc.) who is to represent the corporation : the act of the whole body is signified by a common seal* The indiridual members of a corporation have no interest in or liability for the property whatever, nor can they take any action regarding it. Thus corporate property ditiers from property where the owner is a company (not being a corporation), or a partnership, or a set of two or more joint owners : for all these have separate rights and individual in- terest, although until partition, no one of them alone can deal with any portion of the estate. 3. Limitation of Oivner's Right. In the short enumeration of the characteristics of property it was noted that sometimes, though there was an owner to the * This has nothing to do with the departmental official seal used by a forest department or government secretariat, etc. The "State " or " the government " as owner of forests and so forth, is not exactly a corporation — but it is nnalogous. State property is always provided to be managed and held by someone — e.g. the Secretary of State for India in Council, in the case of ]rtiblic property in India. 58 PHOTECTION AGAINST MAN. estate, whose ri^lit extended over the whole, within its proper boundaries, there might be third persons, having rights within the boundaries also. When this is the case it is often popularly (but inaccurately) said that the ownership is limited. Owner- ship in itself is an ultimate and indivisible right ; if a person is owner at all, he is simply owner, he cannot be something more or less, so long as he retains the legal title at all. But around the right of ownership cluster also a number of subsidiary rights and enjoyments, some of which can be broken off, so to speak, and come into the hands of other persons. Hence, though the ownership remains, the enjoyment of it may be either absolute and unfettered or may be limited. One obvious way in which such limitation arises, is by some contract — such as a lease, pledge, or mortgage, or loan of the estate ; w'ith that kind, however, the present work is not concerned. There is another class of rights of third parties which do not arise out of any lease or temporary contract, and their existence often causes a very considerable limitation of a forest owner's enjoy- ment and control of his property. 4. Bides of Protecting Forest Proijerty. Before discussing the nature of these rights, some brief rules may be given, which apply to the protection of the forest property or estate as such ; to secure the area, general title, and legal position of the property. (a) See that the forest is regularly and permanently demarcated, both as to its general outer boundaries and as to all inner boun- daries — which mark the limits to which certain rights extend, or in which there are no rights other than the owner's. {h) Exercise the rights of ownership in the forest, especially near its outer boundaries ; let no one have an excuse for saying it could not be known that any one was in possession, or was owner of the place. (c) Carefully prevent damage to the estate, its roads, fences, works, etc., especially if caused by the removal of forest pro- duce. {d) Carefully watch against encroachments, and all kinds of forest offences, injury to boundary pillars and other marks. FOEEST RIGHTS. 59 ((?) When any licences or concessions are allowed, see that it is always done by written or printed permission so worded as to make it clear that no right of a prescriptive character can arise. (/) Exercise any rights the forest estate may possess over other estates, and all claims to labour, or payments, all rights of re- ceiving help in case of forest fire or other calamity, or receiving information (which may be imposed by the forest or other law) . Section II. — General Account of Forest Rights or Servitudes. 1. Nature and Origin of Forest Rights. As already stated, it frequently happens that persons (some- times individuals, sometimes legal persons or corporations) possess rights over a forest (or other) property which belongs to someone else. These are permanent rights, which have nothing to do with a contract, or temporary lease, mort- gage, etc. In that case the forest or other estate over which the limited right exists is called the servient estate — it is burdened with the right. These rights are called by various names. The Roman lawyers called them servitudes (because the burdened property was made to serve the purpose of the holder of the right). In English some were called ease- ments {i.e. one kind of them were so, of which presently), others rights of common. In India, the Legislature (abandoning this distinction) has called them all " easements."* Such rights * Origin of forest rights. — In Germauy these rights often arose out of the old agricultural communities whose territory or Mart had a portion or borderland of ■waste and forest whicli (in some sense, at any rate) belonged to the inhabitants. From the time of Charlemagne these border-forests were appropriated by the empire or by powerful landowners and town corporations, and tlie original owners became mere right-holders. Waste lauds attached to villages in India have also had something of the same history ; but under the effects oif the land settlements such areas have mostly been freely given over to the villages. In the Gaio Hills (Assam), where tribal settlements in the ancient model still can be oliserved, it is only within the last 30 years that fighting has ceased when one village group tried to encroach on the border-forest of the next. Forest rights also arose by grant of the baron or lord : and still more grow up by local custom, and long user of the neighbours, partly because the modes of agriculture then known suggested forest grazing, pannage, etc., as the most desirable, and wood fuel was recpiired before coal was obtainable. In those times, too, forests were abundant in com- parison with the number of the population : and no one cared to interfere with people habitually taking what was so abundant and had so little value. 60 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. depend partly on grants, or some form of written title, perhaps a judgment of some Court, and partly on what is called prescri2}tio7i. By this latter term we mean, that though the exact origin is not known, yet as a matter of fact the right has been exercised for a long time — the term of years (usually 20 or 30) is fixed by the law of each country — and also has been exercised openly (not by fraud and unknown to the owner), peaccahli) (not by violence), and as of right (not by mere leave or sufferance, acknowledging that the owner could put a stop to the practice). When these conditions concur, there is a full legal right by prescription. It is also possible the rights may be regarded as (in a way) prescriptive, by reason of their being admittedly matters of ancient local custom or on other equitable grounds, even when the precise terms of a legal prescription, as above stated, are not established. 2. nights or Servitudes classified into Kinds. The lawyers in various countries have classified these rights in different ways in consequence of particular legal distinctions. For example, such rights are said to be negative when the estate which bears the right is merely under the continuous obligation not to do something — i.e. not to dig a hole so as to endanger the right-holder's foundations, not to stop the flow of water, etc. ; and positive, when it is obliged to allow the right-holder to do or take sometliing, as to drive his cattle across a field, take wood, or drive-in pigs to feed on acorns, etc. Rights are also said to be continaous or disconiinaous (intermittent) ; the former in their nature are continually in operation at every moment (as a right to light and air by ancient windows*) ; the latter are used from time to time, either at fixed intervals {e.g. a right to have 10 beams for repairs once every 5 years), or on occasion (as to cut brushwood for fuel when wanted). This latter feature (discontinuity) may give rise to a further question, which will be noticed presently. On the subject of classification of rights of user, only two points have a practical bearing on protection. One concerns the nature of the rigid, the other concernsthe nature of tJie )-igJit-]i()lder. * And in general all negative servitudes are necessarily continvaus. FOREST EIGHTS. 61 As regards the nature of the right, there is an obvious dis- tinction between rights which (whether negative or positive) only imply some use of the servient estate (as walking over it, letting water flow across it, having the support of soil for foun- dations, having a beam resting on a (servient) neighbouring wall, etc., — in all which cases nothing is taken out of or from the servient estate ; and those rights which do take something ; e.g. rights of pasture, wood rights, rights to dig sand, litter, etc.) [It is the former only that the English lawyers call easements ; the latter are rights of common, or profits a prendre in older books.] And then as to the holder of the right : this may be a person A. B. and his heirs; it is always understood that the person cannot alienate the right or servitude. Such rights are said to be personal rights, or as English lawyers say, rights in gross. But very often the right is held not by a person (natural or artificial) as such, but by a certain house, farm, or other build- ing or estate ; so that the right is exercised by the person who happens to be the holder of the estate or farm, etc., for the time being. Should the present holder go away and sell the farm, etc., he would cease to have any right ; but the right might pass with the farm by sale. Rights of this kind are called real rights [real in a technical sense), and the estate, house, farm, etc., to which they are attached is called the dominant estate, just as the estate which hears the right is called the servient estate. Different systems of law have different ideas regarding these rights. For instance, in France and Germany forest rights (to pasture, wood, etc.) are always real rights — they are always attached to some farm, building, etc., for the benefit of which the right exists. But this is not always the case in Britain or in India (except in some few cases which in their nature imply some (dominant) house or building or land to which the right is attached) ; it is quite possible for an individual to have a custo- mary right as such individual.* It is not necessary then to * A brief note may be useful as to village rights in India : it cannot be said, or can only be tnie in particular cases, tliat a village is in any sense a corpora- tion, or that it, regarded as a single (artificial) person, can hold rights of user or common ; nor can it in general be regarded as a single dominant estate possessing rights. If (though not warranted by tlie Indian forest law) a right is set down in a public record as existing in favour of " village C' — this merely means that all inhabitants (or perhaps only all landholders) of village C, for the time being, can exercise the right in question. 62 PROTECTIOX AGAINST MAN. pursue this classification further, except to be sure that when a right is so attached, the record of it makes it quite clear exactly where, what and of what extent, is the house, farm, or estate, w^hich is the dominant or right-holding property. It need only he mentioned that pemonal rights may he granted or become prescriptive to a person and his heirs for ever, or may be (granted) for life or lives only. 3. Forest Rights ichich are Undefined. Returning for one moment to the prescriptive origin of rights, one very important matter has to be noticed. Such rights are nearly always undefined or indefinite — indeed, it is possible that some rights by the terms of a grant are also left undefined ; but most commonly it is prescriptive rights that are so. The custom is that the right-holder may graze " his cattle " in forest A. (how many and of what kind, and at what season is not stated) ; or that he may have power to build and repair " his house " ; or he has " common of estovers " — a right to fuel — but of what kind (brushwood or billets) and for what purposes, does not expressly appear. In all systems of law there are rules for determining how such undefined rights can either be brought formally to record in a definite shape {e.g. the Indian Forest Act*), or at least there are provisions for fixing the number of cattle, quantity of timber or firewood, etc., to be claimed under the right. These principles are detailed in law manuals, t No system of law allows such a thing as an unlimited right — for that might swallow up the entire ownership — a thing contrary to the very nature of a right of this kind which, it should be always re- membered, is a permanent right (not arising out of contract) of one person or estate, which exists over the property of a)tother jierson, to have some use, or take some part of the produce of the other property. It is true that sometimes a number of separate rights may exist, the aggregate demands of which form a serious burden on * In all fully- constituted State forests in India, the law requires every right claimed to be brought before a public officer appointed for that purpose ami not only recorded, but made as definite in number, extent, kind, etc., as circumstances allow. t " For instance, in Danckelmann's Ablosung unci Eegclung, 3 vols.. Berlin, 1880. Baden-Powell, "Forest Law," p. 318,/". FOREST RIGHTS. 63 the forest property ; but there is no infringement of the prin- ciple. It is also to be mentioned in passing, that sometimes there is a kind of right over property of a special nature, called the usufruct, which implies that the ivhole of the normal pro- duce and the general enjoyment of the property passes for life to the usufructuary ; but even then, the holder of such a right is not oivncr, nor can he do anything that alters or in- jures the property in its substance, or affects the ownership right* — a fortiori, therefore, a mere holder of a right of common is bound to respect the estate on which his right subsists, and treat it ciriliter et modeste according to Roman Law, or en ban ph'e de famille, in French Law, and cannot demand an unlimited, or abusive enjoyment of it. 4. How Forest Rights may Terminate. As we have considered how such rights may grow up, so a few words will be appropriate as to how they come to an end. {a) It may be naturally : as where the dominant estate dis- appears (e.g. river diluvion), or where the personal right-holder dies without heirs. {h) It may be that the forest is unable to satisfy the require- ments of the right ; here the right must remain in abeyance, till the forest has recovered from the calamity which caused the inability. Where the rights are permanently in excess of the yield-power of a normal forest, then the law usually provides express terms for dealing with the difficulty.! {c) When the right-holder becomes (by will, purchase, etc.) owner of the servient estate, or where the dominant estate is acquired by the servient estate, the lesser right merges into the greater. {d) Where the right-holder submits to an interruption, or acquiesces in an act on the part of the servient owner who pre- vents the exercise (of course having notice of the interruption), * The usufruct is always for life (see Broillard : Le Traitemcnt des Bois en Fraiice : Paris : Berger, Levrault et Cie. {i.e. 1894: pp. 627 — 654). If there is a prescribed working-plan the usufructuary must carry it out and only take such produce as comes within its directions, and he must carry out all works, such as new planting, sowing, keeping forest works and roads in order. Such a usufruct arises in the case of entailed forests, or those comprised in a family settlement ; also it may he that part of the glebe lands of a rectory in which the parson has a life-interest, is stocked with trees, and may come under this head. t See Baden-Powell, " Forest Law," pp. 293, 369, 378. 6i PROTECTIOX AGAINST MAN. the right will he lost if no action is taken for one year.* It mav be that the right-holder himself discontinues or intermits the exercise of his right. In England, it is a question of fact for the jury, whether the discontinuance was long enough or under such circumstances, as to give rise to a conclusion that the right was abandoned. In India, the matter has been settled by legislation (Act XV of 1877, sect. 26 Exp.). Two years' inter- mission (under the conditions stated in the Act) will cause the right to terminate. Of course in all cases, as a right can be gained by prescription so it can be lost by complete non-user for the whole legal period of prescription. (<') Lastly, the right may terminate when, either by friendly agi-eement, or (if the law prescribes) by compulsory process, the right is cuinmuted or bought-out on paying compensation. t 5. Practical Principles of Law regarding Forest Rights. The following short statement of legal principles, all of which are based on broad rules recognized in all systems of civilized law, will be found useful : — (a) There can be no such thing as a right to destroy the estate or do wanton mischief (e.g. burn a forest). (h) The right-holder is in no sense a part-owner of the forest. When a part of the forest is separated and given over to him, such a proceeding is at the option of the owner, — as a means of compensating for and getting rid of the right. (c) The right is always a limited one ; it can only be exer- cised so as while fully and fairly enjoyed it does not attack the substance of the forest : it can never exceed the normal regular yield of the forest nor its capacity to bear the right without de- terioration in the case of grazing, soil-litter, etc. etc. {d) When a right is undefined in its character, and has not been reduced to definite terms, it is always understood to be * For England, see 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 71. Tlie Indian law is similar : see sect. 26, Act XV of 1877. + Explained in Danckelmann's Die Ablosung ivid Regelung der Waldqrund- (ff.rechti(jkeiteii. Cooke's "Wingi-ove on Enclosures," 1864 (referring to themulti- tudinous and complicated Enclosure Acts). Baden-Powell, "Forest Law," pp. 367 — 393 (where an abstract of the German law is given). ^leaume, Usage Fores- tier (reprinted from the llipcrtoirc de Lrgislntioii: Nancj-, 1861), FOREST EIGHTS. 65 limited to the actual needs of the person, or the dominant estate (as the case may be), in his or its normal condition as it was when the right originated. If a peasant has a right to wood for " building his house," it means such a house as is usual in the locality, not a large villa or whole range of farm-buildings.* (e) The right must be exercised so as to interfere as little as possible with the regular management proper to forests of the normally existing class or kind : it cannot prevent the restora- tion of an ill-used forest, or the proper planting operations and production of young growth. (/) On the other hand, the forest owner cannot claim to alter the character of the forest, or its general destination so as to affect rights; and where one mode of proper working would provide for the rights while another would not, the owner must make his working-plan so as to provide for the rights.! 6. Tlte Disadvantages Arising from Forest Servitudes. The chief disadvantages to forests, from the existence of rights of common are : — (a) Limitation of the owner's power of managing the forest in the best possible manner, or of converting it, and so forth. Some servitudes affect the control more than others. And it is noteworthy, that it is generally not any o)te right that is objectionable ; the difficulty arises from the aggregate demand for a number of right-holders, both as to the quantity of produce, area of grazing, kc, which they require, and also * See Baden-Powell, " Forest Law, " p. 290/, 328. t See "Forest. Law," p. 294/. In England we have a recent example which illustrates the rule that f< forest owner cannot alter the entire destination and character of his estate to the prejudice of right-holders ; and at the same time is a rare instance of forett rights being beneiieial (from a forest point of view). In the case of Epjiing Forest, the right possessed by the commoners to lop the trees was enforced when the lords of the manors wished to enclose the forest areas, included in their manors, and had even proceeded so far as to clear a thousand acres of forest and subdivide it into building allotments. They claimed the power to purchase the right of lopping from the right-holders within their own manors. The right-holders, on the other liand, claimed that their right extended over the whole forest, and not over any particular manor, and thisview of the matter was eventually accepted by the High Court of Justice after a protracted judicial enquirj'. Thus it was decided that the lords of the manors could not free their respective manors from the rights without satisfying all the right-holders, in whatever manor they might reside. This decision saved Epping Forest from being converted into building-sites, and the City of London eventually purcliased all the manorial and lopping rights in the forest, the latter for £7,000, and now only rights of pasture and pannage are exercised by the commoners. VOL. IV. F 66 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. the numhcr of ijersons mtroduced, to graze flocks, gather wood, &c. (/>) Even rights-of-way and other rights which tale nothing from the forest, give occasion to accidental trespass, to forest fires, and perhaps to wilful offences. {(•) The forest owner is tempted to be less careful of his forest, and is deterred from expending capital on its improvement. (rf) Both the labour and cost of protection are considerably increased when forest rights are numerous. (e) And so are the risks of offences, and forest fires. (/) Disputes arise, and risk of litigation, and of ill-feeling culminating in revengeful attempts to burn or otherwise injure the forest. Forest right-holders are also tempted to presume on their position and encroach on the rights of the owners.* Looking at the question from the broad point of view of political economy, forest servitudes encourage extravagance in the use of wood, and establish a backward style of agriculture, as regards the use of litter for manure, loppings for fodder, and forest grazing, which may in the end overtax the forest and result in serious forest destruction and consequent injuries to the country, from floods, landslips, and other physical evils against which forests are a natural and often effective protection. The degree of danger incurred, irrespectively of the character of the servitude, depends on the conditions of the locality and the density of the standing crop. A completely stocked wood, on favourable site (as regards slope, exposure, Sec), and with a mild climate, suffers (proportionately) least of all. 7. Equitahle Principles in Dealing with Eiglits. Where forest laws exist, there is usually provision for the record of all forest rights, and for the definition of those which * In the New Forest, the present tendency is for commoners to exaggerate tlieir lights at the expense of those of the Crown ; and they areattempting to prevent the Crown from erecting a saw-mill and exenising other rights of ownership in the forest. In the Forest of Dean, since 1857, owing to the indilference of the Com- missioners of Woods and Forests, grazing by sheep is largely practised ; and it remains to be seen whether the Commissioners will be able to stop this practice, which is fast ruining the Forest of Dean, for centuries the most productive oak forest in Britain. Sheep are not beasts of conmion by English law (see AVilliams on Rights of Common, 1880, p. 232», and no prescriptive right to sheep-grazing can arise in England ; but it remains to be seen whether local feeling in favour of the commoners will be allowed to override the national interest in this matter. FOREST EIGHTS. 67 are claimed in indefinite terms. It is hardly necessary to re- mark, that every claim must be proved : the natural presump- tion is that the owner's enjoyment is not limited — it is for the person who asserts a right to an}' use or produce limiting the enjoyment, to prove it. The forest estate should always possess the means of referring to documents conferring rights, and if there is a serious doubt about terms, the sooner a judicial decision is obtained the better. Nothing is gained by " letting sleeping dogs lie " — for in this case uncertain rights are not " sleeping " ; they always tend to grow more difficult to settle, and are ultimately fixed in a form that perhaps was never contemplated. It may be confidently stated that where indefinite rights exist all rational management is impossible until they are properly defined. The forest owner has, in general, a right to share in the pro- duce of the forest, along with the right-holders.* Attention should be paid (p. 64) to the legal principles stated, especially as regards the limitation of undefined rights to the actual needs of the person or dominant estate, and to there being no right (in general) to a surplus which may be sold or turned to an extra profit. Also to the limit that cannot be exceeded, when the yield-power {possihilite) of the forest is in question. On the other hand it must be borne in mind that while the forest right-holder has his obligations and must submit to those reasonable restrictions which are necessitated by proper con- servative management, the forest owner has a duty on his side. He cannot adopt special methods of management (however desirable in themselves) that would destroy the rights ; and the working-plans should be prepared with the express object of providing for such rights as exist, and which (especially in cer- tain localities) are almost indispensable to the welfare of the present population.! New rights ought never to be allowed (by neglect, &c.) to grow lip in forests even when there is no forest law which ex- * See Baden-Powell, "Forest Law," p. 397. t See " Forest Law," p. 294^", where the correlative rights and duties of the right-holder and forest-holder are discussed. F 2 68 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. pressly forbids sucli gfro^^•ths. Nor can the State or other owner grant new forest rights to the prejudice of old and existing ones. 8. Protective Measures. From the point of view of the forest owner, the following measures are desirable : — (a) Clear demarcation of the portions of the forest burdened with rights, and those free from them or closed against them ; and maintenance of distinct boundary lines ; also indication by ditches or sign-posts, &c., of lines of )-ight-of-way for cattle, kc. (b) Careful record of rights-of-way, &c., use of water, as well as those to produce. "Where there is a forest law, it is probably provided how this is to be done. Besides which all working-plans of the forest must contain a schedule of the rights showing : — (i) Title-deed, or other origin of the right. (ii) Exact description of personal holder or dominant estate ; and the exact name, &c., of the servient estate or part of it affected. (iii) The extent of the right, kind, number, quantity, quality, season of exercise, &c., &c. (iv) The mode and conditions of exercise, and whether any particular duty is laid on either side (e.g. providing a competent herdsman for the cattle, providing cattle-bells, or the forest- owner maintaining culverts, &c., for a roadway). (v) Any payments, or returns in labour, due to the forest- owner for the exercise of the right. (vi) A notice of any obscure or disputed points. (c) Careful watching of the exercise of forest rights by the guardians and inspecting officers. But the caution already given about irritating and vexatious interference should be borne in mind. It is only necessary to add that where the rights are such that the forest is seriously threatened, then efforts must be made to get rid of them by commutation. Section III. — Special Account of the several Forest Rights. This section is concerned with some rules applicable to each FOREST RIGHTS. 61) particular kind of I'iglit, for which purpose the following list of " forest rights " is given : — 1. JVood-Riglits. (a) Building-timber. (b) "Wood for industrial purposes and agricultural implements. (c) Firewood. (d) Softwoods. (e) Dead, or fallen wood. (/) Lop and top. (g) Stumps and roots. (h) "Windfalls and broken trees. (/) Dead standing trees. 2. Rights to Minor Produce. (a) Bark. (b) Turpentine and tar. (c) Leaf-fodder. (J) Grass (cutting or gathering;. ((?) Pasture. (/) Collecting acorns and beech-mast. (g) Pannage. (li) Litter. (i) Quarrying or digging pits for sand, gravel, turf, &c. {]) Gathering berries, wild fruit, hazel-nuts, fungi, &c. (/r) Shooting and fishing. 3. Sundrij Rigltts {Easements). [a) Piights-of-way. (5) Eights to water, water-channels, use of springs or wells, to water cattle at streams, &c. (c) Eights to float timber. (d) Eight to burn charcoal, to stack wood, &c. 1. Wood-rights. Under the above term is understood either a right to claim from a forest a certain fixed quantity of wood, or as much as may be necessary for certain purposes. Such rights may, or may not, be subject to certain payments to the owner of the forest. It is generally stated what kind of wood is the subject 70 PPtOTECTIOX AGAINST MAN. of the right, thus, it may be building - timber, timber for implements, or firewood. Sometimes the title-deed merely mentions *' necessary wood," under which term firewood is gener- ally understood. The forest manager has the right of delivering the wood, and certain days may be fixed for its removal. A defined right to wood is fixed as regards quantity and form, and sometimes as regards species. "When the species is not mentioned, the right-holder must be satisfied with wood of the prevailing species, provided it is suitable for the purpose required. An undefined right to wood is limited to the requirements of the right-holder or the dominant estate ; for instance, the actual house of the right-holder, not his sheds and farm-buildings (unless those are equitably included). The owner of the burdened forest must manage it so that the wood which is the subject of the right may continue to be produced. For instance, where there is a right to building- timber, the forest cannot be converted to coppice. The right-holder may not sell his wood, but must use it for the purpose for which it has been granted to him. (a) Building -Timber. The supply of building timber to right-holders should be fairly proportional to the number and size of the buildings which existed at the time of the acquisition of the right. Often the right only applies to wood for the exterior of the house, but may include wood for wainscoats, windows and doors. When repairs to a building become necessary, a regular estimate of the requisite amount of timber should be drawn up ; and the wood must be used within a fixed period. When a new house is being built, all still serviceable wood from the old house must be deducted from the estimate. It is usual for the right-holder to pay the cost of extraction of the wood, even though he pays nothing for the wood itself. In the Himalayan forests, right-holders usually fell the trees and convert the timber for themselves ; in some cases the right- holder is allotted annually a certain number of trees for house- repairs or building ; in other cases the right-holder is put down FOREST EIGHTS. 71 as being entitled to what is needed on application, for the par- ticular work. Account has here to be taken of the ignorance of the people, and their ancient but wasteful habit of preparing beams with the axe or adze — chipping away a whole stem for one beam. By loan of saws, and by issuing suitable beams ready prepared, it is hoped to overcome this defect, which leads of course to much waste of material. The work of the forest staff is considerably burdened by rights to building-timber, as the correctness of the estimates has to be tested, and the amount of wood granted to be entered on special registers. It is clearly the duty of forest officers who manage large areas of State or municipal forests subject to rights for building-timber, to know thoroughly the customary forms of building of the locality and the proper dimensions of beams and other timbers used in the construction of houses, or they may be called upon to grant much larger quantities of timber than is necessary in particular cases. (b) Wood for Industrial Purposes, This right (as claimed) may be defined, or not, in its nature and extent. In general, it comprises timber required for ordinary agricultural and domestic objects, such as wood for carts, ploughs, hop-poles, vine-props, &c. Wherever the right is undefined, the quantity should be fixed, so as to correspond to the amount required at the time of acquisition of the right, extent of hop- garden, vineyard, &c. This right, if indefinite, interferes greatly with the development of the revenue of a forest. (c) Fireivood. Rights to firewood (as claimed) may be either defined or indefi- nite, and in the latter case the amount granted would be only what is required for the household of the right-holder, including such ordinary household requirements as heating, cooking, wash- ing, baking, drying fruit, &c. Requirement for industrial purposes such as distilling, &c., is not included. As a rule, the wood is prepared by order of the owner of the forest, and must be taken from all classes of firewood in due proportion, s|Dlit and round wood, dead wood, stump-wood and faggots. Occasionally the right-holder is permitted to cut and remove the wood, especially where it is brushwood or small coppice stuff. 72 PROTECTION AGAIXST MAN. In case a forest burdened with this right should be damaged by some calamity (storm, insects, &c.), which causes an excessive yield in any j)articular year, then several years' suj^ply of fire- wood may be granted to the right-holder, in advance, but the latter cannot claim this as a right. (d) Softicoods. Where the right is to " softwoods," termed in France hois hlancs, in Germany Wcklilwlz, the question is to decide on the meaning of the term. It may be interpreted as including inferior soft- wooded species which are not the object of the management of the forest, and therefore only appear in trifling quantity, and can never get the upper hand under a proper treatment. The following species are generally included under this head : — Aspen and other poplars, the sallow and other willows, limes, hazel, thorns and other shrubs, sometimes also alder and birch, even Scotch pine ; mostly trees which spring up amongst young growth, and are cut-out in the cleanings. (e) Fallen Dead Wood. All dead branches and twigs Ij'ing on the ground, and refuse from fellings which the owner does not require, are generally included under this heading. In some cases dead branches are also included, which can be broken oft' by hand from standing trees. In many forests, dead standing stems up to a certain girth are also included, and stump -wood as well. The meaning of the term fallen dead wood must therefore be decided locally, but it is rarely taken to include saleable fallen timber. This distinction is thoroughly recog- nized in Norih-Western India. Cutting tools must generally be prohibited, but a wooden rake may be allowed for collecting the fallen dead wood on the ground. If there is only a small quan- tity of dead wood available in a forest, the right-holder can- not claim other wood to make up a full supply. The sale of such wood is not usually permissible, as the servitude is for house- hold requirements. ^Yithin properly regulated limits this usage is only slightly hurtful to a forest. FOREST RIGHTS. 73 (f) Lop and Top. This right is generally to the crown of a felled tree from the place where the stem is cut off by the woodman, at a certain fixed girth, and to the lower branches lopped off the stem. The right-holder cannot take possession of the wood until the stem has been severed from the crown. The only serious disadvantage caused by this right to the owner is that he cannot well manage his forest as Coppice, or Coppice-with- Standards, as the greater part of his produce would then go to the right-holder. If, however, the right-holder has the right of lopping the crown from standing trees, great injury will accrue to the forest. In such a case the right must not be exercised during the growing season, and only in compartments where the trees are ripe for the axe, and at a certain height from the ground. K particular form of this servitude is the right existing in certain forests to lop birch-trees for brooms. (g) Stumps and Boots. This right is only admissible in High Forest, and the owner cannot then convert his forest into Coppice, or Coppice-with- Standards. Unless it is distinctly laid down to the contrary, the owner can fell his trees as low as he likes. The right must be suspended wherever its exercise would damage the forest, as for instance in seeding - fellings well stocked with young seedlings, on steep slopes where landslips or erosion are to be feared, or on shifting sands. Sometimes the right-holder is under the obligation to fill up the holes made in extracting the stumps, and to sow or plant-up the ground. The right may also be limited to certain months, days, or hours. (h) Windfalls and Broken Trees. The right may be to all or merely to certain categories of this material, wood broken by wind, by snow, or rime (see p. 494). 74 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. Trees which are bent down, but may recover themselves, are not included, nor are portions of trees still rooted in the ground. The right can only extend to single trees broken here and there, not to whole woods broken down and uprooted, as occasionally happens by an exceptional storm or calamity which is not in the contem- plation (naturally) either of custom or a grant. The right-holders may use implements to convert the timber. This servitude is not of sylvicultural importance. (i) Dead Staudinf/ Trees. Poles and trees which have died naturally are included in this class, and care must be taken to exclude all those which may have been killed intentionally by damage, girdling, &c. This usage gives rise to trouble between the right-holder and the owner, as the latter will endeavour to remove dying trees before they are actually dead, and the former to claim trees not yet quite dead. To prevent such contentions it is better to fix definitely the period at which thinnings of dead wood can be commenced. As in the former case, when a large extent of wood is killed by injuries from storms, &c., the produce is not the propert}' of the right-holder. 2. Eights to Minor Peoduce. (a) Bark. In Europe this right is generally restricted to the bark of trees yielding tannin, such as oak, spruce, larch and birch. The bark can be claimed by the right-holders only from felled trees in regular fellings. The right may be either by quantity or by number of trees, or commensurate with the requirements of the right-holder. The owner must fell during the growing season when the bark can be easily removed. Lime-hark or bast for cordage and matting is sometimes the subject of a right, and then similar rules must be followed. In India, bark of Betnla BItojpatra is used for making umbrellas and paper, and the bark of many species of trees for ropes and cords ; all these may be subjects of rights. FOREST RIGHTS. 75 (b) Turpentine and Tar. Rights to tap the spruce or the Austrian piue for turpentine frequently exist. The number and size of the trees to be tapped, as well as of the cuts to be made in each, maybe defined, or not. In any case the usage must be restricted to nearly mature woods, and there should be a close-time between successive tappings of the same tree, the season during which the usage is permissible must also be fixed. As turpentine is usually an article of commerce, it may be in the nature of the right that there is no restriction to household requirements, nor as to the sale of the produce. This is a most hurtful servitude, as tapping for turpentine, especially in the case of the spruce, results in a loss of incre- ment, and lessens the quantity of timber in the base of the tree, and also introduces spores of fungi and insects into the wood, causing disease. (c) Leaves for Fodder, etc. This is the right to pluck leaves from trees, especially for feeding cattle in stored and simple coppice. Implements may not be used, nor can twigs be broken-off. If the demand for leaves cannot be supplied from the regular fellings, then certain compartments may be opened for plucking leaves as far from the ground as the hands can reach, but only after late summer. In various parts of India leaves of forest species are used for cattle-fodder, for thatching, for wrapping up goods at a market, as plates, for making umbrellas, cigarettes, etc., or for manure, and sometimes these customs may have become prescriptive rights. In such cases protective rules similar to the above should be enforced. Where foliage and branches are lopped for litter or fodder, as in the Himalayas and in other parts of India, where, owing to the absence during winter of fodder-crops or natural herbage, leaf-fodder is wanted, and a prescriptive right has been acquired, it is by custom limited to certain species, and certain protective measures can be adopted. These are : — (i) No lopping to take place till after the principal growth of the year is over. 76 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. (ii) To restrict the usage, as much as possible, to woody climbers and species of little value as timber-trees. (iii) To forbid the lopping of the leading shoots of the trees, and to restrict the lopping of side-shoots till they have attained certain dimensions and only to a certain height up to the stem. (iv) To give the trees a rest so that the same tree is not lopped in two consecutive years. (v) Should the right apply to more valuable timber trees it should be restricted to compartments which will shortly be cut over. The use of leafy twigs and branches of trees felled in the ordinary course cannot harm the forest. (vi) Where the demands for this kind of fodder or cattle-litter are large, and cannot otherwise be met, a regular system of pollard- ing should be introduced, with a fixed rotation giving the trees time to recover between successive cuttings. Such a system prevailed in Epping Forest prior to 1878, when the right was commuted. The loppings of hornbeam-pollards, of which this forest is chiefly composed, were not, however, only used for litter, but also for making fences, hurdles, etc., and then a rotation of ten years was fixed ; in the former case annual loppings were the practice. There is now a marked difference between the pollards in the two cases, to the advantage of those lopped with a ten years' rotation. Another case in Western India is the use of green branches, termed rab, as manure in rice-fields. Here similar rules should be adopted as long as this practice is allowed. (vii) In every case where leaf-fodder is used by right-holders, the people should be induced, as far as possible, to cut and preserve hay or ensilage, or to grow root-crops for the winter- fodder of their animals. Leaf-fodder from forests will always prove a valuable resource when other fodder fails, as was the case in France and Germany during the drought of 1893. (d) Grass fur Fodder, Iliatch, etc. Rights of cutting grass are also of very common occurrence under the coppice systems, and they should be limited according to locality, time, and mode of exercise, the limitations which prevail varying according to local law or custom. They can only FOEEST RIGHTS. 7/ commence at a certain age of the wood, and the close-time must be regulated according to species, and to specified days, when the forest guard can supervise the grass-cutting. Sometimes the grass must be plucked by hand, or sickles or scythes may be used ; the latter instrument is evidently not admissible amongst young plants. If properly regulated and supervised, this usage does little or no harm on moist fertile soil, and may even assist in fire-conservancy by removing a great source of danger, and also prove useful during the reproduction of the forest. It is also often usefully allowed as a compromise for grazing when that cannot be allowed, and yet the stoppage is a hardship. (e) Forest Pasture. This right allows the holder to graze his own cattle in a forest belonging to some other person, on the grasses and other herbage springing up in it. The right to cut grass is not included. The forest owner has the power of closing certain tracts in his forest, but cannot introduce changes of the system of management which will prejudice the right. The species and number of grazing beasts may be defined, or not. If the species is not mentioned, animals such as the goat* and sheep, which are highly detrimental to forest growth, must be excluded, as in France they are by law, in spite of any right to the contrary. If the number of beasts is limited, sucklings are not counted in the total number admitted to graze. Should the number be undefined, as is generally the case, only so many head should be admitted into the forest as can be provided for without serious injury to the forest. t Unless specially stated, cattle intended for trade cannot share in this right. The right- holder must engage a herdsman to look after his cattle and is responsible for his conduct. The beasts can only enter and leave the forest by authorised paths. The fencing of closed areas is not obligatory on the forest owner, although fences prevent much con- tention and further his interests. The right of grazing his own cattle in his forest appertains, in every case, to the forest owner, unless the contrary is specially laid down ; but he cannot graze * The possibility of prohibiting goats in India is discussed in " Forest Law," p. 349 f. t See p. 332 " Forest Law " as to the rules for fixing the number. 78 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. them in portions of the forest Avhich are closed to the right- holders' cattle. (f) Aco7')is, Beech-Mast and Fruits generaUij. The kinds of fruits to be collected will ordinarily be specified in the deeds regarding the right. The fallen fruit can be picked-up only in compartments opened to the right, and on fixed days ; the right-holder is held responsible for all damage done to the standing-crop. Plucking the fruits, and the use of iron rakes to collect it, are forbidden, and the usage must be limited to household requirements. Compartments, the fruit of which is required for natural regeneration, can be closed against this right, which does not include the right of pannage. These rights do little or no damage to the forest. (g) Pannage. This is the right to drive pigs into another person's forest to feed off the acorns and beech-nuts, &c., lying on the ground, but the right of collecting the fruit by hand is not included. An estimate of the quantity of mast in any year on which the number of pigs to be admitted into a forest should be based must be prepared by an expert. The right-holder can only drive his own pigs into the forest, and the forest owner has an equal right. The pigs should be withdrawn when most of the acorns are eaten, or they will damage the forest. This servitude does little harm, but is becoming rare in Europe, as stall-feeding of pigs is more profitable. Pannage is still practised in Epping Forest, about fifty pigs being turned into the forest every Michaelmas ; they are all ringed. (h) Utter. Litter to which right-holders are entitled may be defined or indefinite in amount, and may also be of special kinds ; dead leaves and moss, weeds, kc. — in short, the right to strip the surface of its covering down to the soil may be implied. An undefined right to litter means the right to take what is sufficient for the requirements of the right-holder, and in this amount, straw from his own lands must be reckoned. Owing to the prejudicial nature of this right on the fertility of the forest. FOEEST EIGHTS. 79 it must never be stretched so far as to include the whole of the litter a forest may contain. The necessary limitations as regards locality, time and manner of exercise of the right have been already given.* Sod- cutting should never be allowed, except from blanks, as where trees are standing, the roots would be exposed by this practice. The exceptional hurtfulness of this right to the productiveness of a forest, and the possibility that it may lead to its complete ruin, render it most essential that the forest should be freed from it by purchase or otherwise. (i) Quarrying or Digging Pits for Sand, Gravel, Turf, etc. Eights to stones, gravel, sand, turf, etc., in another's forest can only extend to places where the standing-crop and roads are in no danger from the right. Places for reception of refuse from the works, and export-roads must be designated. These rights, if properly regulated, can do no injury worth mentioning, to the forest. ( j ) Collecting Berries, etc. This right is always unlimited in amount, and cannot be limited, as the produce is generally collected for sale. Except in the case of digging up truffles it is quite harmless to the forest, and need not be interfered-with beyond fixing dates for its commencement and termination in any year. Truffle-hunting, w^hich is carried on with the help of a special breed of dogs resembling poodles, must be prohibited on the site of fellings, or amongst young growth. (k) Shooting and Fisliing, The right to kill game on another's property has been abolished by law in Germany. This right is not there bound up with the ownership of the land, but is only permitted to an owner when his estate exceeds a certain area. It frequently happens, therefore, that the right of shooting on a number of small estates is leased in one lot, and the proceeds divided by the owners. In England, the Crown possessed * Page 43. 80 PEOTECTION AGAINST MAN. rights to the game in certain manors, after it had parted with the other manorial rights, or actual property of the land, but these rights have now been surrendered, as in the Epping Forest. Baden Powell* states that in India no prescriptive rights to hunt in the State forests have ever been admitted,; though people have always killed game in the forests, no right can have ordina- rily become cnstomary , as it is not necessary to the existence of agricultural villages, or communities, as is the case with grazing or wood rights. The question of hunting, with rules for the protection of game during the breeding season and when imma- ture, is dealt with in different countries under special laws. Fishing rights f in forest streams may exist, and are dealt with by special laws regarding fisheries. These have chiefly reference to close-times during the breeding season ; and to pro- tecting immature fish by fixing a minimum- sized mesh where nets are allowed ; also to prohibiting the poisoning of streams, and other unsportsmanlike ways of catching fish. 3. Sundry Eights (Easements). (a) Eights-of- Way. Rights-of-way if too numerous in a forest may tend to hamper the management, especially by causing danger from fire, and increasing the cost of fire-protection. It is therefore important to prevent new rights-of-way from arising by prescription, and where the law permits, to close altogether roads or paths which may have gone out of use, or others for which a more convenient substitute may be found. These rights may be subdivided into rights to footpaths, cart-roads, or drift-roads,l the second category sometimes including the third. In all these cases the question arises as to the legal breadth of the way, and whenever this is uncertain, it should be deter- mined with reference to the breadth of the way required by the circumstances of the case, and according to local custom. The right-holder whose cattle pass along a road to pasture, is responsible for any damage done to the forest growth beyond * "Forest Law," pp. 338, 364. t Regulations for the protection of game and fish in the State forests of India have been framed liy the Local Governments of the different Provinces. * See "Forest Law," p. 315/. FOREST RIGHTS. 81 the limits of the road ; and, the owner of the forest according to circumstances may or may not be compelled to protect his forest by ditches, fences, or hedges. (b) Rights to Water. Rights to water-course generally refer, to the servient estate receiving the drainage water fur a dominant estate, or allowino- (not obstructing) the flow of (useful) water from the servient to the dominant. Sometimes it includes allowing a canal cut, or irrigation channel being taken across the servient estate, in which case the maintenance of the water-channel is the business of the right-holder. Rights to use springs or wells in another person's forest, or to water cattle at them, all of which involve rights-of-way through the forest to the source of the water, are also included. (c) Rigid to float Timber. The kinds of timber to be floated should be specified and the owTier of the stream has the same rights as the right-holders. The right of footpath along the bank of the stream may be also combined with this right, the breadth of the path being deter- mined by custom. In India this right is alwavs exerciseable only under the control of the State. (d) Rights of burning Charcoal, stacking Wood, d-c. The sites where the charcoal is to be burned or the wood stacked, must be pointed out to the right-holder, and also the roads to be used for export, which should be as convenient as circumstances will allow. VOL. IV. G (82) PAKT II. PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. Introductory Eemarks. The question of the usefulness or burtfulness of wild animals indigenous in Europe ma}' be considered from a forest, agri- cultural, or sporting point of view. Under Forest Protection only the forest point of view will be considered, but even under this heading some difficulty will be experienced, for the following reasons : — 1. The degree of utility or harm done by one and the same animal differs according to its age, to local circumstances (season of the year, condition of the woods, &c.,) so that it is hardly possible to lay down definitely that certain animals are absolutely injurious, or useful. Thus, the fox, though a great enemy to barn-door fowls and game, may be very useful, especially in a broad-leaved forest, which suffers more from rodents than coniferous woods. Thrushes and blackbjrds in spring and summer feed mainly on worms and insects, but in autumn chiefly on berries. The cuckoo and bats are always useful, while bark-beetles, the Nun-moth and other insects are abso- lutely injurious to forests. 2. The utility of certain animals to forests may be direct, or indirect. Thus the jay may be directly useful by carrying about acorns, and dropping them in the forest, while certain mammals and many birds are indirectly useful by destroying injurious mice and insects. 3. The injury done may also be direct or indirect ; the former consisting in damage or destruction to forest produce, the latter in killing useful species. Most destructive kinds of animals are either mammals or insects, while birds are generally useful. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 83 4. The amount of damage done to the forest depends on the species causing it, the local conditions, the season, &c. It is generally in inverse proportion to the size of the animal ; the little hark-beetle, on account of its rapid increase and steady working, doing more damage to a forest than the large red-deer. The woodpecker is a good instance of the difficulties of deciding as to the amount of harm or good done to a forest by a particular species. This bird is useful in destroy- ing numerous insects living in wood, but it sometimes damages healthy trees by boring holes into them, while these holes may be useful if subsequently occupied by bats or starlings, but injurious if occupied by ring-doves. Protective measures in the case of animals may be either jjreventive or remedial, and will be dealt with under the follow- ing heads : — T.^- T f Game animals. ( Eodents other than ground-game. Birds. Insects. As already stated the present work can only deal in detail with European animals, but it may be mentioned that in India the Nilgai {Portax pictus) and the common antelope {Antilojie hezo- artica) do much damage in coppices and plantations adjoining agricultural land ; whilst among birds, the pheasants and game fowls do similar damage to that by grouse in Europe. For a fuller account and especially of Indian forest insects the reader is referred to "Indian Forest Zoology,"* by E. C. Cotes, lecturer in Zoology at Dehra Dun Forest School. * Published by the Superiutendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1893. iy 9, 84 PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. CHAPTER I. PROTECTION AGAINST GAME. Section I. — General Account. 1. List of Injurious Species. Red-deer [Cervns elaphus, L.) Fallow-deer (Damns vulgaris, Brook). Pioe-deer {Cervus capreolus, L.). Wild pif? {Sus scrofa, L.). ^ Hare (Lejms tiinidus, L.). Rabbit {Lepus cuniculus, L.). 2. Damage hy Game. The above-named animals injure the forest by eating the fruit of trees, biting-off buds and young shoots, trampling-down seedlings, breaking -off leaders, bending -down stems, barking poles, exposing and gnawing roots, and undermining the ground with burrows. Further details regarding the damage will be given under the headings of each species. The consequences of damage done by game consist in loss of increment, stunted growth, diminution of timber as compared with firewood, increased danger from insects, fungi, storms, snow, &c. 3. Preventive Measures. The chief preventive measures are : — (a) Formation in High Forest of large, connected, regeneration- areas ; small clearings in which game has not sufficient room, and strip - fellings near thickets or poles where the game habitually remains, sufler most of all. For sylvicultural reasons, however, very large felling-areas are not permissible. PROTECTIOX AGAINST GAME. 85 (h) Covering endangered fruits, acorns, &c., in seeding- fellings. (c) Avoidance iclien possible of autumn-sowings, and prefer- ence of planting to sowing, the former with large and strong transplants. (d) Avoidance of the introduction of species specially liked by the game, (e) Careful choice of system and great care in the manage- ment of forests containing game. (/) Care for the nourishment of the game by : — Introduction of mast-producing species, oaks, chestnuts, &c., wherevei- the locality is suitable for them. Protection of softwoods (aspen, willows, &c.) in cuttings frequented by game, and introduction of these if necessary. Cultivation of fodder-crops for the game. Oats, buckwheat, turnips, potatoes, clover, &c., according, to the species of game W'hich is prevalent. Encouragement of a growth of grass in the forest ; stopping grass-cutting and pasture. Feeding the game in the depth of winter, and when there is much snow on the ground. Loppings of aspen, willows, limes, or other softwoods form suitable food in winter. The animals peel the bark from these loppings, and eat the buds and young shoots. 4. Remedial Measuirs. (a) Substantial fencing of forest nurseries and cultivations, or of the game-preserve. The kind and height of the fence to be used depends on the mode of life and size of the game. The fences must always be kept in good order. Digging a ditch outside the fence will afford additional security. (b) Specially valuable trees should be separately fenced-in, or protected by rough stakes with the jagged ends of branches out- side. Thorns, bad-smelling substances, or wire-netting may also be used. (c) Scarecrows may be set-up in endangered localities, or dogs brought-in, blank-cartridges fired, &c. The scarecrows must be altered from time to time, as the animals get accustomed to them. (f/) Shooting-down the game to a restricted number which 86 PKOTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. the forest can bear. Game need not be exterminated, and the chief difference between modern and old times consists in the fact that formerly the forest was managed for the game, but now it is recognised that the admissible quantity of game must be proportioned to the interests of the forest. Section II. — Eed-Deer. 1. Damage done. The damage done by red-deer consists in eating fruits, browsing, peeling, rubbing, trampling, &c. (a) Eatinc/ Forest Fruits. The red-deer eats all kinds of fruits, but especially acorns, beech-nuts, chestnuts, mountain-ash berries, &c. Acorns are often beaten-out by the deer with their fore-feet and eaten, and sowings may be thus completely ruined. (b) Browsing. The deer bite-off buds and young shoots, chiefly from late autumn till spring, and occasionally devour foliage in the summer. The following species are preferred by red-deer : aspen, sallow, ash, oak, hornbeam, beech,* maple, hazel, and amongst conifers the silver-fir and larch ; the birch, alder, Scotch pine, and spruce are least liked, but different circumstances, such as a mixture of species, system of management, growth of grass or supply of fodder, greatly influence the degree of damage done in any particular case. Deer and cattle are fond of tasting new and foreign species introduced into a wood. In times of scarcity of fodder, young plants protruding through the snow may be completely browsed-down ; in mound-planting this is especially noticeable. Overshadowed plants are less freely browsed compared with those growing in the open. Old stags and hinds do more damage than fawns, as they can reach higher. Southern and * 111 the Ardennes, red-deer apparently leave beech alone. RED-DEER. 87 western aspects suffer more than northern and eastern ones, as the deer frequent the former in the winter. The lower parts of the warm aspects bordering on fields sufi"er most, as during winter the deer crowd together into such places. Here may he found those rounded, bush-like plants due to the annual formation of numerous side- shoots, exposed every year to the bite of the deer. The young plants also suffer much in frost localities, on accouut of their slow growth. Of great influence on the amount of damage done are the degrees of recovery shown by certain species, due to power of reproduc- tion, rapid growth, and also to local circumstances. Beech and hornbeam recover well from browsing, although the former does not reproduce well from the stool. The ash shows less power of recovery, and so does the maple when bitten, also conifers, among which the silver-fir has the best power of recovery. The bite is, however, never clean, the deer having no lower incisors, so that recovery is difficult. Obviously, quick-growing trees on a rich soil, make the best recovery. (c) Peeling Bark. The worst kind of damage done bv red-deer consists in peeling the bark of trees, which is generally, but not always, eaten. The following species are thus attacked : — Chiefly spruce and oak. Less, the ash, silver-fir, beech, hornbeam, maple, hazel. Least of all, Scotch and black pines, larch, alder, and birch. Spruce, from 20 to 40 years old, and 15 to 20 years- old oak coppice-shoots are preferred, but spruce up to 60 years old are also attacked. In the case of Scotch pine, after 20 years the bark becomes too thick to be injured. Well- thinned compartments are preferred, as the deer can get about better in them, and prefer a sappy bark developed in the light. The stag does the most damage in this way. The stem may be giidled, or merely long strips of bark torn-off; several strips may be torn from a single stem, but in the case of spruce, one strip only is generally torn from its sunny side. In the case of the oak and beech, the bark is often stripped-off in patches one above the other, as shown in fig. 20. 88 PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. The bark may be peeled in winter or summer. In the latter case, the deer bite through the strip of bark from below, hold it with their teeth, and then, walking backwards, and raising the head, strip it off in long pieces, which cause serious wounds in the tree. Their length may be 6 feet, and breadth from 2 to Fia. 21. {reduced.) Oak sapliug. 18 — 20 years oKl, peeled by red-deer. Fig. 22. (reduced.) Summer-peeling. Fig. 2.3. '"li Winter-peeling on 40- 50-year-okl spruce. 6 inches, and they may reach down to the roots, but generally stop at about two feet above them. ^Yinter-peeling is generally less serious, the deer gnawing off and eating pieces of the outer bark, leaving the bast and part of RED-DEER. 89 the bark between the bared strips. When deep snow is on the ground these wounds may be pretty high up the stem. Peehng is generally done in the morning after the deer have eaten a meal, and after rain, which softens the bark. The disastrous consequences of peeling consist in loss of increment and the formation of badly-shaped boles by the bulg- FiG. 24. Transverse section of a s^jruce-stem peeled in summer {reduced). ing-out of the annual rings of wood, which may render the trees lop-sided as shown in fig. 24. Occasionally peeling gives rise to the formation of adventitious buds from below the wound, and frequently to decay, such as red-rot in spruce, or Peziza Willkonimii in larch. The stems which have been attacked become unserviceable except for fuel, and the tree often gets broken by wind or snow at or just above its injured portion. Insects, such as bark-beetles and wood- wasps, frequently attack the tree, which will die if completely girdled. Such injuries to broad-leaved species are soonest healed in the case of the oak. In favourable cases only little damage may be done, leaving small local traces of decay (figs. 25 and 26). The newly formed rings of wood, however, never com- pletely repair the damage when the sapwood has been exposed. 90 PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. though they may occlude it. Wounds of the ash also recover Fig. 25. Longitudinal .section of an oak-steit peeled from a to h, and occluded. {Nat. size.) Fir;. 2C Transverse section of same oak. c. Injured spot. • rapidly, although the wood of this species is easily injured. RED-DEER. 91 Beecli and hornbeam recover with greater difficulty, and the maple more slowly still. Amongst conifers the following scale is in descending order of power of recovery : — Silver-fir, larch, Weymouth and Scotch pines, spruce. Such a thorough recovery as is shown in fig. 27 is very rare. The gravity of the damage done depends, in other respects, Fig. 27. Transverse section of a 60 — 80-year-old spruce, -which has been occluded after being peeled by red-deer. on the size of the wounds, the season, repetition of the injury to the same tree, age of the wood, and nature of locality. Summer-peeling is more injurious than winter-peeling, although in the former case the antiseptic nature of the outflow of turpentine is to some extent a compensation. At the commencement of spring most damage is done in this way. The younger the wood, the more fertile and moister the soil, the quicker the damage is repaired. Bark-peeling by red-deer is a new habit ; as long as mixed woods under the Selection system offered plenty of nourishment, the deer left the bark alone, but the present density of growth, which excludes grass, and the substitution of conifers for broad- leaved species, have rendered fodder scarce in the forests, and it 92 PROTECTION AGAINST ANUkfALS. Fig. 28. is possible that the deer eat the bark medicinally, as Avell as from hunger, and also partly from sportiveness. n Fig. 29. ^ Spruce saplings rubbed by red-deer. (d) Rubbing and Striking. The stags rub their ant- lers against trees to remove the velvet at tbe end of July and August, generally by night, and they select for the purpose slender smooth poles of lime, aspen, sal- low, larch, Wejanouth-pine, silver -fir, maple, &c., es- pecially when these species are scattered among other forest growth. Scotch pine poles are also much injured in this wa}' by deer in the Ardennes. They also strike their ant- lers against trees at rutting time in September and October, and before they lose them in March and April. The damage done in this way is less than by peeling, as the same trees serve over and over again for the pur- pose. It can readily be dis- tinguished from peeling by the filaments of bark which occur on the wound, and by the hairs of the deer ad- hering to it, from the deer's habit of rubbing its neck on the peeled stem. RED-DEER. 93 (e) Tramplincj. Damage done by trampling is confined to young growth and sowings of conifers ; 1 and 2-years-old plants on steep slopes with loose soil suffer most of all, being frequently uprooted. (f) Total Amount of Damage. More experience is required regarding the total amount of damage done to forests by red-deer, A forester who is at the same time a sportsman, should endeavour to ascertain clearly the amount of sacrifice of income his sport involves, so that he may be able to keep the number of deer within proper limits. Until the damage done under certain circumstances has been properly observed, sympathy with sport, or antipathy to it, give the question a wide range. It may not be possible to estimate the proportional amount of damage done respectively by browsing, peeling, trampling, &c., but in a forest frequented by deer, certain compartments might be fenced and others left open, and comparative yield-figures ascertained, from which the extent of the damage done, in the latter case, may be deduced. 2. Protective Measures. Besides the general rules given above (p. 84), the following special rules relate to red-deer : — (a) Maintenance of a Moderate Number of Deer. As the term moderate varies with the species of tree grown, the system of management, locality, nature of boundaries and grass-production, it is impossible to give good average figures. According to Hartig, on 2,500 acres of forest the stock of deer in the spring, before the young are born (May to June) may be as follows : — Broad-leaved Coniferous. Remarks. Forest. Forest. Red-deer. Red-deer. Besides a certain Forests bordering on other forests 8 12 number of roe- deer and wild Red-deer. Roes. Red-deer. Rocs. V^S^- Forests borderinc; on fields . 4 and 8 4 and 16 Forests surrounded bv fields . 2 and 8 2 and 12 94 PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. Ratzeburg considers 16 red-deer per 2,500 acres the proper number. Prince Charles of Schwartzenburg states that in Bohemia 15 to 35 head of red-deer are admissible, and places one red- deer as equal to two fallow-deer or four roe-deer ; but these figures approach those for a forest overstocked with deer. (b) Sufficient Fodder must he Supplied to the Deer in Winter. Oats, turnips, acorns and chestnuts are best. Feeding only with hay or leaf-fodder causes the deer to fall-off in health, and j)revents the formation of good antlers, whilst acorns are best for the latter. The fodder should not be given on felling-areas, nor near recent thinnings, as the deer loiter about near the feeding-places and cause damage. (c) Fences against Red-Deer Should not be less than 7 feet in height, and on slopes another foot may be added to prevent the deer from leaping the fences. (d) To prevent browsing Young forest growth may be sprinkled with blood and cow- dung, or open jars full of blood buried in the ground. Coal- tar may be lightly painted on strong j'oung conifers, excepting the buds. It is best done by passing the shoots lightly through the hand covered by a tarred glove. This should be done from September till November, and repeated when necessary. The spruce stands this treatment less well than the Scotch pine, and broad-leaved species suffer from the practice. The cost is not high, about Is. 6d. an acre, including the purchase of 6 lbs. of tar. A woman can tar 300 plants in an hour. Broad-leaved species may be daubed with the following mixture : — Carriage grease . . . 5 lbs. Petroleum . . . . 2-^r quarts. Alum . . . . -| lb. Tallow i lb. FALLOW-DEP]E. 95 This gives enough for 600 plants. Plants may also be limed, the terminal buds being smeared with a brush dipped in white- wash. This costs for silver-fir Is. 6d. per 1,000 plants, or 2s. M. an acre ; 10 lbs. of lime are required for 1,000 plants. A woman can lime about 500 plants in a day on a slope, and 3,000 plants on level ground. This gives better results than tarring the plants, and the lime apparently does them no injury. Refuse hemp may also be lightly placed over plants, as it clogs the teeth of the deer and has proved efficacious. (e) Measures to prevent peeling. Delay thinnings, so that deer cannot penetrate amongst saplings. Pieces of rock-salt should be scattered about for the stags to lick, or the following composition : — Oak-galls , . . . 1 lb. Salt . . . . . 1 lb. Clay . . . . .8 lbs. Anise .... A little. The galls should be Istrian, which cost 50s. a cwt. Each piece suffices for 100 acres of forest. Beasts detected peeling bark should be shot, as young deer soon follow their example. (f) Measures to prevent rubbing, etc. Valuable exotics, etc., can be protected against rubbing by smearing them with certain compositions up to 5 feet in height. Such a composition is a mixture of lime, blood and sulphur. Section III. — Fallow-Deer. The damage done by the fallow-deer is of a similar nature to that by the red-deer ; it perhaps does more harm by bruising and trampling, as it is very restless, and particular about its food. However, it never peels in a wild state, only sometimes in fenced parks. The fallow-deer rubs its antlers at the end of August and in September, and strikes the same species as the 96 PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. red-deer. The protective rules are the same, except that precautions against peeling are unnecessary. Section IV. — Koe-deer. 1. Damage done. Besides herbage, the roe eats beech-mast, acorns, wild fruit, and the cotyledons of beech and oak seedlings, and in winter browses on the buds and shoots of nearly every species of tree, especially young plants, and in summer on fresh young shoots and tender foliage. The following species are preferred : — Oak, beech, maple, ash, elm, hornbeam, aspen, sallow and silver-fir, and least of all birch and alder. Young plants one or two j^ears old may be entirely devoured. Exotic species and those occurring rarely in a wood are preferred. Sunny aspects where the roe stays in winter suffer most, especially on poor soils. The roe rubs its horns in March and April on smooth-barked saplings about a finger's thickness, and strikes its horns on j^oles in rutting-time at the end of July and August, and before losing them in November. Larch, Weymouth -pine, aspen, lime, and mountain-ash are most exposed to these injuries. In places where roe-deer crowd together, they trample-down many seedlings. The roe is relatively worse as a forest browser than the red- deer, as it is very dainty and tears the shoots like a goat ; but on account of its small size, and as it abstains from peeling trees, it does a less absolute amount of damage. 2. Protective Rules. Irrespective of the general rules given, the following hold good for roe-deer. Suitable fodder are oats, acorns and foliage ; they eat hay only as a last resource, when it is given quite dry and hung up in little bundles under the shelter of trees or thatched coverings and not strewn on the ground. Lopping branches of silver-fir, aspen, sallow, etc., in winter is very useful. Fences against roe-deer need only be 5 to 6 feet high. Scare-crows are of little good, as the roes soon become accustomed to them. WILD PIGS. 97 Smearing dung, petroleum, or asafostida on cultivations is useful. Young coniferous cultivations may be tarred, as for red-deer, but with deep snow it is better to lime them. The cost of tarring is 5d. to ^hd. per 1000 plants, at a daily wage of 7d. to \id., and tar at Is. 9d. per cwt. To protect exotics (Douglas-fir, &c.), saplings may be encircled at about 1^ feet from the ground with a piece of paper as broad as the hand, fastened with string, or they may be surrounded with thorns, or by three jagged stakes. Section V. — Wild Pigs. 1. Damage done. The wild pig does damage similar to that done by the tame pig, which has been already described, besides pulling-up fresh transplants, and destroying mound-planting, and birds-nests. As regards sport, it does much harm by killing fawns, leverets, etc. Of late, in the Lower Rhine districts, pigs have so largely increased in the forests, and do so much damage to the agri- cultural crops, that it has become necessary to hold battues, and fix a price for their destruction. From a forest point of view, however, wild pigs do much less damage than other game. They may, however, do a considerable amount of good by breaking-up the soil, burying fruits and seeds and by the destruc- tion of mice and hurtful insects. 2. Protective Bides. Feeding with turnips, potatoes, oats, peas, acorns, wild fruit, etc., so as to keep the pigs from injuring forest plants. Fences against pigs should be about 6 feet high and strongly built. Traps can be used to catch pigs. A pit about 6 feet deep and broad is dug with walls vertical or even sloping inwards. A light covering of poles, brushwood and moss is covered with soil, dead leaves, etc., resembling the litter VOL. IV. H 98 PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. on the ground. Such traps should he made near wallowing places in the breeding season (November to January). In making these traps the greatest care must be taken, the work- men must not smoke nor eat their food near the trap, and the earth dug out must be removed to some distance. Another excellent Fig. 30. Fig. 31. Robinia gnawed by hare {iMt, size). Beech gnawed by hare (nat. size). method for catching wild pigs is described in the " Indian Forester," vol. xi., p. 530. Pigs, when numei'ous in woods bordering on fields, must be kept down by shooting. HARES AND RABBITS. 99 Section VI. — Haees. 1. Damage done. The liare injures woody plants in winter by biting and gnawing their bark. Buds and young shoots of beech, hornbeam, elm, ash, maple and aspen are chiefly bitten, the conifers less, and spruce and Scotch pine least of all. As the hare affects certain localities, the damage is restricted in area, but very extensive where it prevails ; so that a single hungry hare may cause considerable damage in young growth of ueech on sunny situations, which it frequents in winter. The sharp teeth, cutting in pairs, give very distinct markings on plants attacked by hares. As regards peeling, the one-year-old shoots of the robinia are frequently stripped of bark, and the wood gnawed as shown in fig. 30. The hare frequently damages fruit-trees in orchards, chiefly the apple, next the cherry, and least of all the pear. 2. Protective Rules. (a) Fence-in nurseries with hedges or dead thorns, or with wire netting 4 feet high. {b) Bind fruit-trees from November till April with thorns, branches of conifers or wheat straw. (c) Fruit-trees may be smeared with stinking substances. A mixture of 10 quarts of bullock's blood, i lb. of asafoetida dis- solved in warm water, and some lime and cow-dung may be used. Section VII. — Eabbits. 1. Damage done. Babbits, which are chiefly found on hilly and sandy ground, do the same kind of damage to young growth as hares, besides injuring the roots of plants by burrowing. They are not nearly so destructive in biting ofl' young shoots as by gnawing at the bark of plants. The seedlings of the Scotch pine, the chief H 2 100 PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. Fk;. 32. species on sandy soils, suffer most of all, and next to this spruce. As regards gnawing, nearly all species suffer, chiefly horn- beam, ash, robinia, aspen, sallow, hazel and fruit trees. Not only is young growth attacked, but where rabbits are numerous, and when the ground is frozen or covered with snow, the base of large beech and other trees is barked, and the trees may be completely girdled. From experience in Windsor Forest, which is overrun with these pests, so that the underwood, so valuable in oak forests, which was plentiful twenty-five years ago, has now dis- appeared over large areas, the syca- more appears to suffer less than other species, and rabbits will not touch Iiltododendron ponticnm, which sometimes forms a dense under- wood in parts of the forest infested by them. By burrowing, rabbits do much harm to cultivations and young seed- lings. Hares avoid places frequented by ]-abbits. 2. Protective Measures. (a) Protection of foxes, pole-cats, martens, stoats and weasels, which are the natural enemies of rabbits. (h) Careful fencing 4 feet high, and use of wire-netting buried partly in the ground and sloping outside the area to be protected, (r) Valuable trees may be bound round with thorns or wire- netting, or their bases smeared with coal tar. (d) Use of traps or poisons, or smoking-out the burrows with sulphur. Willow gnawed by rabbits (nat. size). BEARS, ETC. 101 (e) Ferreting, the ferret being merely a domesticated variety of pole-cat. This is usually followed from October till the end of February, when rabbits do not generally have young. The ferret is sent into the burrow, and a net placed at its opening into which the rabbits run, or they may be shot when driven by the ferret out of their burrows. Section VIII. — Bears, Bea^^ers and Porcupines. The bear and the beaver are two animals now almost extinct in Central Europe, but which formerly did much damage to forest trees. In the Himalayas, the black bear {Ursus tihetanus) peels the bark from pines during the winter. Beavers {Castor fihev, L.) are still pretty numerous in Russia and Scandinavia, in North America, and a few still exist in France in the Rhone Valley. They fell and bark many species of trees up to 9 inches in diameter, chiefly willows and poplars, but also ash, oak, and elm growing near streams. The trees felled are used by them in constructing dams to protect their dwellings, and they also eat the bark. The porcupine (Hystrix sj).) is very common in Indian forests, and girdles saplings and poles of various species, especially of Leguminosce ; it does much damage in forest nurseries by burrowing, and by devouring seedlings and vegetables. It should be excluded by strong wire-netting, partly buried at the foot of a fence, as in the case of rabbits. 102 PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. CHAPTEE 11. PROTECTION AGAINST OTHER RODENTS. Section I. — General Account. 1. List of Injurious Species. Squirrels {Sciurida) . The common squirrel {Sciurus lulgaris, L.). Bo rm ice (Myoxidce) . The loir {Myoxus glis, Scbreb.) The common dormouse [M. avdlanarius, L.). The garden dormouse {M. qiiercimis, L.). Mice (Muridcs). The common wood-mouse {Miis silvaticvs, L.). The long-tailed field mouse {M. agrarius, Pall.). Voles {Arvicolidce). The water-rat {Arvicola amphihins, Desm.). The field vole, or short-tailed field mouse {A. agresiis, Bias.). The southern field vole (A. arvalis, Selys.). The bank vole {Hypudceiis {A.) glareolus, Wagn.). 2. Damage done. The above-mentioned animals damage the forest by eating fruits and seeds, and gnawing young growth, breaking-ofF young shoots, eating buds, peeling bark, and burrowing in the ground. Mice and voles do most harm, on account of their destructive voracity and their enormous powers of breeding. Young growth, sowings and plantations are often completely destroyed by them. SQUIRRELS. 103 The damage done by squirrels and dormice is not so great, being confined to individual plants, and these animals do not become so numerous as mice and voles. 3. Protective Rules. Proper precautions must be taken in the reproduction, tending and utilization of woods. Enemies of these animals must be spared. Shooting, trapping, poisoning may be resorted to. More detail is given separately for each kind. Section II. — The Squirrel. 1. Damage done. The damage done by squirrels is greater than is generally imagined. They eat fruits and seeds, cotyledons and buds, and bite off young shoots, remove bark, and destroy eggs and young birds. Their utility in destroying beetles, larvae of saw-flies and other insects, does not compensate for the harm they do. (a) Destruction of Fruits and Seedlings. Beech-nuts, acorns, hazel-nuts and seeds of spruce constitute the chief food of the squirrel. Besides these, it eats seeds of other conifers, fruits of hornbeam and maple and of mountain-ash, and walnuts, apples ^i»- ^^• and other garden fruits. A large proportion of the annual supply of fruit may thus be lost, and in coniferous woods, natural reproduc- tion may be greatly reduced. Fig. 33 shows how the hazel-nut is at- tacked by this little animal, and figs. 34 and „„, ,1 , , . T p ,, Hazel-nut opened bv 35 how the scales are stripped irom the spruce snuinel cones so that it can get at the seeds. Heaps of broken scales from cones lying under the trees show how busy the squirrel has been. More harm again is done by the squirrel digging out seeds and cotyledons from the ground, and biting ofl:' cotyledons of the beech in seed-beds and reproduction-areas. It also uproots young oak-plants to get at the remains of the acorns. 104. PROTECTION AGAIXST ANII^JALS, Indian squirrels have similar proclivities to the above-men- tioned species and sometimes completely strip trees of their fruit, besides being very destructive to peas, &c., in vegetable-gardens. Fk;. 34. Fig. 35. Spruce-cone stripped of scales by squirrel. Portion of spruce-cone attacked liy squirrel. (b) Eating Buds and Biting of Taigs. As regards buds, the squirrel prefers those of the inflorescence, which are richer in nitrogenous substances and more nourishing than the foliage-buds. Spruce and Scotch pine are preferred, but silver-fir is also attacked in this way. The destruction of these buds, in snowy winters, may entirely prevent seed from being produced. The methods pursued by the squirrel in eating the buds differ according to the age, height, and strength of the plants attacked. In plantations and thickets from 1 to G SQUIRRELS. 105 feet high, which are not yet provided with flowering buds, the squirrels bite-off the top of the previous year's shoot, and the side-shoots of the last verticil, the buds of which are also eaten. Scotch pine injured in this way, develop new leaders from buds just below the point of attack, whilst in the case of spruce, an uninjured side-shoot from the last verticil becomes a leader. In Fig. 36. Fig. 37. Twigs bitten off by squirrel {nat. size), a. PoiBts where twigs are bitten-ofF. b. Bases of bitten-ofF buds. the case of poles and trees of these species, the squirrel bites- off the most external little shoots on which are the male inflorescence- buds, and then, hokhng the twig with its fore feet, goes back to the branch to eat the buds. It then lets the twig fall to the ground. Probably the female inflorescence -buds are eaten as well, and very few cones are formed on trees where squirrels have lived during the winter. In the summer also, shoots of various lengths up to 8 inches are bitten off spruce trees by the squirrel and gnawed, as at this time there are no seeds or buds to eat. 106 PKOTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. (c) Peelhifi and Girdling. The peeling and girdling of young plants of larch, Scotch Fig. 40. pine and silver-fir, also of beech, horn- beam, aspen, willows and oak have been noticed, but are fortunately rare. Plants fifteen to thirty years old suffer most, but also sixty-years-old woods. This is done from May to July chiefly in dry years. The damage is done to the stem in the crown where the squirrel sits, and is sometimes in rings or spirals, at other times quite irregular ; as it goes down to the sapwood, the injured stems may die above the peeled place, as they do some- times bv hundreds. Fig. 38. V;:-«^ I-*- I'.' Girdling of Scotch pine by squirrel. Fig. 39. Spiral girdlings of Scotch pine hy squiiTel. DORMICE. 107 (d) Destruction of Young Birds. During the breeding season of birds, the squirrel frequently attacks their young, killing them and eating their heads. Figs. 41 & 42. Fig. 43. ";ti (e) Protective Hales. Protection of the pine- mar- ten {Mnstela martes), a great enemy of the squirrel. Shooting, in spruce seed- years, and near nurseries. Section III. — Dormice. 1. Damage done. Dormice are squirrel-like animals, with bushy tails, and as they move about at night, chiefly in broad- leaved forest, it is difficult to state precisely the amount of damage they do. The loir (Myoxus glis, in German, Siehenschldfer) , the largest European species of dormouse, is found in southern Europe, but not in the British Isles. It feeds on mast of all kinds and also on spruce and other seeds, and orchard-fruit, bites-ofl:" the leading shoots of beech and silver-fir, and in spring, barks young stems, and robs birds' nests, doing injury of a similar nature to squirrels. Tt collects a provision for the winter in holes, but passes most of this season asleep. Barking is done in strips, or rings, on ten to twenty-five-years-old trees of beech, hornbeam, hazel, etc., also larch and silver-fir. ti^J- Girdlingof alder (41), birch (42) and beech (43) by dormice. 108 PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. The loir also bites-off spruce-shoots in order to strip tliem of their needles and chew them, spitting out the debris. The garden-dormouse {M. quercinns, L.) is rarer than the former, but has a similar habitat, going, however, further north ; it is fond of orchard-fruit, and also attacks forest fruits like the loir. The common dormouse (3/. avellananiis, L.) chiefly inhabits coppice, especially hazel-coppice, and is found all over Europe, from Sweden to Northern Turkey, but is less common in the south than the other two species. It does similar damage to them, but on a smaller scale, and owing to its fondness for hazel-nuts, is termed Hazelmaus in Germany. 2. Protective Rules. Protection of the pine- and beech-martens {Mustela foina). Dormice may be caught like rats in iron traps baited Avith bacon, or for the last species, in wire traps with almonds as a bait. In Carinthia, the capture of the loir is actively pursued, its flesh, which becomes very fat in autumn, being eaten, while the skins are exported, as many as 800,000 being captured in good years of beech-mast. Section IY. — Mice. 1. Damage done. Forest mice, especially the long-tailed field-mouse [Mas sil- vaiicus, L.), and to a less degree Mas ar/rarins, Pall., are very destructive by eating forest fruits and seeds, biting and gnawing, burrowing in the ground and killing small birds. Beech and oak-mast and hazel-nuts are chiefly eaten, and autumn-sowings sufi"er more than those made in the spring. In winter, and when the snow is on the ground, they gnaw buds, tender shoots, bark and sapwood of young forest plants, from 2 to 15 years old. Broad-leaved species chiefly sufl'er, such as hornbeam, beech, ash, maple, hazel, sallow, and also oak, elm, aspen, etc. Handsome thorn-trees are often girdled by them. They gnaw the bark of plants up to 3 feet and higher from the ground, somewhat higher than voles, from MICE AND VOLES. 109 which they can be distinguished in this way. Young stems up to 2 inches in diameter at the base are often gnawed through, and promising cultivations are thus ruined. By their burrowing, many plants are uprooted and die, but this kind of damage is done on a much greater scale by Yoles. Mice are chiefly destructive on sunny aspects in young woods full of grass undergrowth. Their powers of reproduction in dry summers are quite extraordinary. 2. Protective Rules. These are about the same as against voles, and will therefore be given in full further on, but as the long-tailed field-mouse lives in forests throughout the year, it is more difficult to ward against its attacks than against those of voles, which come from the fields into the forest during winter. The chief remedy is to protect its enemies, the stoat, weasel, fox, owls, etc. Section Y. — Voles. Yoles are distinguished from mice by their thicker, shorter head, by having ears buried in their fur, short legs and tail, true mice having a pointed head, large ears and a long tail. 1. Damage done. Yoles in daytime live chiefly in the soil, into which they burrow in all directions. Their burrows are just below the surface of the ground, and by burrowing in forest nurseries, plantations and natural regeneration-areas, they uproot thou- sands of plants and injure drains and ditches. They are chiefly vegetable eaters, devouring fruits and seeds, cutting through the roots of young plants in the ground, gnawing their shoots, but they also attack young birds. During winter they gnaw the bark of plants chiefly of broad- leaved species from the collum up to ten inches, or as far as the grass reaches, in strips or rings. Yoles breed much more rapidly than mice, the southern field- no PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. Yo\e(Arvicolaarvalis,Se\js.)* being especially reproductive. The water-vole (A. am- jjJiihins ,T>esica.) , a,ndthe com- mon field- vole (^4. agrcstis, Bias.), do the most damage. The water-vole lives not only near water, but also in the forest, and does much da- mage by burrowing, and by cutting-off the tap-root of stems up to the thickness Fig. 44. Fio. 46. Beech gnawed by mice (luit. size) Alder gnawed by mice {7iat. size). Apple-tree gnawed by hares (« 6), and by mice {b c) {nat. size). * About seventy-five per cent, of them are ? , and a mother vole has eight tc ten young every six to eight weeks, from March till late in autumn. A ^ begins breeding when eight weeks old, and may have 10,000 descendants in a year. MICE AND VOLES. Ill of a man's arm, which naturally kills them. Oak and ash suffer most in this way, also poplars, willows, apple-trees, etc., less beech and conifers. The water-vole also frequently injures banks and dams ; it has done much damage in the forests occasionally inundated by the Danube, but is fortunately never very numerous. The bank-vole {Hypiidmis glareolus, Wagn.) is extremely active, and chiefly inhabits the borders of forests, bushy land amongst fields and forest glades with advance-growth, rather than dense forest. It gnaws larches, black pines, aspen, and other trees and shrubs, and eats and carries off the pine-buds. The common field-vole (Arvicola agrestis, Bias.) is the greatest scourge of the agriculturist, and comes from the fields into light forests, where it does enormous damage. In the winters of 1822-23, 1830-31, 1840-41, 1856-57, 1861-62, 1863-64, 1870-71, 1871-72, 1872-73, 1878-79, this species was chief among the swarms of mice which destroyed the crops on thousands of acres in Germany. The destruction is greatest when it collects in swarms and wanders from place to place. A description of the damage done in 1814 by this species and the long-tailed field-mouse is given in Nicholls' * account of the Forest of Dean. They destroyed all the young oak-saplings in the forest except four or five per acre, eating through the roots just below the surface of the gro^md. The long-tailed species was chiefly found on wet ground, and the vole everywhere. To exterminate these pests, trenches 2 feet deep were dug 20 yards apart, and 100,000 tails were brought in for reward. Polecats, hawks, kites and owls increased enormously, and the mice ate one another in the trenches. Much damage was also done by voles in the Lowlands of Scotland in 1891-92. This species prefers hornbeam, beech, ash, hazel and sallow, but it also attacks all broad-leaved species as well as pines and larch. It is specially fond of white-thorn. Young plants two to five years old are gnawed through at the surface of the soil, or peeled of bark, or bitten through above ground, or stripped of their side-shoots. Older plants and even poles up to 10 inches in girth are stripped of their bark up to a foot from the ground and killed. Voles strip the scales from the fir-cones and eat the seeds, they * Published by John Murray Albemarle Street, London, 1858. 112 PROTECTIOX AGAINST ANIMALS. also eat grass with its rhizomes, thus destroying extensive pastures. The southern field-vole living on the confines of forests in well-watered situations gnaws the roots and bark of beech and other trees in hard winters. The only use of voles is that they eat larvae, snails and slugs. 2. Protective Bides. (a) In years when mice are abundant, autumn-sowings, especially on a large scale, should be abandoned ; in any case, plenty of seed must be sown, and covered deeper than usual, but it is better to sow late in the spring or to use transplants. (h) Forest nurseries should not be made near fields, and broadcast- sowing in seed-beds is preferable to sowing in drills. Small pieces of furze may be placed between acorns or other seeds in the nursery- beds. (c) For sowings in the forest, the following precautions are recommended : — Soaking the seeds for half an hour in a 2 per cent, solution of carbolic acid in water ; 10 per cent, of the acid will kill the seeds. Acorns may also be soaked in a decoction of quassia. The seed-beds may be covered with a layer, 2 inches thick, of old tan or spruce branches, or strewn with calcium chloride, which is also a protection against certain insects. ((/) Felling-areas with grass-undergrowth should be pastured down in summer and autumn by cattle or sheep. The grass pro- tects the mice from observation, and renders the bark of plants in it soft and fresh, which the mice like. The cattle disturb and trample down many mice. (c) Beech seeding-fellings should be dark in order to keep down the grass. (/) Pigs may be admitted into the forest as long as the soil is loose, especially near nurseries. They root-up the ground, disturb the mice, destroy their young, fill-up their burrows, and also trample-down and eat manj' mice. (fi) Removal of low undergrowth, which shelters the mice. (/;) Branches of soft-woods or hornbeam may be spread about in young beech- woods, to attract the mice from the beech. They must however be frequently replaced, as dry branches are uo MICE AND VOLES. 118 longer gnawed, and then the remedy does more harm than good, the branches having attracted mice into the wood. This is a good precaution against the southern field-vole. (i) Protection of Enemies. Here we must restrict ourselves to the protection of mice- destroyers which may not do so much injury in another direction as to outweigh their usefulness in killing mice and voles. The following animals are useful in this way : — Mammals. The pole-cat {Putorius foetidus, Gray), the stoat (P. ermineus, Ow.), the weasel (P. vulgaris, Rich.), the badger [Meles taxits, Pall.), the mole {Talpa europrea, L.), and the hedgehog {Erinaceus europceus, L.), also the shrews, especially Sorex vulgaris, L. The first three beasts also plunder nests and eat eggs, young Fig. 47. .. •••■.•■?■■ .. {£) Surface of ground, (a) Upper gallery. (h) Descending passages, (c) Lower gallery. {d) A.scending passages. Diagram of mole-heap. (e) Central chamber. ( / ) Passaj;e to chamber. if/) Moles' run. (/t) Diverging runs from lower gallery. The badger eats fruits, mast and pheasants' birds and leverets. The mole is hurtful to forest nurseries from its habit VOL. IV. I eggs 114 PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. of burrowing and throwing-up small heaps of soil. The hedgehog attacks nests. All these animals, however, are much more useful than hurtful. The well-known and much abused mole hunts for mice, crickets, snails, slugs and grubs, and is always at hand where these creatures abound, and extremely useful in destroying them. It increases rapidly, has 3 — 5 young at a birth, and two broods in the year, in May and August, and is very voracious. Its ingenious nest (fig. 47) affords means of escape when pursued by a rat, or other enemy. A limited protection may also be afforded when mice are swarming, to the fox (Canis ruljjes, L.), the pine-marten {Mustcla martes, L.) the beech-marten {Mnstela foina, Briss.) and the wild cat {Felis catus, L.), in spite of the damage they may do to game. Birds.* The following birds are extremely useful in destroying mice : — The kestrel {Falco iinmmcuhis, L.) ; the buzzards, especially the common buzzard (Butco vulgaris, Leach) ; owls, especially the long-eared and short-eared owls (Otiis vulgaris, Flein., and 0. hracJiyotus, Cuv.) ; also, the tawny owl {Syrnium Aluco, Boie), the little owl {Carine noctua, Scopoli), and the barn owl {Strix flammea, L.). The rook (Corvus frugilegus, L.) kills mice, especially in the autumn, so do the black crow (C corone, Lam.) and the hooded crow (C. comix, L.), which are sometimes said to be varieties of the same species and to interbreed freely. The above three species of Corvus occasionally attack acorn-sowiugs, and break off" the leading shoots of conifers, and the crow does much damage by eating the eggs of partridges and other birds, but on the whole their utility is greater than their destructiveness. Kites {Mihus sp.) are said by Hess to destroy mice, but Yarrell states that their food is chiefly oftal, moles and unfledged birds. The stork [Ciconia alba, L.) occasionally feeds on mice, and so does the black-headed gull {Larus ridihiindiis, L.). * The scientific names for birds follow Yavrell, British Birds, 4th edition. Revised by A. Newton, F.R.S., and H. Saimders, 1874 — 85. MICE AND VOLES. 115 Most of the other flesh-eating birds do too much damage to useful birds to deserve protection. 3. Remedial Measures. Remedial measures against mice may be with or without poison. The chief rule is to adopt measures every year which suit the locality, so as to prevent as far as possible any extra- ordinary increase in the number of mice and voles. According to trustworthy observation, there are far more females than males in the spring, and mice should therefore be destroyed as much as possible in February and March. Private enterprise, especially in forests where it is difficult to get at the mice, is not sufficient for this purpose, but the State must direct matters and induce private persons to assist in the energetic destruction of mice both in fields and in forest, which will be to the public advantage. (a) Pitfalls. Trenches must be dug in the ground, and visited daily to keep them clear from leaves, etc., and to remove and kill the captives. They should be 4 inches wide, and 16 inches deep, with vertical smooth walls. The base of the pitfall must be beaten hard, and glazed earthenware vessels, or drain-pipes, one every 3 or 4 yards, buried level with the bottom of the pitfall. A few grains of wheat act as lures for the mice, and those which are found in the pitfall are killed with a pointed piece of coarse iron wire. Such trenches* are to be recommended against field-mice along the borders of fields and forests, and around forest nurseries and seed-granaries. (b) Traps. Traps are useful, especially against water-rats and bank- voles, and various kinds of devices may be used to trap mice according to species and local circumstances. Traps resembling sugar-tongs are advocated by E. Heyer * In autumn of 1872 to the end ot October, 10,800 mice were caught in Mecklenburg in a trench between two fields. I 2 116 PEOTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. against the Avater-rat, as shown in the figs. 50 and 51. They must be so placed that the rat, in running into its hole strikes Fig. 48, Fifi. 49. Tube-traps from Hohenheiin. (g nat. size.) the plate {a) with its head, and is then caught round the body by the pinchers {h). It is better to place two such traps back Fig. 50. Fig. 51. to back in a hole. For the smaller species the tube-traps from Hohenheim are very effective, figs. 48 and 49. Fig. 52. (J uat. size.) Ordinary spring-traps (figs. 52 and 53) are more useful in closed rooms, such as seed-stores, but when concealed by foliage, MICE AXD VOLES. il7 etc., they may also be used in forest nurseries, carrots or beetroot forming a good bait. For seed-stores, a good trap for mice may be formed by a vessel full of water, over the edge of which a piece of wood or platform on which the bait is fastened is balanced. The mice Fig. 53. (i nat. size.) climb up a slanting piece of wood on to this platform, and going to the end of it to get at the bait, upset the balance of the platform and fall into the water. (c) Smoking-oitt. Smoking-out mice is not possible in forests, owing to the nature of their holes amongst grass and dead leaves, and also on account of the danger of firing the forest. (d) Poisoning. In poisoning mice in forests, there is great danger of killinof useful animals, such as weasels, foxes or owls. Such a method can therefore be employed only after every precaution has been taken against danger to useful animals, and in cases where the mice have increased enormously in numbers. Poisoning may be done by means of phosphorus, arsenic, strychnine, corrosive sublimate, or carbonate of bar}i;a. Of these, strychnine is the most effective. Wheat, oats or barley grains, celery or radishes may be used with the poison, the grains being first steeped in water, and then placed in the 118 PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. poisonous solution ; or a meal prepared and the poison mixed up with it. It is then strewn about in pieces as big as a pea. In order as far as possible to prevent the poisoning of useful animals, the poisoned baits must not be placed on the bare ground, but in little cylinders of wood or of grass sods, or in glazed vessels or drain-pipes about Ih inches in diameter, sufficient to allow passage to a mouse. The cylinders may be placed on the ground, or in the mouse-holes, and must be inspected regularly in order to observe their effects. Glazed vessels are better than drain-pipes, as the latter let in moisture. Phosphorus, owing to oxidation, soon becomes ineffectual in damp or rainy weather. Arsenic is more effective, but less rapid in its action. If either of these poisons is used, the dead mice are generally found lying on the surface of the ground, as they run in search of air and water when feeling the pains of the poisoning. Strychnine and carbonate of baryta kill the mice in their holes after severe convulsions ; it is better to change the bait and the poison from time to time. A pest of mice rarely lasts more than 2 or 3 years, as heavy rain, frosts, inundations and disease soon kill them by thousands. It would not however be right to wait patiently for such an event to occur, for by timely energetic action the damage may be greatly reduced. Attempts were made (as proposed by Loeffler) in 1890, to destroy the mice which were infesting the fields in Thessaly, by subjecting them to a parasitic fungoid disease termed mouse- typhus ; this was communicated to the mice by pieces of bread which had previously been soaked in water containing spores of the fungus, but the results in this case were not commensurate with the expenditure, and a Commission sent to Thessaly by the British Government did not recommend its adoption to stop the plague of mice in Scotland. 4. Treatment of Injured Plants. Broad-leaved poles and saplings which have been badly gnawed by mice should be cut-back in the spring close to the ground, below the injured place, sharp instruments being used for the purpose, so that they may send up new shoots. If the MICE AND VOLES. 119 plants have been girdled too deeply towards the roots, such pro- cedure would not save them, but of course the dead poles should be removed. The workmen should work in lines so as not to leave out any injured plants, and should be properly supervised. If the cutting is done too late in the spring, thejj,new shoots will be very weak, as much reserve material then passes into the injured stems and is consequently wasted when the stems are cut down. Where conifers have been injured, new plants mustjbe sub- stituted for those killed by mice. 120 PROTECTION AGAINST BIRDS. CHAPTER III. PEOTECTION AGAINST BIRDS.* Section I. — General Account. The birds directly hurtful to forests belong to the orders GalUtue or game-birds, Columhidce or pigeons, and Passeri- formce or perching birds. 1. List of Hurtful Birds. Grouse (Tetraonidcs). Capercaillie (Tctrao urogcdlus, L.). Black game {Tetnio tetrix, L.). Hazel-grouse (Bonasia silvestris, Brehm.). Pigeons {Columhidce). Ring-dove or Wood Pigeon {Columha palumhus, L.). Stock-dove (C oeiias, L.). Turtle-dove {Turtur communis, L.). (Corvidcs.) Jay {Garridus filandarius, VieilL). Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes, Briss.). Finches {Fringillidce) . Hawfinch {Coccothranstes vidgaris, Briss,). Greenfinch (C. cldoris, Briss.). Chaffinch {Fringilla ca^lehs, L.). Brambling (F. montifringilla, L.). Siskin (F. spinus, L.). Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra, Gm.). Parrot Crossbill {L. pityopsittacus, Bchst.). * The scientific names are from Yarrell's British Birds, 4th ed., 1882. GAME BIRDS. 121 A fevv other species of small singing birds are hurtful by eating seeds and biting-oft' buds, such as : — Bullfinch {Pyrrhula europcea, Vieill.), Mealy Red-poll {Linota limiria, L.). Red-breast {ErytJiacus rubecula, L.)- Even titmice (Paridce) do some harm, and woodpeckers {Pici) make holes in trees ; these families, however, do more good than harm. Birds which do indirect injury by killing other useful birds will be described further on under the heading Insects. 2. Damage clone. Destructive species of birds eat-up seeds and fruits, bite-off buds, young shoots, and tender seedlings, but are generally useful by destroying insects, and the damage done by birds in forests is in general much less than that by the rodents and deer already referred to. 3. Protective Rules. Delay sowing until the birds have paired, and cover the seeds well. The birds, after pairing, no longer fly about in large numbers, and they kill more insects than before pairing, both for themselves and for their young. The seeds may be steeped in red-lead mixed with water, or in distilled water, lime-water, or very dilute acids, so as to hasten the germination, and the period of danger from seed- eating birds may thus be reduced to as short a space as possible. Sowings may be covered with moss, or branches ; in nurseries, with wire-netting over hoops of hazel, willow, &c. Scarecrows may be used, or paper feathers on string, or stuffed birds of prey. Watch the sowings till the young plants are large enough to be out of danger. Fire off blank cartridges, or shoot the birds. Section II. — The Capekcaillie and other Grouse. 1. Damage dune. The capercaillie, which frequents extensive tracts of mountain forests, injures nurseries and cultivations of conifers in winter 122 PROTECTIOX AGAINST BIRDS. and spring by biting-off buds and young shoots ; in nur- series, when the buds of the plants just appear above the snow, they are frequently cut-oft' in great numbers by these birds, the cock being more injurious than the hen. Birch-buds and small green pine-cones are also eaten. The capercaillie in winter frequents old woods with advance-growth, and feeds chiefly on the needles and buds of old spruce trees, but is very fond of the buds of neighbouring young spruce. In the spring it scratches the soil in search of insects and worms. The Hack grouse lives in mossy heather-land, and does much less harm to forests than the capercaillie. It eats the buds and inflorescence of birch and other broad-leaved species, and attacks buds of conifers and young needles of the larch, but chiefly nourishes itself with berries and small shrubs (bilberry, heather, &c.), and keeps itself alive in winter by eating needles of old spruce trees. It goes higher in the mountains than the capercaillie. The hazel-grouse is chiefly found in broad-leaved woods, in the Austrian Alps and the Russian Baltic Provinces ; it feeds during winter on birch and alder buds and hazel-catkins. In summer it chiefly eats berries, but does less harm than black game. Pheasants scratch-up sowings in the forest, and nursery seed- beds. 2. Protective Pules. Fence-in nurseries with tall thorny bushes, as the capercaillie is very shy, and avoids places so protected. Branches of spruce, &c., may be laid over sowings to impede the movements of the birds, and nursery seed-beds may be protected with wire-netting. Buy transplants. Section III. — Pigeons and Doves. 1. Damage done. Wood-pigeons and doves eat up forest seeds, especially of spruce and Scotch pine, also buds, catkins, &c. The wood- pigeon and the stock-dove in autumn also eat acorns, beech- mast and beech cotyledons. Turtle-doves eat-up seedlings, JAYS AND NUTCRACKERS. 123 doing most damage in March, and from April to October, when they often alight in flocks on sowings. The wood-pigeon, the largest kind, prefers coniferous forest (spruce) ; the stock-dove, beech and mixed forest of broad-leaved and coniferous species ; the turtle-dove, the smallest kind, lives near water in small woods among fields and meadows. 2. Protective Rides. Those already given under the general heading apply here. Scarecrows are only useful at first, as the birds soon get used to them. Strewing seed-beds with spruce -needles instead of moss protects against turtle-doves. Shooting is best done at the breeding season with decoys, or over salt. Small vessels containing salted clay, anise, hempseed or wheat are placed here and there over the endangered sowings, and the pigeons flying down to them are shot. Section IY. — Jays and Nutcrackers. 1. Damage done. The Jay is extremely destructive, eating acorns, beech-nuts, walnuts, hazel-nuts, cherries and other fruit, digging-up ger- minating beech-nuts and young oaks to eat their cotyledons. It also destroys the young and eggs of other birds, and even attacks new-born hares. Once it has discovered a sowing of acorns, it will completely strip the bed. At the same time, by placing acorns and beech-nuts singly in holes in the ground, which it afterwards forgets, it assists in the spread of the oak and beech. Of more value is its power of attacking mice and insects, but the good done is less than the harm effected in other ways. The Nutcracker, though not uncommon in the spruce forests of the Schwarzwald, the Bavarian Alps, the Tyrol and Switzer- land, is rare in Central and North Germany, and in the British Isles. Its food consists of hazel-nuts, acorns, and beech-mast, and especially the seeds of the Cembran pine, of which it is so fond as to pick them out of sowings and seedbeds in the very presence of the workmen who are sowing the seed. It also 124 PROTECTION AGAINST BIRDS. destroys the eggs and young of useful birds. This extremely restless bird also sows seeds, and in this respect is more useful than the jay, as the localities it i^refers in the high mountain regions are those where planting is extremely costly, and any assistance to man's action in rehoisement is of great value. 2. Protective Rules. Cover up endangered sowings with branches of thorn-bushes, immediately after sowing. Shoot in autumn, when jays keep flying from one oak to another. Several hundred jays are thus shot every year in Epping Forest. Section V. — Finches and other Small Birds. 1. Damage done. The Haicjinch, rare in the British Isles, is very fond of fruits and seeds, especially those of the hornbeam, cherry, maples, oaks, beech, alder, elm and conifers. The traces of its activity are seen in the remains of the fruit lying under the trees. It also bites-off buds. In general, however, the damage done by this bird is greater in gardens and orchards than in forests. The Greenfinch feeds its young on soft seeds, and by thus destroymg countless weeds it is of great service to the gardener and agriculturist. Later on in the year, however, it unites in large flocks with the chafiinch and other finches and small birds, and they may do much damage to sowings in the forest. The Chafiinch is extremely fond of coniferous seeds, those of the pine, spruce, and larch, and bites off young cotyledons of conifers as long as they are covered by the testa. It also eats beech-nuts, and the cotyledons of beech-seedlings. The Bramhling appears in the late autumn and winter in large flights like clouds, and attacks beech-nuts and coniferous seeds. De Montbeliard states that in 1765, after a good beech- mast year, for several nights 600 dozens were killed near the Rhine, and de la Fontaine computes a flight of bramblings in Luxemburg in February, 1865, at 60 millions. Stevenson in March, 1865, saw a flock of bramblings near Slough which FINCHES AND OTHER SMALL BIRDS. 125 Fig. 54. passed him without intermission for 35 minutes. Both this species and the chaffinch are extremely destructive to coniferous and beech sowings, and to natural reproduction of beech, which it is extremely difficult to guard against them. The Siskin also appears in great numbers, and prefers the seeds of the alder, but also attacks sowings of birch, spruce, silver-fir, larch, and other conifers. Some- thing mav be said in favour of the finches on account of their destruction of insects ; the haw- finch frequently catches cock- chafers even when they are on the wing, and then, perching on a twig, picks them to pieces, letting the hard elytra and legs fall to the ground. Crossbills are extremely ra- venous, and appear in swarms when there are good seed-years of spruce and Scotch pine. They live on the seeds and berries of trees of several species. They bite- off cones by the base, and open-out their scales with their beaks and pull out the seeds. The common crossbill can only open spruce -cones, but the Parrot Crossbill also attacks pine-cones. They eat mountain-ash berries when cones are scarce, and even thistle- and dock-seed, and have been seen to eat beech-cotyledons. They do some compensation by eating plant-lice. Spruce-coue attacked by Crossbill. 2. Protective Rides. Blue strings may be placed crosswise over sowings. Hed-lead can be applied to the seeds in the following manner 126 PROTECTION AGAINST BIRDS. In a wide vessel, water and 1 lb. of red-lead are stirred together, and 7 to 8 lbs. of spruce-seeds mixed up with it, about 1 lb. at a time, the water in the vessel being constantly stirred until the seeds will take up no more of the lead. The seeds can be sown at once Avithout drying. This costs 5d. per lb. of seeds for labour and material. Dilute carbolic acid may also be applied to seeds, as already mentioned. Scarecrows are of ver}' little use against finches. The seed-beds may be watched during the dangerous time, and blank cartridges fired. A good plan is to shoot some of the birds, and hang the bodies to stakes near the seed-bed. Cones bitten-off' and dropped by crossbills may be utilized to secure the seeds remaining in them. Section VI. — Woodpeckeks. The question whether woodpeckers are useful or hurtful to forests has been a subject of dispute, and will be here discussed. 1. List of Woodjyeckcrs. In Central Europe the following species of woodpeckers are found : — Black woodpecker (Picus martins, L.). Greater spotted woodpecker {Dendwcojnis major, Koch). Intermediate spotted woodpecker (D. mcdius, Koch). Lesser spotted woodpecker (Z). minor, Koch). White-backed woodpecker (D. lenconatus, Bchst.). Three-toed woodpecker {Apternus Iridactylus , Gould). Grey woodpecker {Picus cauus, Gmel.). Green woodpecker (Picus viridis, L.). The two last species are termed ground-woodpeckers. Of these the green woodpecker is the commonest in Britain, and D. major and minor also occur. Nos. 2, 3, and 7 are said to be commonest near Giessen, where Hess resides. 2. Ojnnions of various Authors. Opinions regarding the utility or otherwise of woodpeckers from a forestry point of view have varied from time to time. WOODPECKERS. 127 Towards the end of the eighteenth century they were considered hurtful by pecking holes into trees which were sometimes sound ones. In Beckmann's Handhiich der Jagdivissenschaft, published at Nuremberg in 1802, this opinion was adopted, and in consequence Fig. 55. Fig. 56. Scotch pine-cones fixed into a tree by woodpecker. Sjiruce cone attacked by woodpecker. a reward of 2d. per head was offered in Germany for their destruction. Bechstein was the first, in 1802, to consider them useful, and Walther in 1803 ; also Gloger about 18(30. Foresters then went to the other extreme, considering woodpeckers as extremely active in destroying insects, and ignoring their 128 PEOTECTION AGAINST BIRDS. propensity for making holes in trees. Altum in his Forstzooloc/ie reverted to the former opinion, stating that woodpeckers were practically useless against dangerous bark-beetles, but attacked the larger and less important longicorn-beetles, and that they themselves did considerable damage to trees. Altum wished, however, to protect woodpeckers on a;sthetic grounds, because they enliven the forest and jjlease the eye. Judeich follows Altum's views to a certain extent. Konig, Dobner, Yogt, the brothers Miiller, Taschenberg, Borggreve, Nordlinger and others consider that the utility of woodpeckers outweighs the harm they may do, and Hess expresses himself as of the same opinion, from the most recent observations on the subject. 3. Damage done by Woodpeckers. Woodpeckers eat forest-seeds, peck wounds in saplings, and holes in sound poles and trees ; they girdle sound trees and destroy telegraph-poles and wooden roof-shingles. Fig. 57. (a) Destruction of Seeds. Dendrocopus major alone of the woodpeckers eats large quantities of coniferous seeds. It wedges the cones which it has plucked from trees in a cleft in the bark, or in an angle between a stem and a branch, and opens them out and removes the seeds with its bill. One can distinguish between the action of the woodpecker and crossbill in this respect. Frequently the ground under a tree is covered with opened-out cones. Also walnuts, hazel-nuts, acorns, and other fruits are eaten by the great woodpecker. The damage done is not, however, very serious, as woodpeckers are solitary birds. Cone of Scotch pine attacked by woodpecker. (b) Peeking Holes in sound Trees. The black and the great woodpecker do most of this damage, AVOODPECKERS. 129 and attack isolated trees and saplings. The woodpecker also attacks freshly planted saplings of oak, beech, acacia, exotics, &c., and the reason for its doing so is not very clear ; in coniferous woods it may thus free the beak from resin derived from the cones it has been attacking. Older trees are also attacked, such as avenue-trees (poplars, limes), oaks occurring in coniferous forests, boundary trees, &c. Most of this damage is done during spring and early summer, but it is too rare to be of any j)ractical importance. (c) Girdlinf/ Trees. The same two woodpeckers, while hanging to the trunk by their feet with the support of their tail feathers, encircle trees with rings of holes arranged horizontally. A callus forms at each hole, but is pecked at again and again until quite a ledge has been made round the tree. Trees may sometimes be seen with several such ledges, one above the other, resembling the rings on bamboos. The reason for these attacks on sound trees has not yet been discovered. (d) Destruction of Telegraph-Posts. The great woodpecker as well as the black and green wood- peckers share in this damage. x4.ttacks have been observed both on coniferous or oaken posts, whether kyanised or not, and generally commence at an old screw-hole. In 1881, the Director of Post-Offices for the German Empire issued a circular order that all holes in telegraph-posts should be filled with wooden plugs, and that holes freshly made by woodpeckers should be at once smeared with tar. Injuries done by woodpeckers to the wooden shingle roofs of forest lodges and other deserted houses have been noticed, but are rare and unimportant. 4. Utility of Woodpeckers. (a) Destruction of Insects. The injurious insects which woodpeckers devour live either in or on the surface of the soil, or in the wood or bark of trees, and the latter kinds are preferred. Woodpeckers chiefly seek animal food from April till late VOL. IV. K 130 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. summer. They capture cockchafers, pick grubs from fruit, and eat thepupne of moths and sawflies ; they dig into ant-hills, consum- ing numbers of ants, which are said by Yarrell to be the chief summer food of the green woodpecker, and they peck holes into the ground in search of cockchafer grubs, wire-worms, Exit-hole of lana. (c) Prutcctire Bides. Collection and destruction of the nuts which fall earliest (those infested with larvae). Col- lection of the beetles by shaking. Titmice attack the green nuts to reach the larvae. 5. Orchestes faf/i, Gyll. (a) Description. The Beech Leaf-miner beetle is 2*5 to 3 mm. long; black, with fine grey hairs. Elytra with striae of conspicuous, coarse punctures ; rostrum depressed under the body ; antennae and legs bright brown. Hiud-legs adapted for leaping, their femora thickened and furnished with a small tooth before the apex. (b) Life-History, cCx-. The ? lays her eggs one by one on the under surface of unde- veloped beech leaves, etc., biting holes for the purpose under the epidermis, near the mid-rib. The larva hatches in the month of May and bores in the leaf-parenchyma either towards the ter- minal point of the leaf, or sideways, forming a winding tunnel which continually increases in size till it becomes a large patch. The parts which have been eaten, at first whitish, become finally brown. Pupation takes place near the border of the leaf, between the upper and lower epidermis of the area which has been eaten by the larva. In June the beetle emerges, and passes the winter under the dead leaves on the ground. WEEVILS. 197 When the larvae of this insect are abundant, the foliage of the beech trees appears reddish-brown, just as if it had been frozen by a late frost. The beetle shortly after emergence has been known to feed on various substances ; for instance, fruit (cherries, raspberries, gooseberries), cauliflowers ; it also pierces the capsules of beech nuts, causing them to open before the seed is ripe. In the early summer it riddles the beech leaves with small holes, and gnaws the female flower-buds. Fig. 82. Beech-leaf attacked by 0. fagi, Gyll. (Natural size). a Commencement of larval mine by a gallery, which widens at h into an irregular space, c Pupa in a bladder-like cocoon, d Holes of various sizes gnawed by the beetles. The insect attacks woods of all ages, but prefers old to young growth, and especially trees bordering the wood, or isolated trees, as shelter trees in a regeneration felling. It appeared in the Palatinate in 1869 in such numbers that in many beech woods scarcely a leaf was left uninjured. It is common in Great Britain. No protective measures other than the encouragement of insectivorous birds are practicable. 6. OrcJiestcs quercus, L. Beetle reddish-yellow, covered with grey hair, and with black eyes and breast, hinder thighs with serrate teeth. It attacks the oak just as the preceding beetle attacks the beech. It is 198 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. commonest on suppressed oak unclergrowtb, under Scotch pines, etc. 7. Cryptorrhynclius lajyatlii, L. (a) Description. Beetle 7 to 8 mm. long, and very characteristically coloured ; thorax and the basal two-thirds of the elytra dark brown or black, with patches of erect black scales ; flanks of the thorax, the anterior part of the under surface, the apex of the elytra and the femora thickly covered with white scales. The rostrum can be folded into a furrow under the thorax. (b) Life-History. The beetle flies at the end of April and in May. The eggs are laid in May, in small holes gnawed " • in the bark of the stem, or of the branches of alders, etc. The larvae appear 14 days later, in May or June, and pupate as a rule in autumn in their galleries. The beetle emerges in autumn, and passes the winter in these galleries or under moss ; but occasionally its emergence is deferred till the spring. Generation Crijptorrhynchus lapathi, L. annual, sometimes lasting 2 years. (c) Relations to the Forest. The black and white alder are preferred by it, then willows ; but poplars and birch are also attacked. If attacking alder it selects young stems (2 to 4 yeava old), but older trees in the case of willows. It is therefore more dangerous to the alder, and especially the black alder. Willow-cuttings are also attacked without respect to species, and careless coppicing giving rise to gnarled stools increases the danger of infestation. The insect is injurious both as a larva and imago. The beetle eats the bark of young annual shoots down to the sap-wood. The larva then gnaws under the bark, and bores PINE-WEEVIL. 199 Fig. 84. Fig. 85. obliquely upwards or downwards into the wood and often to the pith, thus ruining the young stems, w'hich die or break off (Figs. 84 and 85) ; in the latter figure the galleries of the larvse have been exposed. The attack is indicated by discoloration and swelling -up of the bark, and later on by its depression over the points of injury, and by the brown wood-dust which is ejected from the burrows, or has fallen to the ground. The beetle attacks and kills isolated stems along the banks of streams where the localities are not too dry, and since 1830 it has been common near Tharand in Saxony. In Britain it is somewhat local, though not uncommon where it occurs. (d) Protective Rules. Infested plants and coppice- shoots should be cut down by the end of July and burned. The beetles should be knocked off the trees on to cloths. This should be done carefully, as the slightest shaking of the trees induces the beetles to fall and lie as if dead on the ground, where they may escape observa- tion. 8. Hylohiiis {CurcuUo) ahietis, Fabr. [Pine-Weei-il)* Larval bui-rows of C. lapathi, L. , in Alder stems. {Natural size. ) (a) Description. Beetle 8 to 13 mm. long, of strong build, pitchy-brown, with 2 or 3 golden (rarely pale yellow) irregular stripes across the elytra, and a few spots ot * The most valuable account of this very destructive forest insect is by Obertbrster von Oppen, Untersuchungen liber die Generationsverhaltnisse des Hyl. ahietis. Zeitsclir. fr. Frst. u. Jgdw. 1885, pp. 81 and 141. 200 PEOTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. the same colour near their apex. Head with a strong, some- what curved i-ostrum, thorax gradually narrowed from the middle to the apex, with coarse confluent punctuation and a slightly elevated median ridge, clothed with patches of thick hair ; elytra thrice as broad as the base of the thorax, and somewhat elevated at the shoulders. Legs brown, the femora toothed below (by which it may be distinguished from Pissodes jnni, L., which otherwise greatly resembles it), and generally darker than the tibiae. (b) Life-History. The chief swarming period of this beetle, which lives from 1 to 2 years, is in the spring or early summer (May or June) ; but pairing and reproduction go on throughout the whole of the warmer season up to September, so that no real period for swarming exists. Copulation generally takes place on the ground. The eggs are laid from May to September on stumps and roots of the Scotch pine and spruce, preferably on those of trees felled a Fig. 86. Hijlohins ahietis, Fabr. a Imago. b Lai-va. c Pupa, about 18 months before. The under-surface of those roots which project out of the ground are especially preferred. The larvae appear after 2 to 3 weeks, and eat galleries in the bark of the stumps and roots down to the sapwood ; the burrows curve at first upwards and then downwards, continually increas- ing in breadth, and are filled with wood-dust. The grubs, at least those which have been hatched in the autumn, pass the winter at the end of these galleries. They do no injury of any economic importance, their sources of food being confined to valueless wood. PINE-WEEVIL. 201 In the following spring, after having been dormant for about 9 months, the larvas pupate in the stump or roots in a cocoon constructed of wood-fibres and boring-dust. The pupa-state lasts about 2 to 3 weeks. The perfect insects emerge from May till September of the second year. The period of disclosure thus extends over four months, corresponding to the season of pairing. Those beetles which emerge during the autumn do but little injury, as they do not appear in such numbers as in the spring ; except for a few belated individuals, they proceed at once to copulate. Nearly the whole summer through both larvne and images may be found. The latter pass the winter under moss, dead leaves, in the ground, in hollow stumps, under stacks of wood, etc. Von Oppen found that they prefer to winter in dense thickets of 10 to 15-year-old plants rather than in older woods. The generation lasts generally only one year, but may extend to 15 months; only under very favourable climatic circumstances can it be less than a year. The beetle frequently appears in extraordinary numbers on felling-areas, where it is bred, and in plantations which it destroys. It is very common in most pine-woods throughout Great Britain. It rarely if ever flies, moves slowly along the ground, and in times of great heat or cold conceals itself in grass, refuse of felled trees, earth, etc. (c) Relations to the Forest. This species is important in the perfect state alone, by the injuries it inflicts on young coniferous plants ; weakly Scotch pine and spruce of 3 to 6 years old are preferred, but younger plants, even yearlings, are attacked, and exceptionally other conifers (black and Weymouth pines, Douglas and silver-fir, larch). Even broad-leaved trees are attacked, chiefly oaks and other species planted in old coniferous woods, or employed as a shelter-wood for Scotch pine. The insect is therefore clearly polyphagous. The damage is done from May to September, the bark of the young plants being gnawed all along the stem, down to the rootsfcock. The bast or sapwood is exposed in patches, which may be as large as a bean, and resin exudes from the torn •V V/ ^w PROTECTIOX AGAINST INSECTS. walls of the points of attack. More of the outer bark is always removed than of the bast, so that the injuries appear as irregu- lar and shelving erosions of the surface. Frequently in this wa}' the young trees are girdled, and very small plants are completely peeled, up to their crown. In the case of the Scotch pine the attacks of the beetle cause the development of numerous shoots from dormant buds; the spruce is sooner killed than the pine. Fui. 87. Fig. 88. Fig. 89. \ Young spruce plants gnawed by If. ahittis, Fabr. (Natural size.) In Fig. 89, « indicates the gnawed parts, b those still covered with bark. On plants over six years old, only those parts from 1 to 5 years old are attacked, as the six-years-old bark is too hard for the insect. The damage done is much greater in the spring than late in the summer or in the autumn. Freshly planted, extensive, sunny clearings near old woods are preferred b}' the beetle ; especially those in which the stumps have been left in the ground, or not thoroughly extracted. The beetle does not appear at altitudes over 8000 to 3300 feet. PIXE-WEEYIL. 203 (d) Protective Rules. The best means of prevention consist in suppljdng this de- structive insect with as little opportunity as possible for breeding, in order to prevent its swarming in certain localities in the spring. The following are recommended : — i. Establishment of small felling - areas, as if these are extensive the reproduction of the beetle is greatly facilitated. Care must, however, be taken not to go too far in subdividing the felling-areas, as each area is a breeding place for weevils. ii. Interruption in the order of successive fellings, so that when a felling has been made no adjoining area shall be felled till after the lapse of 3 to 5 years. In this way fresh breeding material is not afforded close to that of the previous year. iii. Timely and complete extraction of stumps and roots from felling-areas in coniferous forests, in order to reduce as much as possible the number of breeding places for the ? . This is the most effective measure of all. The extraction of the stumps must begin with the felling and be finished by the commencement of the next winter. It is better to grub up the trees with the roots attached than to fell the trees first and then extract the stumps and roots, and the former method has been followed for many jeavs in Hesse and Nassau with very good results as regards the diminution of the numbers of weevils. iv. The felling-areas should be rapidly cleared of all refuse, and all sickly and dominated undergrowth should be removed before the area is planted up, as such growth affords very favour- able shelter for the weevils. V. It has been proposed by Heyer and other authorities that planting should not be attempted until one or two years after the felling. By this time it is hoped the remains of the roots will have dried up and become unsuitable for breeding places. Dr. Hess considers that this involves too great a sacrifice of time and interest on capital, even if it avoids the necessity for replac- ing 50 per cent, of the plants, and also that the consequent deterioration of the soil entails more expense than the cost of re- planting the failures. He estimates that an interval of at least 3 years instead of 1 or 2 years is requisite to cause the roots to dry up and become incapable of serving any longer as breeding places. 204 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. vi. Strong transplants should be used, together with 1 to 2 years' temporary field crops. Ball and mound planting are recommended, and Nordlinger prefers autumn planting, as the plants are less liable than those put in in the spring to attacks by the weevils. Temporary field-crops involve a thorough working of the soil, and this requires complete eradication of the roots of the former crop of trees. In Saxony sowing in patches is preferred to planting where there is danger of an attack of weevils. vii. Broad-leaved trees may be mixed with the conifers. viii. Sheep may be fed over the felling-area, as their droppings are obnoxious to the beetles. ix. Protection of insect-enemies : the fox, rook, crow, jay, starling, etc. (e) Remedial Measures. i. Trenches to trap the beetle should be dug. These may be utilised either for isolating the plantations, or merely for catch- ing the beetles. The isolating trenches are dug round the felling-areas in order to separate them from neighbouring culti- vations, and to collect the beetles which may appear within their radius. The other class of trenches for trapping the insects is dug within the felling-areas. If this plan is followed, all cultivations are isolated. The trenches must be kept in order, and repaired after rainy weather ; all beetles which are found in them should be crushed. Unfortunately these very efl'ective measures are not always possible, for instance in stony or very loose ground, or on steep slopes. The dimensions for the trenches are given on p. 154. ii. Artificial breeding-material may be supplied in June, in the form of smooth-barked pine or spruce poles 3 to 5 feet long and 2 to 4 in. thick, cut when in full sap and buried in the ground at intervals of 30 paces apart, obliquely, so that one end is 10 in. deep in the ground, and the other about 1 or 2 in. above the surface. In order that the bark may be preserved intact, the holes must be dug beforehand and the pieces of wood placed in them and covered with earth and sods, which should be slightly trodden down. PISSODES NOTATUS. 205 These traps should be placed in the felling-areas, but are useless in cultivations ; they should be carefully pulled out in September and October and burned, so as to destroy the larvae they contain, and in order that none of them may be overlooked, they should be placed regularly, or a small stick should be stuck in the ground by each of them. iii. Traps made of pieces of bark may be distributed about the felling-areas and cultivations between the months of April and September, and must be renewed two or three times during this period as they become dry and cease to attract. The best size is from 12 to 16 in. long x 6 to 8 in. wide. They are placed with the bast downwards and sometimes several one over the other, and pressed down with clods or stones to keep them moist. They must be searched daily for the beetles. From 25 to 50 are required per acre, according to the abun- dance of the insects. Conifer-bark and, by preference, that of the Scotch pine should be used. Children collect the beetles better and at a cheaper rate than adults. It is a good thing to place fresh pine twigs from the youngest shoots, under the bark to attract the beetles, which will be found eating these twigs when the bark is lifted up. iv. Cultivations may be searched over for beetles by children or labourers engaged in plantation work just before the midday or evening rest, with good results, and at a very slight expense. The above remedial measures, if steadily pursued, will render the attacks of these insects of no importance. The beetles should be killed by crushing on a hard surface or by scalding. In Germany Hylohiiis 2}^i^(^stri, Gyll, a smaller species of weevil, does similar damage to that caused by H. abietis, and should be dealt with in the same manner. H. pineti, Fabr. attacks young larch in like manner. Neither is British. 9. Pissodes notatus, Fabr. (a) Description. Beetle 7 to 8 mm. long, of a reddish brown colour, and irregularly sprinkled with bright-coloured squamous hairs ; pro- thorax with about 8 yellowish-white spots, its hind-angles acute ; elytra Avith impressed lines of punctures and two broad ferru- 206 PKOTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. ginous or whitish hands, the anterior one interrupted at the suture. (h) Life-History. Period of flifikt : April and May. The eggs are laid in these two months, generally on the stems of young coniferous plants and preferably on the lowest internodes, but also on the trunk or roots of older plants, on felled trees and stacks of firewood, and on cones. Fifi. 90. Pissodes notatus, Fabr. a and b, Imago. c Larva. d Pupa. The larvce appear 3 or 4 weeks afterwards, in June and July, and live between the bark and wood, pupating in their burrows at the beginning of August. The beetles emerge from the middle of August to the end of September, and hibernate at the roots, between cracks in the bark, under moss, litter, or in the ground. Larvse and pupie of this insect may also be met with during the winter, and the beetles from these appear in the spring. Generation single. The insect is widely spread, but less com- mon than Hylohins. This is decidedly the case in Britain, where P. notatus is almost confined to the conifer woods of Scotland. (c) Relations to the Forest. The beetle in May pierces the bark of Scotch and black pines, more rarely that of the Weymouth pine, spruce or larch, near PISSODES NOTATUS. 207 the rootstock down to the bark and sapwood, partly to feed on the sap, and partly to lay its eggs there. It prefers 4 to 8-year-old plants, but also attacks poles up to 30 years of age. The perforations resemble fine needle holes, and are very numerous. The larvas eat their way between the w^ood and bark in descending, slightly winding, and constantly broadening passages, which become filled with wood-dust ; at the extremity of the burrows they construct oval cocoons made of wood-fibres, out of which the beetle bores its way. The insect is most destructive in the larval stage. Plants which are attacked may be recog- nized in July by small drops of turpentine on the bark, and by the reddening and eventual death of the needles. If it has not been girdled, a few green twags may still be noticed on the wilting plant. The larvae also live in the young cones, often two or three together. Later on these cones become yellowish-grey, and may be recognized by the circular exit hole of the beetle, which is about the size of No. 6 or No. 7 shot. (d) Protective Rules. i. All sickly plants and dominated stems should be removed. ii. All rootstocks should be grubbed up, and all felling areas rapidly cleared. iii. Woodpeckers should be preserved. (e) Remedial Measures. i. Young plants containing larvae should be pulled up and burned in June and July. ii. All poles which have been attacked should be felled and barked. iii. Billets of unbarked fir-wood should be Fig. 91. iK" %^l. ^iMm gySliil'jl Cocoons of P. notatus, Fabr., on the stem cf a young pine. In the por- tion covered with bark a square aper- ture has been cut, under which is a flight-hole. {Natural size.) Fig. 92. Pine-cone from which P. notatus, Fabr., has been bred. {Natural size. ) 208 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. laid about, as for H. abietis, in order to attract the beetles for egg-laying. They should be removed from the middle of June to the middle of July and burned. iv. Cones attacked by the insects, and recognizable by the exuding turpentine, should be collected and burned. 10. Other Species of Pissodes. Another species, Pissodes pini, L., attacks almost every species of pine and also young spruce in a similar manner to P. notatus. In Great Britain it is confined to Scotland, where it is locally common. It is a rather larger insect, with the anterior fascia on the elytra reduced to a few pale spots and the posterior fascia much narrower. Other species of Pissodes de- structive to conifers in Germany are P. pinijyhiliis, Hbst., on Scotch pine; P. hercijnice, Hbst., on spruce, which has been very destructive in the Harz and other forest districts in Germany ; and P. picece, 111. on the silver fir. Family VII. — ScoLYTiCiE (Bark-beetles).* Description of Family. Beetles small and cylindrical, resembling the Anohiidce in their general form. Head globose, rarely produced into a short muzzle, and inserted deeply into the convex thorax ; antennae short, more or less elbowed, and terminated by a large club, their funiculus composed of 2 to 7 joints. Legs short, the tibiae spined or toothed on their outer border, the tarsi with four evident joints, the third sometimes bilobed. Abdomen of 5 segments, the two first of which are generally fused. Generation : usually annual, sometimes biennial, or extending over a year and a half. Larvce cylindrical, curved, with tubercles bearing strong hairs, apodal, and closely resembling the larvae of weevils. Pupce short and thick, with a few spines and hairs. The larvjie and beetles live almost exclusively in the bark, bast * Eichlioff, AV. Die Eiiropiiischen Borkenkiifer, Berlin, 1881. The best monograph on the Bark-beetle3. BAEK-BEETLES. 209 or wood, more rarely in the pith of our forest trees. They attack roots, stems, branches, twigs and young shoots, and young or old wood, preferring the latter. The kind of tree which they attack, and the arrangement of their borings is usually characteristic of each species. The beetles penetrate into the trees by boring a small entrance-hole, like a shot- wound, through the bark. This is usually accomplished by the ? , but in some polygamous species the S enters the tree and excavates in the bark a small pairing-chamber. From this chamber, or from the entrance-hole, proceeds the gallery, which is made by the ? , and in the outer surface of which a few air-holes may be perforated. The galleries may be divided into those constructed in the bark or alburnum, parallel to the exterior surface of the tree, and those which run more or less vertically into the wood ; the former may be subdivided into longitudinal or transverse simple galleries, forked galleries, or stellate galleries, the latter being formed by several ? boring radially outwards from the circumference of a pairing-chamber. The form of the gallery is in the main constant for each species, but may be modified by the size of the stem which is attacked, by the presence of knots, &c., or by the over-abundance of insects boring in the same trunk. The ? lays her eggs as a rule in small hollows bitten out alternately on each side of the gallery she is graduall}^ excavating, packing them in with wood- dust. The larvae, after hatching-out, eat galleries which radiate from the breeding gallery, becoming gradually wider with the growth of the larvae, and filled with wood-powder ; they pupate in a chamber formed at the end of the gallery either in the bark, bast or sapwood. Finally the beetles eat their way out through round holes — -Jiight-holes — of the diameter of their own bodies. This is the general mode of life of the bark-beetles. The larvae of those few species of Scolytidae which eat wood do not make regular galleties, but merely enlarge the egg chambers in the wood of the tree, and the mature insects escape through the bark by the original boring made by the mother. Bark-beetles are specially addicted to conifers, and most of these species are monophagous. An occasional departure which they may make from this rule is to be looked upon as an exception due to local circumstances. There are also numerous VOL, IV. P 210 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. species of these insects which feed solely on coniferous trees or on broad-leaved trees, but without attaching themselves ex- clusivel}^ to a particular kind of tree. Even the few polyphagous species show an individual preference for either coniferous or broad-leaved trees. There are no pantophagous bark-beetles, which eat herbaceous as well as woody plants, whilst those which only attack herbaceous plants are very few in number and without interest to the forester. This family of the Coleoptera is generally regarded as the most important which the forester has to guard against, owing to the large number of very injurious species which it contains. Fortunately, many of these are unknown in Britain, or are so rare as never to have been classed among our destructive insects. A. Subfamily Tomicini. Description of Subfamily. Head generally round, hidden beneath the thorax, and scarcely visible from above. Antennal funiculus 2 to 5 jointed. Thorax not contracted in front, convex or subspherical, its surface covered in front with small asperate or tubercular projections, behind usually punctate or smooth. Tarsal joints simple, never bilobed, the first much shorter than the other three together. Elytra sloping downwards at the apex, the sloping portion, termed the cqncal declivity, sometimes impressed or excavate and often toothed. Under-surface of the abdomen flat. There are 11 genera and 29 species recorded from Britain. They generally live between the bast and sapwood, some entirely in the wood, and a few in the outer bark, and are very common in coniferous forests. 1. Tomicus typographus, L, (a) Description. Beetle 4'5 to 5*5 mm. long, stoutly built, dark brown or blackish, shining, hairy, with testaceous antennae and legs. Head with a small tubercle immediately over the mandibles. Thorax as broad as long, its dorsal surface with rather fine sparse TOMICUS TYP0GRAPHU8. 'Al puuctuation over the posterior half. Elytra with deeply im- pressed stria?, somewhat fiuer posteriorly, the intervals flat, not punctured except at the sides and apex ; apical excavation dull and irregularly punctate, with four teeth on either side, of which the third is the largest. (b) Life-History. Flight-time at the end of April or in May, at higher altitudes at the beginning of June. Under favourable circumstances a second brood may appear in July or August. The beetles are Fig. 93. Tomicus tijporjrapltus, L. a Imago. h Larva. c Pupa. found in pairs boring into the trunks of large spruce trees under the crown, especially on the sunny side ; when they reach the bast, they prepare a breeding chamber ; after pairing the ? excavates one or more galleries running in the long axis of the trunk, which besides the original bore-hole, may contain 2 to o air-holes. On the right and left of the mother-gallery she bites out little recesses of the size of a poppy seed, and lays in each an egg, generally to the number of 30 to 50, but sometimes as many as 120, which she covers with fine wood-dust. After 14 days the first larvae appear in May and June, before the egg-laying is quite completed, and eat out slightly winding galleries in the bast, somewhat at right angles to the direction of the mother gallery, pupating at their ends in a chamber in the bast. The newly disclosed beetles leave the trees through round p 2 212 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. Fig. 94. holes in the bark in July or the beginning of August, and hibernate in stumps, cracks in bark, under bark, and more rarely in moss. When they come out earl}^ before the end of June and under other favourable circumstances, they at once com- mence to lay eggs for a new brood, from which beetles may appear during September at the latest. The entire development lasts on an average for 10 weeks, which is thus distributed over the various stages : egg, 11 to 2 weeks ; larva, 2 weeks ; pupa, 3 Aveeks; and imago, 'dh to 4 weeks. When circumstances are very favourable they can reach matu- rity in 6 or 8 weeks, but under unfavourable circumstances, damp cold weather, or in shady places, 12 to 13 weeks are required. The generation is therefore cither single or double, but in mountainous regions, such as the Thuringian forest and the Erzge- birge, a double generation is much rarer than in the plains. In rare cases where there is abundance of food and a \ei'j large* swarm of beetles a three- fold generation has been observed. This dangerous pest has fortunately been very rarely observed in Britain, and has never j-et been recorded as a destructive insect. Observations on the duration of its generation in this climate are therefore wanting, but it is probably an annual one. As other insects, such as Xi/lehori(s dispar, Hellw., which are normally rare in Britain, may occur unexpectedly in some numbers and prove destructive, it is desirable that the forester should be acquainted with the economy of such species as the present, so as to be prepared to meet a contingent outbreak, which is by no means impossible. T. typofiraphns, L. may be * Von Kujawa often found in pieces of liark 10 cm. long and broad, a.s many as 40 to 50 beetles, and 1,000 pairs of beetles attacking one tree in the .spring are capable of producing as many as 800,000 by the autumn. •iMmi*0^^ Burrows of T. ii/jMf/raplius, L., in spruce-bark. {Natural .s/re. ) Commencement of motlier-galleries with pairing-chamber (a) and egg- recesses (6). TOMICUS TYPOGRAPHUS. 213 Fig. 95. imported from time to time in the bark of unseasoned spruce- timber. Bark-beetles are generally slow and lazy insects, which only in very warm weather will fly to the top of trees. A flight of them to remote places is therefore a rare occurrence, due to over rapid multiplication and want of food. (c) Relations to the Forest. The beetle, both as a larva and as a perfect insect, does physiological damage to conifers. It chiefly attacks old spruce trees, generally those between 80 to 100 years old, and very sel- dom when under 50 years. It is said to have been found quite exceptionally on larch and Scotch pine and on the Cembran pine. Even if, in these cases, it has not been confused with the extremely simi- lar species T. amltinus, Eichh., on the larch, and T. cembrce, Heer, it must be admitted that T. typo- graplms only appears in swarms in spruce woods, and only attacks trees with thick bark. The injuries are confined to the bast-layer, and are fatal to the trees which are attacked. The resulting disease is called spruce-canker. Symptoms of the attack are — yellow or red discoloration of the needles, grey- Burrows of T. typographus, L., in spruce- bark. {JVatural si~c.) a Pairing-chamber (witli entrance-hole). b Mother-galleries (vertical and forked). c Larval-galleries (widening outwards). 2U PROTECT rOX AGAINST INSECTS. Yia. 96. Barrows of T. ti/poyraphus, L., in spruce-bark. (Natural size.) a Pairing-clianibei. c Air-hole, e Flight-hole. b Mother-gallery. d Larval-galleries. ness, loosening or falling off of the bark, numerous bore-holes through its substance, and the presence on the trunk of boring- powder ejected from*|the burrows. Trees infested in the spring appear difl'erently affected to those injured in the summer. The needles change colour rapidly in TOMICUS TYPOGRAPHUS. 215 the former case, whilst in the latter the needles remain green, even whilst the bark has already partially fallen off. This depends on the difference in the movement and composition of the sap at the different seasons of the year. In the spring, the ascent of water from the ground is cut off from the crowns of the trees by the destruction of the bast, and the foliage at once begins to change colour. In the summer the descent of the supply of nutritive material prepared by the leaves is cut off, while the crowns still get the nutriment, hence the needles remain green while the bast is killed. Nevertheless trees attacked in summer eventually die. This species of Tomicus is therefore extraordinarily de- structive to spruce forests, and may be considered the most destructive of all European forest insects. The beetle prefers trees freshly felled during the season of growth and also sickly standing trees, but when it appears in large numbers, even perfectly sound trees are attacked. It avoids barked logs, and rarely attacks stools ; it only utilises the upper layers of fire- wood-stacks for oviposition. Its favourite resorts are thinly stocked woods, and the borders of felling-areas, generally in sheltered, dry warm places with a southerly aspect. Its dis- tribution extends far north and high on the mountains, which it prefers to the plains ; it is hardy and but little affected by unfavourable weather. The worst attacks of this insect recorded in the present century were in East Prussia between 1857-1862, and in the Bohemian and Bavarian fov.ests in 1873-1876, Professor Lindemam?"i^f Moscow thinks that this beetle never attacks perfectly sound/Wood. As the Russian forests are generally full of dead and dying wood, it is no wonder that the beetle should have no reason therQ to attack sound trees. (d) Protective Rules. i. Spruce-trees should only be grown in suitable localities. They should be mixed with silver-fir, and there should be early and frequent thinnings. ii. The woods should be inspected every May, and all sickly trees should be removed. iii. All rules applicable to tl]« locality for protection against 216 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. windfall, snow-break, etc., should be observed, as all broken wood affords good breeding material for bark beetles. iv. All broken wood should be speedily barked and worked 1ip, including semi-erect trees the roots of which have been loosened by the wind. In this operation standing trees should be injured as little as possible. V. Damage by game, especially peeling, should be guarded against. |vi. Extensive clear-cutting areas should be avoided, and the felling areas should be cleared as soon as possible. Above all the woods should be kept clean. Small felling-areas should be adopted as are usual in the Thtringian forests, in contra-distinction to the large felling- areajs in the Harz, where the insect has been notoriously injui'ious. vii. All logs intended to remain for any prolonged time in the forest should be barked. It is imperative that this shall be done to all larger logs, but this work need not be carried out till May, in order that the larvsB which may have developed in the logs may be destroyed. Barking in May is also cheaper than in winter, as the work is easier and the days longer. All large fuel logs should be split so that their bark may be limited to narrow strips. They should be stacked with the bark downwards. Stools remaininf' in the ground should also be barked. viii. Trap-trees should be prepared for felling (see c, i.). ix. All enemies, of bark-beetles should be preserved. Tom- tits, golden-crested wrens and woodpeckers are most important in this respect. When a swarm of bark-beetles is approaching extinction, ichneumon -wasps appear in great numbers. (e) Remedial Measures. i. Trap-trees should be felled from March till September, and should be barked and the bark burned as soon as the larvae are full-grown. Old or somewhat dominated spruce-trees with small crowns should be chosen, especially when the root- stock has been somewhat loosened from the soil by the wind, as such trees are more readily attacked by the beetles. In the spring, whilst TOMICUS TYPOGEAPHUS. 217 the weather is still damp, it is sufficient to fell new trap-trees at intervals of from 5 to 6 weeks, but in summer this should he done at least once a month. The local flight-periods should be followed in this respect, and from 8 to 14 days before trap-trees are barked fresh ones should be felled. In order to facilitate control the trap-trees should be numbered, and a register kept up to record the development of the beetles. Cogho reckons 5 trap-trees for 100 paces along the boundaries of the felling areas. Ratzeburg recommends that the trap-trees should not be deprived of their branches, and that they should be placed on stumps or stones, so that the beetles may bore in from below as well as from above. Most authors agree with this advice, but Fischbach recommends the lopping off of the branches, as then the trees dry up the sooner, and he also maintains that the bark- beetles only attack lopped trees, which is contrary to experience. Hess recommends that the branches be left, both on account of the cost of lopping, and because numbers of bark-beetles of other species are attracted to them. The trap-trees should be barked at latest as soon as pupation of the larvse has occurred, and all the bark must be burned. If the barking be longer deferred, some of the beetles will escape, and if it be done too early too many trap-trees Avill be required, or the beetles will oviposit in standing trees. The removal of the bark must be carefully done over cloths, and should be done on cool moist mornings, as the beetles are then most inert. It is not sufficient to expose the bark to the effects of the sun ; this may kill larvae which are really exposed, but in the case of thick bark many would escape, and pupse from which beetles are just ready to emerge would not be killed. It is best to burn the bark during cool weather in natural hollows, or in trenches, and to surround them with a wall of glowing embers, so as to kill any beetles which might happen to creep out. The smaller branches and twigs should also be burned, as they generally contain many other smaller but dangerous bark-beetles, such as T. chalco[iraphm, L. T. typographas, L., may also swarm in the branches. It is no use burying the bark at a less depth than 16 to 31 S PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. 18 in., as the beetles can find their way out from shallower pits. ii. All standing spruce which show signs of having been attacked should be felled and barked in June, and the bark burned. iii. In the case of a large swarm of these beetles, all trees attacked must be felled, the larger baulks barked and the remainder made into firewood or charcoal. All recently attacked trees should be felled first, as the beetles have probably left the trees which have been long attacked. Some details may be given of the latest plagues of bark-beetles in the Bavarian and Bohemian forest.* In the former about 24,700,000 c. feet of wood was killed in six forest-ranges. The beetles were occasionally so numerous as to obscure the sun. Accompanying T. tf/jwgrajjhus, L., were T. chalaxiraphus, L., Hyl. palliatus, Gyll, &c. In the Fiusterau range 1,000 wood- men were engaged to fell and bark the trees, and, as local labour was insufficient, Bohemiansandltalians were recruitedfor the work. In the Bohemian forest, the damage done was even on a larger scale : between 1872 and 1874, on 9,012 hectares (22,530 acres), 3,632,050 cm. (127,964,000 c. feet) of wood, or about 450 c. feet per acre, were felled. Thus altogether in Bohemia and Bavaria 152,600,000 c. feet of wood was killed by these insects. 2. Tomiciis amitinus, Eichh. (a) Descrvption. IntcKjo 4 to 4*5 mm. long. It greatly resembles the foregoing species, from which it can be distinguished as follows : — head without frontal tubercle ; interstices between the elytral stripe punctured throughout; apical excavation with a silky lustre, with regular rows of punctures. (b) Life-History, dc. Similar to the foregoing species, but besides spruce the beetle attacks Scotch pine and larch more frequently than T. ti/po- graphns, L. Its mother-galleries are bifurcating and frequently * Dev Borkoiikiiferfrass ini Bolnnerwulde. Allg. Frst. u. Jgdztg., 1874, p. 349 TOMICUS CHALCOGRAPHUS. 219 As in the former case, but in mixed coni- ferous forests, besides spruce, Scotch pine and larch trap-trees should be felled. Fig. 97. stellate ; the larval galleries start at an oblique angle to the former, and run in a zigzag direction, and both galleries are more in the sapwood, whilst those of T. typographus, L., are con- fined to the bast. The insect, which is more active than T. typographus, L., is often commoner on the Continent. It is at present unknown in Britain, but is, perhaps, as likely to occur in injurious numbers as its congener, and is certainly a worse enemy to the Scotch pine. (c) Protective Rules. TomicMS amitinus, Eichh. 3. Tomicus {Pityogenes) cJudcograpJiits, L. {Small (j-tootJied Spruce Bark-beetle). (a) Description. Beetle 2 mm. long. Very shining, almost glabrous, either entirely brjght reddish brown, or with the thorax and the base of the elytra dark brown. Prothorax contracted towards the apex, its posterior half scantily punctured, with a smooth median line. Elytra with fine punctured striae, their interstices mostly smooth and impunctate, apical excavation narrow and deeply impressed, its elevated sides armed with 3 teeth on each elytron, which are larger in the (^ than in the ? . (b) Life- History. Season of flight: April and May. The eggs are laid in spruce-bark. The larviB appear in May and June ; pupa- tion follows in June and July, and the newly hatched beetles bore their way out generally in July. The insect may hibernate in the larval, pupal or imago stage ; the generation is usually annual, sometimes twice in the year. T. chalcographns is much less rare in Great Britain than T. typographus. It is, however, local and not usually common, «v rw V PEOTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. Fig. OS. to so o CO 02 S S S !» to - • ^ .= ^ C S 5i -2 o TOMICUS SEXDEXTATOS. 231 resembling in this respect many other insects that feed on the spruce, which is not an indigenous tree. On the Continent it generally accompanies the two preceding species. (c) Relations to the Forest. This bark-beetle ordinarily attacks only the spruce. It has, however, occasionally been found in silver-fir, larch and Scotch pine, and also on Weymouth and mountain pines. It is very fond of interrupted pole-woods about 40 years old : in the case of old trees it attacks only the branches and crown. Fig. 99. Fig. 100. Tomicus chalcographns, L. leaving the destruction of the bast of the stem to the larger species. Exceptionally it may be found in 8 to 12-years-old spruce thickets which have been attacked by fungi {^■Ecidiiim abietinum, de Bary). The breeding-galleries are of characteristic stellate form, con- sisting of 4 to 7 slightly curved arms, which run transversely rather than longitudinally, groove the saj^wood and spring from a pairing-chamber excavated in the outer part of the bark. From each side of these extend the larval galleries which run principally in the bast, marking the sapwood less deeply. The protective rules are the same as for T. typographus, L. 4. Tomieus sexdentatits, Boern. (a) Description. Beetle 6 to 8 mm. long. The largest species of Tomieus. Elongate, cylindrical, shining, with long pubescence, broAvn, 222 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. with j-ellowisli-brown anteunte and le^s. Prothorax longer than broad, sparsely and moderately deeply punctured behind the middle, with a wide smooth median line. Elytra with strong punctured striae, apical excavation deep, its elevated margins furnished with 6 teeth on each elytron, of which the 3 upper ones are small, and the 4th is the largest. Fig. 102. Stellate galleries of 7'. cluil- cographus, L. , with egg-recesses, in spruce-bark. (Natural size.) Stellate galleries of 1'. chalco;trap}ius, L., on spruce sapwood, radiating from the pairiug-chambers (a). b Knots. (Natural size.) (b) Life-History. Season of;fi'ifiJit : usually somewhat later than for T. ti/jwf/ra- 2)hus. It is found in May and again in August and September. It selects for oviposition large Scotch pines with thick bark, and generally fallen or freshly-felled trees, windfalls and stacks of firewood; rarely standing trees. The development resembles that of T. ti/pograjilnis. The larvae are found in June and July ; the pupae in July and August ; the newly emerged beetles in August and September. The latter forthwith pair, and a new brood commences. The insecb hibernates under bark as an imago of the first or second brood. Generation either annual or twice in the year. (c) Relations to the Forest. The beetle attacks the Scotch pine, and prefers old trees with TOMICUS SEXDEXTATUS. 223 thick bark. It has also been observed on black and cluster pmes, and very rarely on spruce. In the absence of old woods it has here and there attacked poles 20 to 30 years old. The attack is on the bast, and resembles that of T. typographus, but is less regular, and the breeding galleries are long and wide. Sometimes the numerous larval galleries coalesce, in which case the brood live together and completely undermine the bark. This beetle is more frequent in the plains than in the mountains, and may be considered rare. In Britain it has been found about as often as T. typographus, L. The protective measures are the same as for that insect. Fig. 103. Fig. 104. T. sexdentatus, Boern. T. laricis, Fabr. 5. Tomicus laricis, Fabr. (a) Description. Beetle 3"o to 4 mm. long, of cylindrical shape, dark brown, shining, thinly haired, with antennae and legs ferruginous. Thorax scarcely longer than broad, its posterior half sparsely punctured, with a less distinct median impunctate line. Eh^tra with regular punctured striae, the interstices with single rows of fine points, apical excavation almost circular, deep, its elevated margin with from 3 to 6 short blunt teeth, and an accessory tooth on the inner side of the 2nd and 3rd teeth. (b) Life-History. Season for flight : April and May ; a second brood appears in July and August. 224 PEOTECTIOX AGAINST INSECTS. Fig. 105. Burrows of T. laricis, Fabr. in larch-bark. (A'atural size.) a Conjoineit larval-burrows, b Flight-holes. The eggs are laid iu the bark of various conifers. Stems injured by a forest fire, or felled trees, are selected in preference for egg-laying. Larvae appear in June, and those of the second brood in TOMICUS LARICIS. 325 August or September. Pupation takes place in the bast in June, July, and again in September and October. The first brood reaches maturity in July, and the second brood in October. The beetles hibernate under the bark. The generation is therefore double, and may be threefold in southern France. The beetle is found almost throughout Europe, and is common in most places. In Britain it is, per- haps, the least rare species of the genus, if Tomicus hidentatus, Hbst. be excepted. (c) Ilehitions to tJie Forest. The beetle does not by preference attack the larch, but is found on all conifers, particularly on the Scotch pine, and then on the spruce. It attacks poles and mature trees, and exceptionally young growth. The mother and larval galleries are in the bast. The former are generally vertical, slightly curved or bent at an angle at either end, with 2 to 4 air-holes (Fig. 105) ; the latter are horizontal for a short distance, but gradually bend up or down, and often run into one another, forming a common chamber (Fig. 105, a). The beetle is said to gnaw young plants (Scotch pine), near the collum, but this statement requires confirmation. (d) Protective Rules. (a) Prevention. Keeping the forest clean, and rapid clearing of felling-areas. (b) Remedial Measures. i. Trap-trees as for T. typographus, L. ii. Poles or logs used for traps stuck and placed into the ground in March. These should be examined in June, and those containing larvae should be burned. iii. All young plants which may be attacked and which may be recognized by the reddening of the needles, should be pulled up in June and burned. VOL. IV. Q 226 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. 6. Tomicus {IHtiiiHjenes) hidentatus, Herbst. (a) Deserij)tion . Beetle 2 to 3 mm. long ; pitchy-black, somewhat shinmg, with fine hairs ; antennne and legs ferruginous. Thorax constricted in front, and rather deeply punctate behind, with a smooth median elevated line. Elytra wi'th rows of punctures, impressed towards the sides only, apical excavation somewhat deep in the c? , with a single strong hooked tooth on each side ; in the ? the declivity is impressed on either side of the suture, and the teeth are reduced to inconspicuous tubercles. Fig. 106. Fig. 107. Tomicus hidentatus, Hbst, (b) Lifc-Histori/. The ? lays her eggs in May and June in Scotch pine woods, on young plants, poles, branches, and on refuse on felling areas. The pairing chamber is often furnished with short prolongations which are breeding galleries commenced but abandoned, and penetrates deeply into the sajjw^ood. Portions of the stems covered by thick bark are avoided. The lairce appear in June and July; the second brood in August and September. Pujmtion : in July and August, in the bast or sapwood ; the second brood, which hibernate as larvae, pupate in the followino- May. FUght-im-iod: in August. The second brood is mature by TOiMICUS BIDEXTATUS. 227 Fig. 108. a Jime of the following year, aud is followed bj' a third brood in the autumn which winter in the beetle stage. The generation thus extends over 1^ years. The beetle fre- quently appears in company with T. laricis, Fabr., and is widely dis- tributed. It is common in conifer forests in Britain. (c) Relations to the Forest. The common Scotch pine is the chief tree attacked bv this bark- beetle. It has, however, also been found in the Weymouth, cluster and mountain pines, and E. Hartig has noticed it on the spruce. It prefers the plants of 6 to 1'2-years-old cul- tivations, and only attacks the branches and twigs of older trees, where the bark is thin. As, how- ever, it attacks trees which are thoroughly sound, the crowns of trees are considerably thinned out by this beetle. The bast and sapwood are both attacked. The irregularly stellate mother-galleries are generally 4 to 7-armed, rarely 3-armed. The branches of these galleries run longitudinallv rather than horizon- tally, and have a knotted appearance, as the egg chambers are large and comparatively far apart. The larval galleries are somewhat winding and sparsely distributed; both kinds of galleries may be clearly seen on the sapwood, though those made by the larvae are more marked in the bast. This beetle readily attacks woods which have suffered from fire. Trees which have been severely attacked may be recognised by the yellowish colour of their crowns. Q 2 Burrows of T. bidentatus, Hbst. on pine sapwood. ( Natural size.) a PairiuEr-cliambers. 228 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. (d) Protective Rules. As for T. laricis, L. ; but trap-trees are useless. Instead of these, branches may be used as traps, which should be burned as soon as they are stocked with larvae, and replaced by fresh ones every 4 to 5 weeks until the autumn. Poles seen to be attacked by larvse should be immediatelj- felled and barked, and the bark burned. 7. Tomicus acuminatus, Gyll. Beetle 3 to 4 mm. long ; brown, with yellow-grey pubescence. Elytra regularly punctate-striate, the excavation circular, acuminate at the apex of the suture, its elevated margin with 3 teeth on either side, the first a small tubercle, the last the largest, and situate about the middle of the margin. Life- History, cOc. This species chiefly infests the crown of full-grown or old Scotch pines. The mother-galleries consist of 3 to 5 branches, radiating from a spacious pairing-chamber and grooving the sapwood rather deeply when excavated in thin bark. The larval galleries are twisted, frequently coming into contact or even crossing, but as a rule scarcely marking the sapwood. The species, though not very common in Europe, is not rare in Scotland and the north of England, and must be considered as one of our injurious species. Its attacks must be treated on the same lines as those of other species of Tomicus. 8. Trfipofleiulron lineatum, CtvII. [a) Description. Beetle 3 to 4 mm. long, short and cylindrical, black, the hinder part of the thorax and the elytra yellowish brown. The latter with three black bands each, along the suture, in the middle and along the outer margin, of which the middle band is not always complete ; they are marked with rows of large punctures ; apical declivity not impressed nor toothed. Anten- nal club flattened oval, blunt at apex, without trace of sutures. TRYPODEXDRON LTXEATUM. 229 (b) Life-Historij. The season for flight is in March and April, and again in June and July. The ? prefers felled trees, provided they are still sufficiently moist, also windfalls, and sometimes stems still in the ground, high stumps or broken trunks. A good deal of care is shown in the selection of breeding places, and the material must be neither too fresh nor too dry. The beetle rarely bores into cleanly barked stems, and is only rarely found in standing healthy trees. The ? bores vertically into the tree for an inch or more, constructing one or more brood galleries at the end of her tunnel, usually at right-angles to the entrance burrow, and always transversely to the long axis ; in the floor and roof of these galleries she gnaws small cylin- drical holes vertically into the wood for the reception of the eggs, and after ovi- position, she blocks these holes with wood-dust, forming partitions between the secondary and primary galleries. There are generallv from BO to 50 eggs- Triipodcndron lincatinn. The larvae appear in May, and those of the second brood in July and August. They pupate in a cocoon of particles of wood in July, and again in August and September. The imagos appear about the middle of July, and leave their birthplace through the old mother- gallery, after breaking through the partition, which remains intact up to that time. They at once set to work to produce a fresh brood. The species is widely distributed throughout Europe, but is con- fined in Great Britain to a few localities in the Tay and Dee districts of Scotland, where it has not as yet proved injurious. (c) Bclations to the Forest. The beetle attacks all conifers, but chiefly the silver-fir and spruce, and only large trees. The round-bored gallery pene- trates at right angles to the axis of the tree. It consists of 230 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. an entrance passage and breeding gallery. The latter is either merely a prolongation of the former, or is usually composed of two branches, which generally follow the annual zone of the wood in the same plane. It is rare that several annual zones are traversed by it. The entrance gallery is generally confined to the sap wood. The larvae on emergence feed on the sap of the wood, and by gnawing extend their egg chambers to short Fic. 110. Fig. 111. Transverse section of ;i .spruce stem {reduced) with tiuiTows of T. lineatum, iiyll. {Natural size.) a Entrance-galleries. b Breeding-galleries. Radial burrows of T . Hneotavi, Gyll. , in spruce-wood. {Natural size.) a Mother galleries. b Larval galleries and pupal chambers. cylindrical tunnels in which they pupate. In the secondary galleries, and on the partitions, white fungus mycelia {Monilia Candida) appear, which are also devoured, not as was formerly supposed because they are the chief food of the larva^, but to clear the way for the larvae. Later on the walls of the galleries and the adjoining wood become black owing to fungoid growth. The beetles damage the commercial value of the wood, the TRYPODENDRON DOMESTICUxM. 231 finest stems being frequently bored like a sieve, and rendered useless for most purposes. The insect is most frequently found in forests where much wood is broken by wind or snow, and where there are winter fellings. (d) Protective Rules. i. Immediate removal of all sickly coniferous trees and of broken wood and stumps from the forest. The latter should at least be barked, if their timely removal is not advisable. ii. Felling in the growing season, and immediate removal of the bark. It may happen, when the beetle is in great numbers, that barked trees may be attacked. If winter-felling cannot be avoided, and barking is impossible, the wood should be removed before March. (e) Remedial Measures. i. Tree-traps may be felled in July and August to attract the beetles about to lay. These trees must be barked and split open to destroy the larvte, and fresh tree-traps provided continually till October. ii. Fire-wood may be used as traps, but must be removed from the forest before the beetles come out. 9. Tryxiodendron domesticiini, L. (a) Description. Beetle 3 to 4 mm. long. Similar to the preceding species but more elongate, with the prothorax entirely black ; the elytra livid yellow, regularly punctate-striate, and impressed at the apex on either side of the suture. Antennal club as in the pre- ceding species, but produced into a blunt angle on the inner side of the apex. (b) Life-History, <.(:c. Similar to that of T. lineatuni; but less important on account of its breeding chiefly in stumps and windfalls. It attacks not conifers but broad-leaved trees, chiefly beech, oak and birch, also lime. The mother-galleries do not branch as a rule but run vertically 232 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. into the wood for two or more inches. This insect is not uncommon in large woodlands in Britain. If it injures commercially valuable timber, ^^^'- ^^^' the forest should be cleared of material containing the in- sects ; spring felling is desir- able. T. quercns, Eichh., is still more like T. lineatum, Gyll, in appearance, but is dis- tinguished by having the antennal club angulate at the apex, as in T. domestic nm. In habits it resembles the in latter species, but is much less common in Britain, being almost entirelv confined to Radial galleries of T. domestjcuvt, L. beech-wood. {Natural size.) the neighbourhood of Sherwood Forest. 10. Xylchorus disimr, Hellw. (a) Description. Beetle S 2 mm. ? 3 mm. long. and legs testaceous-red Pitch-black, the antenna- S short, convex, ovoid and very hairy, with the thorax granular in front, punctured towards the base, with a smooth median line. The ? cylindrical, its thorax in front strongly asperate. Elytra strongly arched at the declivity, with rows of deep punctures, and raised tuberculate interstices be- tween them. (b) Life-History. The season for Jiiyht is in May. The ? bores into several kinds of broad-leaved trees to lay her eggs, in preference below a branch, but never near the ground, attacking felled wood and young standing trees. The larvie appear in June, pupate in July in the secondary galleries, and the beetles emerge in August. They hibernate in the galleries, and there is only one generation. This beetle is not everywhere common on the Continent, and till recentl}- was XYLEBORUS DISPAR. 332 regarded as one of the rarest British insects. But since 1891 it has been destructive in certain Gloucestershire fruit-orchards. (c) Relations to the Forest. Oak and fruit-trees, especially apple and pear, are chie% attacked ; also beech, hornbeam, birch, maple, ash, alder, horse chestnut and plane. The ? bores a vertical entrance-gallery into the tree, like other species which enter the wood deeply, from which she excavates one or more transverse secondary galleries along the line of one of the annual rings ; from these again are constructed Fk;. 113. cf ^-/. Xi/lcborus dispar, Helhv. 9 7i tertiary brood-galleries which run longitudinally upwards or downwards. In the brood-galleries the eggs are laid in clumps : the larvae live in them, and do not bore but feed on the exuda- tions of sap and on the fungi which overgrow the burrows. The galleries are bored at the height of the growing season in the outer zones of the wood of perfectly healthy saplings, which become diseased and die. The presence of the beetles may be detected by the borings, and the whitish bore-dust heaped up at the foot of the plant. The beetle is very destructive in orchards, and sometimes to young oak- saplings. (d) Protective Rnles. Unbarked orchard-props should not be used, as it frequently 234. PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. happens that the beetle finds its way from such props into the fruit-trees. Fic. 11 a. A! n Ikinuws ot X. din- par, Hellvv., in an oak-saijlinj;. {Xatnrnl size. ) n Entrance - hole, usually under a twig. 1/ Mother -galleries. c Connnencenientof hvteral gallerie.s. d Completed lateral galleries in which the larvse lie. (e) Remedial Measures. i. The entrance-holes to the burrows should be smeared with tar. ii. All plants which have been attacked should be removed and burned. iii. The beetles may be killed inside the galleries with wire, and the bores blocked up by wooden pegs. This method of treat- ment is generally impracticable, but has been adopted with success in orchiirds. B. Subfamily Hylesinini. Description of Snhjamihj. Head prominent and not concealed by the prothorax, with a short and broad rostrum ; antennie with a funiculus of 5 to 7 joints; thorax narrowed in front, uniformly punctate on the back ; first tarsal joint much shorter than the other three together, the third bi- lobed or heart-shaped (except in the case of Polygraplius pithesceiis, Er.) ; apical de- clivity convex and without teeth ; under- surface of the abdomen not abruptly Hexed upwards. Most species breed in the bast and espe- cially frequent conifers ; a few make pupal chambers in the sap-wood. 1. Jlylastes pallidtiis, Gyll. (a) Description. Beetle 3 to 4 mm. long, of stout build ; thorax and elytra reddish-brown and covered with fine grey hairs ; the former broader than long, strongly constricted in front, densely and HYLASTES PALLIATUS. 33f) coarsely punctured with a narrow median ridge. Elytra with rather tine punctured stride, the interstices rugose, tuberculate, and with a series of short hairs. (b) Life-History. The flight-season is at the end of March and April. Coniferous wood in logs, or stacks of fuel, chiefly when damp and lying in shady places, are selected to receive the eggs. The newly disclosed beetles appear from April or May until .July ; they at once pair and produce a new brood, and in July new breeding galleries are found amongst the larvte and pupje of the old brood. The second brood of beetles appears from the beginning of October, and hibernates in cracks of the bark, moss, &c. There are two generations, and the species is common and widely distri- buted both in Britain and on the Con- tinent. Fifi. 116. (c) Relations to the Forest, cOc. Hijlastes palliatus, Gyll. The beetle attacks all conifers, but especially spruce and Scotch pine, and only middle-aged and old wood ; they also both as larvie and beetles damage the bark and bast. The primary galleries are short and vertical, with a boot- shaped bend at one end. They are sometimes forked. The secondary galleries are conspicuously long and irregular, often crossing one another and extending down to the sap-wood. Authorities difter as to the destructiveness of this beetle — Ratzeburg, Konig and Kellner consider it very destructive ; Stein thinks its destructiveness over-rated, and Eichhoff" that it only does secondary damage. More information as to its habits is therefore called for. The economic treatment of this species is the same as that of T. typofjraphas, L. 336 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. 2. Hylastes aier, Park. (a) T>escr}pti(m. - Beetle 4 to 5 mm. long, of slender build ; deep black, with brownish-red anteunse and tarsi. Thorax much longer than broad, parallel-sided, closel}^ and deeply punctured, with a smooth median ridge. Elj'tra deeply punctate- striate, with wrinkled and somewhat tuberculate interstices. (b) Lifc-Histori/. This species, and H. opacus, Er., have a similar biological history, which is as follows : — They fl}' in March, April and May. Eggs are laid in stumps and roots of the Scotch pine, in preference in those of trees felled in the previous year ; but in the case of H. atcr, eggs are sometimes laid in young pine transplants. The larvaB appear in April, and the mother and larval galleries then form a confused pattern. The newly hatched beetles may first be seen in June, and according to Eichhoff they may produce a fresh brood, which comes out in October or November. The imagos hibernate in stumps or in plants which they have injured. The generation is annual or double, or it may be biennial according to various observers ; it requires further elucida- tion. (c) Relations to the Forest. This beetle is only hurtful in the imago stage ; before the middle of June they begin to wander from their breeding places to the neighbouring plantations and eat the bark of 2 to 6-year- old Scotch and Austrian pine, and of other species of pine, especially at the collum and on the roots. The needles of the plants which have been attacked turn yellow and fall off; the plants die, or become so loose in the soil that they can be easily pulled up. //. ater is common in Britain, and its ally //. opaeiis, Er. is nearly as frequent. The latter species is also recorded from elm and ash. PINE-BEETLE. 237 (d) Protective Rules. i. Timely and thorough removal of stumps and roots, burning of the bark, or thickly smearing all exposed wood with tar. ii. Thorough cleaning of the felling area. iii. Careful planting, and avoidance of all deep planting. (e) Remedial Measures. i. Burying trap-logs, or laying out bark-traps as against Hylohius ahietis, Fabr., p. 205. ii. Digging up all attacked plants with a spade, and burning them in kilns with the roots inwards. Fk;. 117. Hyliirgus plniperda, L. a Imago. h Larva. c Pupa. 3. Hylurgus {Miiehphilus) piniperda, L. {The Pine Beetle). (a) Description. Beetle 4 to 5 mm. long ; head and thorax black, elytra blackish or dark brown ; antennae and tarsi rusty red. Thorax not longer than its width at the base and tapering in front, shining, with scattered deep punctures, obsolete towards the middle. Elytra with fine punctured strise ; the interstices somewhat granulate, each with a row of bristle-bearing tubercles, absent on the apical portion of the second interstice (counting from the suture), which is slightly impressed. 238 PROTECTIOX AGAINST INSECTS. (b) Life-Historij. The fiifiht is at the end of March, April, and also in May; under favourable circumstances, again in June and July. The eggs, to the number of 100 and over, are laid similarly to those of T. typofiraphiis, L. on large Scotch pines, &c., and in preference on the south-west side of the trees. There is, however, no breeding chamber, as copulation takes place outside on the trees. The ? prefers dying or felled timber with rough bark, windfalls, stumps and broken trees. On standing trees the lower coarse- barked portion of the stem is selected, as the brood- galleries are entirely limited to the bark. If no old wood is to be found, the beetle attacks young poles. The larvae hatch in April or May, in about 12 to 20 days after the eggs have been laid ; they pupate in June or the beginning of July. The beetles appear at the end of June and in July. Some later ones may emerge in August. The beetles which develop early, in June in mild localities, produce a second brood, which is ready by the end of August, and attacks the terminal shoots of the tree and branches ; those which come out later do not pair but at once commence their destructive work in the crowns of the trees. Thus the whole development of the beetle may last from 60 days under very favourable circumstances, to 80 days. In order to hibernate, the beetle bores into the root- stock or roots of standing trees, sometimes into stumps, often into the thick bark at the lower part of the trunk. The (jeneration is either single or double. The insect is very numerous, and widely distributed ; it is common in almost every pine-wood throughout Britain. (c) Relations to the Forest. The beetle generally attacks the Scotch pine, but also the Weymouth and cluster pines and other species of pines. It has also been frequently' observed on the spruce ; rarely on larch. It attacks old and young trees, but prefers the former, and is very rarely found in woods less than ten years old. Woods between thirty-five to forty years old are chiefly attacked. The insect does three kinds of damage. PINE-BEETLE. 239 First of all the beetles and larvae attack the bark and bast. The beetle makes longitudinal galleries, with one to three air-holes, v.-hich may be straight, but generally commence with a charac- FiG. lis. Burrows of H. piniperda, L. , in pine-bark. {Natural size. ) a Characteristic angle near the beginning of the mother-gallery. teristic hook - like bend. The entrance-hole is usually under a bark-scale, and may be marked by ejected wood- powder or by a drop of turpentine. The larvae eat out secondary galleries in the bast, which branch out at right angles to the pri- mary gallery, soon becom- ing wide, irregular and confluent. They only graze the sap wood. The pupae and immature beetles are embedded in the bark, near its outer surface. Fig. 119. Pine-bark with chambers (a). pupse (b) and images (c) of R. pini- perda, L. {Natural size. ) The second and most serious form of damage is done to the young shoots. The newly-disclosed beetles of the first or second broods, in August and September, bore into the pith of young Ui) PliOTEOTION AGAINST INSECTS. Fiu. 120. pine-shoots at a distance of 1 to 3 in. from their extremities, choosing especially those of sickly or old trees, in preference on sunny borders of woods ; they eat out a burrow about an inch long, working upwards to the buds. The entrance-holes into these shoots are surrounded by a whitish ring of resin. The beetle leaves the hollowed-out shoot either by the original bore-hole or liy a fresh hole made at the end of the burrow, and recommences his destructive Avork in another shoot. In these galleries excrement is never found, and thus the action of H. pini- jicrda, Li. may be distinguished from that of lictinia hiioliana, Schiff., the caterpillar of Avhich also bores out Scotch pine shoots, but always leaves excrement in the borings. Weak side- shoots which have been bored break off generally at the bore- hole, and fall to the ground. Stronger shoots from the crown de- velop the suppressed buds between the pairs of needles, which with favourable spring-A\eather grow into short needles, and give the shoots a bushy appearance. The height, growth and development of the crown are thus seriously affected ; and the production of cones being materially reduced greatly impairs the success of natural re- generation of Scotch pine forests. Fig. 120 shows a hollowed- out twig bearing a cone. Such twigs may be found lying on the ground in thousands after an autumnal storm. Sometimes two beetles are found in the same twig, and some beetles hibernate in them, but this is probably a rare occurrence. Owing to the loss of these bored twigs, the crowns of trees, if repeatedly attacked by the pine-beetle, acquire a characteristic appearance which may be recognized from a distance. They acquire the form of the cypress instead of possessing the usual dome-like shape, and here and there a few side-branches which have been Pine-shoot, hollowed out }>y J/, piniperda, L., with two beetle - holes. PINE-BEETLE. 241 spared may project outwards from the tree (fig. 121). This curious aspect of the trees has given to the insect the appella- tion of Hortulanus natune (" Waldgartner " or Pruner). Besides the direct damage (loss of increment, diminution of the seed-harvest) inflicted on attacked trees by the reduction of their assimilating organs, indirect damage is also done by reduction Fig. 121. Weymouth pines injured by the Pine-beetle in the cemetery at Wieseck (near Giessen). of the cover, and consequent exposure of the soil. As the cover of Scotch pine woods is apt to open out even under favourable conditions, this form of injury is very serious. Exceptionally, the beetles in summer eat out irregular longitudinal galleries in the first 5 to 6 years' growth of shoots on vigorous 12 to 15-years-old Scotch pines, but without laying any eggs. Altum* states that these galleries, which run partly * Eiii neiier Sonuueraufenthalt von Ifyl. 'pinipenla. Zeitschr. fr. Frst. u. Jgdw. 1879, page 264. VOL. IV. R 242 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. in the bast, partly in the sapwood, are only used to harbour the beetles. Lastly the beetle does damage by boring down for 2 or more inches to the sapwood of the rootstock of sound standing trees in order to hibernate. If this should happen on a large scale, the trees might die, or at any rate would become sickly and attract more beetles in the ensuing spring. The pine-beetle prefers forests in flat or undulating countr}', isolated trees, trees along the borders of woods, and those which have suffered from fire ; it is also common near timber-depots. Like all bark-beetles it prefers windfalls or trees partly uprooted by the wind, and sickly trees, but does not exclusively attack such trees. In a pine-forest on the peninsula of Darss on the Pomeranian coast, which had been flooded with salt water on the 12th and 13th November, 1872, and the trees thus rendered sickly, the beetle appeared in such enormous numbers as to completely destroy 2,500 acres of the forest. (d) Protective Rules. i. Timely and frequent thinnings of pine-woods, and quick removal of all sickly trees. ii. Clearance of the felling-areas, at the latest by the middle of April ; removal from the wood of all valuable timber with thick bark before the beetles emerge. iii. Uprooting of stumps and broken trees. If for any reason this is not practicable, they must at any rate be barked. iv. Pine-woods injured by fire must be felled. V. All insect-eating mammals and birds must be protected, especially those referred to under T. typographus, L. (page 216). (e) Remedial Measures. i. Trap-trees should be felled from February till September so as to keep up a supply of trees which are not too dry for the beetles to breed in. Thick-barked trees injured by storm, snow, caterpillars or fire should be selected ; some of them should be barked in the middle of May and others at intervals of 4 to 6 weeks, and the bark burned in pits. HYLURGUS MINOR. 243 ii. All standing trees containing larvte or pupte should be felled and barked and the bark burned. 4. Hyhirgus {Myelopliilus) minor, Hart. (a) Description. Beetle 3'8 to 4 mm. long ; closely resembling the preceding species in appearance, but with the bristle-bearing tubercles continued on the 2nd interstice of the elytra up to its apex, as on the other interstices. Fig. 122. I Hylurgus minor, Hart. (b) Life-History. Season for jiigJit . April and May, about 8 to 10 days later than the preceding species. Standing Scotch pines are selected for breeding, but as a rule the thickly barked lower part of the stems is avoided, and the upper portion where the bark is thinner is chosen. The young brood requires for its development somewhat fresher material than in the case of H. piniperda. The larvge hatch iu June, and pupate in July in a chamber made in the sap wood. The beetles emerge in July and August, and generally pair in the following year. Those, however, which appear early, usually produce another brood within the year, as in the case of the preceding species. Generation single or double. The beetle is found in com- pany with the former species, but is rarer, or at any rate more localized. In the British Isles it has onlv been found, and that very rarely, in the Dee district of Scotland, but it is so like the much commoner H. piniperda, L., that it is probably over- looked. (c) Relations to the Forest. H. minor. Hart, chiefly attacks the Scotch pine, but has also been found on the spruce. It prefers poles, but may attack 50 to B 2 244. PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. 70-years-old trees. The mother-galleries are large, regular, double-armed, and horizontal, with a rather long entrance- burrow, and groove the sapwood deeply (fig. 123). The injury which its breeding causes is therefore greater than that of H. pinijjerda, as the circulation of the sap is more endangered by Fio. 123. BuiTows of If. minor, Hart., on piue sapwood. {Natural size.) these horizontal galleries. It is not therefore surprising that quite sound trees are killed by it, or at any rate become stag- headed. The larval galleries are short, not very numerous, and termi- nate in a deeply-cut pupal chamber. This beetle, unlike the preceding species, is said not to confine itself to the borders of a pine- wood, but to be found deeper in its interior. H. minor also bores into the pith of young pine shoots in the same way as H. pinipei'da. (d) Protective Rides. As for H. 2)inij)erda, but the trap-trees must have thin, smooth bark. ASH BARK-BEETLE. 245 5. Hylesimis fraxini, Fabr. {the Ash Bark-Beetle). (a) Description. Beetle 2 to 3 mm. long, short and thickset ; pitchy-brown or reddish, variegated with short close-lying ashy and fuscous scales, forming a series of irregular trans- verse bands on the elytra. Prothorax transverse, finely granulate ; elytra with fine but distinct punctured strige ; legs piceous with the tarsi reddish, antennae ferruginous. Fig. 124. Hylednus fraxini, Fabr. (b) Life-History. Flight period at the end of April and beginning of May. The eggs are laid on the branches and stems of healthy ash trees, as well as on dead and felled trees. The larvae hatch in May, and develop in July to the perfect insects, which pass the winter in irregular borings in the bark. Generation single. Common and generally distributed throughout the British Isles. (c) Relations to the Forest' The beetle bores into the bast of ash-poles and trees, constructing extremely regular, double - armed, horizontal galleries, with a short entrance-burrow (fig. 125, a). The larval galleries are short but close together, cutting deeply into the wood, and are always very regular (fig. 125, h). The pupal chambers are in the wood (fig. 125, c). The beetles eat their way out in August, making numerous perforations, so that the bark is riddled, as if by shot. Once a tree has been attacked, numerous galleries are excavated in it one over the other. The beetle prefers quite sound trees, according to Hess, and kills them, but Miss Ormerod says that the damage is chiefly done to decayed or sickly trees. This insect also attacks large ash-trees standing in the open, boring down to the bast in order 246 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. to hibernate there, and such \dnter-quarters are generally occupied again in the succeeding autumn by more numerous beetles, so that rough, scabrous, rosette-like prominences are eventually formed on the bark. It has occasionally been observed to attack the robinia and apple-trees, but its galleries are then vertical rather than horizontal. It may be laid down as a general rule that the smaller the branches which are attacked, the more do galleries which are normally horizontal tend to become vertical. Fig. 125. Burrows of II. fraxini, Fabr., on ash sapwood. {Natural size.) a Mother-galleries. 6 Lan'al galleries, c Pupal chambers. (d) Economic Rules. i. Selection of suitable localities for planting ash-trees, and attention to such rules of management as will keep the trees healthy. ii. All infested trees should be barked in June and July, and their bark and branches burned. iii. Trees attacked may be tarred. 6. H//lesinvs vittdtiis, Fabr. Beetle similar to H. fraxini, Fabr., but only 1^ to 2 mm. long ; with a white stripe on each elytron extending from the HYLESINUS CEENATUS. 247 shoulder to the middle of the suture and enclosing a common oval dark patch ; it makes double- armed horizontal galleries in the elm. 7. Hylesinus crenatus, Fabr. (a) Description. Fk;. 127. Beetle 5 to 6 mm. long ; ovate, blackish-browu or black, its under surface hairy. Thorax tapering in front, dis- tinctly broader than long, thickly and coarsely punctured ; elytra broadest at the middle, obliquely and not strongly declivous behind, with coarse punctured stria?, the interstices granulate and furnished Fig. 126. Hylesinus crenatus, Fabr. Burrows of 11. crenatus^ in asli-bark. ffl Entrance-hole. b Molher-galleries. c Beetles excavating galleries. d Boring larvre. with short black hairs ; abdomen curved upwards towards the apex. (b) Life-History. Similar to that of H. fraxini ; but the generation is said to be double. The flight-period is at the beginning of April, and again in October. When pairing takes place late in the spring (May and June) the generation is only single. 248 PEOTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. (c) Relations to the Forest. This beetle attacks the ash almost exclusively, and prefers large trees with fissured bark. The female makes short, slightly bent, generally two-armed galleries. The two arms are generally of unequal length and inclined at an acute angle ; sometimes only one is present. The larval burrows run at first upwards or downwards, that is, at right angles to the mother-galleries, gradually curving and becoming horizontal ; they are of great length, and are often abruptly bent on themselves once or twice in their course. Fig. 127 shows the appearance of a gallery, in which boring beetles as well as larvae may be distinguished ; the latter so closely packed that their galleries have coalesced. It is, however, hardly typical of the species. If the ? do not lay, they bore simple tunnels, frequently just under the outer- most bark, which then generally splits and flakes off over the point of attack. Exceptionally the beetle has been found attacking old oak-trees in the Russian Chersonese ; the galleries in this case may be three-armed. The attacks of this insect may be treated as for H. fraxini. • C. Subfamily Scolytini. DescrijJtion of Siihfamily. This sub-family contains a single genus, Scoh/tns, the species of w^hich possess a projecting head with a short broad rostrum. Antennal funiculus 7-jointed. First tarsal joint much shorter than the succeeding joints together, the third bilobed. Elytra scarcely declivous behind. Under surface of abdomen flexed upwards from the base of the second segment. They breed exclusively between the wood and bark of broad- leaved trees, and sometimes make very regular galleries, which generally cut deeply into the sapwood. Pupal chambers in the outer layers of the sapwood. 1. Scolytiis destructor, Oliv. (Elm Bark-Beetle). (a) Description. This beetle is 4 to 5 mm. long, black, with the elytra brown ; antennae and legs reddish brown. Front of head and rostrum Fig. 128. ELM BARK-BEETLE. 249 without any carina. Thorax broader than long, punctured, the punctures becoming weaker towards the middle of its upper surface. Suture of the elytra depressed from the base to its middle ; their interstices broad, with two or three rows of punctures. Third and fourth abdominal segments in both sexes with a small tubercle. (b) Life-History. Flight at the end of May and June, ^ and sometimes again in August. Scolytus destructor, Oliv. The eggs are laid in the bark of elms, by preference in sickly trees. „ , ^ , '' The larvae appear in July and the beetles fly in August, and at once proceed to pair. The larvae of the second broad hibernate in their borings, and pupate in the follow- ing spring, generally in the bark or less frequently in the sapwood. The beetles of this brood come out at the end of May. The holes of exit are about the size of No. 5 shot. The generation is usually double on the Continent, and appa*- rentlv so in England in warm seasons. But in Britain, where the insect is common south of Scotland, a single generation is more usual, the larvas which hatch in May or June becoming full-fed at the end of July and remaining in the tree throughout the winter. (c) Relations to the Forest. The beetle attacks old and young elm-trees, and sometimes also the ash. The mother-gallery is broad, short, ascending and vertical, about 2*5 mm. broad, and with 1 to 2 air holes. The secondary galleries ramify from it at right angles in a fairly regular manner, lie close together, are long, sometimes extending for more than 4 in., gracefully curved, and somewhat broader at their ends than the primary gallery. The pupal chambers when the bark is thin are excavated partly in the sapwood. This beetle especially attacks elms in the neighbourhood of large towns ; thus in 1842, elms in Regent's Park were infested, and in 1870, many elm-trees were killed in Berlin. 250 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. (d) Protective Bides. As a preventive measure, elms in avenues, parks, etc., may be smeared with Leinweber's* composition. All stems attacked by the beetle should be felled, beginning in July, and the bark burned. Trees that have been felled may be used as traps, and treated accordingly. 2. Scolytus intricatus, Ratz. (a) Description. Beetle, 3 — 4 mm. long ; black, with the elytra, antennae and legs, pitchy-red, or brown ; the former with close rows of punctures, the interstices narrow, closely wrinkled, the suture depressed round the scutellum ; abdomen unarmed. (b) Life-History, dc. It lays its eggs on oaks, but otherwise resembles the elm beetle in its mode of life. It has, how- ^i<^- 129. ever, only one generation in the year. It attacks several species of oak and more rarely the beech, and it prefers young stems and branches to older parts of trees. The beetle bores a simple gallery ; the larval galleries, 30 to 40, run partly upwards and partly downwards, and are long and narrow. The pupal chambers groove the sapwood superficially. The beetles attack 9/ ' perfectly healthyoak saplings and kill them. Scot ijt us intricatus, Uatz. In the Bois de Yiucennes, several years ago, about 50,000 30-years-old oaks were killed by this beetle, which breeds freely in oak-posts which have not been barked, and are used for fences. Care in the management of plantations of saplings, and avoid- ance of unbarked wood in palings, are the chief protective measures available. * 5 lbs. tobacco, mixed with J pailful of hot water, are kept hot for 24 hours ; the water is then squeezed out of the tobacco and mixed with ^ pailful of bullock's blood, 1 part of slaked lime and 16 parts of cow-dung. This i.s kept in an open tub and stirred once a day, and used after fermentation has set in. Tlie rough bark, moss, &c., is trimmed off the tree, and the latter painted with the mixture for three successive days, until a crust is formed which the rain will not wasli off. LONGICORN BEETLES. 251 Two other species of Seolutiis, S. prmii, Ratz. and S. rucju- losus, the latter a very small species, are especially attached to fruit-trees, plum and apple. Both are locally common in Eng- land, and sometimes injurious, but they are not important to the forester. Family VIII. — CERAMBYciDiE (Longicorn Beetles). Description of Family, Longicorn beetles are elongate, and generally of large or moderate size, with a cylindrical thorax, often spined at the sides ; elytra somewhat depressed, wider at the shoulders than the thorax, and tapering behind. Antennae filiform or setaceous, rarely serrate, and always becoming thinner at the ends, usually very long, with 11 or more joints, the second joint always the shortest. Legs slender and long. Tarsi four-jointed, the three basal joints flattened and spongy beneath, the third bilobed. Abdomen with 5 segments. Generation usually biennial. Larvfe soft, white or yellow, usually cylindrical, rarely some- what flattened, with projecting broad thoracic segments, of which the first at least is furnished above with a horny plate. Their feet consist of six minute tubercles, or are entirely absent. Pupa3 fusiform, and recognizable b}' the long horns bent down in a curve from the head. Flight-holes transversely oval. The larvae generally live under bark and in wood, but usually only in broken trees or in stumps ; a few species are found in beams of houses. Their attack is of a secondary nature, as they bore into trees killed by bark-beetles and other insects, but on account of the large size of their galleries, and the quantity of boring dust which exudes, it easily attracts attention. On sunny days the beetles may be found on flowers, shrubs, and felled trees ; the females do not make mother-galleries. Longicorn beetles are rare as a rule in the British Isles, and most of the species found are small and of little or no economic importance. In tropical countries they play an important part in the destruction of fallen and decaying timber. 252 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. 1. Saperda carcharias, L. (The Large Poplar Longicorn.) (a) Description. Beetle 26 to 30 mm. long, grey or brownish yellow, dotted with many shining black points. Thorax short and "cylindrical. Elytra with the shoulders prominent, narrowed posteriorly and bluntly spined at the apex. Larva extending up to 35 mm. in length, without legs, cylindrical, yellowish white, with the man- dibles and segmental ^'''- ^^*^- shields brown, the latter on the dorsal surface of segments 3 — 10, and the ventral surface of seg- ments 2 — 10. Saperda carcharias, L. a Imago, h Larva. (b) Life-History. Season for flight : June and July. The eggs are laid in June in crevices in the bark of poplars, especially near the ground. Thelarvie emerge in July and August, and live and hibernate in the wood, pupating in May of the 3rd year. The pupae lie head downwards in a chamber blocked with a plug of wood-dust. The imagos emerge in June. Generation biennial. The insect is rather common in a few parts of Great Britain, chiefly in the Eastern Counties. (c) Relations to the Forest. The larvre bore into young, healthy poplars, and also into willows ; aspen and black poplar up to 20 years old are specially attacked. Seedling-trees are liable as a rule to be attacked from their 5th year, and suckers from the 3rd year. The larviB make vertical galleries, Avhich reach the centre of the tree : these become gradually filled with wood-dust, which is forced out of the tree by the grubs, through a bore-hole, and SAPERDA POPULNEA. 253 Fio. 131. becomes heaped up at the base of the plants. The stem is attacked near the ground and reacts by developing a large irregular swelling, the bark of which is fissured. Such perforated saplings are easily broken by the wind. This insect is chiefly of importance where poplars are grown in long avenues as in France and Germany. It is some- times associated with Sesia apiformis, Fabr., and Cossiis Ugnipenla, Fabr. (d) Protective Rules. i. Poplar-nurseries should not be established near older poplars. ii. Poplar-saplings liable to attack may be smeared in June up to 5 feet in height from the ground, with a mix- ture of clay and cow-dung, or Lein- weber's composition (p. 250). This treatment is to be recommended for nurseries. (e) Remedial Measures. Larval burrows of S. car- charias, L. , in tbe stem of a young poplar. {Natural size. ) a Plus; of borinj; dust. i. Collection of the beetles by shak- ing the saplings in June and July. ii. Felling and removal of all attacked saplings before the beetles emerge. 2. Saperda populnea, L. (Small Poplar Long icorn). (a) Description. Beetle 10 — 12 mm. long, black, covered with yellow-grey pubescence ; thorax with 3 lines of pubescence ; elytra with the median line, and a broad lateral stripe, and three or four spots on each side pubescent. Antennae ringed with white. (b) Life-History. The female deposits her eggs in May and June in cracks on the bark of young aspens, less commonly on other species of ^54 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. poplar, sometimes on and suckers are preferr Generation biennial. Fig. 132. Fig. 133. Bunows of tion of Family. * Leaf-hcetles are small or of moderate size, convex and short, of an oval or hemispherical shape. Antennae filiform, bead-like, or slightly thickened at the ends, 11-jointed. Legs usually short, strong, sometimes framed for jumping; tarsi 4-jointed, spongy below, the 3rd joint bilobed. Abdomen with 5 segments. Generation simple. The larv8B are short, flattened, usually either parti-coloured or black, with 6 legs, the last segment usually with a retractile process. Pupae thickset, sometimes hanging upside down from MELASOMA POPULI. 255 leaves. Some species are very injurious, both the imago and larva eating the leaves of broad-leaved trees. 1. Melasoma populi, L. {Red Poplar-leaf Beetle). (a) Description. Beetle 10 to 12 mm. long, of an obovate shape, blackish-blue, the elytra brick-red, their extreme tip black ; thorax narrower than the elytra, its sides rounded, broadly raised and coarsely punctured ; antennae short, compressed, thickened towards the ends. Larva 6-legged, of a dirty white colour, with many black Fig. 134. Melasoma populi, L. a Beetle, h Larva, c Pupa. spots, and two white lateral projections on the 2nd and 3rd segments. Pupa sharply narrowed towards the posterior extremity, brownish yellow, with regularly distributed black spots and stripes. (b) Life-History. The season for flight is in May and June. The ? lays her yellowish-white eggs in clusters of 10 to 12, in all 100 to 150, on the leaves of young poplars. The larvsR emerge in June or July, feed openly on the leaves, and if disturbed exude a milky-white fluid, with an odour of bitter almonds. Pupation takes place in July and August; the pupae hang reversed from the leaves by their pointed end. The beetles emerge by the end of August, and after October 256 PKOTEC'TION AGAINST INiSECTS. hibernate under leaves or moss, reappearing in the open in April. Generation generally annual. Locally common in many parts of the British Isles, chiefly in South England. (c) Relations to the Forest. The insect, both in the larval and beetle stages, attacks young poplars and sometimes aspen shoots. Occasionally they are found in osier-beds, especially on Sali.v purpurea, L. and >S'. pen- tanclra, L. and to a less extent on *S'. rubra, L., etc. The larvae attack the leaves, which are completely skeletonised, the paren- chyma being eaten and the veins left intact. The imago eats holes out of the leaves. The attacks last from June to August. ••r)' (d) Protective Mules. Collection of the beetles on to cloths by beating the trees in May and June, and again in August to September. M. tremuhe, Fabr,, is somewhat smaller than, and greatly resembles the above species, but has no black tips to its elytra. It is the more destructive of the two, sometimes completely destroying the foliage and shoots of young aspen. 2. Phratora vitellince, L. {Willow Beetle).* (a) Description.. Beetle 4 to 5 mm. long, oblong-oval, of a bronze or green tint, sometimes coppery. Elytra regularly punctate-striate. (b) Life-History, dc. The beetles come out in the spring from their sheltering places, and lay their eggs on the under-surface of leaves of willows — Salix viminalis, L., >S'. purpurea, rubra, etc., and also on poplars. The imagos and larvae attack the young shoots and leaves, commencing with the under-surface, and eating their way through the leaf, or up to its epidermis. * Vide Miss Ormerod, op. cit., pp. 270 to 276. WILLOW BEETLE. 357 Pupation takes place in the soil. The beetle lives through the winter, hibernating in various localities ; it is found some- FiG. 136. Fig. 135. Willow beetle and larvae. Eggs. bark 37. times high up on willows in sheltered places, under the rough of old pollards, in hollow stems of herbaceous j.^^, ^ plants, among the terminal shoots of neighbour- ing young pine trees, or on the soil amongst fallen leaves and old stumps of osiers. They will also hibernate in the heaped-up peel of osiers, which should not therefore be left lying about. Generation generally single, rarely double. This beetle is extremely common and decidedly injurious. In 1884, according to Miss Ormerod, in osier beds in the Lymm district, near the bor- ders of Lancashire and Cheshire, it was estimated that the whole crop of osiers on 50 acres would have been destroyed if protective measures had not been taken. (c) Protective Rules. i. Dragging across the osier-beds a rope weighted in the middle. This operation, which should be repeated several times, knocks off the beetles, which will lay their eggs on the ground. Injured willow- where they die. ii. Sprinkling the osier-shoots with a strong solution of wood ashes, or with Paris green (arsenite of copper, see p. 155). iii. Knocking the beetles off the osiers into square tin VOL. IV. s 258 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. vessels containing ashes, but this procedure must be done repeatedly. iv. Collection of the beetles in their winter quarters. Traps of birch-bark, planks, etc., may be put above the flood-level ; under these the beetles collect in myriads for shelter^ and may then be destroyed. ( £59 ) CHAPTER VII. LEPIDOPTERA BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS.* This order is subdivided into Rhopalocera or butterflies, and Heterocera, or moths. The former are distinguished from the latter by the possession of somewhat rigid slender antennae, which are clubbed or knobbed at the tip ; and by the absence of a, frenulum or bristle attached to the base of the hind-wings and passing through a loop or retinaculum at the base of the fore- wings. In the moths the antennae are usually flexible, seldom rigid, and are at most thickened towards the apex with no well- defined club ; they usually possess a, frenulum. Butterflies are of slender build, they fly by day and are often gaily coloured. They are of no importance in Europe from a forest point of view, although the larva of Pieris cratcBc/i, L. does much damage on the Continent to the foliage and inflorescence-buds of orchard trees, as well as species of Sorhus and Cratcegus. Heterocera. Moths. Family I. — SESiiDiE. Description of Family. Diurnal moths which fly rapidly in hot sunshine. Antennae fusiform ; *2 ocelli. Proboscis sometimes rudimentary. Wings narrow, more or less hyaline, and resembling those of Hj^meno- ptera; frenulum present. Body stout. Generation, 1 to 2 years. Caterpillars cylindrical, yellowish white, with fine scattered * The most comprehensive work on the British species of Lepidoptera is "The Lepidoptera of the British Isles" by C. G. Barrett, Loudon, 1892— (in progi'ess). s 2 260 PKOTECTIO^' AGAINST INSECTS. hairs ; 5 pairs of prolegs ; bead and protboracic sbield borny, and usually dark coloured. Pujhe slender, armed witb circles of spines on the abdominal segments, in a cocoon spun out of cbips of wood. Tbe larvfe live in wood, cbiefly of broad-leaved trees, and bore galleries in tbe stems, twigs or roots. Fig. 138. Sesia apiformis, Fabr. terpillar. c Pupa. 1. Sesia apiformis, Fabr. {Hornet Clearwing Moth). (a) Description, Moth witb a spread of wing of 35 to 45 mm. ; body dark brown, witb 3 pairs of brigbt yellow sjjots, bebind tbe eyes, on tbe front and on tbe binder part of tbe tborax ; and witb tbe last segments, and tbe 5tb segment of tbe abdomen, counting from tbe tail, brigbt yellow. Wings transparent, witb rust-red bor- ders and veins. Caterpillar witb 16 legs, of a dirty wbite colour, witb a reddisb brown head and a dark line along the back. Pupa brown, witb spines on tbe back of the segments and apex of tbe abdomen. (b) Life -History. The moth flies in June and July. Tbe brown eggs are laid in July in cracks in the bark of COSSIDyE. 261 poplars towards the lower part of the stem. The caterpillars appear in July and August, pass two winters in their galleries, and pupate in May of the third year, in a cocoon of wood- dust constructed inside their borings, near to the ground ; exception- ally in the ground when the larva has bored low down towards the roots of the plant. The imagos emerge in June, when the empty pupa cases may be seen projecting from the stems. The generation lasts 2 years. The moth is widely distributed and often common among poplars ; the injury caused by the caterpillars often accompanies that of Saperda carcJiaiias, L. (c) Relations to the Forest. The larva bores cylindrical galleries in the wood of poplars, especially of the black poplar and aspen. As a rule it prefers trees less than '20 years old, but is sometimes found in older trees. It generally bores low down in the tree, and its attack can be recognized by the wood-dust which collects on the ground or blocks up the holes by which the moth will emerge, and through which the pupa can push itself by means of its spines. The injured saplings are frequently broken by the wind. The cater- pillar is chiefly injurious in nurseries and avenues. (d) Protective Rules. Saplings may be smeared as for protection against the poplar longicorn. The moths should be caught on the tree-trunks and destroyed at the end of June. Saplings infested with larvae should be cut down. Family II. — CossidjE. Description of Family. Imagos of this family of wood-borers with setaceous or bipecti- nate antennae ; without ocelli ; the mouth-parts rudimentary-. Body stout, and covered with close short hairs. Flight noc- turnal, the wings strong, and roof-shaped when at rest. Generation extending over 2 or more years. Caterpillars smooth or cylindrical, and with a few scattered hairs. Pup(e long, with •262 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. rings of spines on the abdomen, in a cocoon spun up of chips of wood. The caterpillars live in the wood of broad-leaved trees. 1. Cossus ligniperda, Fabr. {the Goat Moth). (a) Description. Moth with a spread of wing of 65 to 70 mm. ( c? ) — 80 to 85 mm. ( ? ). Body stout; head and neck covered with yellowish- grey hair ; fore-wings marbled with greyish-brown and light grey, with numerous dark brown transverse lines ; hind-wings ashy grey, or greyish brown. Abdomen long and thick, of the same colour as the wings, with whitish marginal rings to the seg- ments. Catopillar 90 to 95 mm. long, with 16 legs, at first reddish- yellow, and later cherry-red, darker above, with a brown head, and brown shield on the prothoracic segment ; it possesses a very offensive smell. Piqm stout, reddish-brown, with rings of sharp spines on the abdominal segments. (b) Life-History. The moth emerges in June and July. The ? lays her eggs up to 25 in number in a cluster deep in cracks in the bark of willows and other broad-leaved trees. The caterpillar hatches in July, and bores into the wood, in which, or sometimes in the ground, it pupates in May of the third or fourth year in a large stiff cocoon with a smooth interior made of particles of wood roughly spun together. The moth appears 3 to 4 weeks later. Generation, 2 or 3 years. Found throughout Great Britain and generally common, at least in the south. (c) Relations to the Forest. The caterpillars chiefly attack willows, but also poplars, alder, elm, oak, birch, lime, fruit-trees, even the walnut, preferring the lower part of the trunk. The mode of attack resembles that of Sesia, but tnany caterpillars may always be found in the same stem, sometimes 200 or more ; they attack not only sickly GOAT MOTH. 263 V, Cossus ligniperda, Fabr. a Imago (9). b Caterpillar, not fully grown, r. Pupa, d Cocoon and pupal exuvire (after emergence of the moth). trees, but thoroughly sound wood, aud prefer solitary trees in hedge rows, along forest borders, &c. They are very voracious, and the wood which has been attacked is useless as timber. Infested trees may be easily recognized by the bad odour due to 264 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. the caterpillars, and by the wood-chips thrown out from their borings, which are of various sizes up to the thickness of a man's- finger. (d) Protective Bales. As for Scsia. Bats, owls, and goat-suckers attack the moths. Saplings which have been attacked should be felled, split, and burned with the caterpillars they contain. 2. Zenzera (CscuU, L. {Wood-leopard Moth). (a) Description. Moth with a spread of wings of 45 — 50 mm. ( S ), 55 — 65 mm. ( ? ) ; white with numerous round steel-blue spots on the wings and six on the thorax; abdomen long, deep blue with white rings. Larva naked, yellow with black warts and dorsal shield, 16-legged. Pupa with rings of spines. (b) Life-History, cC-c. The eggs are laid singly on saplings or branches of broad - leaved trees. The larva emerges in August, bores into the sap wood in the first year, passes the winter in the stem, and in the second summer excavates a gallery running upwards along the middle of the wood. In this it passes the second winter, eventually pupating under the bark. Generation biennial. It attacks many species of trees, maple, ash, lime, apple, birch, beech, oak, horse-chestnut, elm, poplars and willows, and has even been found in mistletoe. ' It is widely distributed, though rarely very abundant ; some- times it is rather common and injurious in the neighbourhood of large towns such as London. Treatment consists in the cutting and burning of the infested stems and branches. Family III. — Bombycid^. Description of Family. AntenniB short, pectinate in both sexes (simply pectinate in ? ^ doubly in S) ', ocelli usually absent. Proboscis small and PINE MOTH. 265 usually functionless. "Wings ample, sometimes small in pro- portion to the size of the body, roof-shaped at rest. Body stout and long, generally densely hairy, usually larger in the ? . Flight as a rule nocturnal. Eggs frequently laid in clusters, and covered with hairs from the tail of the ? . Catejjnllars usually hairy, seldom naked, with 16 legs. Pupce stout and short, in a cocoon spun out of silk, often with the larval hairs interwoven. The caterpillars feed on needles, leaves, &c., and are usually very voracious. Some of the most destructive species of insects in European coniferous forests belong to this family. 1. Gastrojjacha pini, L. {Pine Moth).* (a) Descriidtion. Moth with a spread of wings of 60 mm. {S) to 80 mm. ? . Body thick and stout ; fore-wings whitish or brownish grey, in the S with dark reddish-brown transverse bands, and with a long unicolorous patch, in which is a white lunate spot ; in the ? the bands and patch are reddish brown ; the hind- wings in both sexes are rusty brown. The colouring and markings of the wings vary much in individual examples. The caterpillar attains a length of 80 mm., has 16 legs, and varies in colour from ash-grey to reddish brown, or dark brow^n ; there is a dark dorsal stripe, and sometimes a series of lateral white patches. It is hairy with clusters of greyish bristles, and possesses on the 2nd and 3rd segments from the head two steel-blue bare stripes, which become apparent at the second moulting, and are very characteristic. Pupa somewhat cylindrical, dark brown, enclosed in an elliptic, whitish grey cocoon, which is pointed at both ends, and of looser texture near the head of the pupa to facilitate the exit of the moth. (b) Life -Hi story . The moth emerges from the cocoon from July till the end of * This destructive pest is fortunately not a native of Great Britain. It plays, however, so important a part in the literature of European forestry, and has often proved so sei-iously destructive, thut it has been thought desirable not to exclude it entirely from the present translation, but to present an abridgment of Hess's account. 266 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. August. It lays in the second half of July about 100 to 200 bluish-grey eggs, as lai'ge as hempseed, in clusters of about '25 to 50 in number, in the bark-crevices of standing Scotch o ■A Gnstropaclm pin!, L. « Male. b Female. pines, usually at about the height of a man, or on the needles and shoots of young pines. The caterpillars hatch after 20 to 25 days, about the middle of August. They at once devour their egg-shells, and then scatter themselves among the twigs, where they begin to feed. When about half grown, they descend the trees (in October and PINE MOTH. :267 November) to hibernate in moss, dead leaves, &c., at the foot of the trunks, and remain there till the next spriny; (March or April), when they climb again up the trees. Exceptionally they may hibernate in the bark - crevices. The time of reascension depends on the de- gree of warmth of the season and on the quarter from which the wind is blowing. Pupation takes place iit the end of June or beginning of July, either on the needles and twigs of the crown of the tree, or in the larger bark crevices. Gastropachu j)in'i, L. c Eggs on pine-bark. d ILiture oaterpillar, feeding on the needles of a pine-shoot. <. Pupa. / Cocoon. The moth emerges in July, about 20 days after pupation. Generation annual ; but sometimes irregular when the in sect occurs in great numbers. Verv common in Germanv 268 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. (c) Relations to the Forest. This is the most destructive of all insects to Scotch pine forests in Middle Europe, as it may appear in large swarms throughout the summer for several consecutive vears, and is enormously voracious. The caterpillar also attacks the Austrian and mountain pines, and in case of scarcity of food, both the spruce and larch. It prefers 60- to 80-years-old trees, but when abundant it will attack younger trees, and thickets of young growth and plantations. The attack is on the needles. When the caterpillars are very young they gnaw the sides only of the needles, but fully-grown caterpillars eat them down to the sheath, usually leaving the latter, and in this manner completely strip the twigs. Even the terminal buds may be eaten. The older cater- pillars prefer needles of the previous year. A single caterpillar will eat a needle in 5 minutes, and may destroy in all 1000 needles. After complete destruction of the needles and buds the tree must perish, and as a premonitor of death a few clusters of stunted needles, termed rosettes by Ratzeburg, may appear. The trees may recover if, for a pole, 200 needles, and for an old tree 400 needles, still remain green. An attack commencing in April and lasting till June is the worst, as this aft'ects the formation of wood. An attack generally lasts for 3, occasionally for 4 years, and is at its maximum during the 3rd year. Irregularity in the development of the insects, and degeneration of the caterpillars, which are largest in the first year and become successively smaller and weaker, rapidly ensue. At the same time, insect-parasites and bacterial diseases become more and more active, until the caterpillars die from these causes in immense numbers. This pest is most dangerous in pure Scotch pine forests, on sandy soils, in dry districts, and in the plains and hills of North and North-eastern Germany, less so in the south and west ; it is rare in mountainous districts. A succession of warm summers favours its multiplication to an extraordinary degree. PINE MOTH. 269 (d) Protective Rides. 1. Avoidance, as much as possible, of pure Scotch piue forests in localities exposed to the attacks of this insect. 2. Careful search for caterpillars, chief!}' in Novem- ber, when they are hibernating. The soil-covering round large trees is raked up and searched, and if 6 to 8 cater- pillars are found around a tree, measures should be taken at once to destroy the cater- j)illars. 3. Careful man- of thin- This re- moves sickly trees, admits the wind, which the moths dislike, and facili- tates collection of the caterpillars. 4. Protection of enemies: bats, bad- gers, cuckoos, owls, goat-suckers, etc. Titmice, golden- crested wrens, and tree-creepers de- stroy the moths' eggs. A number of ichneumon-wasps and parasitic diptera attack the larvfe agement nings. Rosette-needles (a) on Scotcli pine, following defoliation by G. pint, L. {Natural size. ) Fiff. 143 shows a cater- pillar covered by the pupse of Microgaster glohatus, L. 270 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. (e) Remedial Measures. These are briefly : The excavation of trendies in the ground to catch the caterpillars. Trenches are made for the purpose of either isolating attacked areas, or to catch caterpillars within the infested wood. CoUeetion of eggs, by scraping them from the trees ; but this method also destroys many ichneumons. Collection of caterpillars. — This is undertaken either after November, or by shaking the trees in August. This method is less efficacious than smearing girdles of tar on the trees, as at least half the caterpillars escape. Fig. 143. Caterpillar of the Pine Moth covered with Microgaster cocoons. Collection of pupce, — In June and July. Collection of the ? moths. — This is carried out in July in the morning and on cold wet days before the eggs are laid. By this means ichneumons are not destroyed. Ginllimi the trees icith grease-hands. This is the best and safest method to adopt when the insects have aj^peared in large numbers. It was first employed in Silesia in 1829 against L. monacha, L., and only in 1866-7 at Gliicksburg, against the present insect. The details necessary to ensure success by this measure are carried out as follows : — The woods w^hich have been attacked are thinned, in order that tar may not be wasted on suppressed stems ; all under- PINE MOTH. 271 ojrowtb which might serve as bridges for the caterpillars is cleared away. The coarse bark is removed from the pines in rings 10 to 15 cm. broad, in order to present a smooth surface for tbe tar. Care is taken not to injure tbe bast. The smooth places are covered with a horizontal band of tar or grease 6 to 8 cm. broad in February or the beginning of March, and this operation is repeated at intervals of 6 to 8 days, or again in April, when the former application has become too dry to catch the insects. Eatzeburg has distinguished experimental tarring from general tarring. The former is used on lines of trees here and there throughout a wood, where a severe attack is feared, and if 5 or 6 caterpillars are caught on each tarred tree, then a general tarring of all the trees is undertaken. There is however a danger that the general tarring may come too late, and it is recommended to try the experimental tarring in the autumn, and if a general tarring is shewn to be necessary, to take all preliminary measures for it during the winter. The best tar is made from pine roots and stumps ; it should be of a cherry-brown colour and possess a proper consistency, be neither too thick nor too thin, and must be put on cold. Coal-tar must not be used for this purpose. Certain compositions are also used which are superior to tar, such as tar mixed with 9 to 15 per cent, of resin, or 9 to 11 per cent, of acetic acid. For similar purposes in England, grease- bands are made of '' cart-grease " or mixtures of Stockholm tar, unboiled linseed-oil, &c., &c. In order that a composition may be really useful for this purpose, it must combine cheapness with prolonged stickiness. A thick coating should always be used, or else the substance is absorbed by the bark. The quantity of tar used and the cost of painting the rings varies with the age of the woods, and in Prussia averages 40 to 50 lbs. per acre for old wood, and 50 to 60 lbs. per acre for young wood, the average cost in either case being 6s. and 9s. 6(7. per acre for tar. In 1878 in Plietnitz in W. Prussia, 45 millions of caterpillars were destroyed by means of tar rings, at a cost of 7s. per 10,000 •272 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. caterpillars. In woods under 60 3'ears old the hibernating caterpillars were collected at a cost of 20.s. per 10,000. The value of the annual increment of wood saved was 8.5. per acre, as against 7s., the cost of the tar rings. The efficacy of the tar rings is less interfered with by frost than by great heat, as the latter easily melts it and causes it to run down the tree. Most of the caterpillars which attempt to cross the rings adhere to the lower part of them ; but about 3 per cent, of them, chiefly the larger ones, manage to cross the ring, although of these about 59 per cent, soon die from the effects of the tar, so that only 1'2 per cent, of the whole number really survive and pass the rings. The caterpillars whose way to the tree-crowns is thus cut oflf, return to the ground and try to find their way to other trees ; they are therefore prevented from so doing, by isolating, by means of trenches, the wood containing the tarred trees from other woods which have not been so protected. Caterpillars infested by ichneumons, or fungoid diseases, may be introduced amongst those which are healthy. In cases where the attack is very bad, but only localised over a small wood, the soil-covering is burned whilst the caterpillars are hibernating, or even the whole wood is burned, measures being taken in both cases to protect the adjoining woods from the spread of the fire. Robert Hartig, in 1871, experimented near Eberswald on the effects of the different methods of protecting the Scotch pine from these caterpillars, with the following results : — The collection of hibernating caterpillars, as long as the moss and dead-leaf covering is replaced in position, has no influence on the growth of the tree. The jarring of young trees in order to knock off the caterpillars involves local decay in the bast, and consequent reduction of increment. Tarring does not hurt the trees in the slightest degree. 2. Bomhyx ncustria, L. {Lackey -Moth). (a) Description. Moth with spread of wings of 30 to 40 mm. Body and fore- LACKEY-MOTH. 273 wings ochreous-yellow or red-brown, the latter traversed across their middle by a darker band which is bordered by pale stripes ; hind-wings somewhat lighter, crossed by a vague darker stripe. Caterpillar extending to 45 mm. in length, with 16 legs, marked with alternate stripes of blue, reddish-brown and white, thinly covered with long hairs, head blue with two black spots. PujKi bluish-black, covered with short hairs, in a yellowish- white thick cocoon. Fig. 144. ^S' , ' Z eggs throughout the winter. The ground- " ^ , , ^1 7 7 T 1^7 Birch leaf eaten by the beetles, Carahus cilabratm, L., and Calo- caterpillar of Z . mo?iacA«, soma sycophanta, L., are also very useful ^• on the Continent, the larvae of the latter attacking the moths' eggs, and the beetles the caterpillars. Many ichneumon-wasps and Taehince attack the caterpillars, for instance, Tachina monachce, Ratz., T. phalcenarum, L., &c. (e) Remedial Measures. i. Collection and destruction of the eggs by fire from autumn till the middle of April. The piece of bark on which the eggs are laid is removed, and the eggs scraped off with a knife into a bag furnished with a wooden funnel-shaped mouth. The stems are cleared up to 16 feet high, preferably by day-labourers, at first on foot and then with a ladder, and the woods in which many moths have been observed should be first treated. This treatment is easier in smooth-barked pole-woods of spruce than in older woods with rough bark. One gramme-weight of eggs contains about 1'200, and the cost of collection is about "M. to Is. for 15 grms. In the winter of 1839-40, in the Biesenthal forests near Eberswald, 10 tons of eggs were collected. The eggs should be burned in small lots, as otherwise they explode like gunpowder. ii. Killing the clusters of newly-hatched caterpillars in April and May by means of cloths, brushes, or by rubbing them with moss, sods, &c. Great care must be taken to seize the proper moment for this operation, and a delay of only a few 286 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. days may prevent its being done. The cloths, &c., used may be soaked in tar to render their action more efficacious. This operation is also best done by daily labour, but under careful supervision, one overseer being appointed for every 20 to 30 workmen. One man should be able to work over 6 to 8 acres per diem, and the most suitable place to Avork in is among young poles, where the caterpillars can be readily seen, and are not too high up the stems. iii. Collection of caterpillars and j^ujmc, commencing in June. Small caterpillars are usually collected in young growth, on to which they have been blown ; later on, when they have ceased spinning, they are shaken down from the poles. It is preferable to collect the pupae. iv. Collection of ? moths from the beginning of July. This should be done as soon as they emerge, and in the earliest hours of the morning ; it gives the best results during cool weather. A cloth may be covered with adhesive matter, and used to daub the insects. It is not yet fully decided whether this measure is very effective or not, some authorities, such as Altum, ranking it as the best to be adopted, and others, as Ratzeburg, considering it as almost useless. In the forests near Ebersdorf in Reuss-Greiz, between the 26th June and the 12th August, 1868, 600,000 ? were de- stroyed at a cost of £270. V. Trenches are usually of little use. Smearing the stems in winter from the ground up to the large branches with a mixture of lime (-J- bushel), soft soap (3 lbs), potash {^Ib), clay and cow- dung destroys the eggs. This method can only be used for orchard trees. vi. TJie application of grease-hands about 2 in. wide at a height of 16 to 20 ft. from the ground, above the places Avhere eggs are laid. This should be done at the end of March or April, and the bark here is sufficiently smooth, and requires no preliminary scraping. The rings are smeared by means of a broad brush fastened at right angles to a long pole. This has in many cases proved an excellent remedy. The little cater- pillars remain sitting in thousands below the rings, which cut off their way to the crowns of the trees. The composition used NOCTUID.E. 287 should retain its iluidity for some time, but need not be very sticky, as the caterpillars to be caught are so small. Of all the remedial measures discussed here, this, and killing the caterpillars before they ascend the trees, are the most effective. Large fires lighted at night in the forest to attract and burn the moths have failed to do any good. In 1890, in the Bavarian forests the moths were attracted by electric lights to the mouth of a large funnel into which they were sucked by an exhaust current of air produced by steam power. Large numbers were collected by this method, and killed, but it cannot be stated whether the utility of this proceeding is commensurate with its expense. Family IV. — NoctuiDjE (Night Moths). Description of Family. Moths with long, setaceous antennae, usually covered with fine hairs, and sometimes pectinate in (^ ; ocelli present ; proboscis long ; wings narrow, during repose roof-like or level ; frenulum present. The markings of the fore-wings are usually character- istic and take the form of three or four transverse lines of which the second from the outer margin is elbowed, and of three spots ; two are situated near the anterior margin, the outer being kidney-shaped {reniform stigma), the inner circular (orbicular stigma) ; the third is elongate, and is beneath the orbicular spot [claviform stigma). These markings are constant in posi- tion, but some or all of them may be absent. The body is thick, and usually covered with down ; the head surrounded by a collar. Flight nocturnal or during twilight, hardly ever by day. Caterpillars usually bare, rarely hairy, commonly with 10 prolegs, sometimes with 8 or 6. Pupation of the bare caterpillars generally takes place in the ground, in a cocoon made of grains of sand bound together by a few threads. The hairy caterpillars spin a cocoon above ground. Pupce usually slim, spindle-shaped and dark coloured. Many of the caterpillars live on woody plants, eating needles and leaves, but the majority of them feed on grasses and low plants. A few species are highly injurious to forests. 288 PKOTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. 1. Panolis jnniperda, Panz. (Pine Beauty, or Pine Noctua). (a) Description. jSIoth with a wing-expanse of 35 mm. ; fore-wings russet-red marbled with grey ; orbicular and reniform stigmata yellowish- white, conjoined, the latter large, oblique and produced towards the tip of the wing ; hind-wings and abdomen greyish-brown. Caterpillar 40 mm. long, with 16 legs, almost hairless, of a 3'ellowish-green, with 3 or 5 whitish-coloured stripes and a light-brown head. Pupa somewhat elongate, of a bright brown colour, wdth two spines on its tail. Fit;. 154. ? Panolis piniperda, Panz. {Natural size ; fig. <:■ enlarged.) a Male, h Female, c Eggs on a pine-needle, d Caterpillar, e Pupa. (b) Life-History. The moth appears from the end of March to the beginning of May. The ? lays 30 to 70 round, dull-green eggs on the needles of old Scotch pines. The caterpillars hatch out in May, spin freely when young, and are fully grown by the middle of July. Pupation takes place at the end of July or beginning of August, under moss, dead leaves, on or in loose earth, usually under the cover of the tree on which the insect feeds. The pupa? are sometimes found in colonies, in the holes whence gtumps, etc., have been extracted. PANOLIS PINIPERDA. 289 Generation annual. The caterpillar sometimes appears in enormous numbers, but is susceptible to changes of the weather. It is tolerably common in pine-woods throughout Great Britain. (c) Relations to the Forest. The caterpillars attack chiefly the Scotch pine, especially when 20 to 40 years old, but in case of necessity it may feed on older trees and other conifers, such as spruce, Weymouth pine and juniper. When young the caterpillar, according to Ratzeburg, bores into the bud-sheaths of the spring shoots, which thus become brown, wilt and die. Later on the needles are attacked, beginning with their edges, and finally they are entirely devoured, usuallj'- on the lower branches, but also high up in the crown. The attack lasts from May till July, but is not so destructive as that of Gastropacha pini, L., as the Scotch pines, even if exten- sively stripped by it, usually form new buds and recover. One should therefore await results before felling woods that have been completely stripped of needles. Only when the fatal rosettes of needles (fig. 142) appear is the death of the trees imminent. The insect inhabits hilly regions, and is most common in forests where the soil has become impoverished by removal of litter. (d) Protective Rules. Protection of enemies : fox, badger, hedgehog, shrew, cuckoo, crow, starling, thrush, titmice, golden-crested wren, etc. Calo- soma sycoplianta, L., is very useful on the Continent, and many parasitic insects and fungi attack the larvie. Fungi {Empusa sp.) killed nearly all the caterpillars in the Tuchler Haide in 1867, their bodies being covered with 5^ellowish-grey sporangia which after rain became dark brown. The infected caterpillars were brittle like the pith of elder, and filled internally with a yellowish substance. (e) Remedial Measures. i. Pigs may be admitted to the woods from July till hard frost sets in. In the forest district of Cloppenburg in Oldeu- VOL. IV. u 290 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. burg iu 1845, 58 pigs in 29 days (November and December) are estimated to have destroyed 16,000,000 pupse. ii. Caterpillars may be collected from the middle of May onwards by beating the stems, or in July by picking them from lower growth, or at the foot of the stripped trees, Avhere they often collect in numbers. iii. Pupje may be collected during the winter, under moss, etc. ; the holes whence stumps have been extracted should be specially examined. iv. Moths may be collected by striking the trees in cloudy weather or by " sugaring." Trenches are not of much use, as the caterpillars are little given to wandering about. 2. Af/fotis vestigialis* Hufn. (a) DescrijJtion. Moth with an expanse of wing of 30 to 35 mm. Fore-wings ashy grey, mingled with brown, variable in depth of colour, with fine black veins, the three stigmata conspicuous, darker than the ground, the orbicular and reniform with light borders, the former sometimes reduced to a point. Hind-wings light grey with darker borders. Caterpillar 35 mm. long, with 16 legs, of a dull brownish grey ; head with a triangular frontal spot, and another on the vertex, meeting at their apex, their borders forming a X . Pupa brown, terminated by two very short points. (b) Life-History. The moth appears from the middle of August till the middle of September. The eggs are laid on the ground amongst the grass and herbage. The caterpillars hatch in September, and hibernate in the soil when half-grown ; as they are earth-coloured it requires an accustomed eye to detect them. * Larvie of the different species of Agrotis usually live in the ground ; they gnaw through plants above the roots and are appropriately termed cut-worins in America. AGROTIS VESTIGIALIS. •Z9l Pupation takes place from the end of June till August, either in the ground, in a cocoon, or exceptionally among the needles of young Scotch pine. Generation annual. The caterpillar dislikes the light, and during the day remains in the ground or concealed under the leaves of the plants on which it feeds. (c) Relations to the Forest. The caterpillars of species of Agrotis are termed " surface caterpillars," and that of the present species chiefly feeds on agricultural crops, young shoots of grasses, potatoes, turnips, Fig. 155. c? Agrotis vestigialls, Hufn. {Natural size. etc., towards harvest time. It also attacks the Scotch pine and the larch as seedlings in their first and second years, and exceptionally the seedlings of hroad-leaved trees. The little one-year-old seedlings are usually bitten off by it in April and May close to the collum, never deeper than 1 in. under ground. The larva then feeds on the root, the lower part of the stem, and lastly on the needles. In June, when the plants are some- what older, they are bitten off at about the middle of their height, and the stem and roots gnawed. Two-years-old seedlings usually have their weaker side shoots bitten off, more rarely the leading shoot as well, and some of the needles are eaten ; the bark may also be gnawed, but such plants commonly recover from the injury they have received. The damage is usually done at night, when the caterpillars crawl along the surface of the ground from one plant to another ; during the day-time they proceed under ground. u 2 292 PKOTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. Poor sandy soil in plain districts is most frequented by this pest. This insect has recently become very injurious in North and North-east Germany. It is tolerably common ( m the coasts of the British Isles, but is rarely met with inland, and has attracted little or no attention as an injurious species. (d) Protrrtirc llnlcH. i. Areas both in nurseries and in the forest which are to be sown up should be thoroughly weeded in the previous year, as the $ will not lay her eggs except among grass and herbage. ii. For planting-out, not seedlings of the first year, but 2 to 3 -years- old plants with balls of earth should be employed, as the caterpillars find it difficult to bore through the firm earth of the balls. iii. Protection of enemies. (e) liemed'ud Measures. Pigs may be driven into places where this pest has appeared. The ground may be plouglied up or trenched with hoe or spade, and the caterpillars collected and destroyed. In quite loose sand the plants may be lifted by hand, and those unin- jured or slightly injured replanted. The caterpillars may be poisoned by laying baits of cabbage or lettuce-leaves sprinkled with arsenic along the beds. The moths may be caught by "sugaring," and destroyed. 3. Agrotis segetum, W.V. {Tiirnij) Dart-Moth). (a) Description. Moth with a wing-expanse of 40 mm. ; fore-wings j^ellowish- grey or yellowish-brown, with darker marks, stigmata of the same ground-colour as the wings, the reniform and orbicular margined with black ; hind-wings milkj-white, with no lunate spot. Caterpillar 50 mm. long, with 16 legs, coloured like that of the former species, but with the triangular spots of the forehead and vertex separated at their apices by a space. Pupa light brown, with two long anal points. GEOMETPJD.E. 293 (b) Life-History. The moth appears from the eud of May till the middle of June. The ? flies a few days later than the S • The larval life is passed in the ground, the caterpillars hatching out in June and July, and pupating in April and May. Generation annual. Very common everywhere in Germany and in the British Isles.* (c) Relations to the Forest. The caterpillar chiefly attacks the roots of grasses, cereals and root-crops, also seedling and one-year-old spruce plants. In some Fig. 156. A gratis segeium, W. V. {Natural size.) Prussian forest districts it has also been observed attacking one- year-old plants of Scotch pine and beech. Except during hard weather in the winter its attack lasts from August to April. Seedlings are bitten ofl" below the cotyledons, and one-year-old plants gnawed about the collum, so that they frequently die. In 1864 this insect proved very destructive in Silesia. The protective measures are the same as for the previous species. Family V. — GEOMETRiDiE (Loopers). Description of Family. Antennae of the imago either filiform or setaceous, with a thickened basal joint, not unfrequently pectinate in J ; ocelh absent ; proboscis short ; wings large, broad and delicate, usually lying more or less level in repose, sometimes sloping ; frenulum always present. Bodies slim, resembling those of * Vide Miss OrmeioJ, o^). cit., p. 201. 294 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. butterflies. Flight usually at dusk, or by night ; a few species fly in sunshine. Caterpillars bare, or only slightly hairy, with 10 (rarely 12) feet ; they move about by loojung, owing to the absence of the first 3 or 2 pairs of sucker feet ; hence their name, lookers or span-ivorms. Pupne long, with a short pointed tail, bright brown, lying usually without cocoon under grass, moss, or in the soil. The caterpillars feed on needles, leaves, buds, &c., and a few species are injurious to forests. 1. Biqxdus piniarius, L. (Bordered-ichite or Pine Looper-Moth). (a) Description. Moth with a wing-expanse of 35 mm. ^ bright yellow, with a sharply-defined area at the tip of the fore-wings and the margins of both pairs black-brown, hind-wings with two trans- verse dark bands ; antenntie bipectinate. ? reddish-brown, the tip of the fore- wings, borders, and 1 or 2 transverse bands on both wings dark brown ; autenniie setaceous. In both sexes the under-side of the wings is brownish, with dark lines and nume- rous spots, and a broad light-yellow band across the middle of the hinder pair. CaterpiUav 35 mm. long, with 4 prolegs, smooth, yellowish green, with 3 white dorsal stripes, of which the middle one is broadest, and two broad yellow stripes along the spiracles. Pupa at first green, later bright brown, with sharply-pointed tail. (b) Life-History. The moth flies in May and June. The S is fond of flying about on sunny sultry days ; its flight is unsteady. The ? is also very active. The smooth somewhat flattened green eggs are laid in a row (2 — 12) on Scotch pine needles in the crowns of the trees. The caterpillars hatch out at the end of June or the beginning of July, and are fully grown by October, when they let them- selves down from the trees by threads. If the weather be mild, caterpillars may even be found in December. Pupation occurs in October and November under moss or other soil-covering, or BUPALUS PINIARIUS. 295 in the soil, usually under the cover of the trees on which they have been feeding. The moth emerges in May or June. Generation annual. Very common, and widely distributed in pine-w^oods. (c) Relations to the Forest. The caterpillar attacks the common Scotch pine, rarely other pines, the spruce or silver fir, and prefers 20 to 40-year-old trees, but will even attack trees up to 60 years of age. Fig. 157. Bupcdiis piniarius, L. {Natural size. ) a Male. b Female. c Caterpillar. d Pupa. The needles are eaten from the beginning of July to the end of October, but not the buds. At first the shoots of the current year are spared, but later on they are also attacked. The young caterpillars gnaw the sides of the needles ; as they get larger they eat down to and beyond the mid rib. The full- grown larvae cut off the points of the needles, but eat the remainder completely. Complete defoliation seldom results in the death of the trees, as the buds produce fresh foliage, and the attack commences late in the season. It is therefore un- necessary to commence immediate felling of defoliated woods, as after an attack of P. piniperda, L. Dense woods in sunny aspects of warm hill districts are preferred by this moth, and windy borders of the woods are avoided. 296 PEOTECTIOX AGAINST INSECTS. (d) Protective and Remedial Mules. Protection of enemies, as for Trachea ijimiierda. Admission of pigs from October to April (50 pigs to 500 acres) . Collection of pupse in winter. Collection of caterpillars in August by sbaking the poles. Painting rings of grease or lime- whiting 1*2 to 15 cm. broad on the trees at 1 m. from the ground. This costs 7-5. to 8s. per acre for tar, and 4s. to 6s. for lime, and has proved effective. Eaking up into heaps, and burning the soil-covering. This method gave excellent results over about 190 acres in Pome- rania in 1881-83 ; about + to f of the pupae were burned with the litter, and most of the remaining ones being exposed by the removal of the soil-covering were eaten by birds. "Where the soil-covering had been left intact, the moths appeared in the following spring in large numbers. 2. Cheimatohia hrumata, L. {]]'intcr MotJi). (a) Description. Male with a wing-expanse of 25 to 30 ram. ; fore-wings ample, grey-brown, with several darker transverse wavv lines ; hind-wings lighter, with a faint dark waved stripe in the middle. Female 8 mm. long, of a brownish-grey, wings short and aborted, with two dark bands across them, antennae and legs long, the latter strongly developed. Caterpillar 16 mm. long, with 4 prolegs, hairless, at first grey, later yellowish-green, with a dark dorsal line, and 3 bright longitudinal lines on either side. Pupa 11 mm, long, thickset, yellowish-brown, with two small outwardly-pointed hooks on its tail, in a loose cocoon. (b) Life-History. The moth appears from October to December, and the S flies especially at evening-time. The eggs are first greenish, and later on reddish ; in all 200 to 300 are laid, either separately or in clusters of 3 or more, on buds, veins of leaves, and points of twigs of almost all broad- CHEIMATOBIA BRUMATA. 297 leaved trees. The ? ascend the trees usually by the east and north-east sides, which are protected from rain. The caterpillars hatch at the end of April or in May, are full grown by the middle of June, and in July let themselves down by threads from the crowns of the trees in order to pupate; this takes place at the bottom of the trees in a smooth hole 2 to 3 in. deep in the ground. Generation annual. Very widely distributed and common, a well-known orchard pest* throughout England. (c) Relations to the Forest. The caterpillar attacks several broad-leaved trees, especially the oak, hornbeam, lime and orchard trees ; to the latter, especially Fig. 158. a b a Male. 9 '/■ C/ieimatobia brumata, L. b Female. c Caterpillar. d Pupa. to apple and pear trees, it is most destructive. When young, the caterpillar bores into buds through the side, and later attacks blossoms and leaves, as well as the green shoots and young fruits. It continues to spin during these attacks, and when dis- turbed will let itself down and climb back again to the tree by a thread. After destroying the foliage of standards over coppice, it will attack the underwood, and great damage is thus done at times. (d) Protective Rules. Grease-bands should be applied to the trees in the middle of October in order to catch the ? moths on their way up the trunks. The trees are usually encircled with paper strips 4 in. Vide ^liss Ormerod, op. cit., p. 338. 298 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. broad, bound to the tree by string above and below, and the tar or composition is painted on to the paper, the lower part of which being bent upwards to prevent the composition from trickling down.* These bands catch many other insects which are destructive to orchard trees, such as the apple-blossom weevil, Anthonomus pomorum, L., and the codliu moth, Carpocajosa pomonella, L. The caterpillars of the last species creep under the paper to puj^ate. The practice of spraying with arsenical washes before flowering or after the blossom is set is a valuable method of treatment. Other species of Geometrkhe, which emerge in the winter months, and the females of which are apterous, such as Hibernia defoliaria, L., kc, may be dealt with when injurious in the same manner. The pupse may be destroyed in orchards from July to September by spreading earth over the soil at the foot of the trees, and stamping it firm. Family VI. — Tortricid^ (Leaf-roller Moths). Description of Famih/. Moths with somewhat short, filiform, or bristle-like antennae with a thick basal joint ; 2 ocelli. Wings rhomboidal, the anterior pair usually bright-coloured, roof- shaped in repose ; frenulum present. Generation usually annual. Caterpillars with a few short hairs on little warts; with 10 prolegs ; usually with a horny shield on the prothoracic segment and a horny anal flap. Very active, and strong spinners. Pupation in a cocoon either above or in the ground. Pupce with rows of spines on their backs. The caterpillars attack the buds or shoots, the fruits and seeds, or the needles or leaves of broad-leaved or coniferous trees. The characteristic rolling- up of leaves is only practised on broad-leaved species. Many insects injurious to forests are included in this family. For a good account of these grease-bands and nature of the grease to be used, see Miss Ormerod, op. cit., p. 342. TORTRIX VIEIDANA. 299 1. Earias cMorana, L. (Green Willow Leaf-Pioller). (a) Description. Moth with wing-expansion of 20 mm. ; fore-wings and thorax light green, the former with a whitish anterior border ; head, hind-wings and abdomen white, the latter sprinkled with green- ish-grey scales. Caterpillar 15 mm. long, with 16 legs, of a dirty flesh-colour, with a dark dorsal stripe, and a few bristles. Pupa light brown, with rounded head and smooth hinder extremity. (b) Life -History, dc. The eggs are laid in July on the terminal buds of young willows, especially on Salix viminalis, L. The caterpillar hin- ders the development of these buds in May, spinning up the terminal leaves into a bundle which is bent towards one side of the shoot in which it lives ; it feeds from June till August, not only on the leaves, but on the tender young shoots of the osiers. The lengthening of the osiers is thus rendered almost impossible, and a straggling production of side-shoots results. In July the larvae pupate in white boat- shaped cocoons. The moth appears 14 days after pupation. (c) Protective Rules. Cut off the shoots containing the caterpillars, from June till the beginning of August. Each bundle contains only one larva, which should be killed. 2. Tortrix viridana, L. (Oak -leaf Roller). (a) Description. Moth with wing-expansion of 18 to 22 mm. ; fore-wings uni- formly light green, and hind-wings light grey ; whitish fringes to all the wings. Caterpillar 15 mm. long, with 10 prolegs, at first greenish grey, afterwards dull green, with head and anal flap black, with warts on the back. Pujm 11 mm. long, slender, and black. 300 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. (b) Life-History. The moth flies during daytime at the end of June and the beginning of Julj- . The eggs are laid singly or in little clusters on the already bitten buds of the oak, and pass the winter there. The caterpillars appear in April and May, and, as pupation approaches, spin threads by "svhich they let themselves up and down from the branches ; they pupate usually at the beginning of June, on the twigs of the trees which have been attacked, Fig. 159. a Moth. Tortrix viridana, L. b Catei-pillar suspended by a thread. c Pupa. generally in the upper leaves, which they roll together, and also in bark-cracks. Generation annual. Everywhere tolerably common, and sometimes present in enormous numbers. Very destructive in oak-forests in the south of England (c) Relations to the Forest. The oak-leaf roller-moth only infests oaks, and chiefly tall poles and mature trees. The attacks of the caterpillar in- volve the buds, leaves and inflorescence, and spread from the summit of the crown downwards. The formation of foliasre. RETINIA BUOLIANA. 301 bjossoms and acorns for the year is seriously compromised, and sometimes the former is completely destroyed, and may then be restored by Lammas shoots. In coppice-with-standards only the oak standards and underwood are attacked. The attacks of this moth are very persistent, having lasted for 4 years, in the Steigerwald from 1869-72, and in Windsor Forest from 1890-94. (d) Pvotcrtivc Measures. Protection of enemies : starlings, rooks, jack- daws, &c. Hardly any remedial measures can be tried in forests. The caterpillars of the Dunbar moth, Cosmia trapczina, which are carnivorous, are useful in clearing off their attack, as well as that of the winter moth. This Noctuid moth has a spread of wing of about 30 mm. ; the forewings are variously marked with pale grey, rust-colour, or brown, with transverse dark and pale lines, the hinder wings greyish - brown. The ? lays her eggs chiefly on oak. The caterpillars are pale dull-green, apple-green beneath, and have 5 pale whit- ish or yellowish longitudinal stripes, and numerous small black warts, each surrounded by a white ring, eight to a segment, arranged trans- versely on the first three segments behind the head, and in a square of four, with two below on each side on the succeeding segments. Oak - leaf rolled up by the caterpillar of tlie Oak-tor- trix. {Natural size.) 3. Retinia huoliana, W. V. (Pine-shoot Tortrix.)* (a) Description. Moth with wing- expansion of 19 to 22 mm. ; fore- wings narrow, reddish-yellow, traversed by 6 — 7 broad, wavy y- shaped silvery marks, hind- wings dark grey ; both pairs with light grey fringes. Thorax orange, abdomen grey. Vide Miss Ornierod, op. cit., p. 248. 302 PKOTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. Caterpillar 14 mm. long, with 10 prolegs, bright brown and smooth, the head and first segment black. Pupa yellowish-brown, with a row of fine prickles on the back of the abdomen. (b) Life-History. The moth appears from the end of June till the end of July. During the day it sits somewhat concealed amongst the pine needles, its colour assimilating with the withered pine shoots, but it becomes active with the approach of twilight. The eggs are laid among the terminal buds of young Scotch pine plants. The caterpillars hatch out at the end of August, and in Sep- Fm. 161. a Retinia buoliana, W. V. a Imago. b Larva. c Pupa. tember hibernate in the buds, becoming full grown in the following May. Pupation takes place at the end of May or June, at the base of the injured shoot. The pupa is exposed, and the empty pupal case may be seen for some time on the shoot. The moth emerges 4 weeks later. Generation annual. The insect is common and widely dis- tributed wherever Scotch pine trees are grown in Europe. (c) Relations to the Forest. The Scotch pine and occasionally the Weymouth, black and cluster pines are attacked. The insect exclusively attacks young growth, and prefers weakly 6 to 12-year-old plants on poor soil and in sunny situations. RETINIA BUOLIAXA. 303 The attack is made by the larva boring into buds and shoots. Late in the summer the buds, particularly the terminal buds, are slightly gnawed at their base, so that turpentine exudes. In the following spring, as soon as the plant begins to shoot up, the caterpillar bores right through the pith of the young shoots. Shoots eaten on one side become curved as in the figure, and if Fig. 162. Pine-branch, showing distortion after antecedent injury by R. huoliana, W. V. A larval gallery is exposed in the broken shoot, a. {Natural size.) no further injury is done, will recover their vertical position, but the perforated shoots dry up, turn brown and fall off. After destroying the terminal shoot, the larva directs its attention to the side shoots ; it sometimes spins several together, and passes from one to another. The attack can be distinguished from that of the pine beetle by the crumbling excrement. The injury causes the pine to send out brush-like shoots, and •304 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. the resulting loss of iucrement is considerable, as frequently the pest recurs year after year. (d) Protective Rules. Careful planting and rearing of plantations of vigorous pines, without undue crowding. The shoots which are attacked may be broken off and burned. Removal of all misshapen stems at the first thinning, till which time they are spared to help to cover the ground. 4. lictinia tunonaiia, Hb. (a) Description. iVioi/i with a wing-expanse of 16 — 18 mm. ; fore-wings brown- grey, ochreous towards the tip, with leaden-grey transverse wavy lines ; hind- wings Avhitish, the tip greyish ( J ) or ochreous ( ? ). Head and thorax ochreous ; abdomen grey. Larva 10 mm. long, with 16 legs ; light brow^n, with black head and thoracic shield. (b) Life-History, dr. The eggs are laid in May or June singly on the middle buds of the whorls of the stem of young Scotch pines (usually 5 — 15 years old). The caterpillar bores as a rule into the middle bud, and hollows out the pith-canal in the course of the summer. The shoot is checked from the commencement of its growth and takes on a blackish-grey colour ; eventually it dies and the lateral buds, which are seldom attacked, become abnormally large. Pupation takes place in the following year (at the end of April or in May) in the hollowed bud, which is spun over with a thin web, and the moth emerges at the end of May or the beginning of June. Other species of pine, such as the Weymouth pine and Pinus ponclerosa, Dougl., are liable to attack. The insect is less com- mon than the preceding. (c) Remedial Measures. The injured buds, which can be recognised by their small size and dark colour, should be cut off towards the end of April. RETINIA RESINELLA. 305 5. Retinia resinella, L. (a) Descrqytion, Moth with a wing-expanse of 16 to 18 mm. ; fore-wings slaty - grey with numerous shining Fig. 163. leaden - grey transverse lines forked on the fore-margin ; hind- wings grey-brown ; the fringes pale. Body slaty-grey. Caterpillar 11 mm. or more in length, with 16 legs, orange- brown, with brownish -red head and thoracic shield. (b) Life-History. The eggs are laid in May just under the whorl of buds of the recently-grown shoots of young pines, usually on the lateral shoots. The caterpillar bores into the pith and thus causes the growth of a hollow gall-like resi- nous mass, as large as a pea, in which it passes the winter. In the spring it continues feeding, causing the gall to increase to the size of a cherry or of a small walnut and form a swelling on the under-side of the shoot which almost completely encircles it. On section the gall is seen to be divided into two compartments by a strong vertical partition. In the larger one the larv^a lives and pupates (in April or May of the 3rd year) : the smaller one contains its excrement. The moth flies about May ; the generation extending over two years. As a rule the pine recovers its injuries ; but in an un- favourable situation or after bad weather the attacked shoots Resin-gall of R. resinella, L., oq a pine shoot. {Natural size. ) VOL. IV. X 806 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. perish. The species is tolerably common in a few localities in Scotland. The treatment consists in the destruction of the galls during the second winter. 6. Pcedisca riijiviitrana, H.-S. (a) Description. Moth with wing-expansion of 15 mm. ; fore-wdngs dark greyish-brown, with lead-coloured wavy lines at their base, a rusty yellow median band with a lead-coloured border, and a round dark spot on a rusty yellow patch near the corner of the wings ; hind-wings brownish grey, with grey fringes ; thorax rusty yellow near the head, abdomen brownish-grey. Caterpillar 10 mm. long, with 10 prolegs, of a dull yellowish- green above and yellow below, with reddish-brown head. Pupa 6 mm. long, bright brown. (b) Life-History . The moth flies from June till the end of July, sometimes also in May. The eggs are laid on silver-fir needles, where they remain during the winter. The caterpillars hatch in the succeeding spring, and when fully grown at the end of June, let themselves down by threads, and pupate in the soil-covering in a cocoon made of silk and bits of earth. The moth appears 2 to 3 weeks later. Genera- tion annual. (c) Relations to the Forest. The caterpillar, commencing operations as the young shoots appear in May or the beginning of June, eats the needles and youngest shoots of the silver fir. It devours the young needles, bites off the older ones at their base and gnaws the epidermis of the young shoots, spinning a thin web over the parts attacked. The insect prefers woods of 60 to 100 years old, but when the moth appears in swarms, younger wood is also attacked. The edges of the crowns of the trees become reddish, and after attacks repeated for several years the trees become stag-headed, the topmost branches being as bare as P^DISCA OCCULTANA. 307 brooms, and die. There have been several severe attacks in Germany on silver fir by this moth since 1876, and in 1879, 1,800 acres of forest were ravaged in Nagoldthal, and the attack spread to the surrounding districts. (d) Protective Rules. Mixture of other species with the silver fir, and clean wood- craft. Protection of enemies : titmice, the wren, &c. (e) Remedial Measures. Smoking out the caterpillars by burning green branches in damp weather. This is done in May with branches from trees and poles felled in thin rings, which are burned in heaps. Admission of pigs to the forest as soon as the cocoons are in the soil covering, during the first half of June. Kaking-up and removing the soil-covering whilst the pupae are there. Felling trees which are badly attacked. 7. Pisdisca occultana, Dougl. (pinicolana, ZIL). (a) Description. Moth with wing-expansion of 18 to 20 mm. ; fore-wings long, with strongly sinuate inner border, bright ashy-grey, with numerous dark brown wavy stripes ; hind-wings somewhat broad, of a uniform brown or ashy grey colour ; both pairs with brownish- white fringes. Caterpillar 10 mm. long, with 10 prologs, dark green, darker on the back, with two brighter green stripes along the sides ; head and prothoracic shield shining black. (b) Life-History . The moth appears in August and the beginning of September. The eggs are laid at the base of young larch shoots, and remain over winter. The caterpillars appear in May or June, and pupate at the end of July or in August in a silken cocoon amongst the needles, on twigs or, when the insect is very numerous, in bark cracks. Generation annual. X ?, 308 PKOTECTION AGAINST IXSECTS. (c) Relations to the Forest. The caterpillars usually attack only old larch, and chiefly sickly trees, but when very numerous they also attack healthy trees, and underwood of spruce or P. Cembra growing below the larch. They eat the needles, at first those of the lower shoots, subsequently climbing to the summit of the trees. The insect sometimes appears in such numbers ^^' ■ as to completely strip the trees of needles, and entire woods may then appear with a brown canopy, as if the needles had been burned. As a rule fresh needles ai)pear during an attack, but if it should last for 2 to 3 years, even the healthiest trees will succumb. Badly stocked woods on shallow soil Pcedisca occultana, Dougl. and with a southerly aspect suffer most of all. This insect is common in Switzerland, and has been observed over fairly large tracts of forest in 1855-56-57, 1864-65, 1878-79 in the Ober Engadin, Wallis and Graubundt. In 1879 in the Ober Engadin, where larch is the dominant species, over 15,000 acres of forest were attacked by it. It is not uncommon among larches in Britain. (d) Protective Rules. Protection of birds. Smoking out as described for the preceding species. Family VII. — Tineid^. Description of Faimly. Imagos with long filiform or setaceous antennae, seldom pectinate ; ocelli usually present ; wings long and narrow, usually pointed, and, especially the hind-wings, characterised by long fringes, during repose either roof-shaped or folded over the body ; frenulum present ; legs stoutly spurred. Generation annual. Caterj)illars slightly hairy, usually with 10 prolegs. A few HYPONOMEUTA PADELLA. 309 species have ouly 6 to 8 prolegs, and those reduced in size (leaf- miners) . Pupation usually in a cocoon. Pnpce with a thin hairless skin, rarely with spines on the abdominal segments, but cha- racterised by the elongate wing-cases which reach almost to the apex of the abdomen. The caterpillars generally live in roUed-up leaves, or in shoots, flowers, fruits, seeds, &c. Many species are leaf- miners, living on the parenchyma of leaves, between the upper and lower epidermis. Others bore into the pith, wood, bark or buds. Few of them, however, are important enemies of the forest. 1. Hyjjonomeuta padella, L. {variabilis, Zell.). (a) Description. Moth with wing-expanse of 18 to 20 mm. ; fore-wings white, clouded with brownish-grey on the anterior border, with 3 irregular longitudinal rows of black spots, and a group of smaller spots along the outer margin ; hind-wings brown-grey ; fringes pale-grey or whitish. CateipiUar 14: mm. long, with 16 legs, yellowish -grey, marked with round black spots, with black head and thoracic shield. Pupa light brown. (b) Life-History, dc. The eggs are laid at the end of June and in July on buds, usually of underwood. The larvae do not hatch till the spring, when they attack buds, leaves and blossoms under the protection of a conspicuous gauzy web, Avhich they spin in common over the ends of the branches. The chief food-plants are the plum and apple trees, the mountain-ash and especially the hawthorn. This caterpillar has also committed great ravages among willows in Hungary. It is very common in the British Isles, and often completely defoliates hawthorn trees and hedge-rows in the open spaces of London. Pupation takes place on the branches or trunk in June or July in a white cocoon. 310 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. (c) Remedial Measures. Cutting-off and destruction of the caterpillar-webs at the beginning of June. Destruction of the moths (July), which often sit in consj)icuous groups at a moderate height on the trunks. Where defoliation is an eyesore, as in public parks, the trees may be carefully sprayed with a weak arsenical mixture or syringed with a stronger jet of plain water or soap-mixture. Other species of Hyponomenta — e.g. H. euonymella, Zell. on the spindle-tree, are closely allied in appearance and habits. 2. Prays curtisellus, Don. (Asli-twig Moth). (a) Description. Moth with a wing-expanse of 16 mm. ; fore-wings, head and thorax white ; the former with a large triangular dark-grey blotch on the anterior margin and with the base and outer margin clouded with blackish marks ; hind-wings and abdomen grey-brown, the latter lighter beneath ; fringes grey-brown. Caterpillar 7 to 10 mm. long, with 16 legs, bright honey- yellow with brown head and dorsal shield. (According to Staiuton the larva is greenish, marbled with reddish-brown.) Pupa yellow-brown, glossy, in a neat cocoon, pointed at each end and of a silken lustre, constructed away from the larval feed- ing-place. (b) Life-History. The moth flies in May and June and lays its eggs on the leaves of ash, which are mined by the newly-hatched larva. In the autumn, when the leaves turn yellow and fall, the caterpillar, which is still very small, bores into the sheathing scales of the terminal buds ; here it moults and excavates a hole in which to hibernate. Its presence is indicated by the fine powder visible in the entrance-burrow. As soon as the buds begin to swell in the ensuing spring, the caterpillar begins to feed again and reaches maturity about May. The injured bud is incapable of development and is outstripped in growth by the next uninjured shoot, causing the ends of the branches to become forked. COLEOPHOEA LARICELLA. 311 The species is tolerably common wherever ash is grown. (c) Remedial Measures. Cutting off the injured buds in autumn, together with the adjacent lateral buds. This is only practicable in nurseries and on saplings. 3. Coleophora laricella, Hbn. (Larch-miner Moth). (a) Description. Moth with wing-expansion of 9 to 11 mm. ; wings very narrow, shining ashy-grey, with very long fringes, especially to the hind-wings. Caterpillar 4 to 5 mm. long, with 10 prolegs, dark reddish- FiG. 165. d b m Coleophora laricella, Hbn. a Moth, h Caterpillar, c Larval case, d Pupa, brown. Pupa 4 to 5 mm, long, narrow, dark brown, with fine bristles. (b) Life-History. The moth flies in the daytime in May and June. The ? lays its little roundish yellow eggs on healthy larch needles, usually only one egg on a needle. After 6 to 8 days the eggs become grey. The caterpillars hatch in June, and continue to grow till September. The pupal stage is passed from the middle of April till May in a case on the needles. The moth emerges in the latter half of May, Generation annual. Very common. The caterpillar is very susceptible to late frosts, wet and cold rainy weather and hail. 312 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. Fig. 166. (c) Relations to the Forest. This insect is a most dangerous enemy of the larch, and prefers 10- to 40-year-old trees, but may also attack woods which are older or younger than these. The little caterpillar, as soon as it has emerged from the egg, bores into the young larch-needles to about half their length, so that their upper ends shrivel up and turn yellow, as if injured by frost. The appearance of a plant which bears a large number of infested needles is very conspicuous and characteristic. / In September the fully grown cater- pillar prepares a little case out of the dr}' part of the needle, which it cuts off for the purpose, and in this it hiber- nates on the twigs, usually at their tips, or in bark-cracks, or among lichens on the stems. In the spring the caterpillar, carry- ing its case with it, bores again about half-way into a larch needle, and about the middle of April finding its old case too small, it fastens it along the freshly hollowed-out needle, like two fingers of a glove. It then cuts out the adja- cent walls of its old case and of the needle, thus preparing a new case twice as wide as the former. When the insect is ready for pupation it spins the new case firmly to a needle. The loss of increment is considerable, owing to the repeated destruction of the larch needles in the spring. The little insect likes sunny warm localities, sheltered from the north and east, and prefers the westerly borders of woods, avoiding isolated trees, probably on account of their exposed posi- tion. It has been observed up to an altitude of 2,000 feet, and in Germany and Britain it constantly accompanies the larch, Lai'ch-needles injured by C. laricella, Hbn. ( Xattiral size. ) a Larval-cases, b Spinning caterpillars, c Hollowed and twisted needles. COLEOPHORA LARTCELLA. 313 though it is rare in the Tyrol and Switzerland, where the larch is indigenous. Independently of its large numbers and wide dissemination, its great hurtfnlness results from its eating the needles twice during the same year, and appearing year after year in the same localities. As the larch disease almost always accompanies this insect, the latter probably renders the tree susceptible to this highly destructive fungus. (d) Protective Rules. Choice of suitable localities for larch, and planting it widely apart. Mixture of larch with beech, spruce, silver tir, &c. Early thinning, and removal of the thinned material, at the latest, by the end of March. Protection of titmice and other small birds. (e) Remedial Measures. Pruning the lower branches of larch trees, on which the insect usually appears. Ptemoval of badly attacked and weakened trees from the middle of June till the end of August. The caterpillars in the needles of these trees will not then become fully developed. The little cases may be picked oif the trees, and destroyed during the winter and spring, but this plan can be followed in forest nurseries only. 314 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. CHAPTER VIII. DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS (concluded) . A. Hymenoptera. Family I. — TENTHREDiNiDiE (Sawflies). Description of Family. Sawflies have straight, usually filiform or setaceous antenuse, rarely club-shaped, occasionally serrate, or in S doubly pecti- nate, and with 3 to 30 joints ; 3 ocelli ; prothorax usually very short ; wings with full complement of veins, the fore-wings with 1 or 2 radial and 3 or 4 cubital cells. Legs with a double trochanter ; the anterior tibiae with two apical spines ; tarsal joints often furnished below with mem- branous expansions, sometimes cup-shaped. Abdomen sessile, of 8 segments ; in ? with protrusible serrate ovipositor. Generation usually double, sometimes treble, but in the cocoon-spinning sawflies it may be plurennial. Larva usually bright-coloured, with 8 or 18 to 22 legs, resem- bling caterpillars but distinguishable usually by the greater number of legs and by a conspicuous simple eye on each side of the head ; they are social, and after 5 to 6 moultiugs spin a firm cocoon which is of oval or oblong-oval form and often parchment- like in consistency. Pupation takes place in the cocoon about 2 weeks before the sawfly emerges. The pupae are soft. The larvae feed on needles and leaves ; they are often social when young, and when disturbed assume a characteristic S-hke attitude. The perfect insects usually feed on honey. Some PINE SAW FLY. 315 species (Cimhex) girdle young beech -slioots in order to get the sap. A few species are very destructive. 1. Lopliyrns X)ini,Jj^. (Pine Sawjiy). (a) Description. Male with a wing- expansion of 15 mm. ; body black, abdo- men reddish at apex, spotted with white on the underside of the first segment ; antennae doubly pectinate ; hind- wings with a dark border. Female with a wing-expansion of nearly 20 mm. ; body dull- yellow, with the head, 3 spots on the thorax, and the middle of the broad abdomen alone blackish ; wings yellowish, slightly infuscate along the outer margins. Legs yellow in both sexes. Fig. 167. Lophyrus pini, L. a Male. b Female. Larva 25 mm. long, with 22 legs, changing colour as it becomes older, finally of a dull green with a round brown head, and black semicolon-shaped marks above the prolegs. (b) Life-History. The sawfly appears in April and May, and again at the end of July and in August. Only the J" appears to fly. The ? creeps lazily along the twigs and needles. The ? cuts slits into Scotch pine-needles with her saw-like ovipositor, and lays 316 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. Fjo. 168. a sausage-shaped egg in each slit, depositing 10 to 20 in each needle, and 80 to 120 altogether ; she seals up the wounds with a frothy secretion. The larvae hatch 2 to 3 weeks later, in May and June, and those of the second brood in August and September. The latter hibernate in cocoons under moss, or on stems or twigs. There is not, however, always a second brood, and the larvae of the first brood may then hibernate. Pupation takes place at the beginning of July* in a compact brown cocoon, among the needles, or in bark cracks on the stems of the pine. The second brood pupate in March or April in cocoons under moss at the foot of the tree they have attacked. The saicjiies of the first brood appear at the end of April, about 2 to 3 weeks after pupation. The insect when ready for flight cuts a circular lid off the cocoon. If an ichneumon fly should emerge instead of the sawfly, a little hole appears at the end of the cocoon ( ) instead of the lid. The second brood emerge in April. Generation double, but frequently lasting over a year. In rare cases it has lasted for 2 to 3 years. The insect is very common on the continent of Europe and in the British Isles. The naked larvae are susceptible to cold and wet weather. Pine-needles, ■with larvae and cocoon of L. pini, L, (c) Relations to Forest. The larvae attack the Scotch pine, and prefer sickly poles where the leaf-canopy has been interrupted, 20 to 30 years old, * Theodor Hartig states that cocoons spun under moss are dull brown, and those on the tree silky ash-grey, dirty white, or yellowish. Even clean white and rusty red cocoons may occur. PINE SAWFLY. 317 on poor soils aud with a sunny aspect. Border trees especially suffer. The larvae till half-grown eat the needles in dense companies of 60 to 80 and more. When young they merely gnaw the edges of the needles ; later on they eat them in short strips parallel to the mid-rib, which they leave intact. An attack by the pine sawfly may be at once recognised by the remaining yellowish, thread-like mid-ribs. Fig. 170. Fig. 169. 3 cocoons of the Pine- sawfly on pine bark. {Natural size.) 2 empty cocoons of the Pine-sawfly on an oak-twig. The upper one has lost the lid. The older caterpillars only leave short stumps to the needles. The first brood chiefly devour 1 -year-old needles, and the second brood those of the current year. The larvae also gnaw the soft young bark in patches, often down to the wood. After the crowns of larger poles are stripped, smaller Scotch pine poles, underwood, and young plantations are attacked. This and all other species of Lophyrus have the habit, when 318 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. Fig. 171. disturbed, of bending the front part of their bodies in tlie figure S {vide fig. 168). (d) Protective Eiiles. i. Maintenance of healthy well-stocked Scotch pine woods, so that the soil may not be impoverished. ii. Protection of enemies : cuckoo, starling, crow, goat- sucker, swallows, &c. Mice and squirrels open the cocoons during the winter, and devour many larvae. Many * parasitic ichneu- mon wasps andD/2^fe7'a attack ,^^^_^ the larvae. y 7\IMA Hi (e) Remedial Measures. i. Collection of larvae by stripping or shaking them from the trees on to cloths spread on the ground, in May and June, and again in September and October. One man shaking the trees, with two boys to collect the larvae, can clear 15 25-year-old trees before 9 a.m., and such work is most efficacious in the morning when the larvae are slightly torpid. ii. Collection of cocoons under the moss in winter. They may generally be found near the base of the attacked Pine-shoot with needles eaten by L. pini, i<*»M „. .- L- (Natural size.) trees, and sometimes in masses as large as the fist. iii. Admission of pigs in September and October,wheu the larvae For a listof thesft, vide Taschenberg, op. cit., p. 230. WOOD-WASPS. 319 come down to hibernate. The pigs will not eat the cocoons, which are too tough for their taste, but crush them in numbers. iv. Planks smeared with tar may be put up to catch the saw- flies, the tarred sides being turned towards the sun, and the tar renewed from time to time. V. The ground under trees which have been attacked may be ploughed up deeply, in order to bury the cocoons. vi. If no other remedy should be found effective, the damaged wood must be cut down, and the roots grubbed up late in the summer or winter ; branches may be spread on the soil and burned before grubbing up the roots, and one or two field-crops harvested before the land be restocked with pines. Several other species of Lophyrus of generally similar habits also attack Scotch pine. Miss Ormerod * states that much injury was done in 1890 to three or four thousand acres of young Scotch pine in Argyleshire by L. rufus Klug, the larvfe of which are dull greenish-grey, with black heads. The flies appear in August only, and the ? are reddish and the (^ black ; both sexes have red legs. Plants 2 to 6 feet high were more subject to attack than older ones. In Germany this species is said to attack trees of all ages, but to prefer those 10 to 15 years old, and one-year-old needles. It attacks the Austrian as well as the Scotch pine, and appears to have a single generation. It is not so common as L. jiiJii, and should be treated similarly. Family II. — Urocerid.e (Wood-wasps). Description of Family. Wood-icasps have straight filiform or setaceous antennae, always shorter than the body, and with 11 to 24 joints; 3 large ocelli; body long and cj'liudrical ; wings elongate with complete venation. Legs with double trochanter, anterior tibiae with a single apical spine. Abdomen sessile, with 9 segments; ovipositor elongate, projecting beyond the end of the abdomen, and consisting of two lateral sheaths and a strongly serrate median borer. Generation lasting at least two years. Larva cylindi'ical, * Op. cit., p. 255. 320 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. soft, and whitish, with 6 legs, and a spine at the rounded posterior extremity. Pvpce soft and white. The larvae live chiefly in coniferous wood, in which the per- fect insects lay eggs with their long ovipositors. Pupation also Fig. 172. Pine-wood bored by the larva of Sirex juvencua, L. {Natural size.) a Larval burrows partly tilled with boring-dust P. y circular flight-hole. takes place in the wood, and the wood-wasp emerges by a circular hole. 1. Sirex juvencus, L. {Steel-blue Wood-wasj}). (a) Description. The insect attains a length of 16 mm. ( S ) and 30 mm. ( ? ) ; thorax and abdomen steel-blue, the latter in the S with the 4th WOOD-WASPS. 321 to the 7tli segment inclusive, yellowish red; in ? the steel-blue ground-colour of the abdomen is iridescent, with a coppery sheen. Wings yellowish, with brown margins. Ovipositor shorter than the abdomen. Larva 30 mm. long, with 6 very small feet, white. (b) Life-History, d-c. The ? in July bores the bark of the Scotch pine, usually of trees in pole-woods, down to the sapwood, and lays an egg in each hole. The larva eats out in the wood a curved burrow of ^'*^' ■^'^• circular section ; at first it lives in the softer layers of the sap- wood, but after the first hiber- nation it bores deeper into the tree, living on the resinous and starchy matters in the burrow, the dust of which it packs behind it. After a second hibernation, in the early summer of the 3rd year,it constructs a pupal chamber at the end of the burrow, lining it with a glazed coating. The ivood-icasp emerges in July, by a larval-gallery, or by boring for itself a short way through the wood. The flight-hole is circular, and about the fourth of an inch in diameter. The generation lasts at least two years, and sometimes longer, the wasps appearing from wood which has been worked up for some time. In Germany, it sometimes attacks spruce as well as Scotch pine, and in the British Isles,* it has been observed in larch, silver-fir, and other conifers. All wood-wasps prefer weakly trees, which have been injured by deer, lightning, or wind, and especially trees felled in the growing season and stripped of bark. They never attack actually rotten wood, or perfectly sound standing trees. Miss Ormerod relates an instance where, at "Workington, Cumberland, in 1889, 1,700 c. feet of silver-fir valued at £30 were irretrievably ruined. Wood-wasp in the act of boring, exposed by splitting the wood. * Miss Ormerod, oj}. cil., p. 259. VOL. IV. 322 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. (c) Protective Rules. Removal of all higli stumps and broken wood. Felling of all weakly or damaged poles and trees at the thinnings, and rapid removal of coniferous timber from the forest. 2. Sirex gigas, L. (Yellow wood-wasp). (a) Description. Imago 15 mm. ( (J ) to 35 mm. (?) in length ; black, head with a large yellow spot behind the eyes ; abdomen ( ^ ) reddish- yellow, with the first and last segments black, ( ? ) black Avith the 2 anterior and 3 posterior segments yellow ; legs black, with the knees yellow ; ovipositor nearly as long as the body. Larva, like that of the preceding species. (b) Life-History, dc. This species is particularly attached to the spruce, but is sometimes found in silver-fir. Its habits are the same as those of S. juvencus, L, It is tolerably frequent in Britain, and prefers large trunks. The treatment of its attacks is similar to that adopted for >S'. juvencus, L. Family III. — Cynipid.e (Gall- wasps).* Description of Family. hnagos with straight, filiform antennae, with 13 to 16 joints; ocelli far back on the crown of the head. Forewings with only 6 to 8 cells, with no stigma, and with 1 radial and 2 to 3 cubital cells. Some species have no wings, or only abortive ones. Abdomen pedunculate, laterally compressed and truncate at apex, much shorter than the wings. S usually very small. Larvce usually thick and fleshy, curved, smooth, white, and apodal. Pupce thick-set, smooth, and white. They are divided into 3 groups : True Gall-ivasps, Secondary Gall-icasps, and Parasites. * As the family of Diptera, known as Cccidomyiidce, contains many species of gall-flies, it is preferable to term the C^jnipidcc gall-wasps. GALL-WASPS. 323 1. True Gall-icasps. The true gall-wasps bore with their ovipositor into leaves, buds, shoots, fruits and other parts of woody plants, and they insert one or more eggs in the wound. The egg hatches in due time and the larva lives in a chamber formed in a growth or gall, often of hard or woody consistency, formed by the pro- liferation of the surrounding plant-cells. The growth of this gall is not due to the irritation caused by the mother, but to the stimulus caused by the internally-feeding larva. Galls may be on roots, bark, buds, leaves, blossoms or fruits. They may also con- tain one larval chamber, or many, the former being most usual. The oak is attacked by numerous species of gall-wasp, and galls are chiefly found on badly-growing underwood in coppice or high forest. The consequent damage is not serious ; and some species are useful as producing the galls used in com- merce on account of the tannic or gallic acid they contain. Probably the most harmful species is the common marble gall- wasp {Cynips koUari, Hart.), which sometimes occurs in large numbers on young oak plants. The galls * ma}- be cut off with a knife while they are still young and soft, and if thrown away they dry and shrivel, and the maggots within perish. Titmice are very useful in oak nurseries, as they pick the maggots out of the galls. It is interesting to know that in many species of gall- flies, a wingless, hibernating, parthenogeuetic generation always alternates with a winged generation of both sexes. As an example, the wingless agamic female form, Cynips aptera, is hatched from galls on the roots of the oak, and hibernates in the soil, laying in the spring, on the terminal buds of the oak, a number of unfertilised eggs. These cause galls on the ter- minal shoots from which the winged forms of both sexes, C. tcnninalis, develop. The fertilised ? of this insect lays her eggs on the roots of the oak, and from them C. aptera is hatched out, and so forth. 2. Secondary Gall-icasps. These are also termed InquiUnes, or fellow-lodgers, as their * Miss Ormerod, op. cit., p. 237. Y 2 324 PROTECTION AGAIXST INSECTS. ? lay eggs in galls made by the true gall-flies, and their larvae are either parasitic on the larvre of the latter, or else merelj' live with them in the same gall. 3. Parasitic Gall-ivasps. The ? lay their eggs in other insects in which their larvae are parasitic, and thus form a connecting link with the Ichneu- monidce. B. Diptera. Family I. — Cecidomyiid.e (Gall-gnats). Flies with long thread-like or moniliform antennae, with 10 to 36 joints, usually with whorls of hairs ; body delicate ; wings moderately large with rounded anterior border, constricted at the base, often iridescent, with 3 to 5 longitudinal veins ; abdomen cylindrical, consisting of 8 segments, in ? pointed and often furnished with a projecting tubular ovipositor ; legs slender, the tibiae unarmed at apex. Larvce long fusiform legless maggots, slightly flattened, without chitinous mouth-armature, but with a chitinous fork or ''anchor-piece" embedded in the skin of the ventral surface; usually pale yellowish or reddish. The imagos lay their eggs in needles, leaves or bark, in which the young larvae feed by sucking, and thereby cause gall-like swellings. Several species are common on willows. 1. Cecidomyia salicijjerda, Dnf. {Willoiv Gall-f/naf). (a) Descriiition. Fly 2 to 3 mm. long ; black-brown, the wings milky- white with whitish hairs ; antennae shorter than the body. Larva yellowish red. (b) Life -History, dr. The eggs are laid during May in rows on the bark of young willow-shoots and branches (Salir alba, viminalis, &c.). The maggot bores horizontally through the bark, in which from July CHERMES ABIETIS. 325 to the following April it excavates short irregular vertical galleries. This causes the appearance of spindle-shaped swell- ings of the bark and underlying wood, at least in the larger stems, which eventually become rough owing to the irregular detachment of the bark. Pupation takes place in the same spots, and the emergence of the flies riddles the bark with small holes. This species is sometimes decidedly common and injurious in osier-beds. The only satisfactory treatment is the timely cutting-off and burning of the infested shoots before emergence of the gnats. The family of Cecklomyiklce also contains the Hessian-fly, C. destructor, Say, one of the greatest of pests to cereal crops, and various species attacking conifers, of which C. kellneri, Husch., gives rise to galls on the buds of larch. Little can be done to prevent or cure these attacks except to cut off and burn the infected branches. C. Heraiptera. Family I. — Aphidid.b (Plant-lice). Description of Family. Insects with long, usually filiform or setose antennre, of 5 to 7 joints ; ocelli either absent or 3 in number ; rostrum usually well developed. Wings membranous, often absent, especially in ? . Legs usually long and thin ; tarsi of 2 joints. 1. Chermes ahietis, L. {Spruce-gall Aphis). The species of Chermes comprise those Aphides which are of most importance as being injurious to forest-trees, especially to coniferfe. (a) Description. Imago, ? 2 mm. long ; yellowish-green, ochreous or light brown with a whitish bloom ; antennae and legs pale. Wings white (when present). Male smaller, slenderer and paler. (b) Life-History. The female passes the winter under bark-scales or at the foot of the buds on young spruce. In the spring she inserts her 326 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. Fig. 174. rostrum into the base of the bud, -which reacts by forming a swelling resembling a iir-cone, eventually attaining the size of a small walnut. She oviposits in the spot where she feeds, and the young, on hatching, cluster at the base of the bud needles, and by their sucking cause the gall to rapidly increase in size. As it grows they are enclosed in cham- bers caused by the swelling of the lower part of the needles. By August they are fully grown and have acquired wings. The needles forming the chambers of the gall shrink and allow them to emerge. These winged fe- males disperse over the tree and over adjacent trees (a certain number of them migrating to the larch), feed as before and lay their eggs, which are covered with a cottony deposit. The males (which have only lately been discovered) appear in the autumn only and pair with the females. From the sexually-produced eggs arises the wingless female form (stem-mother) who lives through the winter and starts the growth of the gall in the following year. The other genera- Gall of Chermen ahietis, L., on tioUS are agamic, a spruce-twig. {Natural size.) (c) Relations to the Forest. The galls which result from their injury are at first soft and green, becoming later purplish-red in places and finally, when hard and dry, brown. They contain a quantity of tannin. Their size is characteristic, as is the fact that they are topped with a sprig of needles, one or more times longer than the gall. This is the stunted young shoot. The injured shoots take on a characteristic curvature towards the side on which the gall is growing. The loss of growth may be considerable. This Cliermes is common both in plain and hilly country, and especially attacks young spruces in nurseries and those which CHERMES LARICIS. 327 Fig. 175. have been injured by frost or animals. It is also common on the border-trees of 10- to 20-year-old plantations. Fortunately the attack is usually confined to the side-shoots, and the leading shoot escapes. (d) Remedial Measures. Protection of the smaller insectivorous birds : tits, the nut- hatch and golden-crested wren. A spider (Theridion) is an active destroyer of this insect, spin- ning its web over the galls and pre- venting the escape of its inmates. Direct treatment is troublesome ; the galls if on seedlings may be snipped off, and the experiment may be tried of spraying the young trees in April with kerosene-emulsion. (See the following species.) 2. Chermes laricis, Hart. (The Larch Aphis) . (a) Description. Imago ? , rather smaller than the preceding, blackish-brown, covered with a white woolly down ; the winged form dirty green, or with the head and thorax reddish-brown. No male is known. (b) Life-History. Larch - shoot attacked Chermes laricis, Hart. {Natural size.) a Insects feeding on the needles, which show a charac- teristic angular bend. The wingless females pass the win- ter on the larch, like those of C. ahietis, L. They lay their eggs and from April to August the aphides sit and feed on the needles, which become discoloured and acquire a peculiar elbowed shape. No gall is formed. They acquire wings in August and disperse to other larches or to the spruce. When they are abundant, the larches look as if they had been sprinkled with snow. 328 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. (c) Treatment. Spraying with kerosene-emulsions, soft-soap, lime-water or weak solutions of corrosive sublimate. Recent researches have shown that the above species of Chermes are almost certainly alternating forms of one and the same species. The sexual generation occurs at most once a year, and always on the spruce, while it is separated from its successor by a series of agamic generations consisting entirely of female forms, which may remain on the spruce or may migrate to the larch. The forms on the larch are therefore all agamic. If these discoveries are accurate, it follows that the common mixture of spruce and larch favours the insect by providing both its host-plants in association. At the same time it is possible, though rigid proof is wanting, that the species can continue on the same species of tree from year to year without migration.* Family II. — Coccid^ (Scale-insects). Description of Family. Insects with moniliform antenna, of 6 to 25 joints ; rostrum rudimentary in the c^ . ^ with 2 or 4 membranous wings with- out cells ; ? apterous, swollen, more or less shield-shaped ; one tarsal joint. The ? in May and June lay numerous eggs on plants, and die on the eggs. The larviB pupate in autumn or spring. Single generation. The imagos and larvae, under the protection of shields or jpiqmria, partly composed of fibrous secretion, partly of the cast- off exuvige, suck the young shoots, leaves, bark, &c. of perfectly sound plants, and cause blistering and disease in the organs which they have attacked. In this way sj)ruce, oak, robinia, and other plants may be attacked by different species ; the most effective treatment known for nursery plants so attacked is to wash them with lime-water in the spring, or cut off and burn infected twigs. The plants may also be treated, when practicable, with kerosene emulsion or washes made by forming a soap with boiling water, resin and potash. The scales may also be scraped * For an account of recent investigations on this ([iiestion, vide Blaudfonl, Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV., 169-176. MOLE-CEICKET. 329 Fig. 176. off with a blunt knife, or rough brush, and the plants smeared with soft-soap and water.* Lecanium racemosiim, Ratz, causes a black, paste-like coating on branches and twigs of 5- to 15-years-old spruce, which causes them to languish for several years. This insect is attacked by a parasitic weevil {Bracliy tarsus varius, Fabr.). It has done much damage to spruce plantations in Saxony, and near Tharand was found on mature spruce, which had been injured by loco- motive smoke. D. Orthoptera. Family I. — Gryllid^ (Crickets). Description of Family. The insects of this family possess a thick, free head, with long bristly an- tennae of many joints, and 2 or 3 ocelli; hind-wings folded longitudinally, and projecting beyond the wing-cases, but often aborted, or absent, not roof- shaped in repose. Body cylindrical ; fore legs formed for burrowing ; tarsi 3-jointed. Ovipositor long, sometimes absent. The species pro- duce a chirping noise by rubbing the wing-cases together. They dig holes in the ground, and live partly on larvae and worms, partly on the roots, seeds and fruit of forest plants, or on grass and herbage. Spruce-shoot attacked by Lecanium raccmosnm, Ratz. {Natural she.) a Feeding scale-insects. 1. Gryllotalpa vulgaris, Latr. {Common Mole- cricket). (a) Description. Imago 35 to 45 mm. long, reddish-brown or dark brown, and lighter beneath ; the wing-cases short with black veins, not cover- ing the wings ; abdomen with two caudal processes. Fore-legs sturdy, resembling hands, used for burrowing, like those of the * For apple-scale Miss Ormevod recommends 2 lbs. soft soap, 1 lb. flour of sulphur, 14 gallons of water. 330 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. mole. The larca and nymph greatly resemble the perfect insect in form and colom*, but have the wings undeveloped. (b) Life-History. Pairing takes place underground from the beginning of June till the middle of July. The ? during the month of June lays 150 to 250 pale yel- lowish eggs, as large as hempseed, in a hole of the size of a hen's egg, and about 10 to 12 cm. below the surface of the ground, with which it com- municates by a tunne or shaft, with a circular section. The earth above and around the hole is ren- dered more compact by the saliva of the ? . The ? watches the nest care- fully, and when disturbed returns to it by the tunnel. The young hatch after 2 to 8 weeks, and remain 8 to 4 weeks in the nest ; they then begin to burrow in the ground, moult 8 times before October or November, and then hiber- nate in the ground. The nymph-stage takes place at the end of May or beginning of June with the fourth moulting, the nymph being active and feeding, and shortly, with the last moult, instead of the little lappets which represent the wings in the nymph, 4 true wings appear, and the form of the perfect insect is assumed. Generation annual, but occasionally the larvae may remain over another year. The mole-criokei, GrijUotalpa vuhjaris, L. a Perfect insect, h and c Larvf« in early stages. MOLE-CRICKET. 331 (c) Relations to the Forest. The insect, in all its stages, damages forest plants, by biting through the roots of young conifers, especially of spruce and Scotch pine, when 1 and 2 years old, in the process of making its burrows, which are about a finger's width. It also uplifts young plants, which fall over and die. The mole-cricket also bites off the germinating shoots of oak and beech before they reach the surface of the ground, and the roots of young broad- leaved seedlings, tearing the latter with its fore legs. On the other hand the mole-cricket is useful by destroying Fig, 178. V. Nest and eggs of the mole-cricket. numbers of underground grubs. The ? has been observed to eat some of her own brood. Favourite localities for this insect are loose level sandy soils, free from vegetation, but it is also found on clay lands. Thinly stocked beds of seedlings are preferred to densely stocked beds, and patches of seedlings to strips. The mole-cricket also cuts through the roots of agricultural crops. It is not yet decided whether it damages plants for its own nourishment, or to clear the way for its burrows. The mole-cricket is local in England, and does not occur in the N. It is perhaps commoner than is generally supposed, as owina- to its underg-round habits it is seldom seen. 332 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. (d) Protective Rules. i. Isolation of seed beds by trenches 25 to 30 cm. dee-p and wide ; if flower-pots or vessels with smooth sides be placed with their tops level with the bases of these traps, manj' crickets will be caught and may be destroyed. ii. Protection of enemies. Mole, shrew-mice, crow, starling, &c. The larvffi of ground and rove-beetles also attack mole- crickets. (e) Bemedial Measures. i. Destruction of nests in June and Julv. Thev mav be dis- covered from the circular orifice in the ground which leads down to them, and by the wilting plants which may be near them. They are dug out, and trampling, pouring hot water over them, or exposure to the sun will kill the brood. ii. Destruction of the full-grown crickets in June. Great caution must be exercised, as the creatures are very shy. Just after dusk, the worker, who should be barefooted, approaches cautiously the places whence the chirping arises, and exposes the concealed cricket by a stroke of the spade. When seized the insect emits a thick black excrement. Family II. — Acridiid.e (Locusts). Description of Family. Insects with vertical head, the antennae shorter than the body, ■\\'ith not more than 25 joints ; wings roof-shaped in repose, the fore-wings narrow ; body laterally compressed ; tarsi with 3 joints, usually with a lappet between the claws ; abdomen with an auditory organ on each side of the first segment, ovipositor short. Locusts are plant-eaters, and chiefly feed on the produce of fields and meadows, but also on the foliage of broad-leaved trees and shrubs, especially when they come in swarms, and they can then be extremely hurtful. The commonest European species is Pachytylus migratorius, L., and its area of sub-permanent distribution is from lat. 40° N. in Portugal to 48° in France and Switzerland, and rising east- wards to 56 in Piussia, Siberia, N. Japan. Its area of occa- MIGRATORY LOCUST. 333 sional distribution is wider, and it has visited England and Scandinavia. It is also found in S. latitudes in New Zealand and Australia, and in Mauritius and Africa. Only an occasional visitor to India. Acrydium pere[irinum is permanent in Africa and tropical Asia, especially India, and occasionally visits the South of Europe, and in 1869 was found over a large part of England. 1. Paclii/tylas migratoriiis, L. {Migratory Locust). (a) Description. Imago 35 to 48 mm. long ( (^ ) , 42 to 55 mm. long ( ? ), coloured greenish, or brownish ; pronotum produced into a blunt point in front; wings yellowish, or pale brown, almost transparent, slightly darker at the tips ; chest with white hairs ; hind femora bluish on their inner side, with a black ring in front of the joint ; hind tibiae yellow. Larva with broad brown bands on the front part of the back, and wingless until it has moulted four times. "»■' (b) Life-History. The eggs are laid in the ground 3 to 4 cm. deep, in, groups of 70 to 80, and as the ? die immediately after laying, their dead bodies lying on the ground show where eggs have been laid. (c) Relations to the Forest. Locusts chiefly devour agricultural produce, sometimes ap- pearing in such countless swarms as to leave nothing green over many square miles of country. South Russia, with its extended grain-producing plains, is specially liable to this scourge, and also Hungary. Its permanent home appears to be the barren steppes of Central Asia. It occasionally spreads west- wards over Germany as far as Belgium, and even into the British Isles. While, however, chiefly devouring agricultural crops, the locust does not spare the young leaves and terminal buds of broad-leaved trees, though it only rarely strips off all the foliage of a forest. In 1880, in Istria, oak and ash were chiefly 334 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. attacked by it, other broad- leaved trees being spared. Vine- yards were also attacked. (d) Protective Rides. i. Destruction of eggs. Very difficult to carry out on a large scale. ii. Destruction of larvfe, which is the best naethod. They have been exterminated in Cyprus by an organised system of digging trenches, into which the larvae are driven ; strips of cloth on stakes lead up to the trenches, and the locusts are crushed by thousands when the trenches are nearly full, and then fresh trenches are dug. iii. Destruction of the full-grown locusts may be effected during wet weather, when they fly with difficulty. LIST OF DESTEUCTIVE INSECTS. A list is here given of all the destructive insects dealt with in this book, arranged according to the species of tree attacked and the different organs of it which suffer. The following details are given in the list : — Organs of tree attacked : root, bark, cambium, wood, buds, young shoots, needles, leaves, blossoms, fruits and seeds. Stage of the insect at the time when it is injurious : larva, imago ; or, sometimes, in the case of Orthoptera, or Hcmiptera, all stages, including the nymph or pupa. Grade of injuriousness of insect. Age of woods attacked : seedlings, young plants, poles, or trees. Characteristics of attack, which serve to indicate the offender. The following abbreviations are used : — I. Imago. (Y.P.) Young plants. L. Lai-va. P. Poles. A. All stages. T. Trees. (V.G.) Vertical gallery. ! * Highly injurious. (F.G.) Forked (H.G.) Horizontal ,, (L.G.) Ladder ,, ; the charac- teristic form of Tnjpodcmlron. O Slightly Insects not marked with either of the above signs are moderately injurious. Those, with the mark + placed after (S.G.) Stellate gallery, [ them, rarely occur in the case re- S. Seedling. j ferred to. LIST OF DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 335 1. THE SPKUCE. Roots. PAGE * Melolontha vulgaris. L. 2 to 3 summers. (Y.P.) 177 *M. hi2)pocastani. Id 185 Dolopius marginatus. L. (Y.P.). 189 Agrotis scgctum. L. S 292 *Gi-yllntalpa vulgaris. A. S. ... 329 Bark. Strophosomus coryli. I. (Y.P. ). 194 S. obesios. Id 195 *Hylobiiisahictis. I. (Y.P) 199 *H. jnnastri. Id 205 Pissodes notatus. Id. + 205 „ pini. I. (Y.P. &P.)... 208 ,, herq/niae. I. T 208 Cambium. Pissodes notatus. L. (Y.P. &P.)t 205 P. pini. Id 208 P. hcrajnia. L. T 208 *Toinicits typographus. I. & L. (V.G.)T 210 *T. amitinus. I. & L. (F.G.) & (S.G.)T 218 *T. chalcographies. I. & L. (S.G.) P. &T '. 219 OT. sexdentatus. I. & L. (L.G.)t 221 T. laricis. I. & L. (Y.G.) P.& T 223 OT. bidcntatus. (Y. P. & P.) (S. G.)t 226 Hylastes ^jaZZ/aizfs. I. & L. (V.G.) (P. &T.) 234 Hylurgas pinipei'da. I. & L. (V.G.)T.t 237 B. minor. I. & L. (H.G.) (P. &T.)t 243 Wood. PAGE Hylecoetus dermestoides. I.& L.T. 191 * Trypodcndron linmtum. I. & L. (L.G.)(P. &T.) 228 Sirex jiivcncus. L. T.f 320 S. gigas. L. (P. & T.) 322 BtJDS. *Liparis monacha. L. (P. & T.) 280 Young Shoots. * Hylohius ahictis. L. (Y.P.) ... 199 Chorines abietis. A. (P. & T.) Large galls 325 Lccanium racemosum. A. (Y. P. &P.) .3-29 Needles. Q Mclolontha s])ip. I. (P. & T.)... 177 Strophosomiis coryli. \. (Y.P.) 194 S. obcsus. Id 195 Sitones lineatiis. Id 195 *Li2)aris monacha. L. Trees of all ages 280 Panolis pinipcrda. L. (P. &T.)t 288 Bupalus piniarius. Id 294 Lccanium racemosum. A. (Y. P. &P.) 329 Inflorescence. QMclolontha vulgaris. I.(P. &T. ) 177 Cones. Ernobius abietis. L 191 Germinating Seeds. O Agriotes ST^Yi. L 189 2. SILVER FIR. Roots. *Melolontha spp. L. (Y.P.) 2 to 3 summers 177 *Gryllotalpa vulgaris. A. S. ... 329 Bark. O Strophosomus obcsus. I. (Y. P.)t 195 *Hylobius abietis. I. (Y. P.)t... 199 Pissodes picecc. LP. .. O Aphis sv^. A. (P. & T. 208 325 O Coccus spp. A. (Y. P. & P.) ... 328 Cambium. Pissodes piceoi. L. (P. & T.) ... 208 Tomicus chalcog7-aphus. I. & L. (S.G.) (P. &T.)t 219 336 PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. PAGE T. laricis. I. & L. (H.G.) (P. & T.)t 223 Hylasfcs palHatus. I. & L. (V.G.) (P. &T.) 234 Wood. ORjlJecoctusdermestoidcs. I. & L. T 191 * Tr]ipodcndron lineatum. I. & L. (L.G.)T 228 Sirex spp. L. (P. X: T. ) 320 Buds. Picdisca rufimitrana. L. T. ... 306 Young Shoots. PAGE Stvonhofinmus obesus. I. (Y. P. ) 195 Pmlisca rufimitrana. L. T. ... 306 OCocc'Hsspp. A. (P. &T.) 328 Needles. OMelolonthas]-^\\ I. (P. &T.)... 177 QStropliosomus obesus. I. (Y.P.) 195 *Lipar'is monaclia. L. T.+ 280 *Pa;disca rufimitrana. L. T. ... 306 Germixating Seeds. O-^griotes sY)i^. L 189 3. SCOTCH PINE. Roops. *McJoI.on/has\^Y>. L. (Y.P.) 2 to 3 summers O Dolopius marqinatus. L. ( Y. P. ) *Agrotis vcstigiaJis.- L. S *A. segetum. Id *GryUotal2m vulgaris. A. S. ... Bakk. Stropliosomus coryli. I. (Y.P.) aS*. obesus. Id *H7j7obivs abiet.is. I. ( Y. P- ) ... *H. }nnastri. Id *Pissodes notatus. I. ( Y. P. & P. ) *P. pirn. Id *P. piniphihis. I. ( P. & T. ) Lophynis jnni. L. (Y.P. & P,) L. rufus. Id Cambium. *Pissodes notatus. L. ( Y. P. & P. ) P. pini. Id *P.piniphUus. L. (P. &T.) ... OTomicus typograj^hus. I. & L. (V.G.)T.+ OT. amitimcs. I. & L. (F.G.) & (S.G.)T.t OT. chalcographus. I. kL. (S.G.) (P. &T.)t *T. sexdcntattis. I. & L. (V.G.) T *T. laricis. I. & L. (V.G.) (P. &T.) 177 189 290 292 .329 194 195 199 205 205 208 208 315 319 205 208 208 210 218 219 221 223 *T. hidcntatvs. I. & L. (S.G.) Trees of all ages 226 T. acumiiwlus. I. & L. (S.G.) T 228 Hylasfes paVlatus. I. & L. '(V.G.)T 234 'H. ntcr. I. (Y.P.) Near the collum 236 H. opacus. Id 236 *H'yJurgiis piniperda. I. & L. (V. G. ) Trees of all ages 237 *H. minor. I. & L. (H.G.). Trees of all ages 243 AVooD. Tri/podendroii lineatum. I. &L. (L.G.) (P. &T.)t 228 Sirex juvcncHS. L. (P. & T. ) 2 summers 320 S. gigas. Id 322 Buds. *Gastro'paclw.pini. L. (P. & T.) 265 Liparis monacha. Id 280 *Retiniabuoliana. L. (Y. P. &P.) 301 R. turionana. Id 304 Young Shoots. Hijlobius abietis. I. (Y.P. & P.) 199 H. pinastri. Id 205 *lJylurgtis piniperda. I. Pith of trees of all ages 237 *H. minor. Id 243 *Rctinia buoliana. L. Pith of trees of all ages 301 LIST OF DESTKUCTIVE INSECTS, 337 PAGE J{. turionana. L. (Y. P. & P.) 304 OR. rcsindla. L. 2 years. (Y. P. & P.). Eesin-galls 305 Coccus ht^-^. a 328 Needles. Qlihizotrogtis solstitialis. I. (P. &T.) 185 StrojjJwsomus coryU. I. (Y. P.) 194 S. ohesus. Id 195 S. limhatiis. Id 195 *Gastro2mchapini. L. (P. & T.) 265 ^'Liparis monaclia. L. (Y. P. ) (P. &T.) 280 *Panolis2nniperda. L. (P. &T.) 288 Agrotis vestigialis. L. (Y.P.)... 290 * Bu2}alus piniarius. L. (P. &T.) 294 I'AGE *Lo2yhyrHs piiii. L. (Y.P. & P.) Social 315 *L. rufus. Id 319 Inflorescence. OMcMontJia vulgaris. I. (P. & T.) 177 QErnohius ahictis. L 191 Germinating Seeds. QAgrlotcs ii\)\). L 189 The above-mentioned insects also attack other species of pines, sucli as P. Strohxis, Laricio, Ccmbra, montana ; but none suffers so much as P. sijl- vestris. 4. LARCH. Roots. *MeMontha spp., L. (Y. P.). 2 to 3 summers 177 Agrotis vestigialis, L. S 290 *Gryllotal2M vtdgaris, A. S 329 Bark. ITylobius ahictis, I. (Y. P.)t ... 199 H. pineti, I. (Y.P.) 205 Pissodcsnotatus, I. (Y.P. &P.)t 205 Chermcs laricis, A. Trees of all ages 327 Cameium. Pissodcs notatus, L. (Y. P. & P. )t 205 *Tomicits ty2}ogra2)hus, I. & L. (V.G.), T.f 210 *T. amitinus, I. & L. (F. or S.G.)T 218 T. cJialcogrcqjhus, I. & L. (S.G. ) (P, &T.) 219 T. laricis, I. & L. (V.G.), P. & T. 223 "Wood. Try2)oclcndron lincatum, I. & L. (L.G.)T.+ 228 Sirex gigas, L. T 322 Buds. Cecidomyia Tccllneri, L. Trees of all ages 325 Needles. OMclolontha spp., I. (P. & T.) ... 177 LiiKiris ononacha, L. (P. &T.)... 280 Agrotis vestigialis. L. (Y.P.) ... 290 Paxlisca occuUana, L. T 307 ^'C'o/eo2->Jiora laricella, L. (Y. P. & P.) 311 QChcrmes laricis, A. (Y.P. & P.) 327 GerminatinCx Seeds. QAgriolcs spp 189 5. BEECH. Roots. *Mclolontlm spp., L. (Y.P.) Gryllotalpa vulgaris, A. S. VOL. IV. Bark. 177 I Hylobiusabietis, I. {Y.V.)i- 199 329 I Fes2m crahro, I. (Y.P. & P.) ... 167 z 338 PKOTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. C.VMUIUM. PAGE *Ayrilus viridls, L. (Y.P.). "2 summers 186 A. an(juiitulH>i,\\\.-\ 188 QScolytus iiifricntt's, I. i L. (H.G.). P. au.l biaiidiest... 250 "Wool). OHi/lecoctus dcriHCstou/.c»; L. T. ... 191 Xcstohtum tcssehitam, I. & L. T. 192 Trypodciulroii domcsticunu 1. & L. (L.G.)T 231 Xylcborus dls2Mr, I. k L. (F.G.) (Y.P.) 232 Zcnzcra waculi, L. (Y.P.) 2 summers 264 Buds and Lkave.s. MclolonthasY\\t., I. (P. &T.) ... 177 GRhizotrogus sol st it if (lis, I. (P, & T.) 185 PAGE QApodervs con/li, I. & L. (Y.P.). Leaf- rolling 193 CRhlinchites spp. I. & L. (Y.P.). Leaf-rollincr 193 Strophosomus conjli , I. (Y.P.)-.. 194 S. obcsus, \([ 195 Fhyllohius spYi., Ill 195 Orchcstcs fagi, I. & L. (^Miner). Trees of all ages 196 *Dasychira piulibunda, L. (P. &T.) 274 Porthcsia chrysorrhoea. Id 278 OPorthesia similis, L. (P. & T.)... 279 *Lipa7'is monaeha. Id 280 CSilemia de/oliaria, L. (P. & T.) 298 Fruits. Athous hii)\j., Id 190 LIST OF DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. ;3:39 PAGE Strophosmnus spp. , Id. 194 Hylohius abictis. Id.t 199 OC// /lips spp. I. & L. Galls -323 *P(ichytyhis migratorias. I. lY.P.) 333 ACOKXS. PAGE Agriotcs lineatus. L 189 A. ohscurus. Id 189 Athous hccinorrhoidalis Id. ... 189 Balaninus glandiiua. I. & L. 196 OCynips spp, I. & L. Galls. ... 323 7. HOENBEAM Roots. *J/c/oZa/iesceHS,Ehrh.),the latter preferring boggy ground, are sometimes hurtful in coniferous forests, as their hard, whip- like branches break off the tender spring- shoots of conifers. Owing to their rapid growth when young they may also be prejudicial to young oak plants, but may also act as useful 358 PKOTECTION AGAINST PLANTS. nurses to the latter against frost and drought. As birch has usually a number of collum-buds, it should be cut below the level of the soil. (f) Other Light-demanding Weeds. The best remedy for the remaining hght-demanding weeds is to effect natural regeneration of the wood, or to replant it, if clear-cut, as soon as possible. They are St. John's-wort {Hypeii- cuin) ; balsam {Impatiens Noli-me -tang ere, L.), which grows m damp, fertile soil, in masses often a yard high and over large areas: willow-herb {Ejyilohium angustifulinm,L.) on similar soil,, the seed of which appears to remain latent for a long time, and is carried far and wide by the wind; groundsell {Senecio), spring- ing up in masses on sandy soils, the seed carried far by wind (these plants also act as hosts to parasitic fungi) ; hawkweed (Hieracium); Atropa Belladonna, L., on fertile damp soil in shady mountain forests of Europe and Asia (Himalayas), is very poisonous ; foxglove {Digitalis) may grow in such masses that the hill-side appears red, both species, I>. purpurea, L., and the yellow one, D. grandijiora, which is not indigenous in Britain, are poisonous ; Verhascum, four species found on dry, stony ground ; nettles {Urtica urens, L.), an annual, and the perennial nettle, with strong rhizomes (C7. dioica, L.), are fre- quently troublesome in forest nurseries ; wood-rush (Luzula), four species common in mountain forests. Grasses deserve a separate paragraph. The most common injurious kinds are: — Species of bent-grass (Agrustis) ; Aira coespitosa, L., and A.fiexuosa, L. ; Melica ciliata, L. ; sheep's fescue {Festuca ovina, L.), and other species of fescue; couch- or twitch-grass {Agropyrum (Triticum) repens, Besmv.) ; lyme- grass {ElijniHS arenarius, L.) ; mat-grass {Nardus stricta, L.). The damage due to a thick growth of grass is of several kinds : the soil may become matted with its roots, which may prevent the seed of forest trees from reaching the ground ; young growth may be choked, the soil dried up, or moisture kept in, and frost increased; damage may also be done by mice and insects which shelter in the grass. When grass grows densely it is a sign that the forest is too thin and admits too much BRAMBLES. 359 light. Twitch flourishes in sandy soils, creeping in all direc- tions through the soil and tilling it with rhizomes ; it may even penetrate roots of living plants, and thus interfere with their growth. Weedy places may be treated as already stated for heather, and are best recruited by means of transplants. Twitch is got rid of by repeated ploughing, and by collecting and burning its rhizomes ; three years grazing on land where it grows is very useful, as finer grasses then gradually replace it. 3. Half-shadehearers. These are all woody plants, except the last two. {a) Blackthorn (Prnnm sjjinosa, L.) is common on moist, loamy and clay soils, and on marls, and ascends to 3,000 feet in mountains. It stands frost better than whitethorn, and replaces it for hedging in very frosty localities. It sends out roots and suckers, and has a spreading root-system, and does much harm in regeneration areas and among coppice. It is best to dig it up by the roots in clearings, or cut it back several years before coppice is felled. (h) Brambles {Riibus fruticosus, L.). There are numerous sub- genera of this species, termed blackberry or dewberry bushes, the latter (B. ccesias, L.) growing in moister localities than the common blackberry, w4iich prefers well-drained soils and hedge- rows. Brambles frequently cover large areas in fresh and moist soils, sending out new suckers every year. To keep down these wide- spread pests of the forester seeding-fellings should be dark. Admission of cattle is also useful. In case there be a dense growth of brambles on the ground it should be trampled down round the plants which require protection, or be beaten down with a billhook. They should be cut as little as possible, as this only increases the production of suckers. Plants which they are crowding should be set upright, and their branchlets placed over the brambles. If this be done early in the summer then little will be needed in the autumn, but it may be neces- sary to repeat the operation the succeeding year ; by the second winter the plants will probably get out of reach of the 360 PROTECTION AGAINST PLANTS. brambles. Cutting or digging up the brambles is expensive, and not so effectual as the above procedure. Where a reproduc- tion area is overgrown with brambles, and there is little natural regeneration, it will be better at once to plant up the area. (c) liaspbcrry {Rabits Idoem, L,). This grows chiefly on fertile but stony soils rich in humus. Its habit is straight, and it does not produce such dense growth from suckers as the bramble, but may become dangerous, and should then be treated similarly to the latter. Grazing has a very repressive effect on the growth of raspberry canes. (d) Whitethorn {Cratcegus Oxyacantha, L.). Whitethorn is not particular about locality, and is widely spread up to altitudes of 3,000 feet. The rich shoots and extensive root-system of this slow-growing shrub, which attains a height of 20 feet, are destructive to young conifers, but in forests open to grazing it protects oak, ash, maple, and other broad-leaved trees until they have grown above it, when it forms a thorny defence around them until they are too large to be injured by cattle. It also forms capital hedges, bearing trimming well, and shelters the nests of many useful birds from small carnivora and other enemies. Where it is harmful to young growth, it should be dug up in cleanings and thinnings. Various thorny bushes in India similarly afford great protection to bamboos and other valuable species in grazed forests. (e) Other Shrubs and Bushes. The wild gooseberry-bush {Ribes Grossularia, L.), elder (Sambucus), guelder rose {Viburnum Opulus, L.), wayfaring tree {V.lantana,!^.), the spindle tree {Euonym us europams, L.), and privet {Lu/ustrum, vulgare, L.) are widespread, the latter and Viburnum Lantana, L., chiefly on calcareous soils in hills. None of these plants are, however, particularly hurtful to young forest growth except the herbaceous dwarf elder {Sambucus Ebidus, L.), which grows in masses from rhizomes in damp places. Daphne Mezereum, L., is a small shrub growing in hilly and mountain woods on damp soils, and is highly poisonous. ASPEN. 361 (f) Forest Willows. Sallow {Salix Caprea, L.) flourishes on fresh soils in plains and hills, but will also grow on dry soil and in mountains up to 5,500 feet, attaining at times the dimensions of a small tree ; it sends out numerous stool-shoots, but has a shallow root- system, so that it may be easily pulled up by the hand, as well as the other willows mentioned below. Salix cinerea, L., a variety of the sallow, is a smaller plant of a. shrubby nature ; it sends out suckers on damp soils and along water courses ; ascends to 3,000 feet. Salix aurita, L., resembles the sallow in its habit, but sends out suckers, ascends to 5,000 feet, on wet or dry soils. Salix rejpens, L., is a small, straggling bush, growing chiefly on turfy and heather laud, and also near swamps ; ascends to 3,500 feet. All these willows when hurttul to forest growth should be cut back or pulled up in cleanings and thinnings. (g) Aspen {Populus tremida, L.). Aspen is a tree which is disseminated throughout Europe, except in the extreme south, up to 70^ N. latitude, and 5,000 feet altitude ; it is often very hurtful to valuable forest plants owing to its rapid growth and abundant production of suckers. The roots of a felled aspen, which spread far from the stump, close to the surface of the ground, remain living for years after the parent tree has been removed ; they then send up numerous suckers from adventitious buds after the wood in which the aspen formerly grew has been cleared. The aspen is not particular as regards soils, but can grow on cold wet soils and is frequently found in frosty localities, as, for instance, on the London clay in Epping forest. Cutting down the suckers is of little avail, as is also extracting the stumps aud longer roots of felled trees, but completely girdling a standing tree gradually dries it up and eventually prevents the formation of suckers. The aspen is also a host for an injurious fungus, Melampsora Tremiilce, which, in the forms Coeoma pinitorquum and C Lands, attacks pines and larch, and will be described further on. 362 PROTECTION AGAINST PLANTS. (li) Bilberry {Vaccinium Myrtillns, L.) This is a small shrub growing throughout Europe up to 6,000 feet altitude, in masses, on fresh, damp, and even somewhat sour soil. It may also be found on dry sandy soils, but not on calcareous ones. It prefers a slight shade, especially of pines. When it appears in masses it denotes insufficiency of stock and deterioration of the soil, and the surface-soil becomes choked with its roots. Its berries are, however, valuable for making alcohol and preserves. The cowberry {Vaccinium Vitis-Idrea, L.), is an evergreen plant, growing on loose, damp, sandy soils in high, cool places ; it is social, and has a distribution similar to that of the bilberry. A dense growth of either of these species hinders natural regeneration and increases the difficulty of artificial restocking. There is then no alternative but to take up these plants in sods, beat off, in situ, all the soil attached to their roots, and remove them. Planting is better than sowing where they prevail. V. nliginosiiin, L., is found on swampy laud and mountain- tops, and the cranberry {V. Oxi/coccos, L.) on peaty soils. (i) Ferns. The commoner kinds of ferns found in forests are : {Poly- podium vulyare, L.), Beech fern (P. Plmiopteris, L.), Male fern {Nephrodi}im Filix-mas., Kich), Lady fern {Athyrinm Filix- foemina, Bernh.), and Bracken {Pteris aqnilina, L.). The above prefer damp and stony ground, and their appearance denotes a fertile soil, as well as a slight opening out of the leaf- canopy. They spread above and below ground often to the prejudice of young forest plants, by causing excessive moisture, and depriving them of light, and by being pressed down on them in a rotting state in winter by the snow. This frequently kills light-demanders. In the case of bracken, the best plan is to knock off the soft young shoots in early summer, which can easily be done before they have unrolled. Dried bracken is largely used in England and elsewhere for litter, and in the Forest of Dean, repeated earlj' cutting, in August instead of Octol)er has greatly weakened SHADEBEAKING WEEDS. 363 the rhizomes of the plant, so that only a short weak crop is produced, as compared with that in the Windsor and New Forests, where it is cut later in the autumn. (k) Mosses. Two species of hurtful mosses are common in forests : Poly- triclitim conwinnc, L., and P.janipennum, W. They form dense convex tufts in damp places, which may be distinguished at a distance by their darker green colour from the paler and more spreading mosses, Hijpnnm and Hylocommm, which form a useful soil-covering in forests. They are chiefly found in high forest, and especially in spruce woods, and do harm by favour- ing excessive moisture in the ground and hindering the germina- tion of seedlings. The tufts should be turned over and broken up. 4. Shadehearing Weeds. These are all woody plants. Alder-buckthorn {Rhamniis Frangida, L.) is common throughout Europe on damp ground, and chiefly in lowlands ; it produces many suckers, and is spread much by birds which eat the berries. It is used for gunpowder-charcoal. The common buckthorn {II. cutliarticus, L.), is a thorny shrub with spreading roots and many suckers, found on similar soil to the former, and along banks of streams. Both kinds may be dug up during cleanings. Dog wood {Comas sanguinca, L.), on fertile moist soils, ascends to 2,600 feet in mountains, and sends out numerous stool shoots. The wood is used for skewers and was formerly employed for arrows. Holly {Ilex aquifolimn , L,), a large evergreen prickly shrub or small tree, found chiefly on good damp loam or loamy sand ; it coppices ^^ell. Where it abounds it is possible to plant only strong transplants between the holly bushes, and the latter need constantly cutting back, until they are no longer dangerous. Holly makes excellent hedges, but requires plenty of humus. Night-shade {Solanam Dulcamara, L.), a small shrub growing in shady, damp, low lands and along banks of streams, climbing •364, PROTECTIOX AGAINST PLANTS. lip to 10 feet in height on pollard willows and osiers. This plant, as well as S. nigrum, L., which chiefly grows along road- sides, is highly poisonous. Common juniper {Juniperus communis, L.) is a coniferous shrub wide-spread all over Europe in plains and mountains up to 9,800 feet in the Alps. It is very hardy and indifl'erent to soils. It spreads owing to thrushes which swallow the berries. Grows well in the open and also in dense pine woods. Should be cut down or pulled up where dangerous to young growth. 5. Forest Weeds of Wet Peaty Soil. To this group belong the numerous species of the following genera. Rushes {Juncus, L.), (Scirjyus, L.), Cottongrass {Eriophorum, L.), Sedges {Carex, L.), Reeds {Calamagrostis, Adans), and Marestail {Equisetum, L.). All these except the last may be termed lialf -grasses, and they all form sour herbage, and are chiefly found in low lands, or on peat, and are somewhat light-demanding. A species of Equisetum is a troublesome weed in the somewhat wet sandy loam of part of the Coopers Hill forest nursery. Sphagnum. Several species of this peat-moss exist and grow chiefly in the open, in opposition to Polytrichum, which grows under cover. They are most dangerous mosses, producing peat and swamps, and rendering the soil unsuitable for forest growth. The invasion of sour herbage and peat-mosses is best kept back by maintaining the leaf-canopy. If a swamp has been formed it must be drained ; sometimes, however, on flat land, with a tendency to swampiness, as shewn by the presence of these weeds, after a forest crop has been cleared, ash and alder should be planted instead of oak and beech, the swampiness disappearing after the forest growth has been reconstituted. 6. Climbers. The first two European climbers given are woody and the others herbaceous. The shoots of all climbers should be cut repeatedly below ground till no more appear. There is no necessity to unwind the twiner, unless it is a woody species, as it soon dries up after being cut from the root. CLIMBERS. 365 (a) Traveller's joy {Clematis Vitalha, Fig. L.) is widespread throughout Europe, chiefly ou hills and mountains ; it is a half-shadebearer and attains a height of 20 feet, climbing up stems, bushes, and rocks. The shoots may strike root wher- ever they rest on soil, and the plant some- times grows in masses and is dangerous to young forest plants. {h) Honeysuckle or woodbine {Loni- cera Periclymemim, L.), a twiner growing in hedgerows, edges of woods, and inside woods throughout western Europe ; it is found on damp soil and chiefly in lowlands. A half-shadebearer, twining round saplings to a considerable height, and thus producing misshapen spiral stems as in Fig. 182. If no suitable stems are available, it covers the ground and the herbaceous plants growing on it. It does much damage to valuable saplings iu coppice-with-standards. L. Capii- folium, L., with connate upper leaves, is common in southern Europe, and has become wild in certain localities further north ; it has similar habits to the former. (r) Bind- weed [Convolvulus, L.) : C. arvensis, L., chiefly found in fields and waste places ; C. sepium, L., in hedges and thickets. Both species are extremely troublesome in nurseries and iu osier- beds, as their rhizomes fill the ground, and their shoots twine round and bear down the young plants. Black bind-weed(Po/v.'70/i^ 03 .. <0 Species attacked. All c(nuf(!rous trees, especially Scotch pine, spruce, and Weymoutii pine. Scotch jiine, Weymouth pine, sjiruce, silver- fir, and juniper. Scotch pine, mountain iiine, spruce, larch. and silver-iir. Spruce, Scotch jiine, silver-lir, also Wey mouth pine and larch. Scotch, black and Weymouth jiines . Same, except black [line . Larch ...... Scotcli pine ..... Silver fir ...... Spruce, seldom silver-lir, or Scotch jiine Larch Spruce and silver-lir .... Scotch, black and mountain jiincs Spmce ...... Silver-lir ...... Spruce Scotch [line ...... S[nuce ....... Silver-tir ....... Silver-lir and .spruce . . . . . Spruce Spruce Name of fungus. 1 1 * « * a) >... . -Ji S - ■ ■ ^ ^ &- ^ 1 -^ S i; a: -5 " :s i s s l,:5 § To - 'S ^ ^'^ = .^ ^ s ■- S "^ ^ -g ■= -S t ^ -J, ? '^■ii § 2 ^ =^ ? ? s 3 3 -s h -g a. S 3 * * * * d i-h" im' CO r-lr-lrtl-> S-i 'a 'a 3 CO o « 382 PROTECTION AGAINST FUNGI. *1. Afjaricus melleus, L. (a) Description and Mode of Attack. The honey fungus (Agaricus melleus, L.)j which is one of the commonest in the British Isles, causes a well-known disease amongst conifers. The S3rmptoms are : — Yellow colour in the needles, which gradually dry up and fall ; the shoots wilt ; the base of the stem swells up and the bark peels off, whilst turpen- FiG. 1S9, ^ a Root of a Scotch pine killed by Afjaricus melleus, L. a Rliizomorpb, external to root, which it bores at a. h Flattened Khizomorph passing be- tween the dead wood and bast of a Scotch pine ; its left-hand branches are white, and resemble ordinary mycelia. tine exudes freely, clogging together the soil around the tree ; the bark decays and fibrous fungoid tissues appear in the soil, seldom deeper than four inches, which are termed rhizomorplis. These latter are persistent mycelial hyphae like sclerotic fibres, and resemble branching roots ; they sometimes anastomose. White ribbon-like bands of mycelium are formed between the bast and sapwood and in hollows in the dead bark and bast, and often spread like a net ; mycelial strands which pass into the soil from these white bands are round and dark-brown rhizo- morphs, which may also develop between the wood and the cortex. AGARICUS MELLEUS. 383 Plants which have been attacked eventually die, and when young generally in the first year of the disease. If the dead plant be examined microscopically it will be found that the bast and cambium have been destroyed, the resin-ducts are full of hyphffi and enlarged and deprived of resin ; fine hyph^e also proceed along medullary rays towards the centre of the tree. Starch is transformed into turpentine which flows from the tree. The edible sporophores first come to light in great numbers during damp weather in October, at or near the base of the dead trees, and spring from the rhizomorphs. Fig. 190. Eight- J ears-old Scotch pine killed by Ar/aricus riielleus, L. a Sterile rhizomorphic strands. h and c fertile ditto ; some of the sporophores are abortive, d Sporophores springing from niycelia under the bark. (Beduced.) Fig. 191 represents a sporophore. Its cap varies in colour from that of honey to a dirty brown, with dark, hairy scales ; its lamellse are yellowish-white, and become later on speckled with reddish-brown. The cylindrical stem of the sporophore is at first dull red, and bears a flocky white ring. The sporo- phores emit myriads of white gonidia, which spread the infec- 384 PROTECTION AGAINST FUNGI. Fig. 191. tion to other coniferous plants and to dead broad-leaved species, on which it is saprophytic. The rhizomorphs grow in all directions through the soil, and by means of their soft apices bore into the roots of neigh- bouring plants and trees, which they eventually kill. In dense young growth, whole groups of plants may be thus killed and considerable blanks produced. In old woods, the attack is more confined to individual trees, and the disease spreads several feet up their stems. (b) Snhjects of Attack. The fungus attacks all in- digenous or exotic conifers, especially the Scotch and Wey- mouth pines and the spruce ; the larch not unfrequently suflers, but the black pine rarely. Plants may be attacked from four to a hundred years old, but especially between four and fifteen years. In dense sowings and multiple plantings the disease is at its worst, especially when the wood was originally stocked with broad- leaved trees on M^hich the fungus is saprophytic, such as beech, oak, hornbeam, birch, species of Pi/riis and Primus,* Sec. The fungus also attacks timbers of bridges and other forest- works. The stumps of broad-leaved trees left in the ground of a plan- tation form nurseries which propagate the fungus. Plants which * A. mclleusis said by Hartig to be sometimes parasitic ou species o{ Fnmus. Fully-grown sporophore of Agaricus melleus. r Rhizonjorph. {N^atural size. AGARICUS MELLEUS. 385 are attacked generally die either between April and July, or from the middle of October to the end of November, and frequently the healthiest and most flourishing plants succumb. It is difficult to recognise plants which are attacked until the year before they die, when their needles turn pale and their shoots are stunted. (c) Protective Rules. (i) All stumps and roots of broad-leaved trees should be thoroughly extracted before plantations of conifers are es- tablished on the site of a broad- leaved wood, and where the disease has once appeared dense sowings of conifers and mul- tiple planting should be avoided. When the disease shows itself — (ii) All plants which are attacked must be dug up with all their roots and the rhizomorphs and burned. Should this produce a blank, the ground must be thoroughly trenched and all strands of rhizomorphs extracted before it is replanted, and then it is best to plant broad-leaved species. (iii) Small isolation-trenches should be dug round plants, or groups of plants which have been attacked, so as to localise the injury and jjrevent a further spread of the rhizomorphs. The trenches should be far enough from the attacked plants to exclude all rhizomorphs from the healthy trees. *2. Trcouetes radkiperda, E. Hrtg. (a) Description and mode of Attack. This parasite, which is very destructive in pine and spruce forests of North Germany, and is not uncommon in the British Isles, causes red- or root-rot in the Scotch pine, spruce and other conifers, and has been found on old stumps of birches and beech which have been injured by mice, although it is probably not parasitic on broad-leaved species. Trees attacked by it are eventually killed. The infection usually comes from the diseased roots of a neighbouring tree, jbut also from gonidia. The colourless soft mycelium is more delicate than that of A. niclleiis, resembling VOL. IV. c c 386 PROTECTION AGAINST FUNGI. tissue paper, and is developed in the bast and wood of the root- system of trees. The walls of the bast and wood-cells are bored and disintegrated by numerous hyphiie until the roots become totally rotten. The rot proceeds from an infected root upwards into the stem and from the collar downwards into the hitherto sound roots, only in the Scotch pine does the resinous root-stalk form an impediment to the ascent of the mycelium. In spruce -wood, the presence of this parasite is decidedly shown by the appearance of black spots surrounded by white colour in the spring-wood. Outwardly the mycelium penetrates cracks in the bark, in the form of small yellowish-white tufts. Fu;. 192. Sporophore of Trametes radiciperda, K. Hrtg., on a Scotch piue root. {Reduced.) The sporophores are chiefly on the root-stalk, but also on the roots either in the form of incrustations or masses like yellow or snow-white grapes. Under favourable circumstances of growth they may assume the form of brackets. The disease generally spreads rapidl}^ turning the wood first brown and then white and causing large hollows in it. By the artificial infection of six ten-year old Scotch pines, five of them were killed in a year and a half. (b) Subjects of Attack. The fungus has been observed on the Scotch and Weymouth pines, the spruce, silver-fir and juniper, of all ages up to 90 years, and on Scotch pine transplants from five years old. It may cause extensive blanks in coniferous woods, which spread centrifugally from a centre of infection. Its spread is favoured TRAMETES PINT. 387 l\y mice and other animals which carry the spores in their fur. Trees which are attacked have pale needles and stunted shoots, as in the case of .-1. mellcus. (c) Protective Rules. (i) Mixing broad-leaved trees with conifers. (ii) Removal of all infected trees, as soon as they are noticed, -and filling up the gaps by broad- leaved species. (iii) Digging up and charring all roots which show traces of tsporophores. Hess considers isolation-trenches of little use in this case, as they only favour the production of gonidia from the exposed hj^phne. Hartig, however, considers it possible to scrape the walls of the trenches free from gonidia, though this could probably be done only in isolated cases of the disease. Isolation trenches will at any rate prevent the infection of health}" trees by contact bet^^■een their roots and those of diseased ones. *3. Tramctcs Pini, Fr. (a) Description and mode of Attach. The mycelium of this fungus develops in the heartwood of the Scotch pine and other trees. The spring-wood of the annual zones becomes gradually reddish brown, with numerous regularly distributed perforations coated with white, and at length dis- appears. The remainder of the wood, and especially the resinous autumn-wood remains intact for some time, but eventually' succumbs so that the tree may become completely hollow. As the mj'celium develops most rapidly lengthwise along the infected ring, we find zones of attacked and sound wood alternating and forming a kind of cup-shape. The rotting wood, except in the slightly resinous silver-fir and in spruce branches, is generally bordered by a zone rich in resin which prevents the outward spread of the mycelium. At the scars of dead branches in the case of an infected pine or larch, or anywhere from the bark of a spruce or silver-fir, bracket-like brown sporophores eventually appear and emit spores which may germinate on fresh wounds, unclosed by resin, c c 2 388 PROTECTION AGAINST FUNGI. on other trees. Such wounds may be caused by wind- or snow- breakage, by mischief, or by careless pruning. The hyphse resulting from these spores pass along the branch-wood enclosed in the stem to the heart of the tree usually leaving the sapwood unaffected. This disease is commonest near villages and towns where forests are much exposed to mischief, and also in forests liable to wind- or snow-break. Fig. 193. a Sporophore of Trametes pini, Fr. , on the smooth cortex of a Scotsh pine. (b) Subjects of Attack. Trametes jmii is prevalent on trees from forty years old and upwards, as it does not generally attack sapwood owing to its turpentine, and because wounds in young trees are usually soon closed with resin. It attacks the larch, spruce, and silver-fir, as well as the Scotch pine. In the silver-fir, decay spreads to the youngest woody zones which contain little turpentine. The sporophores may become very old, up to sixty years, and attain large dimensions. The technical value of the wood is greatly impaired by the disease. The fungus is common in the Scotch pine forests of North Germany, and in the Harz and Thiiringer-Wald and South Germany, chiefly on the spruce. In the Carpathians it attacks silver-fir and larch woods. It occurs in the British Isles. (c) Protective Rules. (i) Pruning living branches of Scotch pines which already FUNGI CAUSING RED- OR WHITE-ROT. 389 contain heartwood must be abandoned. Living branches may be pruned up to thirty years of age, as they contain no heartwood, and the infection is less liable to occur in young wood. In any case pruniugs should be clean cut with a saw, and, in the case of silver-fir, at once tarred over. (ii) All infected trees should be removed during thinnings. In this way the sporophores may be destroyed and the spread of spores hindered ; also wood of diseased trees may be utilized before the decay has gone too far, as it is at first frequently con- fined to the upper part of a tree. 4. Fungi causing Red- or White-Rot. A short account will here be given of certain fungi, which assist in causing red- or white-rot in standing trees, the origin of which may however be due to certain bad conditions of the soil. In the case of red-rot, the substance of the cell-wall is dis- solved by a ferment contained in the protoplasm of the hyphae of the fungi and a residual substance consisting of gum, tannin, mineral matter, &c., remains, which owing to the oxidation of the tannin assumes a reddish-brown colour. Red-Rot is caused by the following fungi : — (a) Polyporm vaporarius, Fr. On spruce and Scotch pine and rarely on silver-fir, both roots and wounds above ground being attacked. Wood attacked by this fungus becomes dark- reddish brown and full of rectangular cracks, as in the case of Mendius lacrimans which causes dry rot in timber. When rubbed between the fingers, the rotting wood falls as a yellowish dust. Snow-white branching mycelia several yards long are formed ; the sporophores form white incrustations. The spores gain entrance to the trees through wounds, and the fungus is also common on beams in buildings. *&"■ (b) Polyponis Schweinitzii, Hrtz. This is termed P. mollis, Fr., by Hess, but Hartig has now given the correct name as above. It is found on Scotch pine, and also Weymouth pine and larch. Resembles (a), but no 890 PROTECTION AGAIXST FUNGI. white branching mycelia occur. Sporophores reddish-brown brackets. (c) Polyporus sidplinrens, Fr. On the larch ; it is also a very common parasite on several broad-leaved trees, and will be described further on. White rot is produced when the ferment of the hypha? decom- pose the lignine of the cell-walls, leaving the white cellulose untouched, which accounts for the light colour of the decom- posed wood. Some of the causes of white rot are the following : — (d) Poljipin-ns horcalis, Fr. On the spruce ; the wood turns brownish-yellow, and characteristic radial grooves appear in the spring-wood which are tilled with white mycelia, the latter having a strong tendency to spread horizontally. The sporo- phores are annual, bracket-shaped and frequently in tiers. (e) I'oUiporu^i Harti.'. htrU)utlon. This fuii.uus chiefly attacks yoniig- 1 to 10 years old — Scotch pine, also Weymouth and mountain pines, but never trees over 30 years okl ; it is most frequent on damp soils, and in cold, moist summers. The exemption of older pines from the attacks of this fun«;us is probably due to the fact that the spores proceed from dead aspen leaves lying on the ground. One to three years-old cultivations of pines may be entirely destroyed by it, the disease spreading centrifagally from a centre of infection ; and in older woods, especially after a. succession of rainy years, such misshapen stems may be formed that the ^CIDIUM ELATINUM. 395 marks of the damage always remain patent ; the development of the malady is however retarded by dry weather, and the disease disappears about the thirteenth year. This disease is known all over Germany, especially in the north, and did great damage between 1870 and 1873. (c) Protective Measures. Careful choice should be made of suitable localities for grow- ing Scotch pine. Immediate pruning and burning of infected shoots should be efiected. Remove aspen from pine woods. 7. Cceoma Laricis, H. Hrtg. Melampsora Tremulie also gives rise to the larch needle-rust, which may destroy all the needles of a tree. It resembles the attack of CJiermes laricis, and may thus be overlooked. Aspens should not be allowed to grow near larch plantations. 8. Fungi causing Witches' -hroom .* Certain unknown fungi cause witches'-broom in the Scotch pine, witches'-broom being an abnormal hypertrophy of twigs also appearing on spruce, silver-fir, pines, larch, beech, horn-beam, cherry, birch, &c. Most witches'-brooms a2)pear to be caused hj fungi, but perhaps they may be sometimes due to insect attacks. The mycelia of the above develop in the cortex of branches, which swell up at the points of infection ; thence they pass into all newly-developed twigs and into the needles, the latter remain abnormally short, become pale and die, and pale brown sporophores issue from their stomata and emit gonidia. 9. jEcicIiuni elatinum, Link.t (a) Description and Life-history. This fungus causes the well-known silver-fir canker and witches'-broom. The latter may be distinguished from normal * Hexenbesen der Kiefer Allg. Forst u. Jijd. Ztg., 1871, p. '2.ZQ. The witches'- broom on the hornbeam is caused by Ej:ouscus Cmyini, Rostr., that on the cherry and alnioud-tree by E. deformans. Berk., on the birch hj E. targidus. These witches'-brooms, as well as those on the Scotch pine, do not appear to be very prejudicial to their hosts, that on silver-tir is described under next heading. t Der Weisstanueukrebs, Dr. Karl N. Heck. Berlin, Springer, 1894. .'596 PKOTEOTLON AGAINST FUNGI. shoots of silver-fir by its erect brush-like growth, resembling the parasitic growth of mistletoe, on the drooping branches of the fir, and by the small yellowish-green needles growing all round the shoot, which fall off in their first autumn. There is also a slight swelling of the aftected shoot, and in it the mycelium of the fungus grows in the cortex and bast of the host, passing into the younger shoots and needles till the witches'- broom dies, the mj'celium still living in the cortex of the cankerous swelling, but apparently not in the wood. It does not grow down through the cortex of an infected branch into the stem, but a stem-canker is produced when the stem grows over the infected base of a branch. Fii4. in!t. Shoot of Silver-fir attacked by ^Eciihum clatinnm, Link, rt Cankerous swelling. /; Needles unaflected by the fungus. <■ \eedles of the witches'-l)ronui. {JVatural size.) After Hartig. from I'roc. of Royal Soc, Vol. 47. The canker may be distinguished externally by a swelling either on one side of, or all round the stem, on which the bark is deeply cracked and dark brown, showing here and there a little resin; it crumbles away in parts, exposing the wood. It may be found at any height on young or old trees or their branches, and may attain a large size. The mycelium which grows in the cortical parenchyma is the same as that which produces a witches'-broom, but the latter is formed only when the mycelium reaches a living bud. If, however, the shoots are old and have no living buds, no abnormal shoot-production takes nlace, and the canker alone is .ECimUM ELATINUM. 397 formed. The iiifectioii appears to spring from a womicl in the shoots affected. The old or orange-coloured secidia or sporophores are formed Fu;. -200. Old witclies'-biooin ou the Silver-lir. ii Cankerous swelling caused l)y the mycelium of the fungus. :398 PKOTECTION AGAINST FUNGI. Fig. -201. on the under surface of the diseased leaves. They appear in two rows, open-out and emit their spores in June, the needles subsequently dyino-. The witches'-broojn continues growing for about 20 years, chiefly upwards, and branching freely resembles a mistletoe plant on the usually horizontal branches of a silver- fir. It at length dies, and only the canker remains, which does not produce any sporophore. Hartig has not yet succeeded in infecting a tree artificially bj^ the spores of this fungus, and a case of polymorphy may be concerned here, but the alternate host of the fungus, if one should exist, is not yet known. The damage done is direct and i)i(Ur<'cf, the former consisting in loss of increment and depreciation of the quality of the wood, as cankered wood cannot be used for construc- tions. The indirect damage consists in increased danger of breakage by storms or snow, and a greater dis- position to insect attacks and those of other fungi, such as Polyporus Hartifiii and A. Canker on an oak caused by Nectria ditissima, Tul. of small white tufts of gonidia ; and later on by dark-red sporophores on the canker. The infection always arises at a wound caused by abrasures of bark by felled trees, hail, Sec, and from the point of infection the fungus spreads more or less NECTEIA CTNNABARINA. 417 regularly in the wood, but most quickly aloug the stem. The wood turns brown and dies wherever it is attacked. The diseased portion of the wood appears sunk into the stem, owing to the hypertrophy of the growth of the portions of the stem round the canker. Thus the attacked branches and stems become spindle-shaped. The canker becomes every year deeper and more open. (b) Subjects of Attack, and Distrihution. The beech-canker chiefly attacks the beech, but oaks, ash, hornbeam, hazel, alder, lime, cherry, maple, and apple are also attacked. It is found in thickets 5 to 7 years old, but also in 100-3^ears-old woods, and is worst amongst healthy smooth-barked trees. Infected branches eventually die, and infected trees in the course of time assume extraordinary shapes, and are only fit for firewood. The disease has been known since 1865 in the Saxon Erz mountains and in the extensive beech forests in Hesse. It is common in the British Isles, especially on apple trees, (c) Protective Rides. Cut out all infected trees in cleanings and thinnings, provided too large gaps are not thus caused in the standing-crop. Avoid all injuries to the bark during felling operations. 5. Nectria cinnabarina, Fr. (a) Description and Life-liistory. The presence of this parasite in living broad-leaved trees may be surmised by the sudden drying up and death of apparently healthy shoots, by the greenish or black colour of the wood and by the breaking out of the vermilion-coloured sporophores, which eventually turn brown, on the stem or branches of the tree, chiefly in the autumn, after rainy weather. The infection takes place at a Avound of some kind, chiefly of branches, but also of roots. The mycelium grows rapidly in the wood, pierces the walls of the wood-fibres, decomposes the starch, and leaves VOL. IV. E E 418 PEOTECTTO^' AGAINST FUXGI. a green substance within the infected tissues. The cambium and bark remain sound, but by the destruction of the wood, the water-supply is cut oft" from the crown, the leaves wither and drop off and the shoots dry up. The sporophores appear in autumn or spring on the dead bark of the infected trees, and the danger of infection is then greatest. Fig. 214. Fig. 215. ^^ -''of nil Maple stem showing the vermilion coloured sporophores (a) of Nectria cin- nabarina, Fr. Section of Maple stem attacked by Nectria cinnabarina, Fr. Between a and b the wood is coloured bright green owing to the decomposition of the tissues. (b) Subjects uf Attack, and Distribution. (i) Description and Lifc-historij. This fungus is saprophytic on the dead branches of various broad-leaved trees and shrubs, such as maples, cherries, birch. Marshall Ward notes that it may be often seen on pea- or bean- sticks, which become dotted with red points. PHYTOPHTHORA OMNIVORA. 419 As a parasite, it attacks young plants of maple, lime, horse- cbestuut and elm, and soon kills them. It is very widely spread throughout Europe. (c) Protective Rules. (i) Clean pruning of broken branches and tarring the wounds, (ii) All twigs, branches, or stems which show sporophores of the fungus should be cut off and burned. *6. PJiytoplithora omnivora, De Bary. (a) Description and Life-history . This fungus causes great damage among beech seedlings ; these, when affected, turn black and die from below upwards, during their germination or immediately after the cotyledons have appeared. The little stem shrivels up and turns brown above and below the cotyledons, whilst they are still green, or dark specks appear on the cotyledons or on the young leaves. Within six or eight days after the first appearance of the disease, it attacks the whole plant, especially in protracted rainy weather in the months of May and June. In dry weather the attacked plants appear as if singed by fire. The first infection of the beech by the parasite comes from oospores which have remained in the ground since former sowings. The mycelium, which is intercellular, spreads into the stem and cotyledons, and numerous hyphae break through the epidermis or stomata, and produce lemon- shaped spores. After the bursting of these, fresh ones are formed, and the spores are spread in all directions, and in this w^ay the disease may extend over a considerable area of young plants by attacking their cotyledons, or primordial leaves. The development of the fungus is so rapid that in rainy weather and in damp localities, in 3 or 4 days after the first appearance of the disease, sporophores are formed on the host. At the same time thiek-walled oospores are produced sexually within the cotyledons ; these fall to the ground in the rotting tissues, and may then remain alive for four years and more. These oospores reproduce the malady from year to year if the place be used again for sowing beech. In dense sowings on damp soil, the fungus in- fects the roots of the plants until whole rows of them die at once. E E 2 420 PROTECTION AGAINST FUNGI. The fungus has been observed to attack maple, ash, and robin ia, at the seedling stage, and several conifers, especially the spruce and Scotch pine. Hence the name " omnivora.'" The symptoms are similar in these other cases. If only the leaves of the seedling are affected, it may recover, but whenever the stem is attacked from below, it succumbs. Worms drag down infected seedlings into their holes, and hence gaps some- times arise in what was formerly a flourishing nursery-bed. (b) Subjects of Attack, and Distrihution . This fungus causes considerable damage to all the species it attacks, and the spores are transported by Avind, mice, roe-deer, and by the tread of men or horses, or even cart wheels. Damp, warm years are favourable to the spread of the fungus. It has been noticed all over Germany. (c) Protective Rules. (i) Pull up and burn all infected plants and leaves lying on the ground as soon as the disease is noticed. Seed-beds should be carefully watched in May and June for this malady. The workman should wear an apron, in which he places the infected plants, and should take care not to tread on the beds and bury any oospores. Any bed which has been attacked should be examined daily. (ii) Beech and coniferous seed-beds, where the disease has appeared, should for several years be used only for transplants, and it is then best to change the species grown. 7. Rhytisma acerinmn, Fr. This fungus causes black spots on the leaves of maples, especially of the Norway-maple and sycamore. During damp weather in July, round yellowish spots \ to inch across, appear on maple-leaves, which turn black in August, retaining a lighter tint on their borders. The leaves fall earlier than is usual. On the fallen leaves during winter and the following spring numerous sporophores develop on the black spots and they open in long cracks in damp weather. The spores which issue from them in the spring germinate on the leaves and produce fresh spots as before. The parasite appears to be an annual, and is verv common. MELAMPSORA HARTIGII. 421 The damage done is mostly due to reduced assimilating powers of the leaves and is relatively unimportant. Where the dead leaves are swept up and burned, as in parks and gardens, the disease does not spread, but in places where dead maple-leaves are allowed to lie about in ditches, &c., it may recur annually to the detriment of the beauty and shade of the trees. Fig. 216. Rhytisma acerinum, Fr., on a leaf of Norway Maple. The dark blotches (a) are surrounded by a dead lighter coloured zone (6). 8. Melampsora Hartigii, Thiim. (a) Description and Life-history. On the leaves of several species of willow, and especially on their under-surface, and the ends of their young shoots, little golden- coloured marks, subsequently turning brown and then black, may appear at the end of May or the beginning of June. Leaves which have been attacked soon become marked with black blotches and fall off; the badly infected shoots also die from their tips down- wards. The sporophores hibernate on the dead leaves lying on the ground and emit spores in the spring which spread the malady by germinating on fresh leaves and shoots. VOL. rv. F F 422 PROTECT! OX AGAINST FUNGI. The same disease infects species of Eihes (currant or goose- berry plants), as Cceoma Hibesii, Link., but this intermediate stage is unnecessary in Fig. 217. the life of the fungus. (b) Subjects of Attack, and Distribution. The fungus, which is not noted by Ward as occurring in Britain, is most destructive in its attacks on the Caspian willow (Salix acutifolia, 'WiWd.), but also attacks S. daph- noides, viminalis, pur- inirea, &c. Yearling shoots suffer most, and 2 to 4 years-old shoots are less liable to in- fection. (c) Protective Utiles. Cut off and burn all infected shoots, as soon as they are noticed. All infected dead leaves should be collected during the autumn or spring and burned. Infected osier-beds may be sprinkled by means of an ordinary white-washing brush with dilute carbolic acid, one part to 500 of water. This should be repeated several times, and costs about Is. an acre. Cultivation of the Caspian willow may have to be abandoned when the fungus is prevalent, which is much to be regretted as this willow thrives on dry soils and has proved useful on railway embankments, sand-hills, &c. Melampsora Salicis-Caprece, Pers. is common on S. Caprea, aurita and cinerea, and develops oecidia of Cceoma Euonymi, Gmel. on the spindle-tree. Salix acutifolia attacked by Melampsora Hartigii. a Green leaf with orange yellow sporophores. h Leaves with black patches, withering, c Sporophores on the epidermis of the stem. 423 PAKT IV. PROTECTION AGAINST ATMOSPHERIC INFLUENCES. FoKESTS from the seedling stage up to maturity are sub- ject to the influence of the weather, and may thus be injured in various ways. The chief meteorological phenomena in question are frost, heat, wind, heavy rainfall, hail, snow, rime and ice. As a matter of course, these phenomena frequently act beneficially on vegetation ; frost disintegrates the soil and prepares it for the reception of seed and the growth of forest- plants ; the wind disseminates the seed of many trees and shakes snow from off their crowns which might otherwise be broken by its accumulating weight ; atmospheric precipitation and heat are indispensable for vegetable growth ; snow is a bad conductor of heat, it keeps the soil comparatively warm in winter, and protects young plants from frost. Forest Protection has, however, less to do with the beneficial action of these phenomena than with the damage they may inflict on forest plants, and the means which experience teaches for protecting them. The amount of damage done is conditional on several circumstances. In the first rank are the extent and intensity of the phenomenon, but the season and the state of the weather during and after the calamity are also of importance. On the other hand, the nature of the wood and locality should be considered ; of great importance are the species of tree grown, the system of management of the forest, and the age and density of the injured woods, as different species and asfe-classes suffer in difterent degrees from bad weather. As regards locality, not only the soil and configuration of the ground, but also the nature of the soil-covering may be of importance. Since then, all these items may be combined in a VOL. IV. G G 4^4 PROTECTION AGAINST ATMOSPHERIC INFLUENCES. great variety of ways, the damage done must vary greatly according to circumstances. The mode of occurrence of frost, wind, hail and snow should be studied under meteorology, the importance of a thorough know- ledge of which to the forester is obvious. Every forester should keep a record of any great damage done by frost, storms, hail, snow, &c., not only as to its extent, but reference should also be made to all those local and temporary influences which may have favoured or limited it. PROTKCriON AGAINST FROST. 425 CHAPTER I. PEOTEGTION AGAINST FROST. As regards its distribution, frost may be either widespread or local ; as regards season, early frosts occur in the autumn and late frosts in the spring. Early or late frost may be either widespread or local. Late frosts are commoner in Europe than early frosts, and chiefly occur in low lands, early frosts being more prevalent in mountainous regions. The extensive damage done by late frosts is due not only to their frequency, but also to the susceptibility of plants during the revival of vegetation in the spring. In the North- West of India, early frosts do most damage, as the bright days and cold nights of November some- times involve daily ranges of temperature of 40 and even 50 degrees Fahr., which are fatal to the sappy shoots of trees. Winter-frosts in Europe rarely injure indigenous trees, though they may kill unprotected exotic evergreen plants such as laurels, &c. The mild winters experienced in the west of France and of the British Isles, render possible the out-door cultivation of many plants whose natural habitat is further south, and which would succumb to the severe winters of more easterly European countries, as was the case with the common gorse {Sequoia sem- pcrvirens) and many other exotics, in Surrey, in 1895. Frost damages forest-plants in four ways : — (i.) By freezing young woody plants or young organs of plants. (ii.) Splitting the stems of trees. (iii.) Causing canker in stems of trees. (iv.) Uprooting young plants. Section I. — Frozen Plant-Organs. •1. External Appearance of Injured Plants. Frozen plants, or organs of plants, become soft, flexible and bang down or wilt. Whsn dead they eventually turn brown or G G 2 426 PROTECTION- AGAINST FROST, black. These outer signs result from the reduced tension of the tissues injured by frost, and from their inability to fulfil their proper functions. Foliage frequently falls prematurely owing to early frosts, a film of ice forming at the base of the petiole, as in robinia and elder, which may become leafless in a few days, the fallen leaves remaining quite green and apparently unafi"ected by the frost. In other trees, as horn- beam, beech or oak, the frozen foliage may die and turn brown, and remain on the tree until the buds swell in the spring, the normal autumnal leaf-fall being prevented by the fact that the leaf is killed before the usual layer of cork which causes defoliation has formed at the base of the petiole. 2. Explanation of the Action of Frost. The death by freezing of plants, or certain parts of plants, is usually due to a rapid thaw rather than to the direct effects of the low temperature to which they have been exposed. This is because, owing to the low temperature, the liquid contents of the affected tissues becomes denser, and a change ensues in them. The cell-sap becoming more concentrated than before, sets free part of the air which it contains ; this increases the permeability of the membranous lining of the cell-wall, which loses its powers of resistance to the passage through it of certain substances, and allows the cell-sap to pass into the inter- cellular spaces of the plant, where it freezes. The injured tissues thus become limp from loss of water. A similar result happens in the case of frozen starch-paste, in which the water and starch become separated, and will not reunite after a thaw. The air which escapes from the frozen tissues may also decompose the chlorophyll, and hence the brown and eventually black colour of the dead organs. If, however, the ice formed in the inter-cellular spaces thaws slowly, the cell-wall may recover its normal elasticity and reabsorb the water before the chlorophyll has decomposed. With a rapid thaw this is impossible, as the water then remains in the inter-cellular spaces, and death ensues. The effect of allowing the thawed water to become reabsorbed may be well observed in a meadow after a sharp frost in May, FHOZEX PLANT-ORGANS. 427 when the grass has been in full growth. No bad results follow from the frost, unless men or animals tread on the frozen grass, but wherever they do, the crushed grass appears black and dead, as if singed by a red-hot iron. This is because the crushed tissues will not allow the return of the sap Avhen the thaw sets in. The more water an organ or plant contains, the more it is subject to be frozen. The old theory that plant-cells are split by the freezing of the cell-sap, and consequent expansion of the ice, is not true ; in the first place, the cell is not filled with sap, and second!}', the cell-wall is sufl&ciently expansible to resist an extension of ^jytli of its volume, which would be required to prevent its splitting, supposing that it were full of sap and the sap converted into ice. Hartig also states that cortex and bast containing concentrated sap do not freeze so readily as 5'oung wood and leaves, which contain a more watery sap, and which, owing to the scarcity of inter-cellular spaces in wood, turn to ice within the lumina of the cell, at the same time de- priving the cell-walls of their water and causing them to shrink. 3. Amount of Damage done. (a) General Nature of Damage. Late and early frosts often kill young plants and destroy the foliage, shoots, blossoms or young fruit of trees. This retards their upward growth, causes a loss of increment and reduction in quantity or complete loss of the crop of fruit ; thus the management may be impaired, especially when natural regenera- tion is desired. Early frosts hinder the complete ripening of the wood, especially in coppice-shoots ; by the early fall and killing of leaves forest trees suffer a loss in potash and phosphoric acid, if these substances have not completely returned to the stem, as they do before the normal leaf-fall. Owing to the narrow annual zones of wood which are formed in years of severe frost, they may be recognized on an inspection of a cross- section of a stem. Frost also causes certain forms of canker in broad-leaved trees. The physiological eflects of severe winter-frost consist chiefly in killing wood which is not fully ripe, and which has been 428 PKOTECTION AGAINST FKOST. spared by the early frosts. In this way, cither the youngest shoots, the autumnal woody zone, or the whole annual ring of wood inside the cambium-zone may suffer and cause cup-shake in wood. Where cup-shake is thus caused, the concentrated sap in the cambium-zone preserves it from damage, while the zone of the sapwood next to it becomes so dried by the freezing of the sap within it as to separate partially or entirely from the cambium. Mechanicalinjuries done by winter-frost will be described further on. The damage done under the headings species, organ, system of management, age, localitj'-, soil-covering, density of stock, and weather will each be considered separately. (b) Sjjecies of Tree. As a rule, broad-leaved trees are more susceptible to frost than conifers, and species which prevail in the south suffer more than those from the north. As special conditions affecting the extent of the damage done by frost, the degree of development and power of recovery of the plant are important. Thus the oak is much less liable to injury by frost than the beech, as it shoots out later in the spring. As regards recovery from damage, the oak is also more favoured than the beech, for if its leader be frozen, side buds develop new leaders, but the beech having fewer dormant buds cannot do this so well. The oak can also put out a second foliage during the year if the first be frozen, but the beech can- not. Hence wood-formation is less hindered in the oak than in the beech. Similar considerations affect otber species. A classification of woody plants according to their susceptibility to frost is not impossible, but can only be of local value, as the earlier or later shooting out of a tree depends on the altitude, as v/ell as on the species grown. The following list groups trees according to their susceptibility to late frosts : — Vcrji Frost-tender Species. Walnut, ash, sweet chestnut, beech, oaks,* robinia, silver-fir. * Some North American oaks and asli-tices siiU'ui' less than European species, and pedimculate oak less than sessile oak ; Turkey oak is less hardy than either. FROZEN PLANT-ORGANS. 429 Moderately Frost-tender Species. Sycamore, Norway-maple, horse-chestnut, lime, spruce, larch, cluster- pine. Frost-hardy Species. Hornbeam, elms, aspen, poplars, willows, species of Pyriis, hazel, alders, birches ; Scotch, black, Weymouth, Cembran and mountain pines. In the case of very severe late frosts, species in the last group, such as the Scotch pine, may suffer, or be killed when quite young. If the locality be taken into account, as sea- coast, flat, hilly, or mountainous land, some modifications must be made in the above groupings. In general, local trees which shoot out early are more or less frost-hardy, for instance, the birch, alder, and sallow ; frost- tender species such as the oak and ash shoot out later in the spring, and the beech, which shoots earlier than either, owes its immunity from frost to its power of resisting cover under which spring frosts do not occur. The larch, which shoots out early in the spring, suffers in low situations from late frost, and the sessile oak for the same reason suffers more than the pedunculate oak, and is more adapted to resist drought than late frost. As regards extreme winter-cold the following somewhat different scale applies : — Very Frost-tender Species. Sweet chestnut, walnut, plane. Frost-tender Species. Elms, pedunculate and sessile oaks, silver-fir, cluster-pine. Someichat Frost-tender Species. Beech, Turkey-oak, Douglas-fir, spruce. Frost-hardy Species. Maples, horse-chestnut, lime, poplars, willows, hornbeam, birch, larch ; Scotch, \\eymouth, mountain and Cembran pines, juniper. 430 PROTECTION AGAINST FROST. (c) Part of Tree. The inflorescence, opening leaves and j-oung shoots suffer most ; the developed leaves and needles less, and least of all the buds. In silver-fir and spruce the damage is nearly ahvays confined to the spring-shoots, the old needles escape, and as in the silver-fir the terminal buds open-out later than the lateral buds, the latter are more often frozen. (d) System of Management. Coppice, especially with short rotations, suffers more than high-forest, as the susceptible young growth occurs so frequently. If the cutting of coppice is delayed in the spring, the annual shoots may not be completely lignified before they are exposed to early frosts. The underwood in coppice- with- standards suffers less than simple coppice, owing to the shelter afforded by the standards. The various shelter-wood systems constantly afford shelter to young growth, and are therefore less liable to danger from frost, than the systems of Coppice and of Clear-cut- ting in High Forest. (e) Af/c of Wood. Woods are most exposed to danger in youth, especially during the sprouting of the seed ; a single frosty night at this period may at once annihilate the results of a forester's care. The chief danger continues until the young plants have grown above the local frosty zone. As, however, this varies according to the configuration of the ground, a scale of susceptibility for each species, according to age, cannot be attempted. Quick-growing species in breezy hilly localities are most favourably situated, while slow-growing tender plants in valleys and plains suffer most. In the case of widely- spread frosts and exceptionally low temperatures, the leaves and shoots of taller trees may suffer. (f) Locality. The following localities are specially liable to injuries by frost : — (i.) Damp, low-lying places with stagnating air, for instance, narrow, closed-in valleys, or small depressions in the ground FEOZEX PLANT-ORGANS. 431 termed frost-bollows. In such places, frost-hardy species such as hornbeam, aspen, and birch are naturally invasive, whilst the more valuable species become stunted, and there is generally a plentiful coating of lichens on the trees ; if the soil is dry, the radiation of the plants cools them, and if it is wet or moist, or there are water-courses or swamps near at hand, the evapora- tion of the water still further reduces the temperature, whilst owing to the absence of air-currents the cold air is not replaced by warmer air from the neighbourhood, and the descent of cold streams of air from above which collect like a lake ovei- the low ground causes sharply-defined frost-limits. (ii.) Woods on north-easterly, easterly, south-easterly or southerly aspects suffer most from frost ; on the two former aspects, because, unless sheltered by a hill, they are exposed to cold frosty winds, whilst the sudden exposure to the sun's rays after sunrise increases the danger of easterly aspects. On south-easterly and southerly aspects, growth begins earlier in the spring than on colder aspects. Northerly and westerly aspects are least exposed to injury by frost. (iii.) High plateaux are more heated by the sun than low- lands, where the atmosphere is denser; vegetation on them is therefore more precocious, but the radiation of heat at night is greater than in lowlands and consequently there is a greater range of temperature, while woody plants stand sudden changes from heat to cold worse than intense cold. As a rule, valleys, lowlands, and plateaux suffer more from frost than hills and mountain sides. (iv.) Wet impermeable soils such as cold clays induce low air-temperature. The richer and deeper the soil, the more quickly do plants recover from freezing and grow out of the reach of frost. (g) Nature of Soil-covering. A dense and high growth of grass increases the danger from frost, as it prevents the soil from being heated, diminishes the circulation of the air, and reduces the temperature by trans- piring moisture and radiating heat. From observations made at Viernheim in Hesse, the temperature over an area covered with grass may be W° Fahr. lower than on a plot of similar 482 rJiUTECTIOX AGAINST FROST. land bare of vegetation. Ou the other haud a hghtly shading growth of birch, sallow, thorns, broom, &c., will reduce radiation and thus preserve from frost plants of valuable species which may be growing among the woody undergrowth. (h) Density of Stock. Natural regeneration-areas as well as plantations and sowings under a shelter-wood, which reflects back the radiated heat towards the ground, whilst the crowns of the shelter trees prevent rapid changes of temperature, suffer much less from frost than sowings and plantations in the open. Young plants suddenly exposed by the removal of a shelter-wood are highly susceptible to damage by frost, and large areas of spruce 6 feet in height may be thus killed. Damage by frost is much less in well-stocked woods than where blanks or thinly stocked places occur. Unrestricted radiation of heat and non-circulation of the air expose such places to frost ; in the same way young growth surrounded by tall woods is often frozen. (i) State of the Weather. The clearer the sky during day-time and the brighter the night, the greater is the danger from frost, especially with an east wind. It seldom freezes with a cloudy sky, as then the heat radiated from the ground is reflected back again by the clouds. Late frosts accompanied by rime are more dangerous than black frosts, as the coldness of the air is still further in- creased by the evaporation of the frozen dew. In a prolonged frost, accompanied by cold dry winds, the frozen twigs may be dried up and killed. A wet autumn generally increases the subsequent bad eflects of the winter's cold. As a rule, in Central Europe, all danger from frost is over by the middle of May, but exceptions may occur, and in 189'2 the grass-temperature at Coopers Hill, in Surrey, from the 13th to the 16th June, varied between 25*^ and 32° Fahr., so that potato- shoots and bracken were frozen and killed in the neighbourhood. In mountainous regions, late frosts are to be feared till July. In the north of India, night- frosts may occur, on clear nights, from October till the end of March, and thev cause considerable FROZEN PLANT-ORGANS. 433 damage to Sal {Shorea rohnsta) aucl other winter-green and ever- * green trees. 4. Ucijistcr of Severe Frosts. In Central Europe, during the forty-three years from 1848 to 1890, severe late frosts occurred, on the average, every other year ; the worst years for persistence and severity of these frosts being 1854, 1866, and 1876. Not a single month is absolutely free from frost, not even July or August. On May 21st, 1894, the foliage of the oak standards in the lower ground of Prince's Coverts, near Esher, in Surrey, was entirely destroyed hy frost, whilst much damage Avas also done to the ash and other under- wood ; the crowns of the oak trees, which were blackened by the frost, did not become completely green again till the middle of July. A similar event happened in the Forest of Dean on May 29th, 1819. t In Central Europe, during the present century, there has heen one hard winter every five or six years, the coldest years previous to 1895 being 1829-30 and 1879-80, when at Giessen, on the 10th December, 1879, and in February, 1830, temperatures of 31° and 25"=* helow zero, Fahr., were observed. The lowest temperatures at Coopers Hill in December, 1879, were 16*^ Fahr. and lO'^-l in February, 1895. Loughborough is the coldest place in Britain, and its minima on the 8th, 9th and lOth Feb- ruary, 1895, were 5^, 4^ and 1^ below zero, Fahr. During 1895 the frost continued at Coopers Hill from January 25th to February 18th. 5. Protective Measures. Protective measures against frost may be taken during the formation and utilization of woods. (a) Diiriiu/ the Formation of Woods. (i.) Drain wet places and all swamps in the forest before re- stocking. (ii.) Abandon attempts to grow frost-tender species in the open. Such species as beech and silver-fir should not be grown in bad frost localities, and, in any case, should be protected by • Many trees in India lose their leaves in the spring a^ter retaining them throughout the winter. t "The Forest of Dean," hy H. G. NichoUs. J. Murray, London. 1858. 434 PRUTECTIOX AGAINST FROST. planting fast-growing hardy trees, such as Scotch pine, larch, or birch beforehand, or simultaneously with them as nurses. (iii.) Natural regeneration under a shelter-wood and keeping seediug-cuttings dark should be preferred, especially on easterly or southerl}^ aspects. Low-branching shelter-trees should be pruned to promote air-circulation. (iv.) Strong transplants should be used, plants with balls of earth and mound-planting being preferable for frost localities. On wet ground, ridge-planting may be adopted. (v.) Protective belts of spruce may be established along the easterly boundaries of a wood. (vi.) "Where areas to be restocked are covered with a dense growth of grass or herbage, this should be removed before planting or sowing is attempted. (vii.) Transplants should be lifted from the nursery early in the planting season and heeled-in in shady places near the area to be planted, in order to delay their sprouting. (viii.) "\Aherever frosts are to be feared in forest nurseries, the following rules should be observed : — They should be situated on northerly or north-westerly aspects. Seed should not be sown too early, say before the 1st of May ; it should be well covered. In autumn, beds of seedlings may be covered with brush- wood, and seed-beds with dead leaves, moss, or saw-dust. In spring, brush-wood or shelter-mats may be used. These latter may be placed on light wooden supports and can then be removed and replaced at will. Smoky fires may be kindled during the night, the clouds of smoke preventing radiation from the ground. This practice is extensively followed in French vineyards, coal- tar, or small boxes filled with refuse resin being burned. Plants which ai-e covered with rime may be watered with cold water before sunrise so as to delay their thawing. (ix.) Tender ornamental evergreen plants may be wrapped up during winter in matting or straw, until they have grown beyond the reach of frosts. The so-called hardening of transplants which have been a few years in the ground is due to the fact that their roots get gradually deeper into the soil, and conduct FROST-CRACK. 435 the heat of the soil to the plants better than superHcial roots. Covering the base of transplants with cinder-dirt or dead leaves also protects them from frost. All parts of plants which in spite of these precautions have been killed by frost, should be pruned, and frozen plants, such as oak- saplings, which have collum-buds, may be cut back level with the ground. Dead conifers and plants like beech, which coppice badly, must be pulled up and the vacant spots replanted with strong transplants. (b) During the Utilization of Woods. (i.) In natural regeneration-fellings, the shelter-wood should be only gradually removed, the final felling being delayed till the plants have grown out of the reach of late frosts. In frosty localities, regeneration-periods will be long — from 20 to 30 years. (ii.) In the case of clear-cuttings, only small areas should be cleared at one time. (iii.) A protective belt should be left intact on exposed easterly and north-easterly borders of a wood, at any rate until the young growth which it protects is out of danger from cutting- winds. (iv.) Coppice-fellings must be effected iu the spring ; if made in autumn, winter-frosts would injure the stools ; they should also run from west to east, so as to protect the young growth from cold winds ; this precaution is specially necessary for oak coppice, as frozen oak-shoots thaw rapidly when exposed to the rising sun. Section II. — Frost- Ceack. 1. External Appcaranee. Frost-cracks are long splits caused in stems by winter-frost, which start at the bark and proceed radially and more or less deeply towards the centre of the tree. They are frequently followed by the formation of projecting longitudinal ridges on the stem of an affected tree, which are termed frost-ribs. 2. Explanation. Frost-cracks are due to the contraction of the wood along its periphery owing to extreme cold. 436 PROTECTION AGAINST FKOST. It has been proved by actual measurement, that the girth of a tree is lessened during rapid and severe frost. The contraction of the wood, the reasons for which have been explained in the preceding section, commences at freezing point and increases as the mercury falls, but the stem recovers its original dimen- sions during a thaw. For a tree to crack, however, there must be a rapid fall of temperature, so that the external layers of wood shrink more than the central zones, which are kept relatively warm by heat conducted from the soil by the roots. In conse- 1) Transverse section of an oak with two frost-cracks;, o and />. quence of this circumferential shrinking of the outer zones of the wood, they can no longer enclose its unshrunken central portion, and the outer zones therefore split radially and longitudinally, the crack thus formed penetrating more or less deeply towards the centre of the tree. The expansion of the sap which flows into the crack and freezes, also assists in further splitting the tree and in extend- inof the crack to the centre. Most frost-cracks occur on cold nights, between midnight and 8 a.m., when the temperature is lowest and the contraction of the wood is consequently greatest ; the split is accompanied by a noise like a pistol-shot. Frost-cracks mav, however, also occur before midnight or even FROST-CRACK. 437 soon after sunset, when unusually mild weather on a clear, sunny winter's day, is followed by a cutting and extremely cold east wind. Frost-cracks may attain lengths of from sixteen to twenty feet along a stem. They close again with the rising temperature, after the ice which has formed in the wood has thawed, and new zones of wood form over the wound ; this new wood is, however, so soft that the crack frequently opens again in succeeding winters, year after year, when owing to the reduced tension of the tissues along the line of the crack, an abnormal annual growth of wood occurs, causing the characteristic frost-rib as shown in fig. 218. A frost-crack may sometimes close up completely, owing to a succession of mild winters. 3. Damage done. (a) In general. — The timber of trees cracked by frost is of reduced technical value, and secondary damage by insects or fungi may supervene. (b) S2)ecies. — Hard woods with large, medullary rays are most subject to frost-crack. Deep roots also favour it, as they pass into zones of soil which are only slightly afiected by the air- temperature and thus keep the stem comparatively warm. This difi"erence of temperature between the outer and inner zones of the wood of a tree increases its liability to crack. Oak. beech, walnut, sycamore, elm, ash and chestnut are the trees most subject to frost-crack, and Turkey and sessile oaks more than pedunculate oak. The sap which pours from the wound after a thaw, turns dark brown and betrays the injury which the tree has received. Frost-cracks also occur in the case of soft woods, such as the horse-chestnut, lime, poplars and willows, and less frequently on conifers, and then chiefly on the silver-fir or spruce. (c) Part of Tree. — Frost-cracks usually occur in the lower part of the stem of a tree, especially at places where the growth is uneven near the root-stock, at knots, or where the stem is eccentric. Splitting is furthered by local wounds, and is very common in the case of coppice-shoots which have been allowed to grow into trees, and which are always unsound at their base. Splits from the root-stock proceed upwards and from a knot 438 PEOTECTION AGAIXST FROST. downwards ; ou eccentric stems, they are always towards the largest diameter. In the case of stems of a regular shape, the south side suffers most from frost-crack, and then the north and east sides, the westerly side suffering least of all. The south side suffers most, because the most vigorous circumferential growth takes place there, and the tissues are consequently very sappy. (d) Systems of Management. — Standards over coppice suffer most, as they are exposed to cold winds, whenever the under- wood is felled. Standards in high forest which are exposed after growing in a dense wood are also very liable to frost- crack. In the Kottenforst, near Bonn, an area of 7,400 acres at an altitude of 426 feet, where the treatment is that of coppice-with-standards, and the soil clay with an imper- meable substratum, over twenty per cent, of the oak stan- dards are frost-cracked. Frost-crack is also very prevalent in the seventy to eighty-year-old oak-woods in Windsor Forest, owing to the absence of underwood, and it is also extremely common in the open parts of the Forest of Dean, where the underwood has been browsed down by sheep. (e) Age of Tree. — Large old trees, as a rule, suffer more from frost-crack than younger trees, because the differences in tem- perature between their outer and inner woody zones are greater. (f) Loealitij. — Fertile and moist soils favour frost-crack. It is very frequent in narrow valleys along water-courses, where the night temperature falls exceptionally low in winter. (g) Season. — Frost-cracks generally occur late in the winter, when the sap begins to flow, provided intense cold should set in. The sapwood then rapidly cools and contracts, while the inner zones of the wood retain a higher temperature. Long protracted and gradually falling temperatures are not so dangerous. Storms increase the danger by blowing the frozen stems backwards and forwards ; Hess even considers it probable that storms may occasion frost-cracks at the commencement of a thaw, but as the outer zones of the wood would then be expanding, whilst the inner zones remain cold, a ciqj-shake, or separation of the wood along a portion of the whole of an annual ring, would probably result. FROST-CANKER. 439 4. Protective Rules. (i.) Thoroughly drain wet soils. (ii.) Keep up the density of woods, and underplant all pure oak high forests with a shade-bearer, such as beech or silver-fir. (iii.) Establish protective belts of spruce along the northern, eastern, and south-eastern boundaries of a w'ood. (iv.) Abandon the practice of reserving oak and other stan- dards in places where frost-crack is common. Section III. — Frost-Canker. Cankers may be caused by frost among young broad-leaved species, such as oaks, ash, maple, beech, fruit-trees, &c., which have not yet grown above the local frost-level. Thus, at the base of a young shoot, which has been repeatedly frozen down to the main stem, the living bark separates from the dead wood. A callus forms round the wound in the growing season, but is frozen on the recurrence of severe frost, and as, in frost-hollows, this may happen annually, a canker is thus formed, and the wood may be killed down to the pith, on the side from which the branch arose. These cankers are formed near the root-stock of oaks and ash growing in depressions on stiff clay soil ; they may be distinguished from others caused by fungi, as they increase in size only after severe frost. Frost-cankers on Shorca rohusta are very common in frosty depressions in Northern India, the shoots being killed down to the ground annually until an abnormally large flattened stool is formed. Coppice- shoots of a variety of sweet chestnut from the south of France are also similarly frozen down in Alsace, while the common variety of the tree produces splendid coppice- poles. Section IY. — Uprooting of Seedlings by Frost. 1. General Account. During February and March, when night-frosts alternate with thaws in the day-time, it is often found that young seedlings are raised with the soil, and in the subsequent thaw, VOL. Vf. H H 440 PROTECTION AGAINST FROST. when the soil sinks back again, their roots lose their hold on the ground, and the plants fall over and die. Fig. 219. T|^ iij^^L^[l^iJjjJj^ Spruce seedUng (a) raised (6) (c) and (d) and uprooted by frost (e). (N) original ground-level. In such cases the surface-soil is raised by the conversion of the water in it to ice-crystals, and the little seedlings are thus UPROOTING BY FKOST. 441 lifted above their original position. ^Yh.en the thaw sets in, and the soil gradually softens and returns to its original level, the plants cannot do so, as their roots are in the deeper and still frozen soil, while the surface-soil is thawing ; when, therefore, the soil has completely thawed, the plants lose their root-hold and fall over, as shown in fig. 219. 2. Damage done in Particular Cases. (a) Species and Age of Plant. — Nearly all woody plants may be uprooted by frost during the first two years of their life, and especially those of shallow-rooted species, such as spruce, birch, alder, beech, hornbeam, &c. Even ash, sycamore and silver-fir are not unfrequently uprooted in this way. Sweet chestnut, hazel and oaks escape this form of injury on account of the depth to which their tap-root descends during germina- tion. The greatest damage is done in nurseries to seed-beds and beds of transplants, and to sown areas in forests. (b) Loccditij. — Certain soils and localities suffer more than others in this way. Thus, provided they are moist, light, loose soils, such as peat, sand, marls and loam, are most exposed to frost-lifting. Dry sandy soils do not sufler. As a rule, the finer- grained a soil is, the more water it absorbs, and plants are therefore more easily lifted in such soils, whilst in coarse-grained, sandy soil, the water descends, and the surface is therefore not subject to lifting. Soil bare of herbage is also more easily lifted than soil which is kept down by the roots of grass and weeds. As regards locality, deep depressions suffer most, as there is then less chance of the moisture draining away. Warm aspects, except westerly ones, sufier most, as, on them, thawing and freezing follow one another most frequently ; northerly aspects hardly suft'er at all from frost-lifting. 3. Protective Rules. (a) For the Forest. — Drain away all superfluous moisture by open drains ; drain-pipes may be used in nurseries. Planting should be preferred to sowing, and ball-planting is the best security against this evil, while spring-plantings sufter less than autumn-plantings. Where so'R-ings are adopted, oats may be "mixed with the seed, which should be sown rather densely. H H 2 442 PROTECTION AGAINST FROST. (b) For Forest Nurseries. — Mix 25 to 33 per cent, of clay with fine sandy soils. Raise the seed-beds so as to secure good drainage. Sow deeply and densely, and cover the spaces between the drills or rows of plants with straw, dead leaves or sawdust, all of which are bad conductors of heat ; even cinder- dirt mixed with sand may be used ; this delays thaws. After weeding between the rows of plants, fill-in with good soil all inequalities thus produced in the beds. It is advisable in autumn to leave a few weeds in the beds, as their roots give coherence to the soil. Any plants which have been uprooted by frost, should be at once replaced, and fine soil placed round them. This is not an expensive operation if boys are employed, and only costs from threepence to fourpence per thousand plants. PROTECTION AGAINST INSOLATION. 443 CHAPTER 11. PROTECTION AGAINST INSOLATION. Insolation may dry up seeds and young plants, or twigs and branches of trees, and may also scorch or crack the bark and wood of trees. Section I. — Drought. 1. ApiJearance and Cause of Injury. Woody plants and parts of them which have been dried by the sun, have much the same appearance as if they had been killed by frost ; blossoms, leaves, needles and young shoots first wilt, then gradually turn brown and shrivel up ; they finally fall off, although dried leaves may remain for a long time hanging on the trees. This drying-up of leaves and shoots is the direct result of prolonged hot, dry weather, which abstracts much moisture from plants and from the soil ; transpiration being thus greatlj- increased, plants pass off more watery vapour into the air than their roots can absorb from the soil, which becoming continually drier is less able to meet their demands. 2. Damage done. (a) In General. — Owing to the want of the necessary moisture in the soil usually caused by high degrees of heat, seeds may be prevented from germinating, and young seedlings killed. In the case of older plants the foliage dries up and falls prematurely, the younger shoots may be killed, and the annual wood-increment may be considerably reduced. Occasionall}^ single stems, or groups of poles may be killed b}^ insolation ; this is frequently the case with beech-standards, which after growing in a dense wood are exposed, as mother-trees, in seeding-fellings. 144 PROTECTIOX AGAINST INSOLATION. Dry years, as well as frost-years, may be chronicled on the transverse sections of stems by the formation of narrow zones of wood, and Henry* states that in 1893 the trees in Lorraine only produced 30 — 76% of their normal increment. Ebermayer+ quotes several analyses of leaves taken from trees during different months of the year, which prove that an early leaf-fall, due to drought, deprives trees of much nitrogenous matter and phos- phoric acid. This loss interferes with the subsequent produc- tion of seed, for which a reserve of these substances is so essential. Thus, an analysis made by R. Weber at Aschaffen- burg, in 1872, gives the following : Phosphoric Acid in Young leaves on 2nd May, 1872 . . . 23-89 Fallen autumnal leaves of same tree . . 5*90 Another analysis by Eissmiiller, made in Munich in 1874, shows that in May, thoroughly dried beech-leaves contain 28'2 per cent., and in November only 7'8 per cent, of nitro- genous compounds, whilst in July and August the per-centage is about half-way between these extremes. Similar figures hold good for the leaves of other forest trees, and it is therefore evident that nitrogenous matter and phosphoric acid pass bac]\ in the autumn from the leaves into the twigs, and that if the foliage should fall prematurely, the trees must lose a quantity of these valuable substances. Other secondary dangers caused by drought are a greater liability of trees to insect-attacks, and increased danger from forest fires. (b) Species. — The relative susceptibility of trees when very young to be injured by insolation is shown in the following groups : — (i.) Very Susecptihle Speeies. Beech, ash, sweet-chestnut, silver-fir, spruce, (ii.) Susceptible Species. Hornbeam, sycamore, alder, birch, larch, Cembran pine. * Revue des Eaux et For^ts. 1895, ]>. 35. t Ebermayer, AValdstieu. Berlin, 1876. DROUGHT. 445 (iii.) Fairly Hardy Species. Elms, limes, Scotch pine, Sorhus. (iv.) Hardy Species. Oaks, field-maple, horse-chestnut, robinia, planes, Prunus and Pyriis species, poplars, willows, black and mountain pine. (c) Ar/c of Tree. — Sowings and plantings in the open are most exposed to damage during the early years of their life, until they have completely covered the ground. On poor, shallow soils, and in hot places, without lateral shelter, plants aged up to twelve or fifteen years may die from drought. It has been observed that older transplants on weedy ground sufl"er more from drought than younger transplants on fresh clearings, as in the latter case dew and rain have more access to the soil. When once a plantation has closed -in, so as to cover the soil completely, the chief danger from drought is over ; but spruce poles have been occasionally killed by prolonged drought. (d) Locality. — In plains and hilly lauds, the danger from drought is greater than in mountains, where the most extensive forests are found, as damper air, more frequent precipitations and moister soil prevail. Small flat hills and narrow ridges sufter most of all. As regards aspect, the southern aud south- western slopes sufter most from drought, aud the northern slopes least of all. In very narrow valleys which have been cleared of trees, or are scantily wooded, the reflection of the heat from side to side greatly increases its efi"ects, and rows of houses have the same eftect on street-avenues. AYoods growing on calcareous soils, and especially on stony superficial soils above calcareous rocks, sufter most from heat, then those on stifi" clays, whilst sandy soils are more favourable as regards drought, especially when the grains of sand are fine ; woods on sandy loams and loams stand drought best of all. This is due to the following causes : poor shallow calcareous soil is not retentive of moisture, while the porous rock beneath it drains away water rapidly from the surface ; marls and clays become hard when exposed to heat and crack in all directions ; coarse sands suffer more than fine sands on account of the greater capillarity of the latter, which attracts water from below ; loams readily absorb rain, dew and snow-water, and retain moisture in the subsoil, 446 PEOTECTION AGAINST INSOLATION. and can, therefore, easily replace the loss of the surface- water. (e) Soil-coverinrj. — Weeds, and especially a dense tall growth of grass increase the dangers of drought, filling the soil with their roots and absorbing and transpiring its moisture, which would otherwise be available for the woody plants growing in or above the grass. A light covering of isolated shrubs, on the contrary, may prove beneficial by shading the valuable species. Leaves and moss on the surface of the ground shelter the roots of trees from the sun. (f ) Density of Stock. — Woods in which the trees stand some- what far apart from one another, suffer more from drought than well- stocked woods. Isolated, Fig. 220. clean-boled standards with smooth bark, such as beech, hornbeam, birch, silver-fir, reflect the rays of the sun on to the soil, as shown in fig. 220, and thus dry up the soil around them ; young- natural - regeneration may fail completely around such trees. (g) Weather and Season of the Year. — The drying-up of little plants owing to drought may be recognizable early in the summer. A dry May with a continuance of cutting east-winds soon disperses the moisture in the soil which has accumulated during winter, and if there is insufficient rain in June, many plants on areas recently sown or planted may be killed. If the dry weather should continue throughout July, more damage will be done, and it is generally from the middle of July till the middle of August that the plants die, for the maximum summer-temperature is attained at about a month after Midsummer-Day. From the beginnino- of September, young plantations and sowings which have hitherto escaped may be considered out of danger from drought. Damage to young growth by reflected heat. DROUGHT. 447 In India, the period of the dry season varies, being interrupted by about one week's winter rain in the Punjab, whilst there is scarcely any winter rain in Bengal and none in Assam, where it is dry from November till April, the spring rains in April pre- venting any serious drought. In the North- West Provinces and the Punjab, May and June are the hottest and driest months, the summer monsoon lasting generally from July to September and into October in Assam. 3. Register of Dry Years. During the present century, the following have been years of drought in central Europe: 1800, 1807, 1811, 1812, 1822, 1834, 1842, 1846, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1863, 1865, 1868, 1874, 1876, 1881, 1883, 1889, 1893 ; or, on the average, one year in five. To give a local example, the monthly rainfall and maximum temperature observed in 1893, at Coopers Hill College, Surrey, are here given. Months. Rainfall in Inches. Average Max. Temperature IN Degrees Fahr. Remarks. Aver- r\.a. 1S93. ages ^^,J«|; 1875-92. fences. 1893. Aver- ages 1875-92. Diffe- rences. January Februarv 1-29 3-07 •38 •12 •76 •75 2-14 1-35 1-01 6-10 1-84 3-00 1-98 - -69 1-7U +1-37 1-52 -1-14 1^77 -1-65 1-92 -1-16 2^22 -1-47 2-72 - •58 2-38 -1-03 2-26 -1^25 *2^61 +3-49 2^54 - -70 2-01 + ^99 55-4 63-6 66^4 73-6 67-4 72-4 68-1 47-1 53-2 59-8 66-3 68-7 68-8* 64 + 8^3 + 10^4 + 6'6 + 7-3 - 1^3 + 3^6 + 4^1 i ~ •3in. of the Marcli rainfall fell on the first 5 days of the month, about •oiii. fell on the 12th July, and 2-5in. on the 10th October. The temperature wasabove 80"^ F. on the 21st April, on 4 days in June, 5 days in July, 8 days in August, and once in September, the maximum lieing 91 •8°, on the 19th August. Marcli April May June July ' August September 1 October November December Totals 21-81 25-63 -3-82 * For 17 years only. All farms on the shallow soil above the chalk suffered greatly from drought, and there was scarcely any hay, and corn Avas very short in stalk. As regards the effects on forest growth, there was an enormous crop of acorns and sweet chestnuts. All the lime blossom fell without maturing fruit, and isolated 448 PEOTECTION AGAINST IXSOLATIOX. beech, elm and lime-trees lost most of their foliage in August. The heavy fall of rain in February and the first few days of March soaked the ground so thoroughly that a plantation of twenty acres of three-j^ear-old Scotch pine transplants (5ft. X 5ft.) on the Bagshot sands, in Windsor Forest, was a complete success, in spite of the drought. 4. Protective Rules. (a) During the Formation of Woods. (i.) Natural reproduction is preferable to artificial sowing, or if it cannot be carried out, choose deep-rooted strong trans- plants and cover the planting spots Avith sods or large stones. Nursery transplants, when planted out in the forest, stand drought better than seedlings taken directly from the seed-beds. Coniferous plants taken from the nursery with balls of earth round their roots, stand drought less well than strong well- rooted transplants ; mound-planting also gives bad results in very dry years, and it may then be necessary to plant out spruce only under shelter of birch or Scotch pine nurses. (ii.) The soil should be deeply trenched, and sowing, or jilanting of yearlings, should be carried out simultaneously with the growth of a crop of oats, or buckwheat, which will shelter the young plants till the autumn ; the deeply trenched soil enables Scotch pine seedlings to form deep roots, and soil which has been well worked parts with moisture less freely, and is more hygroscopic than a compact soil. In years of drought and on poor dry soils, moss should be placed between the lines of sowings ; this costs about £1 an acre. (iii.) In hot countries, planting should be done at the very commencement of the monsoon, and sowing is often preferable, as many plants, such as teak, form very long tap-roots imme- diately after germination. Planting may also be done by means of plants grown in small bamboo-baskets, which soon rot and allow the roots to spread in the soil. (b) Rules for Nurseries. (i.) Subdivide the area of the nursery b}' narrow evergreen DEOUGHT. 449 hedges, or provide temporary side shelter by mats ; these pre- cautions are especially necessary for spruce. (ii.) Trench the nursery-beds deeply in autumn, and manure with compost, or burned sods ; this not only keeps the beds free from weeds, but also promotes the development of strong fibrous roots. (iii.) Transplant yearling plants, especially of spruce, into nursery-lines. (iv.) Xursery-beds of seedlings may be temporarily protected by sticking branches into the ground on the south side of the beds or all round them, or by covering them with mats, supported by a frame-work, 4 to 6ft. high, as in protecting plants against frost. The mats may be removed during showers, and only placed over the beds at the hottest time of day, from 11 A.M. to 3 p.m. Such shelter should also be withdrawn in the autumn in order to harden the plants. Where branches are used to protect plants from the sun, Scotch or Weymouth pines are preferable, as broad-leaved branches soon have their foliage shrivelled, and spruce needles fall off, while silver-fir foliage is too dense. (v.) Keep the beds free from weeds, as weeding prevents the soil from caking, and renders it hygroscopic ; for this purpose the spaces between the plants should be hoed in hot summers, even if there are no weeds. Soft earth may be placed on either side of the rows of plants, when the beds are weeded. (vi.) The plants maybe watered, or irrigated; it is best to water in the evening, and when watering has been commenced it must be repeated from time to time till rain falls, as it encourages the formation of superficial rootlets, which would soon die should the beds become too dry. On this account the beds should be watered only Avhen absolutely necessary. The crust of earth on the surface of the beds, due to watering, must from time to time be broken up with the hoe. An account ot nursery -irrigation is given in Schlich's Sylviculture.'" (c) Rules for Tending Woods. All epicormic branches must be pruned from standards * Manual of Forestry, vol. II., p. 100. 450 PROTECTION AGAINST INSOLATION. reserved iu high forest, or over coppice, as they keep rain and dew from the young plants, and render the standards stag- headed. The standing-crop should be kept as dense as possible, and the natural soil-covering preserved. Trees along the boundaries of a forest, or along roads, should be kept dense, and the outer row be allowed to branch down to the ground, so as to exclude dry hot winds from the forest. A series of horizontal trenches may be dug along dry slopes, in order to retain the rain-water. (d) Rules during Utilisation of Woods. The seeding-cuttings on poor dry soils should be kept dark, but at the same time, after a good crop of seedlings has sprung up, the plants should be rapidly or gradually exposed according to their demands on light so that they may get the full benefit of rain and dew, and develop rapidly. All isolated smooth- barked mother-trees should be felled, and the bare patches round their stumps planted up. Small narrow felling-areas should be established, running from north-west to south-east, as far as this can be done without danger from storms, so that the young crops may get lateral shelter from the old wood to the south-west of them. Section II. — Baek-Scokching. 1. External Apptarance. The name hark scorching* denotes a well-known malady of trees, which generally occurs on the western or south-western sides of stems and in directions intermediate to them, the W.S.W. side being the commonest seat of injury, while it only exceptionally happens on the southern side of a tree. This injury is first rendered visible by the drying up of the bark of afiected trees, Avhich assumes a reddish colour, and then gradually splits lengthwise and horizontally from the stem, and falls off in pieces. The injured sapwood turns brown, the brown colour fading gradually towards the still sound wood, and dry * The term bar It -scorching is used in Somerville's traiislatiou of Hartig's Diseases of Trees, and is a better term than hurk-blistcr, wliich has already been applied to diseases caused by tungi. BARK-SCORCHING. 451 rot spreads iu a wedge-shaped manner in the wood which has been exposed by the loss of its bark. 2. Explanation. Bark-scorching is the result of powerful insolation. If the sun beats directly on a stem, its west and south-west sides become considerably heated. The southern side of a tree is Fig. 221. Transverse section of a beech affected by bark-scorching, cut 12 feet above the ground. The damage is limited to the sector a b c. less heated owing to the frequent easterly winds, which blow during hot anticyclones when the sky is clear, and skim past the southern side of trees, and reduce the temperature of their bark and sap wood on that side, whilst the W.S.W. side of the tree is not affected by the east wind. This explanation is confirmed by the fact, that when the southern side of a tree is scorched, it has been found to be sheltered from easterly winds by an adjoining dense wood. The greater effects of the sun's rays on the W.S.W. side of a tree are also due to the fact 452 PROTECTION AGAINST IX80LATI0X. that the maximum daily temperature is in the afternoon, when the sun has passed the meridian, and that the lower the sun is, the more direct are its raj^s in the radial direction of the stem, and the more intense are their effects. Vonhausen found that the maximum temperature on the AV.S.AV. side of a tree, between its bark and sapwood, was 120^ Fahr. when the air-temperature was 91 Fahr., while in Bavaria, on the 18th August, 1892, with an air-temperature of 96'*8 Fahr., Hartig observed a temperature of 131 Fahr. between the bark and sapwood of some isolated 80-year-old spruce trees. Cambium cells of European trees cannot Avithstand temperatures between 104'^ — 130" Fahr. any better than leaves and herbaceous shoots, which are speedily killed by such temperatures. 3. Damage done. (a) In ficncral. — This malady reduces the technical value of the stems and frequently kills a tree. The forest-owner thus suffers a loss of timber and increment, to which may be added danger of breakage and of insect-attacks, and exposure of young growth requiring shelter. (b) Si^ecies. — Bark-scorching chiefly affects trees with long persistent smooth bark, which is free from cracks, such as beech, also hornbeam, ash, sycamore, lime, sweet-chestnut, cherry, mountain-ash and apple. Among conifers, Weymouth pine and spruce suffer. Coarsely fissured-barked trees, such as elms, oaks, Scotch pine and larch, never suffer in this way, nor does the parchment- like barked birch. Dead fissured bark is a bad conductor of heat,* and does not therefore become heated like smooth bark, and affords protection to the cambium and bast against the sun's rays. (c) Part of the Tree. — Bark-scorching only affects the clear bole of a tree, and generally its lower part from the base upwards. The portion of the stem which is immediately above the root-stock suffers most where there is no underwood, owinef to the heat reflected from the ground ; the taller the stem and the higher the crown above the ground, the more exposed is a * Hartig states that in Sejitembor, with an air teniiicrature of tiO'S F., tlie temperatuivs on S.E. side of tliin-barkcd lieech and sinuce were 98-6° F. and 82-4° ¥., while that of Scotch pine was 68" F. BARK-SOOPvCHINa. 4.fj8 tree to scorching. Large knots or low branches localize the injury to the part of the stem which is below them, and stems covered mth moss or lichens resist insolation, and so do trees which are branched down to the ground. An example of the bad effects of pruning trees exposed to insolation may be seen in the Mirwart Estate in the Belgian Ardennes, where a number of spruce trees planted to give shelter along the eastern side of a meadow have been pruned of all their lower branches, and are all badly scorched. (d) Age of Tree. — The trees mentioned above are exposed to injuries by bark-scorchhig from the age of poles upwards, but large trees suffer more than smaller ones ; the latter, owing to the greater curvature of their stems, do not receive so much direct heat as the former, and they radiate heat more freely than large trees. In forests where bark-scorching is frequent, 60 to 70-year-old beech trees suffer most. (e) Position of Trees. — Bark-scorching only attacks trees standing in the open, and especially those which have been recently exposed, after standing in a dense wood ; also trees along the westerly and south-westerly boundaries of a forest. Trees forming a dense leaf-canopy are never attacked, as their bark cannot become heated like that of exposed trees. (f) Sunclnj causes favouring Bark-scorching. — The locality and its surroundings, and the nature of the soil-covering, may be here considered. As westerly and south-westerly aspects are most exposed to danger, any woods forming protective zones in these directions prevent or reduce the effects of insolation. Undergrowth and soil-covering are also useful, as the reflection of the sun's heat from the ground is much greater when the soil, and especially calcareous or sandy soil, is fully exposed. The malady is most frequent during the hot months in beech forests. 4. Protective Rules. (a) Avoid fellings by which beech- or spruce-woods may become exposed to the west or south-west. (6) Mix oak, elm, birch or conifers with beech. (c) Allow the trees on the western and south-western borders of a beech or spruce forest to branch freely down to the ground ; 454 PROTECTION AGAINST INSOLATION. this may be secured by making timely thinnings in young woods. (d) Avoid high prunings in the case of beech standard-trees, or any pruning of beech or spruce trees growing in hedgerows. (e) Protect the soil-covering of dead leaves, moss, &c., and preserve the undergrowth along the borders of a forest. (/) For the protection of specially valuable avenue trees, their bark may be smeared with a mixture of Avhitewash, clay and water, cow-dung and water, &c. Trees which have been scorched should not be removed, as they shelter trees behind them which would otherwise be attacked ; it is better to form a protective belt of some shade- bearing species, and not to remove the injured trees till this has attained a sufficient height. Section III. — Heat-crack. Beling states that cracks in trees have been caused by insolation; this happens in the spring (April and May), when there are considerable differences between the day- and night- temperatures, and the ground being still cold, the centre of the tree does not expand so much as the bark. Cracks are thus formed on trees standing on southerly or south-westerly slopes, chiefly on beech 30 to 70 years old, but also on sycamore, hornbeam, oak and ash. The splits extend up the stem from near the level of the ground to 20 and more feet in height. Owing to the drying and loosening of the bark, local decay may be introduced into the wood, but small cracks usually close up again without any permanent injury resulting. Schlich observed in the early part of 1895, during severe frost, that the bark of beech- standards cracked or split when the sun rose in the morning. All such cracks or splits occurred in the south-east or south side of the trees, the cracking being followed by an outflow of sap. Trees Avhich had thus been injured in previous years showed a considerable amount of decay in the wood, having the appearance of bark-scorched trees. PROTECTION AGAINST WINDS. 455 CHAPTER III. PROTECTION AGAINST WINDS. Winds may be classified in vavioiis ways, by their speed, as winds and storms ; their origin, land- or sea-winds ; their direc- tion according to the point of the compass from which the}' blow ; the damage they inflict on forests, by drying up the soil impeding height-growth and the formation of a regularly- shaped crown in trees, or by breaking and overthrowing individual stems or whole woods, the last injury being caused only b}" storms. Wind by blowing caterpillars from older trees on to young growth, may also increase the damage done hj insects ; this has been frequently observed in the case of attacks by the nun moth. Winds also spread the spores of fungi. Section I, — Prevalent Winds. South-w'esterly winds are most prevalent in central Europe, especially during autumn and early winter. They blow as cool winds during summer, and are comparatively warm in winter, and bring much moisture and rain-clouds from the ocean. Dry winds from the north-east and east generally prevail during the spring, the cutting north-east wind on the coasts of the Adriatic being termed bora. In Switzerland, a hot dry wind from the south frequently prevails during the summer mouths and is termed /o7m. 1. Damage done. (a) General Account. — Winds dry up and disperse the soil- covering, blowing dead leaves from slopes and ridges, and heaping them uselessly in hollows ; they hinder the formation of dew, and spread the spores of fungi, and the seeds of forest- weeds. Easterly and north-easterly winds dry up the soil and VOL. r\'. I I 456 PROTECTION AGAINST WINDS. young plants, and injure the foliage and fructification of trees. Strong south-westerly winds cause a misshapen growth of the crowns of trees, especially near the sea-coast and on the south- westerly borders of forests, where the trees are stunted in height and have their crowns hent over towards the east ; they also break off blossoms and tender shoots, whilst damp winds near the sea-coast also injure trees by the salt they carry, which the rain washes from their leaves into the soil rendering it salt and unsuitable for certain kinds of vegetation. The results of these injurious influences are ; — impoverishment of the soil, a rank growth of weeds, failure of reproduction, languishing of young growth, loss of increment and forking of old trees, spread of fungi, &c. (b) According to Species. — Broad-leaved trees suffer more from dry winds than conifers, the tender young foliage and inflorescence of beech and hornbeam being frequently so dried up by the north-east wind that it appears to have been frozen or scorched by summer heat. The elm, oak, lime and birch are less liable to damage and still less the Scotch pine. Where the larch is exposed to south-westerly gales, it becomes sabre- shaped, curving outwards and upwards from its base, especially on shallow soils ; this is due to the wind from its seedling stage continually blowing the tree out of the vertical direction, which it strives to regain by continued upward growth ; orchard-trees are similarly affected, whilst poplars, willows, and birch grow with their stems bending towards the east. The shrub-like mountain-pine (Pinits inontana var. uncinata Rand.) withstands the action of winds along the sea-coast, and so do the Corsican variety of Pimis Laricio, the cluster or maritime pine, and of broad-leaved species, sycamore, Norway-maple and white poplar. (c) Age of Trees. — Seedlings and little plants, especially in sowings and plantations, and young coppice shoots suffer most severely from cutting winds, until the ground is completely covered by their interlacing branches. Coppice suffers more than high forest, when the rotations are short, and high forest suffers the less, the closer is the leaf-canopy. (d) Locaiitij. — The most exposed localities are coast forests, cultivated plains with hedgerow trees, ridges and tops of moun- tains and hills, valleys running east and west, easterly aspects PREVALENT WINDS. 457 unprotected by higher hills, unsheltered plateaux, &c. The drier and less wooded is the land, the greater the damage. Late spring and early summer are the most dangerous seasons. 2. Protective Bides. The chief rules consist in the maintenance of a good leaf- canopy, especially in localities exposed to prevailing winds. Along sea-coasts, therefore, and in high mountainous regions and other exposed places, natural regeneration, selection fellings and the formation of protective belts are advisable. The following special rules Fi*^- 222. should also be observed : — ^ (a) Sowings should run from north-east to south-west, and soil should be heaped up on the south-east side of the lines ; .^\£■. n: F/G. 223. £:. S.W O Cl ^ o o o^o o ooo oooooooooo a Broad-leaved wood. b Coniferous wood. this secures the young plants against frost and heat and is also the best protection against dry winds from the east and south. It can, how'ever, be employed only on flat ground, for sowings on slopes must always be horizontal, in order to prevent the soil and seeds from being washed away by rain. (fc) Planting with balls of earth is advisable ; if planting is being done during a dry east wind, the plants' roots should not be exposed even for ten minutes, unless they are covered by damp moss, (c) Belts of conifers 20 to 30 feet wide as in fig. 223 should intervene between broad-leaved forests and cultivated land, and should be established along forest roads. Spruce and silver-fir I I 2 458 PROTECTION AGAINST WINDS. are the best species for the purpose, but if the soil is too dry for them, Scotch or black piues may be used. These protective belts are extremely useful in sheltering woods from drought and prevent the removal of dead leaves by the wind, damage by frost, &c. ; the external trees should be allowed to branch down to the ground, and along forest roads there should be a strip of land free from trees beyond the belt, to prevent the roads from being kept moist by the drip from overhanging trees. This is greatly preferable to lopping the border trees along a road- side, which, besides its unsightly appearance, admits the wind into the forest, and exposes the bark to sun-scorching. (d) All undergrowth which springs up along easterly and north-easterly forest boundaries affords a natural protection belt and should be carefully preserved. ((■) Coppice should be cut from the west-south-west or north- west towards the opposite bearings. In High Forests this is only permissible on plains which are exposed to the east and for storm-firm trees such as the oak. Section II. — Storms. 1. Origin of Stonns. All winds are caused by differences in atmospheric pressure which result from unequal temperatures of the air in different localities. Whenever the equilibrium of the atmosphere is thus disturbed, a current of wind sets in to restore it. A line joining all places having the same atmospheric pres- sure, as indicated by the height of the barometric column of mercury, after compensation for the elevation of the place above sea-level and for temperature, is termed an isobar. If maps are drawn, as in the Times' weather reports, showing the different isobars for every tenth of an inch, it will be noticed that they surround tracts from which either the pressure decreases in all directions, termed barometric maxima or anticyclones ; or, from which the pressure similarly increases, which are termed centres of depression, barometric minima or cyclones. The wind always blows from the regions of high pressure towards the depressions, i.e., from an anticyclonic region towards a centre of depression ; it does not, however, blow in direction STQRMS. 459 normal or perpendicular to the isobars, but greatly incliued to tbis, owing to tbe efiects of tbe eartb's rotation, wbicb gives it a twist to tbe rigbt in tbe nortberly bemispbere. Tbe streugtb of tbe wind varies witb tbe barometric riradicvt, or difference in atmospberic pressure at places distant one geograpbical mile normal to tbe isobars. Tbe closer, tbere- fore, tbe isobars are for any difference in tbe beiglit of mer- curial column, tbe greater is tbe gradient and tbe stronger tbe wind. Tbe isobars become crowded togetber wberever tbe pressure is lowest, and tbis fact, combined witb tbe twist to tbe rigbt of tbe winds rusbiug in from all directions to fill a depression, causes tbe revolving storms also termed cyclones, tbe absolute axes of wbicb are more or less calm. Tbus on tbe soutbern side of a depression, tbe wind blows from tbe S.W., on its western side from N.W., on its nortbern side from N.E., and on its eastern side from S.E, Tbe isobars are closest togetber on tbe western sides of de- pressions, so tbat tbe strongest storms come from a westerly direction (S.W. to N.W.). Tbe depressions usually pass to tbe nortb of Central Europe, and traverse tbe continent from west to east, so tbat storms usually begin blowing from S.E. and gradually cbange to S., S.W., W., and N.W. Most of tbese storms travel across tbe Britisb Isles, baving originated in tbe Atlantic ocean or Gulf of Mexico, but tbe soutb-easterly direction of tbe wind before a cyclone is not very noticeable bere. Powerful storms tberefore depend on tbe existence of barome- tric depressions, wbicb may be only partial or irregular inter- ruptions of an isobar, in wbicb case tbe storm only extends over a limited area. Violent storms of limited extent, but witb steep gradients wbicb do considerable damage over a narrow zone of country, are termed tornados. Tbe direction of winds may be considerably modified in moun- tainous countries, by tbe spurs of tbe mountains as well as tbe directions of tbe valleys. Tbus, a west wind may be converted into a nortb or soutb wind during its progress tbrougb a valley. It is a still more frequent case for a soutb-west wind to be- come a soutb wind, and a nortb-west wind, west. 460 PKOTECTION AGAINST WINDS. The rates of storms are given as follows by Rouse : — Yards Miles per second. per hour. Storm, or tempest ... 24 50 Great storm .... 29 60 Hm-ricane ..... 39 80 Destructive hurricane . . 49 100 2. Damage done. (a) General Nature. — Storms shake the roots of trees up and down in the ground and may either give a tree a decided leaning in a particular direction, or tear it out of the ground by its roots and with the earth adhering to them, or break its stem or branches. Such uprooted or broken trees are termed Kindfalh. Whether the tree is blown down or broken depends partly on the intensity of the storm, and partly on the relative power of resistance of its roots or stem. Breakage happens wdien the roots resist better than the stem, windfall when the roots are the weaker. Breakage may also be due to one tree falling on others. The amount of resistance to storms which the roots or stem of a tree offers, depends on the vertical and lateral extent of the root-system,. the nature of the soil, the length of the stem, the species of tree, the kind of crown it possesses, the condition of soundness or unsoundness of its wood, the density of the crop, mode in which the wood has been formed, &c. ; each of these factors will be considered separately. Storms not only overthrow single trees, but also whole woods. A wood may have narrow clearings cut into it by storms corresponding to their direction, or large blanks may be made. Breakage may be of stem, fork, crown, or branches ; the stem may be broken off close to the ground, or at some distance above it, and whirlwinds frequently twist the entire crown off trees. The damage done by storms may be direct or indirect. To the former class belong : — Loss of increment and breakage of timber, which may become only lit for firewood ; damage to young growth owing to the breakage of underwood by trees standing; over it which have been blown down ; increased cost of STOEMS. 4(51 exploitation or of reproduction of woods ; reduced prices, owing to an excess of material being suddenly thrown on the market ; irregularities in age-classes and in carrying out working-plans, also disorder in thinnings and in preparatory fellings. The disturbance of a forest working-plan may be so great, that it may become necessary to recalculate the annual yield of a forest, and to prepare a new table of annual felling-areas. Indirect damage done by storms is chiefly con- fined to invasions of bark-beetles and of weeds in the blanks and regeneration-areas, where the trees have been blown down. (b) Species of Tree. — Forests of conifers are far more exposed to damage than those of broad-leaved species, where extensive destruction by storms is comparatively rare. It would be diffi- cult to draw up a comparative table of trees of difierent species according to their capacity to withstand storms, as the amount of damage done is greatly modified by local circumstances ; but evergreen foliage and shallow root-systems render trees liable to be broken or blown over. As these two qualities are united in the spruce, this species is specially liable to damage by storms, as experience has proved. If, at any time, other trees suffer more than the spruce, this is due to the nature of the soil, to the extraordinary violence of the storm, or some other special circumstance. If, however, species such as silver- fir, or Scotch pine, with strong root-systems, are hindered from developing them normally, owing to the nature of the subsoil, they are exposed to danger equally with the spruce, and even more so ; for in &uch cases, they are compelled to have shallow root- systems which, unlike the spruce, they rarely develop evenly in all directions. Danger is also increased in the case of the Scotch pine, by the higher centre of gravity it possesses than the spruce. A list of species arranged in ascending order of storm- firmness can therefore be drawn up only after allov.'iug for the eflects of local circumstances on each species, and pre- supposing a rational treatment in accordance with sylvicultural requirements. From this point of view, conifers are arranged in the following 462 PROTECTION AGAINST WINDS. order : — Spruce, silver-fir, pines and larch. Of the pines, the mountain and Cembran pines are most storm firm, then the (Jorsican variety of the black pine, and the cluster, Weymouth and Scotch pines. As regards broad-leaved species, those which are shallow-rooted, such as aspen, birch, beech, and hornbeam, are least storm-firm. The beech is more frequently blown-down than any of these species, because it is most abundantly grown. The following trees are fairl}^ storm-firm : — ash, sycamore, Norway-maple, elm, alder, lime- and walnut ; the deep-rooted oaks withstand storms best of all. (c) Age of Tree. — Storms chiefly damage woods of ad- vanced age, the second half or last third of a rotation being most endangered. Extensive damage is rare in woods under sixty years of age, and occurs only under exceptional condi- tions, such as shallow-rootedness of young woods, soil without much consistency owing to saturation by rain, woods in very exposed localities, or when assailed by exceptionally violent storms. Damage to young trees consists more in causing them to deviate from the vertical position, less by uprooting, and less still in breakage. In the storm on the Baltic coast in 1872, in the Greifswald, 25-years-old Scotch pines Avere affected. In 1876, 15 to 20- years-old spruce and Scotch pines were seriously damaged. In some pole- woods 25 to 30% of the stems were bent at an angle of 30'^ towards the east and north-east. (d) System of Manafienient. — High forests are most exposed to danger from storms. It is still an open question, whether un- even-aged and irregular Selection forests sufter more from storms than the even-aged woods of the Clear-Cutting system, which can only be answered after thoroughly considering the modify- ing influence of localities, and the degree of skill with which the woods have been treated. Among the coppice systems, that of lopping side branches is the worst, as trees so treated have long narrow crowns, on which the wind can exert leverage. Pollards suff"er less, and ordinary coppice least of all. Coppice- with-Standards is also storm-firm, as only the standards suffer, and damage to these is inconsiderable, owing to their strong root STORMS. 4-63 development and the uniformity of their crowns, due to their growth in the open. (e) Nature of Stem. — Long, cyhndrical stems with elevated and expanded crowns, having high centres of gravity, and affording strong leverage to the winds, are greatly exposed to damage by storms. Thus standards in high forest above young growth are peculiarly liable to be thrown or broken. Damaged or sickly trees, such as those with decayed roots ; trees injured by game, insects, cankers, fungi, cup-shake, bark- scorching, &c., are readily broken at the damaged place. Uprooting of the tree with the soil attached to its roots is most frequent in the case of spruce or beech. Breakage of crown or branches is most common in the case of Scotch pine, alder, ash and robinia. The forked branches and crown of the two latter species are frequently broken by storms. In the case of oaks it is chiefly the dry branches of stag- headed crowns which are blown off by storms. (f ) LocaUty. — In Germany, forests on hills and low mountain- chains are more affected by storms than those in higher moun- tainous regions. During the ten years, 1870 — 80, in the Thuringer-Wald and the Harz, damage by storms was chiefly at altitudes of between 800 and 1,800 feet; but in 1876, ex- tended to 2,300 feet. This is because at higher altitudes spruce trees are shorter in the stem than those growing lower down, are also grown less crowded with low crowns in Selection forests, and have thus greater powers of resistance against storms than the crowded lanky stems of lower altitudes. The configuration of the ground has a marked influence on the amount of damage done to forests by storms ; thus, gentle westerly slopes bordering on extensive plains or plateaux sufter greatly, and so do outlying hills and mountain ridges ; also, narrow valleys running from the west or south-west towards the east or north-east, hills lying transversely at the end of, or partly across such valleys, and steep slopes directly in the way of the storm. Whenever south-Avesterly winds prevail, a storm, after crossing a mountain ridge, must descend its north-easterly slope ; if then the wind has to find its way across the ridge through narrow felling-areas between high woods, or by funnel- 464 PROTECTION AGAINST WINDS. Fig. 224. shaped ravines, the damage done on the north-easterly slope will be increased, as the confined space in which it moves increases the violence of the storm. It is found that storms do more damage down-hill than up-hill, and for the following- reasons : — (i) Trees have stronger branches and roots down-hill, as they get more light, and consequently more nourishment in that direction ; they, therefore, have a natural tendency to fall down-hill, whilst their hold on the ground is also less effective against strong winds which blow down-hill. (ii) Winds which are blowing up-hill are continu- ally losing force by their friction with the soil and crowns of the trees. (iii) The centre of gravity of a tree has to be raised less when blown over from above than from below, as the annexed diagram shows : — Here s is the centre of gravity of the tree, and ir, ic 15 two roots, and if the tree is to be thrown up- hill by the wind, s must be raised through a h, if down -hill, through <• d which is less than a h. The greater the gradient of the slope, the more endangered is the tree. Shallow, loose, spongy soil affords a bad root-hold ; this explains the great amount of windfall which occurs on moors and sand}' soils, or when the subsoil is a loose clay, into which the trees' roots do not penetrate. It has been observed that windfall in the Schwarzwald is more frequent on the red sandstone formation than on gneiss, granite, basalt or porphyry. In woods which have been planted on the sites of old fields, windfall is frequent, owing to the looseness and comparative STORMS. 465 poverty of the soil. Soils in which root-rot frequently occurs, such as calcareous soil, or land with a wet subsoil, are liable to windfall ; a high soil-covering, such as heather, broom, thorny or shrubby undergrowth, is here beneficial, as these plants bind together the particles of soil. Heavy rain-fall accompanying a storm greatly diminishes the coherence of the soil, and increases the danger of up-rooting, its effects vary of course with the nature of the soil. Frost, on the contrary, greatly increases the coherence of the soil, especially when the ground is covered with snow. (g) Density of Crojj*.— Trees grown in the open, owing to their well-developed root-sytems and low pyramidal cro^Mis, withstand storms much better than stems Avhich have been drawn up in dense woods and then recently exposed in thinnings and regeneration fellings. The latter improve in their powers of resistance, as they get accustomed to their open position. Their root-systems become enlarged ; in crowded woods, how- ever, the stems afford one another mutual protection against the wind. (h) Season. — Storms may occur at any season of the year, but the most destructive storms are during winter ; autumn storms accompanied by heavy rain are also frequently very disastrous to forests. 3. lief/ister of Stofins. During the past century, the following are the dates of the most wide-spread and disastrous storms : — 1800 (3rd and 9th November). . 1801 (29th and 30th January). 1833 (17th and 18th December). 1834 (4th January). 1836 (29th November and 24th— 26th December). 1842. (3rd May). 1853 (14tli and 15th December from S.E.). 1866 (16th November). 1867 (8th April). 1868 (7th, 11th, and 29th December). 1869 (17th December). 1870 (26th and 27th October). 466 PROTECTION AGAINST WINDS. 1872 (12tli and 13tli November). 187.5 (8th and 13th November). 1876 (12th and 13th March). In this storm, about thirty milhon cubic feet of timber were blown down in the State and Communal forests of Hesse, or 84 cubic feet per acre, being 125 per cent, of the total annual yield of the forests. The same storm cleared 24 cubic feet per acre in the Saxon forests, or 40 per cent, of their fixed annual yield. 1877 (30th and 31st January, and 10th and 12th February). 1879 (20th and 21st February, 25th .June, 20th November and 5th December). 1880 (21st October). 1881 (14th and 15th October). 1884 (20th and. 28th January). 1885 (15th October). 181)0 (23rd, 24th and 27th January). 1893 (8th and 12th December). Terrific storms over the north of England and Scotland accompanied by violent rain, the wind blowing at 90 miles an hour in the Orkneys. 1,850,000 trees, valued at ±'282,263, were blown down in Perthshire and Forfarshire, the only conifers resisting the gale being Corsican and maritime pines. 1894 (22nd December). A similar storm to the above, which only did less damage to the Highland woods because there were fewer trees left to be blown down. Great numbers of rooks, starlings and other birds were entangled in the branches of trees and killed, or blown into the sea. Taking a general view of the storms in Central Europe, during the present century, the years 1801, 1833, 1868, 1876 and 1893, have been the Avorst, and there has been on the average one destructive storm-year every four years. Whirlwinds are of rare occurrence in Central Europe, and are usually only of limited extent and short duration. On the 1st August, 1877, a whirlwind fifty miles to the north of Berlin destroyed three-and-a-half million cubic feet of standing timber over a breadth of two-and-a-half miles. The coast districts between the mouths of the Mississippi river and Charleston are subject to terrific hurricanes, and in August, 1893, scarcely a tree was left standing in the islands there, nearly 2,000 people STORMS. 467 were killed, aud i' 1,000, 000 -wortli of property destroyed, the wind having blown at the rate of 125 miles per hour.* 4. Protective JRules. (a) During the Formation of Woods. (i) Favour the cultivation of broad-leaved species wherever this is possible. The damage done by storms during the last ten years is a warning to foresters who are so ready to convert broad-leaved into coniferous forests ; this should only be done in cases of extreme urgency. (ii) Drain damp localities before making regeneration-fellings. (iii) Use strong transplants 4 to 6 feet apart, so as to ensure the growth of sturdy trees. Planting spruce gives better results than sowing it. (iv) Mix deep-rooted species with shallow-rooted ones ; for instance, mix oak, ash, sycamore, larch, or Scotch pine with beech and silver fir, and larch with spruce. (v) Maintain protective belts along the boundaries of a forest, where prevailing winds are to be feared. Boundary ditches should not be dug along these boundaries, as they cut through the roots of the nearest trees. (b) During Tending. (i) Early, frequent and moderate thinnings should be made, so as to ensure normal root-systems, sturdy stems, and regularly shaped crowns. During the thinnings, all trees should be re- moved which have suft'ered injury to their bark, or which are forked, diseased or afiected with fungi. It is better in thinning young spruce-woods not to dig up stumps, as in so doing the roots of neighbouring trees may be cut through. Heavy thinnings in lanky and hitherto densely growing woods are dangerous. (ii) Trees along the borders of a forest should be allowed to branch low down the stem. (iii) Endangered border trees standing over young growth may be temporarily preserved by thinning out their crowns, and cutting those branches which extend at right angles to the direction of the prevailing wind. This has been successfully carried out with spruce at Stammheim, in Wiirttemberg. * "Scribner's Magazine," February, 189i. 468 PROTECTION AGAINST WINDS. (iv) Carefully avoid all causes leading to defects in trees ; thus, resin-tapping should be stopped in spruce forests, deer which peel trees should be shot, and careful forest protection secured. (c) During Fellings. (i) Avoid very long rotations, as the area of a forest exposed to danger from storms increases in proportion to the length of the rotation. Thus, considering that danger from storm com- mences when the trees are fifty years old, we have : — "With 120 years' rotation yWths of the area endangered. 90 ,, 60 ,, ,, (ii) All greatly exposed places in mountainous regions should Fio. 225. Aths -i-ths ~^S^E 1 ■-> :i 4 .", II 7 -s 1-4 r-.-i 1-4 y-i 1 Normal arrangement of age-classes in a wood ; r length of i"otation. be regenerated by the Selection system, and the slopes should not be touched till the summit has been regenerated. (iii) Eegeneration in narrow strips commencing in the direc- tion opposed to the prevailing wind, should be substituted for regeneration extending at once over a whole compartment, especiall}^ in spruce forest. (iv) Woods should always be regenerated in the direction opposed to the prevailing winds, which is generally from east or north-east to west or south-west, so as to secure a constantly graduated succession of young woods on the Avindy side of the older woods. Nothing can ward oft" storms better than such a slope of trees as is shown in fig. 2"2o. STORMS. 469 As such a succession of felling-areas may encourage insect attacks and would not be practicable over the "whole area of a forest, it is usual to arrange the age-classes in a number of cutting-series, running more or less parallel to one another through the forest from east or north-east to west and south- west. Age-classes are, however, seldom so arranged that an old wood will not occasionally be found directly opposed to the force of the wind, after it has been exposed by felling another mature wood to the west of it, and in such cases, a severance- felling is required. This is a narrow clearing made through a wood, to strengthen the border trees on its weather side, so that by the extension of their crowns and root-systems, they may protect the dense wood beyond them from storms. Severance-fellings should be forty to fifty feet broad, and as nearly as possible at right-angles to the direction of the prevailing wind ; they must be made before the trees are too old to respond to the increased exposure to light. The cleared space should be at once planted up, and thus itself form a protective zone when the woods beyond it have been felled. Figs. 226 and 227 show the arrangement of the age-classes in a forest at Sternberg, in Thuringia. If it is wished to fell the 70-year-old wood without endangering that 50 years old, which it at present shelters from the west wind, it becomes necessary to separate the two woods by a severance-felling. This, as the diagrams show, has been already done six years ago, when the strip was planted with 4-years-old spruce transplants, which now form a lO-j'ear-old protection belt to the 50-year- old trees. The westerly border-trees of the latter, have now become so wind-firm that the severance-felling (/>) might be widened. Another severance-felling {a) has also been made between the 30 and 50-years-old woods, because the latter is to the west of the former and will first be mature. The pro- posed widening of (a) is marked in fig. 226 by a line, and in fig. 227 by shading, but it cannot be carried out until the younger wood has become more wind-firm. There is no ap- parent necessity for the severance-felling (c), as the woods on both sides of it are of the same age, but it has been cut, in order that the large 50-years-old wood may be divided into two cutting 470 PROTECTION AGAINST WINDS. series, both beginning from the east in order to avoid the necessity of having too large felling areas. Fic. ■2-2 m M \^\ V/ \\\\A\\;\ ^w% mw^' /K - — •/ / \i /^/////// J^V, 1 i 1 S 'M M 5 Scale i^lo IV. III. • 10 years old. 30 years. 50 years. 70 yeaxs. Plan of part of the Zellaer Forest, ^vitli 3 severance-fellings, a b c. West a Fig. 227. 70 JO 1 i 1 1 ./ PROTECTION AGAINST WINDS. commenced. The intermediate shades represent the second, third, and fourth periodic blocks. Fig, 229. a h c = 45^ Denzin has, however, proposed that this arrangement of fellings, which is the one usually employed, should make way STORMS. 473 for that shown in fig. 230 which he considers to afford better protection to w"oods of second period against south-west, west south-west, and south-south-w^est winds. The objection to this arrangement is that, although the woods of the second period are better protected against west and south- west winds, yet they are completely exposed to the cutting north-east winds with the accompanying danger from rime. Hess thinks that further experience is necessary before de- ciding between these two arrangements, and also as regards the shape of compartments, whether square* or rectangular, as this may also affect the amount of damage done by storms. Fig. 231. ^^Mi>k'iVl.^§ ^^^^^^E^&^SiiSffii/i^t^^Mlfi^WM'^-' a. Heaps of stones, b. Pruned and topped spruce trees. (viii) It is useless leaving standards of shallow-rooted species, such as spruce, in exposed places. (ix) Stumps should not be dug up in preparatory and seeding fellings, where storms are to be feared. After storms have damaged valuable middle-aged woods, further damage may be prevented by thinning out the crowns of trees left standing on the exposed sides of woods, and lading their roots with stones if they are easily procurable. * The question of the direction of fellings in mountainous districts, and of the proper shape of compartments, is discussed in detail by Karl Heyer. in der Waldbau, 1878, p. 52 et scq. K K 2 474 PROTECTION AGAINST WINDS. 5. Treatment of Windfalls and Wood-hreahage. On account of danger from bark-beetles, which follow extensive breakage in a wood, prompt measures must be taken after damage has been done by a storm. {a) Convert the broken material and transport it from the wood as soon as possible, after stripping the bark from all stems and broken pieces, at any rate of conifers. {h) All wood unfit for timber should be split and the stacks of fuel should be set up' in well aerated places. All rubbish maybe made into charcoal or even burned, if necessary. {c) Stumps and roots of coniferous trees should be gi-ubbed out and split up, even if a pecuniary loss is involved. In broad- leaved woods, on the contrary, up-rooted stumps should be replaced in the ground, or at any rate, the earth knocked from the roots and the holes filled up. Ordinary cart-jacks may be used to replace the stumps ; they cost about 45s. each, and two jacks are required for each stump. In a beech-wood, fifty- one men at two shillings a day replaced 422 stumps in this way at a cost of fourpence a stump. {d) Favourable conditions of sale should be offered so that all broken wood may be sold as soon as possible. All intended fellings should be postponed until the volume of the broken wood has been calculated, and deducted from the annual yield. If there is more wood broken than the fixed annual yield, all principal fellings should be postponed for a year or more. Some idea of the large quantity of wood which is blown down may be gained from the fact that in the spruce and silver-fir State forests in AViirttemberg, about one third of the fixed annual yield comes from windfalls and breakage. 6. Treatment of Woods which hare been Damaged by Storms. When we consider the great variety of local circumstances which influence the degree of damage done by storms, it is impossible to draw up special rules for the treatment of injured woods which will meet all cases that may occur. A few general rules will, however, be given which are applicable STORM^'. 475 to the commoner cases for trees and poles, no damage being done by storms to thickets of saplings or to coppice-shoots. (a) Injured Trees. All mature or nearly mature woods which have been badly invaded by storms should be felled earlier than was otherwise intended ; this is especially true for woods which have thus become full of blanks. If, however, the storm has only caused a few blanks, the date fixed for fellings need not be anticipated. Small blanks due to the fall of single trees, or small groups of trees, cannot well be planted up, as plantations succeed badly in such places, and within ten or fifteen years the crowns of the surrounding trees will close them again. Large blanks, how- ever, should be at once planted, before they become covered with weeds, unless natural regeneration can be secured. In planting blanks, about 20 to 25 feet should be left unplanted round them, as plants within this strip would suffer from the shade of the surrounding trees. In fining blanks in spruce and silver-fir woods, beech, horn- beam, sycamore, or silver-fir are preferable ; but if the forest contains red deer, silver-fir plants will require fencing with hurdles. Scotch pine and larch-woods when damaged by storms may be filled up with spruce, Weymouth or Corsican pines; beech-woods, where the soil is deep, with oak, and on good but stony soil with sycamore, in wet places with ash, or alder. When the next felUng takes place, these groups of young wood will be carried on for another rotation, but will be thinned and pruned where they endanger the future young beech. They will eventually yield fine timber trees. (b) Injured Poles. It is very difficult to decide on the proper treatment of pole- woods when broken into by storms. Premature fellings would be undertaken only when the damage done is on a large scale, or when these woods interrupt the normal cutting-series, or when they would not expose neighbouring woods to the west. In general it is not advisable to fell damaged pole -woods, but their treatment will vary according to species, locality, area of blanks, <*cc. Small blanks could be left unplanted for the same 476 PROTECTION AGAINST WINDS. reason as tlaat given for older woods. Larger blanks could be planted with large transplants of beech, hornbeam, or sycamore. Larch and Weymouth pine owing to their rapid growth would soon fill up the blanks, but the larch does not thrive every- where, and the Weymouth pine does badly in mountainous districts. Here also 12 to 18 feet interval should be left between the plantation and the still standing poles. Woods intended for natural regeneration may be trained up by means of heavy thinnings to produce seed earlier than usual. PROTECTION AGAINST VIOLENT RAIN. 477 CHAPTER IV. PROTECTION AGAINST VIOLENT EAIN. 1. Damage clone. Heavy and prolonged rainfall and occasionally water- spouts, damage forests by carrying away the dead leaves, the soil, and seeds ; by up-rooting youug plants, the roots of which are not sufficientlj' developed, such as seedlings and nursery transplants recently put out ; by causing local swamps, destroying roads and ditches, loosening the roots of trees, preventing fruit from ripening, and breaking it off. The results are impoverishment of the soil, failure of sowings, blanks in plantations, liability to windfall, loss of seed, &c. As regards the locality, steep slopes with loose light soil, which are neither covered with woody growth, nor with herbage, moss or dead leaves are most liable to damage. Loose soil when saturated with rain renders the roots of trees less secure against windfall. Clay soils are also injuriously affected by heavy rains, as a crust forms on their surface, excluding air from the roots of plants. 2. Protective Mules. (a) Maintain the forest growth and natural soil-covering of herbage, moss, and dead leaves on all steep slopes exposed to flooding. In high forest, it is best to have natural regeneration under a shelter-wood, but on slopes, coppice is less heavy than high forest, and protects the soil as well. In planting up such localities, the slopes may be terraced with advantage, and planting, which is preferable to sowing, should be in horizontal lines commencing at the top of the slope. For dry calcareous slopes the black pine is most suitable. (&) Establish a system of horizontal trenches on dry slopes ; 478 PROTECTION AGAINST VIOLENT EAIN. these may be of two kinds, the one designed to ai-rest the descent of the rain-water, and the other to catch the dead leaves which would otherwise he washed or blown down the slopes. The former trenches are from 10 to 12 inches deep and 25 to 30 feet apart ; they should be in lengths of 12 to 30 feet, to prevent the formation of drains. These trenches retain the excess water after heavy rain, and part with it gradually to the soil. Leaves are washed and blown into them and the soil is thus improved. In oak and beech forests, they catch the acorns and beech-nuts which are rolling downhill, and thus natural regeneration may be secured. If the trenches are intended merely to retain the dead leaves, they are made narrower than before, and closer together. (c) All measures which cause or favour loosening of the soil should be abandoned in such places ; these are ; — extraction of stumps, pasturing cattle, trenching the soil, &c. (d) In order to protect forest roads from the effects of violent rainfall, ditches and culverts should be constantly kept free from weeds, silt and dead leaves. Where the road passes through a sandy cutting, the banks on either side may be terraced and fixed by wattle-work fencing, stakes of living willows being used, and sand-fixing species planted between the fences. PROTECTION AGAINST HAIL. 479 CHAPTER V. PROTECTION AGAINST HAIL. 1. Damage done. Hail completely beats clown young plants, and injures sap- lings, poles and young trees by breaking off leaves, blossom, fruits, young twigs, and leading shoots, and by stripping off flakes of bark, either in little patches or short strips, and thus exposing the cambium-zone. The marks of the wounds made by hail in the bark of trees are often noticeable for a long time, the amount of damage done depending on the size of the hail- stones. In consequence of damage by hail, there is a loss of incre- ment, in certain cases deformed growth, decreased production of seed, and even death of trees. Through the wounds made by hail, spores of species of Nectria and other fungi may gain admission to the tree. Conifers suffer more from hail than broad-leaved trees, especially the Scotch, Austrian, and Weymouth pines, the spruce and silver-fir somewhat less ; the larch soon recovers from injuries to its shoots or bark. Among broad-leaved species, those with less power of occluding wounds, and with thin bark, such as the beech, suffer most, but the oak, robinia and other trees when young may be seriously injured ; the birch owing to its elastic shoots and leathery bark does not suffer much from hail. Young plants 1 to 15 -years- old are most endangered, yearlings being often destroyed by a hail-storm ; and sowings, especially when on a large scale, suffer more than plantations. Poles 15 to 30-years-old suffer less than younger plants, while serious damage is rarely done to trees over 30 years old. The later in 480 PROTECTIOX AGAINST HAIL. the spring the hail occurs, the greater is the damage, especiallj' to smooth -barked, weakly plants. Oak-coppice for bark and osier-beds may sufifer severely from hail, and in high forest, open woods suffer more than dense woods, and isolated trees and those along the borders of the forest suffer most. 2. Prevalence of Hail-storms. Hail-storms are not very common in Europe, they occur only in late spring or summer and generally during the day-time. They are very severe in northern India, occurring generally during April and May, and the stones are then frequently as large as walnuts^ and batter stucco buildings as if they had been subjected to a volley of musketry and even penetrate corrugated iron roofs. Such hail-storms may completely strip the young shoots from trees and tea-bushes, in the latter case causing damage which may be estimated at thousands of pounds for a tea district. In Germany there are, on the average, only about five hail-storms a year, but on the west coast of Europe there are about fifteen. These are sometimes very local, extend- ing only over small areas. Thus, in Cambridgeshire, within ten miles around the village of Chatteris, double the usual rates of insurance for agricultural crops against hail are charged. Hail- storms are very prevalent in Wiirttemberg, where thousands of acres of cultivated land are annually laid waste by hail ; a record of them has been kept since 1828, which shows that forests reduce the velocity of the wind and neutralize electricity, but does not show that these influences are effective in preventing hail-storms, or in limiting their range. Observa- tions have also been made at the Meteorological Otfice at Zurich in Switzerland, between 1883 and 1893, and in discussing these. Dr. C. Hess* states that hail is more frequent in valleys than on mountains, where it is often transformed into sleet or rain. Near marshes and lakes, hail is more frequent than * Extract from '• Nature," January 3, 1895. Translated from " Naturwis- sensi-haftlich Wocheuschiift " for December 9, 1894. PROTECTION AGAINST HAIL. 481 over woods. On passing over cultivated lands or hill forests, there is a tendency to a decrease in the intensity and at times an entire cessation of the hail-storms. 3. Protection and Remedial Rules, All blanks in forests should be filled with strong trans- plants. Broad-leaved species badly injured by hail should be cut back if young enough to shoot out again from the stool. 482 PROTECTION AGAINST SNOW. CHAPTER VI. PROTECTION AGAINST SNOW. 1. Damage done. (a) General Account. Snow injures forest plants by its downward pressure when lying on their branches, by which they may be bent, or broken ; even entire stems, or woods, may be bent, broken, or partially uprooted by the weight of snow resting on their crowns. The term snow-break is used to denote the breakage of stems or branches, and chiefly occurs when the ground is frozen, and bending when it is soft. A special form of injury arises when masses of snow sliding down hill- sides fall on undergrowth and crush it ; this is not uncommon on cold aspects. The results of damage by snow resemble wind-break. Other indirect damage is done, when the ground becomes soft and yielding after a rapid spring thaw, which occasions floods and landslips. (b) SjK'cics of Tree. Trees with pendulous or flexible leaders or branches, such as birch, larch, deodar, and others with a tendency to a squat shrub- like habit and to form side-shoots into leaders, such as the mountain-pine, green alder, and most rhododendrons, are adapted to grow in regions where much snow falls annually. On the contrary, trees with brittle attachment of the branches to the stem, such as Finns rigida, Mill, and some Eucalypti may withstand frost, but are broken to pieces by the snow. Most European trees withstand snow fairly well, but ever- green conifers sufter most from it, in the following order : — black, Scotch and Weymouth pines, spruce and silver-fir. The larch sufi'ers much less from snow than other conifers owing to its having no needles in winter for snow to rest on, but it may be injured when snow falls in autumn before it has lost DAMAGE DONE. 483 its needles. Pinjis Cemhra is another tree found at high alti- tudes ; though growing slowly, it attains a great age, and resists the snow owing to its tufted foliage and tendency to form new leaders, which the silver-fir also possesses. The black pine does not resist snow well owing to its long needles, which allow much snow to rest on its crown. The spruce generally sniffers more than Scotch pine, as it grows at altitudes and on aspects where snow is most frequent and least liable to thaw ; the Scotch pine on the other hand, is chiefly grown in plains where snow is less frequent and thaws sooner and cannot therefore accumulate in masses on the crowns of the trees. Wherever the spruce and Scotch pine grow to- gether in mixed woods, it is found that the latter is less resisting owing to the brittle nature of its wood ; the spruce being more elastic and splitting less readily can support a greater weight of snow than pines. The silver-fir is more resisting than the spruce, owing to the greater depth of its root-system and the more upward insertion of its branches. Among broad-leaved trees, the beech suffers most from snow, as this tree ascends higher in mountains than other important broad -leaved species. Alder, robinia, aspen, and Salix fragilis sufi"er on account of their brittle branches, and even the birch is broken badly if snow should fall before it has lost its leaves. Hornbeam stands the danger better, and so do ash, maple and oak. The lower part of stems growing on mountain slopes exposed to heavy snow-fall curves outwards before becoming vertical owing to the pressure of the snow which accumulates behind it, especially during the youth of the tree. In hollow depressions on steep slopes, the weight of the descending snow is so great, that masses of it slide down every year and crush all the seed- lings they meet. Such places in the Himalayas are bordered by species of maple and horse-chesnut which apparently withstand the sliding action of the snow better than conifers, or evergreen oaks, which are the chief components of the Himalayan forests between 7,000 and 9,000 feet altitude. (c) Part of Tree. Young trees may be bent down, by snow, individually or in *84 PROTECTION AGAINST SNOW. Fig. •232. masses, inclusive or exclusive of the ball of earth around their roots. Tearing out of branches from the stem, as shown in the an- nexed diagram, is a less common form of damage, by -which the stem becomes almost worthless for timber, and more liable to fresh breakage. If all the branches of a verticil are thus torn out, the leading shoot invariably dies. This form of injury is common with pines, and branches up to '2w inches thick are thus torn out, the holes be- coming filled with resin, and the torn branches eventually falling oft', so that the damage done to the tree may escape notice. In the case of spruce, the branches thus torn out are not generally more than 1^ inches thick. Amongst broad - leaved species, soft woods, including birch, suft'er most in this way, then ash ; maples and beech and oaks less, though much similar damage was done by snow to oaks in Windsor Forest, in October, 1878, when they were in full leaf. According to the age of woods so affected, sometimes the leaders and branches, at others, the stem at diff'erent heights above the ground, are more subject to snow break. The former mode of injury is com- monest in seed-years among older conifers, as the cones increase the weight on the crown of the tree. Stem-breakage usually occurs in the case of trees injured by resin-tapping, or trees which are forked or cankered at or shoot of a spruce, six bran- above the seat of injury. dies of which have been . n • ^ ^ ■ o i > torn off by snow. ihe lollowuig table gives vou bcelcn s Portion leading DAMAGE DONE. 485 observations on damage by snow in December, 1883, in the Hasselfeld forest range. Place of Breakage. Percentage of Breakage. Remarks. 30^0-year- Over 40 old trees. years old. Koot-coUum 6 17 Altitude 1,800 feet, site nearly level. The younger wood had been heavily thinned. 1,030 steins were counted. 6 feet lip the stem 62 (60) 20 12 3 (1) 30 50 (Of these at a place where bark was injured) Over 6 feet up stem to crown Within the crown (d) System of Management. As the species which suffer most from snow are grown in high forest, that system is most hable to snow-break. Woods, where the trees in each compartment are of even age and height, suffer more than uneven-aged woods, such as those grown under the Selection system; in the former case snow may lie in masses like a roof over the crowns of the trees, especially when the wood is densely stocked, whilst in uneven-aged woods more snow reaches the ground by falling between the crowns of the trees. In the second case the wind also enters the wood more freely and shakes the snow from the crowns of the trees. Hence, in localities liable to snow-break, the Selection and Group systems are more suitable than other high forest systems. In coppice- with-standards, the lanky tellers occasionally suffer soon after a felling, but pure coppice is rarely injured by snow. (e) Age of Wood. Slowly growing species such as silver-fir, spruce and beech are most endangered by snow between the ages of 20 and 60 years ; quickly growing species such as Scotch pine and larch between the ages of 20 and 25 years. Thickets 1 to 20- years-old withstand snow better owing to their elasticity, and woods over 60-years-old suffer less, on account of the greater size of the trees ; a distinction must, however, be 486 PROTECTION AGAINST SNOW, made between bending and breakage. Bending owing to snow is most frequent in woods 20 to 40-years-old, and occurs generally in patcbes. Snow-break, on the contrary, is most frequent in woods 40 to 60 -years-old and even in older woods the crowTi and leading shoots of the trees are chiefly broken in woods up to 60-years-old, whilst in older woods branches are broken off the stem. In otherwise uninjured Avoods, stem- breakage is generally near the base of the crown and occurs here and there to individual trees. Younger drawn-up stems are often broken in groups, and sometimes in strips, owing to the action of wind during or after the fall of snow. In the extensive snow-break which happened in the Harz forests, in December, 1883, trees of the following categories were injured in following proportion for the whole area affected : — Age of Woods in Years. Percentage of Breakage. 20—30 . 10 30 40 . 25 40 50 . 25 50 60 . 20 60 70 . 12 70—80 . 5 80 and over (f) Locality. 8 Mountain-forests are more affected by snow-break than forests of the plains and lowlands. The localities in Germany most exposed to snow-break lie between altitudes of 1,200 and 2,400 feet; the snow falls more abundantly at higher elevations, but then the flakes are smaller and drier, and do not become so readily attached to the trees ; lower down, on the other hand, the fall of snow frequently changes into rain. In Switzerland, in 1885 damage by snow extended to an altitude of 6,560 feet above sea- level. No aspect is absolutely safe against snow-break ; most snow in central Europe comes from a westerly direction, from which quarter also the strongest winds blow. The south-easterly, easterly and north-easterly aspects, especially just below the DAMAGE DONE. 487 crest of the hills suffer most ; the snow falling most abundantly in such places and being less easily shaken from the trees by the wind, accumulates on their crowns. Since, also, freezing winds blow chiefly from the east, a frozen crust is then formed over the snow, on which more snow lodges when there is a subsequent snow-storm. North and north-westerly aspects suffer less, and westerly, south-westerly and southerly aspects least of all. Depressions and sheltered spots in valleys are much exposed to snow-break, as the wind cannot free the crowns of the trees from snow in such places. (g) Mode of Formation. Under otherwise equal conditions }' oung pole-woods which have grown up in dense thickets, suffer most from snow, their scanty root-systems and slender drawn-up stems exposing them to danger. Poles resulting from sowings suffer more than plantations where from the first each individual plant has had sufficient room for its development. Planting two or more plants in each planting spot, termed multiple-planting, is also less favourable where snow is to be feared than planting single plants. The distance between the planting-spots is also important, as plants with stronger roots, and crowns, capable of resisting the pressure of the snow, result from wide planting. Such plants may, however, be up- rooted, at least at high altitudes, owing to the large surface of their crowns, so that wherever this danger is to be feared, plant- ing-spots must not be too far apart. Observations made in the Harz forests in December, 1883, after the disastrous snow-storm already referred to, gave the following per-centages in 100 acres of spruce woods which were bent down and broken by the snow : Single-planting, 18, Multiple-planting, 26, so that the single-planting suffered about one-third less than multiple-planting. Mixed woods consiscing of broad-leaved trees and conifers sufter less than pure coniferous woods, as less snow rests on the trees, and the broad-leaved species are less liable to injury. Beech, sycamore and hornbeam should therefore be mixed with spruce or silver-fir. The larch has not succeeded in German VOL. IV. L L 488 PROTECTION AGAINST SNOW. mountain-forests, but it grows admirably in the British Isles when mixed with beech and other conifers, provided the soil is suitable, and such mixtures are admirably adapted to withstand heavy falls of snow. (h) Effect of Thinnings. Woods which have been properly thinned are generally less liable to damage than unthinned woods, not only on account of the sturdier forms of the trees and their more regular crowns, but also because more snow reaches the ground in thinned woods, and the weight of the snow which rests on the crowns of the trees is less than when the woods are very dense. The wind is also more effective in thinned woods in shaking the trees free from snow. Extensive snow-break has indeed been observed at times in thinned woods, but this does not invalidate the above reasoning, for sometimes thinnings are put off too long, and if excessive snow should fall on weakly stems just set free by a strong thinning, it is evident that much damage may be done. It is therefore to a certain extent an affair of chance, as regards the first thinning in a dense thicket, whether damage by snow occurs or not, but the longer the wood escapes damage after the thinning has been effected, the better it will resist, should a severe snow-storm occur. In thinned woods, individual stems are more liable to breakage, whilst in unthinned woods whole patches of poles may be crushed. Biihler* has undertaken some very interesting experiments on the effects of thinning in snow-break, which show that heavy thinnings are less affected by snow than light thinnings ; it is not the dominant poles with regularly shaped crowns which are so much endangered by the snow as the badly grown poles with lop-sided crowns, and these are i*emoved in heavy thinnings as well as dead, dying and dominated poles. A. heavy thinning somewhat interrupts the leaf-canopy, and thus allows more snow to reach the ground than in a densepole-wood. (i) State of the Weather. The snow is the more destructive, the wetter and larger * Schueedriick u. Durchtbrstuiigsgrad. Practisclier Forstvvirtli, 1890. No. 3—6. PROTECTIVE RULES. 489 the flakes and the more quietly it has fallen. Small flakes pass more easily between the branches of the trees, and dry snow is more easily shaken oS" them by the wind than damp snow. During a frost, however, wood is more brittle and consequently breakage is easier. The greatest damage is done when a thaw sets in after a fall of snow, and is followed by a frost, a fresh fall of snow and a strong breeze. Such a combination of circumstances will cause extensive snow-breakage in woods of all ages, whether sown or planted, thinned or unthinned, forming a sad picture of devastation for the forester, who sees the results of his care at once nullified. 2. Becoyd of Damage done by Snotc. Snow-break being only of a local nature, the occurrence of serious damage in the Harz mountains may be cited. During the sixty- six years ending with 1890, there have been seventeen disastrous years of snow-break, or one year in every four, the worst of which were as follows : — In January and February, 1844, in Hannover, two million stems were broken by snow, over 95 per cent, of which were under 7 inches in diameter. In November, 1872, in Brunswick, 2,878,000 cubic feet of timber were broken by snow on 89,362 acres, being at the rate of 28 cubic feet per acre, about half the fixe'd annual yield of the forests. Again, in November and December, 1875, in the same forests, 80 cubic feet per acre were broken by snow, and in some of them as much as 185 cubic feet per acre. The chief damage was done on the northern side of the mountains. From the 10th to the 13th December, 1883, and fi-om the 11th to the 27th January, 1884, 22,500,000 cubic feet of timber were broken in the Hannoverian Harz, and about 7,000,000 cubic feet in the Brunswick State forests. 3. Protective Btdes. Protective rules against damage to forests by snow should be drawn up, either on the principle of reducing the power of attachment of the snow to the trees, or of strengthening the latter. The question will be discussed under the heads of formation, tending, and utilization of the woods. L L 2 490 PROTECTION AGAINST SNOW. (a) Formation of JJ^oods. (i) Species endangered by snow should not be planted, especially in pure forests, or in snow localities. Scotch pine is the worst species for such places, and broad-leaved trees, such as beech, sycamore or hornbeam, should be mixed with spruce and silver-fir ; larch may also be introduced, wherever it is likely to succeed. (ii) Natural regeneration will give better results than regular plantations ; it produces the trees in groups and with a mixture of broad-leaved species which should be encouraged. (iii) Where the clear-cutting system is followed, strong nursery-trained transplants should be used to re-stock the felling-areas, the plantations being made in lines parallel to the direction of the prevailing wind, so that the snow may fall between the plants. The plants should be somewhat closely planted wherever heavy snow is to be feared, so that they may afibrd one another mutual support against the snow. (iv) An excessive growth of grass, bracken or other weeds should be removed from young growth, as it may be pressed down by the snow over the plants and kill them. (b) Protection during Tliinnituis. (i) The most efficient measure to protect woods 'against snow-break is to make timely thinnings, in accordance with sylvicultural rules, and suitable to the circumstances of each case. In woods endangered by snow-break, thinnings should com- mence early, be frequently repeated, and increase in intensity with the age of the trees. At the same time great care must be taken in the first thinning of densely stocked pole-woods. (ii) All injuries to the bark of trees must be avoided. (iii) In specially valuable young pole-woods, the snow may be shaken from the ti'ees ; this measure was successfully applied to 10 to 20-year-old Scotch pines in Wiirttemberg and Silesia in 1868, but can evidently be carried out only on a small scale. (c) During the Principal Fellings. (i) Felling by the selection method should be followed in TREATMENT OF INJURED WOODS. 491 high mountain regions, on peaks and ridges, as this favours uneven heights in the trees. (ii) Wherever clear-cuttings are practised, the felling-areas should be of small extent, so that areas of even-aged wood should not be too extensive ; several series of felling-areas should therefore be established. (iii) In coppice-with- standards onl}^ strong tellers should be reserved. 4. Treatment of Injured Woods. The treatment of injured woods will depend on their age and the species of which they are composed, and the kind of damage they have experienced. If extensive damage has been done by snow, the first duty of the forester is to remedy matters as soon as possible ; in coniferous woods especially, all bent and broken wood should be at once worked up and sold. Trees on which three or four verticils of living branches have been spared may be left standing, after care- fully pruning off their broken branches. Stems which have been bent over from the ground may recover their erect position owing to their elasticity and striving towards the light, and in any case, they assist in keeping the soil covered. The wood- cutters who are removing broken stems may be directed to set the bent stems upright, and, if necessary, attach them by string or wire to stems which are still erect. Young coniferous woods which have been broken in patches and strips should be replanted with large transplants of beech, sycamore, larch ; spruce, silver-fir, or Weymouth-pine may also be used. Older woods, when greatly thinned by snow-break, should be under-planted ; spruce- woods with beech. The remarks* already made regarding repairs of damage done by wind are also applicable here. Injured broad-leaved woods, especially beech pole-woods, may be repaired by cutting back the bent stems at heights of 12 to 18 feet from the ground, the stems being bent straight. In case of very serious damage, however, the injured woods, if not too old for reproduction from the stool, must be cut back close to the gi-ound, and the thinned wood underplauted with * Vide p. 474. 492 PROTECTION AGAINST SNOW. Fio. 233. Oak tree, branches broken by rime. From vol. xiii. Journal of R. Huit. r-vr.. Notes on Hoar Frost, Plowright. beech or silver-fir; woods like coppice -with -standards will result, which owiug to their uneveimess in age, height and rate of growth, will be better able to withstand future falls of snow. PROTECTION AGAINST EIME. 493 CHAPTER VIL PROTECTION AGAINST EIME.* 1. Damage done. EiME and ice may incrust and overlade stems, crowns and branches, and thus break or uproot trees. Rime, unless accom- panied by snow, seldom seriously damages trees, but this is not the case with ice, and when this is followed by snow and a stiff gale, forests may suffer very considerably. The damage done resembles that effected by snow, but whilst snow-break chiefl}' occurs in younger Avoods, rime and ice will damage middle-aged and even mature woods. Scotch pine and larch-woods thirty to sixty years old and beech-woods from forty to eighty years are most liable to injury, Pole-woods are generall}" bent, but may be sometimes crushed by the weight of ice they bear, as if by a gigantic roller. The damage done by rime and ice, in Central and Northern Germany, chiefly occurs at altitudes between 1,600 and 2,600 feet. Northerly, north-easterly and easterly aspects suffer most, espe- cially steep slopes and depressions exposed to the north-east wind. Woods suffer on both sides of valleys running east and west, whilst in valleys running north and south only the east aspect suffers. Isolated trees suffer more from rime and ice than trees growing in dense woods, as they have a larger surface exposed, and this applies to avenue trees, seed-bearers in regeneration- fellings and standards over coppice, and also to trees along the easterly and northerly borders of a wood, or of an exposed felling- area. Trees afford one another mutual protection in a dense wood. Most of the damage is done in January and February during the continuance of northerly or north-easterly winds. * Vide Notes on Hoar Frost : C. B. Plovvright, Journal of R. Hort. Soc, March. 1891. 494 PEOTECTION AGAINST EIME. 2. Record of Bad Years. The damage done by rime and ice as well as by snow is of a local nature, and in the Harz mountains there were nine bad years between 1821 — 1875, which were also the years in which much snow-break occurred. The weight of ice on the trees is sometimes considerable, as much as fifty pounds on six pounds of wood. A most destruc- tive ice-break occurred between the 18th and 25th of November, 1858, in the Spessart, Odenwald, part of the Bavarian Palatinate and Rhenish Prussia, in which the ice-crust was eighteen to twenty times the thickness of the wood on which it rested. In the Spessart 2,750,000 cubic feet of wood was broken ; in the Odenwald nearly 2,000,000 cubic feet ; in the State forests of the Palatinate 11,000,000 cubic feet, and about half as much in the Communal forests. Observations showed that a spruce plant dj feet high had to support 165 lbs., and single Scotch pine-needles, over half an ounce of ice. The picturesque forms of the ice-incrustations are shown in figs. 234 and 235. In France and Central Ger- many,from the 22nd to the 24th of January, 1879, there was most extensive breakage of woods by ice, which is described by Janin in the lievue des Deux Mondes. In certain broad-leaved forests, about 50 per cent, of the stems were broken, and in carefully thinned Scotch pine-woods, 70 per cent. In the forest of Fontainebleau, about 5,300,000 stacked cubic feet of wood were broken, thin twigs of wood and telegraph wires being incrusted with ice to a thickness of 8 inches. Living larks were found frozen to the ground by their leet and tails, and in the Champagne district dead partridges were picked up covered with Needles of Scotch pine encrusted with ice. TREATMENT OF INJURED WOODS. 495 ice. Great damage by rime to elm and other trees is described by Plowright as having occurred in Norfolk on Jan. 7th, 1889. 3. Protective Rules. (a) Formation of strong young growth. Where danger from rime and ice is feared, the Scotch pine must be excluded or mixed with other species. (h) Maintenance of the leaf-canopy even in old woods. (c) Isolated standards should not be reserved. (d) A protective belt should be maintained on the north- eastern and eastern borders of woods. (e) Wherever danger from rime-frost is greater than from storms, cuttings should be made in woods from south-east to Fig. 235. Scotch pine shoot covered with ice. north-west, when the south-w^esterly gales merely blow along the face of the felling-areas, and endanger only a few border-trees. The correct direction for felling-series can be decided only after a thorough knowledge has been acquired of the configuration of the ground and of the local factors. 4. Treatment of Injured Woods. Reference is here invited to Chapter III., p. 474, and Chapter VI., p. 491, dealing with woods damaged by storms and snow, as those which have been injured by ice will require similar treatment. 496 PAKT V. PKOTECTION AGAINvST NON-ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA. The chief non-atmospheric phenomena to which forests are exposed are swamps, floods and torrents, avalanches, shifting sands, and forest fires. CHAPTER I. PEOTECTION AGAINST DAMAGE BY SWAMPS, FLOODS AND TORKENTS.* Water acts either as a meteoric phenomenon, or as stagnant or flowing water on the surface of the ground, or in the soil ; its effects are partly mechanical and partly physiological. The chief mechanical eflects consist in soil-denudation, landslips, or floods. Physiological damage is done to plant life and to the soil hy stagnant water causing bogs and marshes. Damage to forests by heavy rain has already been dealt with. Section I. — Soil-Denudation. 1. Description. Soil-denudation on steep slopes may be due either to subsoil- or surface-water, or to torrents. Subsoil- or surface-water on hill-sides may cause landslips, which bring down the soil with the vegetation growing on it, and expose the subjacent rock; this may occur either when the slope of the hill-side is excessive, or when there is an imper- * Kraft, Gustav. Beitrage zur forstl. Wasserbaukunde. Hannover, 1862. SOIL-DENUDATION. 497 meable substratum which prevents the further descent of the water into the hilL Excavations of pits or quarries at the base of a hill may have a similar effect. Torrents, especially in mountainous regions, may cause soil- denudation, or form ravines by deepening their beds, and by wearing away their banks. The latter effect chiefly occurs at sharp turns in the course of the torrent, when one bank is formed of rock and the other of loose material. The force of the water increases with its velocity, and may be assumed to be proportional to the sixth power of the velocity of the stream. To cite an example, a formidable landslip occurred on the 15th November, 1879, at Vitznau, on Lake Lucerne. Here, at the foot of the Rigi, a mass of earth exceeding 35,000 cubic feet, and covered with trees, fell down the mountain side and filled a depression, burying a chapel with mud to a depth of twenty feet. Landslips occur frequently in all mountain chains, and in the Himalayas attain vast proportions ; the Gohna landslip, in 1893, for instance, brought down enormous quantities of rock across a valley, damming up a tributary of the River Granges. This led to the formation of a lake 10 miles long and 500 feet deep, which eventually burst the dam in August, 1894, causing a flood 30 feet deep to rush down the Ganges valley and flood the town of Hardwar. Owing to the establishment of telegraphic communication, and to careful watching at the dam, all the inhabitants of the valley received timely warning of the probable bursting of the dam, and no lives were lost. 2. Danuuie done to Forests. Soil-denudation reduces the forest area, buries plantations and young growth in mud, injures and destroys forest roads and other works, and fills up ditches ; ravines are formed on hill-sides, which become constantly enlarged by surface drainage, whilst the beds of water-courses are raised, interrupted and altered by the material brought down by the water, and inunda- tions are thus caused. The amount of damage done increases, the steeper the slope and the more broken its contour, and the looser the soil and the greater the weight of the woody growth. 498 PROTECTION AGAINST NON-ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA. Localities where landslips are likely to occur may be recognised beforehand in wet years by cracks forming in the soil. 3. Protective Rules. The best protective rules to adopt against these dangers are : — (rt) Careful maintenance of a continuous woody growth on mountain-peaks, ridges and all dangerous slopes. Forests in such places vixe protection forests, and should be managed either by selection or as coppice. For mountain tops and plateaux, the selection system is best, when accompanied by the timely planting up of all gaps which may occur in the wood, but on steep slopes, high forest presses too heavily on the soil, and should make way for coppice with short rotations. {h) Wherever a land-slip is to be feared, the bank should be kept up by wattle fences, b}^ protection of the soil-covering, and by not extracting the stumps of felled trees. The various protective measures which may be adopted, depend on the cause of the danger and the circumstances of the locality. Surface- or under- ground-water, for instance, may be conducted away from above the endangered place by ditches or drains. All quarrying below the threatened hill-side must be stopped. {c) The following measures provide against damage by a mountain torrent : — (i) Securing its sides and bed by revetments from its collect- ing area downwards. (ii) Eeducing the force of the stream by terracing its bed, and constructing across the stream wattle-work fences or masonry works which keep stones and silt from accumulating in the lower parts of the stream. (iii) Terracing the slopes of the valley on either side of the stream, and fixing them by means of sowings or plantations. (iv) Reafforesting the collecting-area of the stream ; the methods to be adopted for this object are described further on. 4. Remedial Measures. "When, in spite of every care, landslips or ravines have been caused by abnormally heavy rain, or by melting snow, protective INUNDATIONS. 499 works should at once be constructed. A revetment made of wattle-work, or of logs fixed in position by piles driven into the ground, may prevent the occurrence of further damage. If, however, the landslip is extensive, several such revetments, one above the other, must be made, and the earth between them be brought to a uniform slope and planted up. In certain cases, complicated masonry revetments are required. Section II. — Inundations. 1. Causes of Inundations. Inundations originate in valleys and plains owing to the sudden thaw of masses of snow in the mountains or plateaux above them, or to prolonged or heavy rainfall, or to the interrup- tion of water-courses by landslips. The last of these causes is frequently due to clearing forests from mountain sides, and to bad management of protection forests. When, on hill- sides, the effects of rain and surface-drainage are not reduced by a full leaf-canopy and by the binding effects of the roots of the trees on the soil, as well as the sponge-like action of the natural soil-covering of dead leaves and moss on the surface- water, the latter runs down unimpeded into the valleys, bringing- with it quantities of boulders, gravel, silt and mud ; this raises the beds of the water-courses, and causes them to overflow and spread destruction far and wide into the lower country, especially by leaving cultivated lauds covered with gravel and silt after the floods have subsided. Where floods merely cover riverside meadows and osier beds, or woods of alder and other moisture- loving trees, they may actually prove beneficial by the deposition of a fine mud containing useful mineral constituents. In many parts of India the cultivation of rice is carried out on land which is either naturally or artificially flooded. Most inundations in Central Europe occur in April, when they are due to the general melting of the mountain snow, or in August or November, owing to heavy rainfall. 2. Damage done. Inundations carry away the soil-covering and humus from forests, causing swamps and cold soil ; they destroy young^ 500 PROTECTION AGAINST INUNDATIONS. plants, hinder the formation of coppice-shoots, interrupt fellings and the export of forest produce, and often carry away timber to great distances. In spring floods, trees growing along the banks of streams may suffer from the friction of the ice which is carried down. The mud brought down by the flood, however, richly compensates for the loss of soil covering and humus. Eiver mud not only contains nutritive mineral salts, but yields lime in a fine state of division, which is therefore readily absorbed by plants, and is an excellent manure for lauds which are poor in lime. Dr. Schulze of Darmstadt gives the following per-centages for the constituents of Rhine mud : — 1871. 1872. Potash .... 0-43 0-19 Lime .... 14-06 . 15*65 Phosphoric acid . . 0'13 0"11 Humus .... 2-86 2'12 The per-centages of potash and phosphoric acid are small, but always greater than in ordinary agricultural soil. The greatest recent floods in Central Europe in 1856, 1868, 1879, 1882, and 1888, chiefly aftected the Alpine districts, the countries adjoining them, and Hungary. In 1856 the Rhone caused fearful floods, which drowned numbers of people and damaged property to the extent of £8,000,000. One of the results of these floods was the enact- ment bj' the French Legislature of the laws for the rehoisement of the denuded mountain-sides, of the 28th July, 1860, and of the 8th June, 1864, for regazonnement, or restocking them with grass.* Terrible floods occurred in Switzerland in 1868, and in Hungary in the valley of the River Theiss, in March, 1879. In September, 1882, damage estimated at i'1,000,000 was caused by floods in Carinthia and the Tyrol, and there were serious floods in the Rhine valley in 1882, and in the regions of the Elbe and Oder in 1888. Extensive floods occurred in the Thames and Severn valleys, and other districts in the South of England, in November, 1894. ■* Forest Law, Baden- Powell, 1893, p. 248. Laws for the protection of mountain forests in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy are also referred to. PROTECTIVE RULES. 501 Serious floods* occur in Northern India nearly every year between July and September, after the commencement of the summer monsoon, and owing to the great damage thus caused to irrigation canals fed by the Ganges and Jumna rivers, the forests on the southern slopes of the Siwalik Hills are now- managed as protection forests. The Indian forest officials t have for years recommended the adoption of similar measures to the lower hills between the Jumna and Sutlej rivers, as the first burst of the monsoon on the annually grazed and burned sandy hills above the Hoshiarpur district causes most disastrous inun- dations every year, besides bringing down quantities of sand, gravel, and boulders which have encroached considerably on the agricultural land below the hills, so that by 1891, lands belonging to 914 villages were affected, and 30,000 acres of richly fertile and long cultivated land laid waste, besides immense damage being done annually to railway and road embankments, &c. The hills were formerlv covered with forest growth, but duriuff the last thirty years, flocks of goats and herds of buffaloes belonging to about eighty hamlets of squatters have been allowed to browse down and destroy the forest growth which formerly fixed the soil on the hills, and would spring up again were the annual grazing and burning of the undergrowth restricted. 3. Protective Rules. Private agency can usually do little or nothing to prevent floods. The action of the State is indispensable, as the cost of the erection and maintenance of the works necessary to secure this object is quite out of proportion to the value of the proj^erty on which they must be erected, and the work of fixing the beds of moun- tain torrents and hill-sides in process of denudation must be carried out over a large area. The most effective measures depend on the management of the collecting areas of dangerous water-courses, the main principle being to meet the danger at its source. Although observant :|: people discovered these facts and wrote * Vide Indian Forester, vol. xii., p. 418. f Ibid., vol. v., p. 3. Baden-Powell's Report. Moir's Report, vol. x., p. 271 ; vol. xiii., p. 525 ; vol. xvii., p. 216. X Von Auersberg, Innspnick, 1779. 602 PROTECTION AGAINST INUNDATIONS. about them a century ago, a long time elapsed before improved forest management and the erection of the necessary works were undertaken in regions which were threatened in this way. Serious and successful action, however, is being taken in France, Switzerland and the Tyrol, to counteract the causes of floods. The chief rules to be followed are : — (a) Revetment of torrents and their feeders. By this means earth, gravel, and boulders are retained in the mountains. Works of the following nature should be designed in accordance with the nature of the locality, the characters of the torrents, the area of the collecting ground, and the funds available : — (i) Barricades of trees with their entire crowns thrown across torrents. (ii) Wattle fences" across the bed of torrents. (iii) Dams made of fascines or masonr}', to cause the deposi- tion of coarse material, to be constructed across torrents at suitable distances. (iv) Paving the bed of the torrent. (v) Wattle-fencing on revetments along the banks of torrents, to moderate the cutting action of the water. The above works are only intended to moderate the action of the torrents, but in connection with them, the gradient of slopes above the banks of the torrent may be lessened by terracing, and a system of horizontal drains laid out, so as to distribute the surface and underground drainage over a large area. The local forest staff will be best able to carry out these pro- tective measures, as they should possess the necessary technical and local knowledge. (b) All waste land on the higher ground above the torrents should be planted up, and all woods within that region should be carefully maintained. Sewell, as far back as 1841, argued that the maintenance of and increase in the area of mountain forests would regulate torrents. A treatise on forest protection cannot go very far into the question of the regulation of mountain torrents, which has a literature* all to itself. Here, only the chief points can be * Demontzey, Etude sur les Travaux de Eeboiseinent et de Gazonnement des Montagues. Paris, 1878. Id. Traite Prati ' Fig. 244. hj. :--^: ;Hj ; ; ,' , . Plans of draiiKitre. from the soil, and they should conduct the water into the leaders, to which they may be either at right angles or oblique. The first system, as seen in fig. 240, has the advantage of draining the largest area with the shortest length of drain, and the more acute the angle between the feeder and leader, the less will be the area drained by a given length of ditches. Thus a, h, c, d > a, h, c,f > a, h, (j, h. 514 PROTECTION AGAINST SWAMPS. The choice of the angle between the feeders and leaders depends chiefly on the gradient of the ground, the less the gradient the more acute the angle ; feeders the bed of which gradually deepens as they approach the leaderwill be most efi'ective. Feeders can be laid out parallel to one another only when the gradients are uniform. Figs. 242 to 244 show some interesting networks of drains by G. Koch. The proper interval between the feeders depends on the quantity of water to be drained away, the configuration of the Fig. 246. \ / ground and the nature of the soil. The interval between any two feeders will be inversely as the quantity of water in the soil. The looser the soil, the more easily is it drained. On the average, according to circumstances, inter- vals of 16 to 22 yards may be chosen. A practical method of determining this in- terval is given by Heyer, as shewn in fig. 245. Cut a feeder A, and another B at difl"erent distances from A till the water in the soil at the middle point C between the two feeders falls to the depth C D, to which it is required to be drained. In very wet land, the interval between the feeders may be reduced to 10 yards, whilst on drier land it may be extended to 30 yards. Water percolating from a river should be collected as near it as possible by deep drains running along the river-side, and leading back into the river lower down stream. Overflow from a stream can only be kept back by the construction of dams, as in the English Fen districts, or along the River Severn. On slopes, water should be collected at the points of issue from the water-bearing strata, before it can form a swamp. Thus the water should be collected in a drain h k running along a contour-line on the hill-side (fig. 246), and then conducted l: Feeder, a. Main drain at the base of a hill. DRAINAGE. 51.") down-bill by a leader A along tbe line of greatest tall, any outlying swampy places in depressions being connected witb tbe latter. Wberever tbe fall and tbe extent of tbe area to be drained are considerable, several sucb drains may be constructed, one above tbe otber. (b) Dimensions of the Drains. Tbe breadtb of tbe drains depends on tbe amount of water in tbe soil, tbe gradient of tbe ground, and tbe purpose of tbe drains. Tbe wetter tbe soil and tbe sligbter tbe gradient, tbe broader must tbe ditcbes be ; tbe leaders being broader tban tbe feeders, and tbe main drain tban tbe leaders. From 1 to 2j feet is a sufficient widtb for tbe feeders, and 3 to 5 feet for tbe leaders and main drain. Tbe deptb of tbe drains depends on tbe deptb to wbicb tbe land is to be drained, and on tbe pbysical nature of tbe soil and subsoil. Clay requires a greater deptb of drainage tban loam, and tbis again tban sandy loam. In peaty soils, tbe drains sbould go down to tbe mineral subsoil. In practice, tbe deptb of drains is usually balf tlieir widtb, and draining to too great a deptb is prejudicial, costing in excess of tbe requirements of tbe case, and depriving tbe subsoil of reserve water wbicb will be required by tbe trees during dry weatber. Tbe slope of tbe sides of tbe drains depends on tbe degree of coberence of tbe soil, and on tbe gradient of tbe drain ; tbe looser tbe soil and tbe steeper tbe gradient, tbe gentler must tbis slope be. Drains on a stiff soil, or on peat, may bave steep sides ; on loams tbeir slope may be 45°, on clays 60 .. and tbe sides of drains on peat may be almost vertical. Tbe main drains may be provided witb sluices at suitable places, so tbat tbey can be closed and tbe drainage stopped during dry seasons. (c) Method of Digfiing the Drains. ■ Drainage sbould precede planting by a few years, so tbat tbe ground may become sufficiently dry and may settle down before tbe plants are put in ; a dry period of tbe year sbould be cbosen for tbe execution of tbe work. Operations sbould be commenced witb tbe main drain at tbe lowest part of tbe land, in otber respects the system already 516 PROTECTION AGAINST SWAMPS. described for digging boundary-trenches should be followed. The earth removed from the drains should not be placed too close to them, as it may then be washed back again by the rain ; it should be used for filling-up hollows or spread evenly over the surface of the ground, which is beneficial in wet places by raising their level. It is most economical to give the work out to be done on contract. (d) Advantages of the Method. The advantages of the method of draining by open ditches w^hen compared with closed drains are : — Cheap execution. Ready discovery of places requiring repair, and cheapness of repairs. Its disadvantages are : — Loss to the forest growth of area occupied by the ditches. Difficulties in transport of produce. Liability of the ditches to damage by men, cattle, &c. Too rapid removal of water. The loss of area taken up in open drains is not of any practical importance in forestry, and provided care be taken about the number and dimensions of the ditches, the other disadvantages of the method may be avoided. Hence, for these as well as other reasons W'hich will be given further on, drainage by open ditches is the chief if not the only available method of draining forests. 3. Covered Drains. (a) Trenches. Underground drains are usually made as in fig. 247. The trenches should be about one foot broad at their base, Ij to 2^5- feet deep, and with a slope as steep as the nature of the soil wdll allow. The trench is then half filled with stones, which are covered wdth brushwood, reeds or sods, and the top is filled in with earth. Another method is to cover the base of the trench with fascines or tied bundles of green osiers, branches of alder, poplar or shrubs, which are used immediately after they have been cut. The vacant spaces between the fascines along the sides of the trenches are filled up with moss, and the whole covered with earth, as before. This mode of drainage, known to DEAINAGE. 517 the Komaus, was introduced into England by Elkington, and was much practised until 1820. It has the advantage of pre- venting excessive drainage, and may serve its purpose in places to be planted up, until the roots of the plants can themselves drain the soil. Brushwood-drains when the fascines are of alder branches will last from 8 to 10 years; they rot sooner on calcareous soil and last longer on clay. Drains made with stones may last for 50 years, and are Fig. 247. Section of a drain, a. Layer of stones, h. Layer of branches, f. Layer of earth. therefore preferable, unless temporary drains are sufficient for the purpose. (b) Glazed Drain-pipes. Drain-pipes made of glazed burned clay or cement and of various dimensions are now generally used for culverts, and unite the advantages of rapid drainage and facility for being cleaned, with that of great durability. (c) Drainincf Tiles. Draining tiles are cylindrical tubes of burned clay with a circular section. They are generally 1 to 1| feet long, i to f inch thick, and their apertures 1^ to 4| inches across. A good draining tile should be well-burned and smooth within, it should ring when struck, show a clean uniform fracture, and stand sudden changes of temperature without cracking, for which it may be tested by plunging it alternately into hot and cold water. The clay used for these tiles should be fairly pure, and 518 PROTECTION AGAINST SWAMPS. contain no lime nor coarse grains of sand. The larger tiles are used for main drains and the smaller ones for collecting drains. Trenches for the tiles are similar to those in use for open drains, their dimensions depending on the nature of the soil ; their sides, however, should be vertical ; the main drains have a fall of 2 in 1,000, and the collecting drains a greater fall, and should he from 30 to 80 feet apart according to the nature of the soil. The shortest distance for collecting-drains is chosen when there is much subsoil-water in stiff claj- or very fine grained soil with great capillarity ; in fact the looser the soil, the further apart the drains should be. The depth of the collecting-trenches should be from 3 to 4j feet, and at least 3i feet is necessary in cold climates, to prevent damage to the tiles by frost ; the main drains should be some- what deeper. After the trenches have been dug, which for very wet soils should be in fine weather, and with as little delay as possible, the tiles should be laid carefully, beginning at the upper end of the drains, and placed end to end at the bottom of the trenches ; or, if the soil be loose, on a layer of clay or on flat roofing tiles, which will give the bed of the drain an even gradient, to which much attention should be paid. Brown* recommends placing a layer of stones under the tiles, in which ordinar}'^ drainage-water may run, while its level will onty rise to that of the pipes when the soil happens to be exceptionally wet. This is because the rootlets of trees are attracted towards wet substances in the soil, and will therefore branch freely among the stones and yet not block up the pipes, which are usually dry. Brown also advocates placing a layer of clay over the pipes, so as to keep the upper rootlets from getting into them. The size of the aperture of the tiles depends on the degree of wetness and capacity of the soil ; the more water there is to be removed and the greater the danger of the tiles becoming choked with soil, the larger the aperture of the tiles, and in sandy soil it should be at least two inches. After laying the tiles, which should be done in dry weather, and as rapidly as possible, the trenches are filled in with earth, * The Forester: Brown and Nisbet. Blackwood & Co., 1894, Vol. I., 551. DRAINAGE. 5 1 9 and the greatest care should be taken, especially when the soil is stony, that the pipes are neither broken nor displaced. The durability of the drains depends on the nature of the soil, the quality of the tiles and the care taken in executing the work. Well-burned tiles at depths of Sh to 4i feet should last for 25 years and more ; for instance, draining-tiles laid in 1850, in the Prussian Crown Estates, were in good order in 1880. (d) Comparison of Draining Tiles with Open Drains. Drainage improves soils by lowering the level of subsoil water, and exposing a larger area of the soil to the influence of atmospheric air, thus rendering it warmer and accelerating the decomposition of humus. As compared with open drains, draining-tiles waste no productive area, are less subject to damage and drain the soil better, and their use is highly advisable in agricultural lauds, but in forests they are much more costly {£S an acre) to lay out than open drains, and they easily become choked by the rootlets of trees and of weeds such as Equisetiuii, Arundo, &c., and also by frogs. Deposits of iron-ochre may also be formed in the pipes, and they may become filled with sand. Experience has shown that in forests all the disadvantages of underground drainage occur more frequently than in agricultural lands. VOL. IV. ■• N N 520 PROTECTION AGAINST AVALANCHES. CHAPTER II. PKOTECTION AGAINST AVALANCHES.* 1. Origin. Avalanches are caused by the loosening and fall of masses of snow or ice on steep smooth slopes in mountainous regions ; they may consist of loose or massive snow, or both combined, or of ice from broken glaciers. (a) Avalanches of Loose Snoiv. These are locally termed Stanhlmvinen, and occur in November, when fine dust-like snow is falling ; they are due to great steep- ness of the mountain sides, or to overhanging masses of snow falling on to rocks, the snow being separated into dust during its fall. They seldom cause any damage. (b) Avalanches of Massive Snoiv. Movements of the upper layer of massive snow, termed Oherlaivinen , occur chiefly from December to February, when thick layers of fresh snow have fallen on to old frozen snow, and become so weighty that they can no longer rest on the smooth base beneath them. (c) Ground Avalanches. When masses of snow which extend down to the surface of the ground, roll or slide down a mountain side, they are termed Grundlaivinen, and are extremely dangerous. They generally fall towards the end of winter at midday, during the melting of the snow, and when a Fohn, or south wind, is blowing, * Laudolt, EL Die Bache, Sclmeelawinen ii. Steinschlage. Zurich, 1886. PROTECTIVE MEASURES. 521 and frequently during a storm. These are the commonest and most dangerous avalanches, and leave tracks which can he readily observed, as they occur over and over again at the same places. In the winter of 1875 — 76, in the district of Ragaz, of the Swiss canton Graubiinden, 500 avalanches occurred, and in the district Schuls of the same canton, 381 avalanches. The winter of 1887- — 88 was also distinguished by the number of avalanches which fell. The Swiss Forest Department is now engaged in collecting data regarding avalanches in order to decide w^hen special measures against them are most called for. (d) Glacier- Avalanches Consist of broken fragments of glaciers. The following remarks apply only to avalanches of massive snow and ground avalanches. 2. Damage done. The damage done to forests by avalanches consists in the breakage of all woods lying in their way, and in the obstruction of streams and roads Avhich they cause. The rush of air which accompanies an avalanche is so great that it breaks many trees up to a distance of several hundred yards from the avalanche. Many ibex are also killed by avalanches. No forest can with- stand the rush of a large mass of snow down the mountain side, and the higher, smoother and steeper, and freer from wood a mountain-side is, the greater the danger of avalanches, and the greater the rapidity with which they fall. A soil-covering of hill grass is a considerable protection. 3. Protective Cultural Measures. (a) The surface above tbe tree-limit should be fixed hy sowing grass. In order to afford a sufBcient obstacle to the sliding down of the snow, the grass should be mown so as to leave a high stubble. {h) All shrubs, such as alpine roses, mountain-alder, dwarf birch, &c., should be carefully preserved on steep slopes. (c) The forest must be maintained up to the tree-limit, and N N 2 522 PROTECTION AGAINST AVALANCHES. this is the most important rule. Forests which serve to protect the country from avalanches are commonly found in Switzerland, the Tyrol, and the Austrian Alps, and must be properly managed so as to secure the object in view. The best species for such forests are Pinus Cemhra,P .montana, green alder, larch and spruce. The mountain-pine and alder resist the snow action splendidly. The Selection system must be adopted, and all gaps be at once planted up. When a new forest is being formed, sometimes sowing and sometimes planting should be preferred. In stony shallow calcareous soils, pit-sowings are made under the shelter of stones, rocks, dead branches stuck into the ground, or of logs fixed by stakes, all of which protect against the sliding of the snow. In places where there is deeper soil, in depressions, &c., multiple-planting with three and four plants should be tried. Production of wood is of secondary importance in such forests, and, as a rule, only dead and broken wood should be utilized, and the stumps should then be left in the soil, the felling being high above the ground. Thickets of young wood must be carefully thinned. Neither removal of litter nor pasture, more especially that of the destructive goat, should be allowed, but, unfor- tunately, in such places browsing by goats is only too common, and the tree-limit is being continually lowered. 4. Protective Works. Protective works consisting either of ditches, rows of wattle- fences or walls should be made above and below the line where avalanches begin, which is easily recognized by a sudden change in the gradient of the slope. (a) Ditches. — Interrupted horizontal ditches, 6 to 16 feet apart, are dug all over the area, being arranged like the v.attle- fences in fig. 248 ; their construction on very steep slopes is evidently not unattended with danger. (b) Rows of Wattle-Fences. — These are set up at intervals of from 20 to 50 feet, their central points being at those of a series of equilateral triangles ; they should be 15 to 30 feet long, and of wattle-work with branches plaited between stakes firmly driven into the ground. PROTECTIVE WORKS. 523 Such a system of wattle-fences allows soil to be formed on a rocky slope, which may afterwards be sown with grass, or planted with trees or shrubs. (c) Walls.— On stony ground, walls of dry masonry may be Fig. 248. Plan of fences for pvotection against avalanches. a b. Line where the avalanches commence, c. Fences. Dry masonry wall for protection against avalanches. erected instead of wattle-fences ; their mode of construction is shewn in fig. 249. On steep rocky slopes, the rock must be cut to admit the foundation of these walls, but this need only be deep enough to prevent the walls from falling, owing to their own weight. Such walls have proved very effective in the Swiss cantons, Uri, Graubunden and Wallis. 524 PROTECTION AGAINST SHIFTING SAND. CHAPTER HI. PROTECTION AGAINST SHIFTING SAND.* Under the term shifting sand is meant a fine-grained sand containing so little clay or humus that when dry and the soil is badly covered with vegetation, it is set in motion by the wind and blown from place to place. Shifting sand is generally found on the sea-coast, but also in the interior of countries. As the productive forest area becomes rapidly reduced by the spread of the sand, the evil must be promptly and vigorously met. Section I. — Sand Dunes. 1. Description. Sand is thrown up by the waves along the sea-coast at high tide, and becomes under certain circumstances heaped up into hillocks, or dunes, and is then carried further into the interior of the country. Vasselot de Regne states that the grains of sand on the Gascon coast are too large to be carried like dust before the wind, but are rolled up the slope of a dune and fall over its ridges, so that the dune naturally attains a slope of about 25" towards the sea, whilst its slope inland is generally steej)er, and may attain 60°. The sand is blown away from the ridges or from any eminences in the dune, however slight they may be, and is also carried through depressions made in a ridge to the further side of the dune. Two forces are at work on the sand — the sea-breeze which prevails during day-time and drives the sand inland, and the land-breeze by night, which finds the sand firmer owing to the dew, and is not so eff"ectual in blowing it back as the sea-breeze is in blowing it forward. * Wessely, Josef. Der Euiojiiiische Fliigsaud u. seine Cultur. Wien, 1873. Notice sur les Uunes de la Coulue, par Vasselot de Regiie. Paris, Imp. Nat., 1878. La Dune Littorale, par C. Grandjean. Kevuc des Eaux et Forets. July-December, 1887. SAND DUNES. 525 o On the coasts of the North Sea and of the Baltic, in Holstein, Schleswig, Jutland, and in the Baltic islands, and along the western coast of France, from the He d'Ole'ron to the mouth of the Adour river, sand-dunes cover extensive areas, and until effective measures were taken to fix them, large tracts of cultivated laud were buried in sand. Along the coasts of West and East Prussia, for a distance of 150 miles, dunes extend to a breadth never less than one-sixth of a mile, and unless they are fixed they encroach inland yearly by 50 feet. The area of European dunes is estimated at 21,000 square miles. The coasts of the British Isles consist chiefly of rocky clifi's, but sand-dunes are found in Norfolk and other points along the coasts of Great Britain. The dunes along the Bay of Biscay in the French Departe- ments des Landes et de la Gironde extend over a total length of 140 miles, forming a series of parallel ranges about 160 feet high and 4 miles broad. During the constant political troubles of the middle ages, the natural forests of maritime or cluster pine (P. Pinaster, Soland,), which formerly covered this area, were burned and destroyed, and the sand invaded the country at the rate of 60 to 70 feet annually, covering whole towns and villages, cultivated fields, and vineyards. In 1787, the engineer Bremontier published a treatise showing that the dunes could be fixed by sowing sand-grasses and pines, and the work of fixing the dunes of Grascouy was commenced in 1788, and has been continued with complete success up to the present day. In 1810, the French Legislature passed an Act enabling the State to fix dunes belonging to municipalities and private owners, by means of plantations, the owners only recovering their property after pa}-ing the cost of fixing the sand. This they have only rarely been able to do, owing to the great cost of the operation compared with the value of the reclaimed land. About 800,000 acres have thus been dealt with, the annual charge for new work and for maintaining the dunes which have been already fixed having been £8,400 in 1893. In this way vast areas have been saved for agriculture, and enormous tracts of pine-forests created, which aft'ord work to a large number of people in the extraction of resin and turpentine from the trees, and in timber- works. 526 PROTECTION AGAINST SHIFTING SAND. 2. Construction of a Littoral Dune. As an embankment along the coast prevents the wind from driving the sand inland, the chief point to be secured is to fix the sand, so as to form what is termed the littoral dune, the mode of construction of which is as follows : — Two parallel fences are erected along the coast, between and on both sides of which the sand accumulates, the fences being gradually raised till the dune has attained such a height that only inappreciable quantities of sand are blown over it. The fence facing the sea is a continuous line of paling, from 300 to GOO feet distant from high-water mark ; it is made of Fig. 250. a The Lion Dune. h The Porge Dune. c The Ferret Dune. inch planks 6|- feet long, 6 to 8 inches wide, which are pointed below. The}' are inserted to f ths of their length into the sand, and 1 inch apart, to allow sand to blow through. When the sand has nearly covered the planks, they are raised three feet by means of levers worked by one man against the next unraised plank, or by a stout rod passed through a chain fastened round the plank and lifted by two men. This operation is repeated until the proper height of the dune is attained, which Grandjean places at 10 metres, or about 38 feet. The back fence is usually made of wattle-work and prevents the sand which has passed through the front fence from being carried inland, and gives a proper contour to the dune. This fence is replaced by a new one when it has become covered with sand. The preceding diagrams taken from Grandjean's work repre- SAND DUNES. 527 sent the ordinary sections of the littoral dune, and he considers h and c preferable to a, as being much easier to maintain. They have slopes of 26'' or 27° facing the sea, which corresponds with De Regne's natural slope of the dunes. Grandjean, in the work already referred to, gives full and satisfactory reasons for the height and gradient he prefers for the littoral dune. 3. Material for Fixing the Sand. The littoral dune can never be planted with trees, on account of the salt spray of the waves and the strong sea-wind. In certain places in Holland, masonry works and piles have been erected to protect the dune, but as a rule flexible plants are much more effective than rigid and costly works. Attention is therefore directed to sand-grasses and sedges, and the best of these for the purpose are : — Sea marram, or matweed (Psamma arenaria, R. & S.) ; Baltic matweed (P. baltica, Schrad.) ; Sand lyme-grass (Eli/mus arenarius, L.) ; Sand sedge {Carex arenaria, L.). All these plants are characterised by very long much-divided rhizomes, and can withstand being covered over and buried in sand. The sea marram will only grow where it is continually covered with fresh sand, and dies inland in the shelter of the littoral dune, when no fresh sand covers it. It is termed gourhet in France, and is exclusively used for fixing the littoral dune along the Bay of Biscay. Next to the marram in repute for fixing the sand comes the lyme-grass, and these two species are chiefly used for the purpose in Holland. Other plants grow in gradually among them, at first lichens and algae, then grasses, as for instance Arenaria peploidcs, L., Aira canescens, L., couch-grass {Agropyrum repens, Beauv.), and other plants, such as the sea-poppy, Glaucium luteiun, Scop. ; Lathyriis maritiinus, Bigel ; and Hieracium nmhrl- latum, L., &c. Vasselot de Regne giA'^es a very complete botanical list of dune plants. Several shrubs then appear on the land side of the dune, as Salix repens, L. ; sea-buckthorn {Hippophae rhamnoides, L.) ; Lycium harbarurn, L. ; Tamarix, &c. 538 PROTECTION AGAINST SHIFTING SAND. 4. Maintenance of the Littoral Dune. When once the littoral dune has been raised to a proper height and profile and fixed by means of sea marram, it is necessary to maintain it constantly in the same state, and any undue accumulation of sand in any part of the sea side of the dune at once causes an inland draught of sand on both sides of it, which if not at once attended to will breach the dune. Men termed gardes cantonniers are therefore stationed along the littoral dune in Gascony, who cut away all vegetation except the marram from its surface facing the sea, in order to prevent undue accumulation of sand. As the marram grows readily from cuttings during the colder six months in the year, the workmen who cut it away from ridges plant it in depressions, or if the season be too hot or dry for the cuttings to take root, the pieces cut from ridges are merely placed on depressions. In this way, by cutting away the marram where it is too dense, and planting or placing it in depressions, the proper contour of the dune is maintained, as the sand accumulates behind the marram, and is blown away wherever the latter is cut. In cases where the dune has been neglected and large depres- sions have been formed, it may be necessary to use wattle fencing to cause an accumulation of sand, but if ordinary care be taken, the marram grass will suffice to keep the littoral dune in good condition, and Grandjean believes that new dunes may be formed by means of it, without using the fences described in heading No. 3. 5. Protective Coast Forest Zone, under the slielter of the Littoral Dune. (a) L>escrij)tion. Under the shelter of the littoral dune, a protective zone of various woody species mixed with gorse, species of genista, heather, Tamarix, &c., is then allowed to spring up, but is generally planted or sown artificially. The species chiefly grown near the Baltic coast is the Scotch pine, over 8,000 acres of this species having been planted near Dantzig between 1795 and 1850. In Zealand, the uncinata variety of the mountain - pine SAND DUNES. 529 (Pinus montana, Mill.) has been used, and its great success is due to its indifference to soil and climate, and its habit of re- taining its lower branches green for long periods. In France the cluster pine is chiefly used, but it is liable to be frozen when grown too far to the north. SprucC; birch, or white alder may be mixed with the pines, and in South-West France, Quercus pedimculata and Q. Tozza, D.C. In depressions, the common alder, poplars, and willows may be grown. The different kinds of Pinus Laricio, Poir,, and especially the Corsican variety, maples and the silver poplar, are well able to withstand the force of the strong sea-winds. As a rule, the growth of protective forests near the sea coast is poor, on account of the strength of the sea breeze and the poor nature of the sand in which the trees grow, and which is being constantly heaped over their roots, but protection and not timber is required in a zone which may extend from 600 to 2,000 feet from the littoral dune and which if left unplauted would be a bare sandy tract tending to spread inland and ruin existmg forests. In coast-protection forests, short terminal-shoots, procum- bent stems, one-sided crowns and a leaf-canopy sloping down seawards, are evidences of the struggle these woods carry on with the wind, but it is a forest all the same. The conditions of growth greatly improve as the distance from the sea becomes greater, so that further inland, especially if the sand contains little flakes of mica, even superior species such as beech or silver-fir may be grown, as in Alsensund in Schleswig. If in any part of the protective zone, a shelving cliff of sand unprotected by vegetation is exposed to the wind, it should be covered with branches of pine, gorse, broom, &c., placed like slates on a roof, and some sand-fixing grass sown to prevent the sand from being carried inland. (b) Method of Formation. The inequalities of the ground should first be levelled in order to afford the wind as few points of attack as possible. Sand- fixing grasses should then be sown or planted, the former method 530 PEOTECTION AGAINST SHIFTING SAND. being followed in France and the latter in Germany. Pieces of the grasses should be planted in rows at right angles to the direction of the prevalent wind, holes being made with a spade 1 foot to 2 feet apart, and three or four pieces of rhizome planted in each hole so deeply that only about 6 inches of them appear above the sand. They soon sprout and send out suckers in all directions through the sand, which they fix most effectually. The cost of fixing sand with grass is that of 70 to 140 days' work at 3s. a day averaging £15 an acre. In Prussia long-rooted yearling pines are then planted 1 foot apart in rows distant 3 feet from one another. The work is done with an iron dibble, so as not to loosen the sand unnecessarily. Mountain-pine is the best species in the north for fixing the sand, other trees being even- tually planted between the pines. Cuttings of poplars or willows may be also planted. In fixing dunes along the Baltic coast, Prussia spent £'3,100 a year, between 1884 and 1887, during which time 230 acres were fixed with grass and 608 acres stocked with trees. The planting is usually effected under the protection of the littoral dune, and pine forests in the protective zone are then managed under the Selection system, and broad-leaved species are coppiced. In the Danish island of Zealand, up to 1866, sowing was pre- ferred to planting, the sand being previously covered with a thin coating of loam which was placed on the ground in heaps in the autumn, and somewhat weathered by the winter's frost before being spread over the area in the spring. In France the cluster pine is sown with other seeds in the following proportion for an acre : — Cluster pine seed . . . . .26 lbs. Furze or gorse . . . . . 2i- ,, Genista . . . . . . 2^ ,, Marram grass . . . . . 2i ,, Seeds to attract insectivorous birds . 2j ,, As the seed is sown, it is covered with 1,000 faggots, 3 feet in girth and 5 feet long per acre of furze, broom, heather or pine branches, furze being preferred wherever it is available. The SAND DUNES. 531 a-ra faggots are evenly distributed over the area and opened out,and the sowing is then commenced on the land side towards the ^^^' ^^^' littoral dune under protection of a wattle-fence intended to keej) off the sand blown back by the land breeze. Each row of seed is covered by the branches which are placed in rows with their lower ends to- wards the sea, so that each succeeding row of branches partly covers the preceding one,being arranged like slates on a roof and kept steady by spadefuls of sand thrown on them at intervals of 2 feet. Areas of about 300 feet long by 60 feet broad are thus sown at one time. Be- tween 1862 and 1874, 5,200 acres were thus sown in the Gironde at a cost of 5630,646. Psamma arenarm, Beauv. a h Surface level of ground, c Rhizomes. (c) Tending the Woods. The sand grasses used in fixing the dunes must not be cut or Fig. 252. P-^^^iill* Elymus arenarius, L. 5-32 PROTECTION AGAINST SHIFTING SAND. pastured. The water rat and the larvae oi Polyj^hyUafullo, L. are the most dangerous enemies to the grass rhizomes. Dune forests must be strictly protected against grazing, removal of litter and trespass. Article 366a of the German Criminal Code punishes contravention of police regulations re- garding dune forests with fines up to 71. 10s., or imprisonment, and in Holland, four weeks' imprisonment is inflicted for cutting grass on dunes. Only dead or dying wood should be removed from the dune forests. (d) Acldetida. The best English example of the fixing of shifting sands is on the Holkham sand-hills on the Norfolk coast, belonging to the Earl of Leicester, where, since 1850, sea lime-grass and marram have been used to fix the sands, and several species of pine planted, of which the Corsican pine has proved most successful. In India, along the Madras coast, extensive plantations of Casuarina equisetifolia, Forster, have been made, and grow with extraordinary raj)idity, yielding excellent fuel. In the Cape Colony, shifting sands are sown with cluster pine and Acacia Pycnantha and decurrens, the seed being mixed with rye seed, which protects the seedlings. A layer of town refuse is first spread over the sand to assist in fixing it and serve as manure. Section II. — Inland Sand.* 1. Description. Inland sandy tracts generally originate from sandy hills, and are due chiefly to the clearance or careless management of forests, and especially to removal of litter. Extensive sheep pasture on heather-land also readily sets sand in motion. Large tracts of shifting sands are found in Hannover, Oldenburg, Pommerania, &c. The greatest areas in Europe of inland shift- ing sand are, however, in Hungary and South Eussia. * Burkhardt, Dr. H., Zur Kultiir des Flugsandes. Aus dem Walde. 1877, p. 167. INLAND SAND. 533 2. Pfotective Rules. Mainteuance of forests, especially on sandy hills, is the chief protective measure to be adopted. Not only must clearances of forests be prevented, but all destructive practices leading to their impoverishment must be stopped. The following measures should be adopted in forests which serve as a protection against shifting sand : — (a) The Selection system should be adopted, or only very small areas under a short rotation be cleared. Extensive clearings must be avoided in any case, but the shelter-wood systems with natural regeneration would be suitable were it always possible to obtain natural regeneration on dry, sandy areas. In the Gascon cluster-pine forests, clear-cutting is adopted, but the pine seed is produced so abundantly by trees adjoining the cleared area and germinates so freely, that good results follow. (h) In the case of artificial regeneration, planting is preferable to sowing, but the planting-holes should be small, and young plants used. ((•) The borders of the forest to windward must be kept densely stocked and all underwood protected, while the soil- covering is strictly preserved. (d) Stumps should be left in the ground after fellings, and cultivation of cereal crops in combination with sowings of forest trees must not be undertaken. (e) No pasturage should be allowed, and all servitudes for pasturage, passage of cattle, usage of grass or litter should be legally annulled. 3. Fixation of the Sand. The supply of sand must be stopped at its origin by planting up the sandy hills from which it comes. Loose sand may be fixed b}^ means of fences, or by covering it with branches or sods, and both these methods may be combined. Planting sand- grasses is not advisable, as it only increases the difficulty of restoring forest growth to the denuded area. (a) Fences. Fences are generally made by driving into the ground pine 534 PROTECTION AGAINST SHIFTING SAND. stakes 6 to 8 feet long and 2| to 4 inches in diameter. They should be driven 2 to 3 feet deep and supported alternately on either side by means of oblique stakes, as shown in fig. 253. Between the stakes, branches of Scotch pine or of broom should be intertwined, leaving sufficiently large interstices for the sand to pass through, or else the fence would be broken by its pressure. Poplar- or willow-cuttings may be used instead of pine-stakes, and their side-shoots may eventually be twined into a fence. The fences should run at right angles to the direction of the shifting sands, on both sides of roads, or other endangered places, their ends being turned round to serve as a protection against the winds blowing at right angles to the fences. Several Fkj. 253. of these horseshoe-shaped fences may be made, at suitable distances, parallel to one another, the distance between them depending on the locality ; on level ground a fence will afford shelter for 200 to 230 feet, but on hilly ground, for not more than half these distances, and on steep hill-sides not more than sixty feet. One man can make from sixty to sixty-six feet of fencing in a day, non-inclusive of the labour of transporting the material. Fence- construction is therefore costly, and fences are not used at present so much as formerly, as they do not thoroughly fulfil their object. (b) CoveriiKj the Sand. Branches, weeds, grass, seaweed, and sods or straw are the materials used, and for the sake of economy, the nearest available material should be chosen. Branchy stems of Scotch INLAND SAND. 535 pine, juniper-bushes, heather, broom, reeds or rushes form useful material, and sods are cut from grass or heather land. Covering the ground with sods is the best measure, and is much followed in Hannover and Oldenburg, whilst straw is used in Flanders. The covering is chiefly employed for the most endangered places, such as ridges, the windward side of hills, depressions and roads ; other places may be readily stocked with forest growth, provided fresh sand is not blown on to them. As in the case of dunes, the first measure is to get rid of superficial inequalities in the area to be covered, and a ^ ni; ^ Fk 6 254 . L^ 1 L^ V SCkLL'.X'J i-H d Ik !* I^ ■?S.- a ^W the covering should then be applied from W. or S.W. to E. or N.E., the ground being either entirely or partially covered. Eoads are generally covered completely, but, in other cases, partial covering is adopted on account of the high cost of com- plete covering. The looser the sand, the more complete should be the covering, and it is always more prudent to do too much than too little in this respect. Branches are either placed on the surface of the ground, or stuck into the sand, with the bushy end inclined away from the wind, the rows partially covering one another, but their use is not recommended on account of the difficulty in VOL. IV. *^ o 536 PROTECTION AGAINST SHIFTING SAND. stocking an area which has been completely covered with branches, whilst if they are isolated, they are liable to be blown away. Heather and broom can be used only on level ground in pieces Ih to 2| feet long, and should be tossed equably over the area by means of hay-forks, after it has been sown up with Scotch pine seed. Sowings thus carried out will generally prove suc- cessful if the spring be moderately wet. Sods are always laid with the earthy side downwards, and should be firmly pressed down. The diagrams on the previous page show how the sods may be arranged. Where a sod is laid in the middle of each patch, it should be larger than the others, and that form of sodding is preferable, as the loose sand within the patches cannot get out. The lines of sods should be at right angles to the direction of the prevailing wind. The work of sodding should be done during autumn, after the sand has been well soaked by rain, or in the spring, and the ground should be at once sown or planted. In Germany, partial sodding of the ground costs from 11. to 3/. an acre, with daily labour at Is. lOd. Covering with branches takes about forty or fifty cartloads per acre, and costs somewhat less than sodding. 4. Stocking the Area. Fixing the sand should be followed by stocking the area, unless the two operations have been done simultaneously. The most suitable species are Scotch or mountain pines, also robinia or birch. The three first species are very hardy, and yield plenty of humus. The mountain pine covers the ground admirably, and the robinia, owing to its faculty for producing suckers, rapidly fixes the sand, and has given excellent results in Hungary. For damp places, poplars and willoAvs should be used, the Canadian white and black poplars being most usual. Salix arenaria, L., the Caspian willow {S. acutifolia, Willd.) or S. cinerea, L., may also be planted, the latter rapidly covering the soil with its creeping lateral branches, and it easily grows through any sand which may be blown over it. In south Kussia, near Odessa, Ailanthus glandulosa, Desf. is INLAND SAND. 537 used on saud-dunes, and also in the south of France. This very accommodating species grows rapidly and sends out numerous suckers, and thrives on the hot southern slopes of the Siwalik Hills in India, as well as in smoky London. The cluster pine may also he used as in Gascony. Sowing is still employed in restocking hare sandy tracts in France, 15 to 20 Ihs. of seed being used per acre : but in Germany 3 to 4-year-old transplants with balls of earth are now planted in rows at right angles to the prevailing wind. The plants are put in deeply to prevent ex- posure of the roots, and because they suffer in summer from the heating of the sand. Scotch pines do not suffer at all from this deep planting. In order to get the area stocked as soon as possible, intervals of only 2i to 3 feet are left between the rows, and the plants are 1 to Ih feet apart in the rows. In Hannover they are planted with a heavy planting iron, termed Buttlar's iron,* and a mixture of f peat with 2% unslaked lime and ^ sand is used to fill the holes round the roots. The peat is hygroscopic and retains moisture near the plants' roots. Robinias, poplars and willows are put in as cuttings in little clumps or in furrows. Sometimes the ground is culti- vated before the cuttings are put in, and Scotch pine seed sown in the depressions. Hubert recommends that grass seed should be strewn over the plantations. In Austria, Jerusalem artichokes {Helianthus tuberosus) are frequently planted to shelter the woody plants against heat and cold. In case the sandy tract is so extensive that it cannot be con- veniently planted up in one year, a plan of operations extending over a series of years should be drawn up. A commencement should then be made on the windy side of the area, and the cultivation carried on in strips under shelter of the first year's work. In the Landes of Gascony, shelter-fences are erected to the leeward of each year's strip to protect the plants from sand blown back by land breezes. Whenever the work is thus gradually done, great care must be taken to fill up all gaps in the areas to windward before commencing the work beyond it. At Lingen, in Hannover, work has been carried out gradually since 1818, when there were 3,327 acres to be stocked, of which * Vide Schlich's Manual of Forestry, Vol. II., p. 124. 2 538 PEOTECTION AGAINST SHIFTIXG SAND. 75% was shifting sand, and the balance cultivated land. Between 1818 and 1832, 2,279 acres had been planted successfully, and the balance of 1,048 acres was fairly well stocked by 1837, the total cost up to 1832 being 11. 18s. an acre. Forests on shifting sand must be managed most carefully. Scotch pine are regenerated under the Selection or Strip systems, and broad-leaved species by coppice. No pasture or removal of litter can be allowed. 539 CHAPTER IV. PROTECTION AGAINST FOREST FIRES.* Forest fires are nearly always caused by human agency, generally owing to carelessness, but are sometimes intentional ; they are also occasionally due to lightning. It is intended to treat the subject according to these causes, taken in order. Section I. — Forest Fires caused by Human Agency. 1. Causes. The following acts, omissions or occupations may cause forest fires : — Kindling a fire without permission, in a forest, or by the side of a forest road, in order to warm themselves or to cook their food, by travellers, or men engaged in felling trees, road- making, &c. Leaving a fire, which has been lighted by permission of the forest manager, without completely extinguishing it. Carelessness of charcoal-burners whilst burning their kiln, or extracting charcoal from it. Burning branches or weeds whilst cultivating crops on forest- land or on fields adjoining forests, also burning moor-, heather- or grass-land. Burning bark to destroy beetles, &c. Night-fires by poachers after fish or game. Burning out wild bees. The collection of wild honey and Avax is common in East Prussia and in Eussia and India, and frequently gives rise to forest fires. * Gerding, Fires in the Liineberger Haide. Frstl. Blttr., 1886, p. 241. Fer- nandez, Notes on Indian Sylviculture. 2nd edition, 1893. This book gives a very detailed account of the measures for combating forest Hres. 540 PEOTECTION AGAINST FOREST FIRES. Shooting in forests with rag or paper wads. Carrying on dangerous industries in or near forests, such as the manufacture of pitch or turpentine, and also iron-smelting furnaces, or foundries. Sparks from locomotive engines, especially when burning turf or lignite, and unprovided with spark-extinguishing apparatus. Intentional firing of forests for selfish motives, as when shepherds or farmers burn extensive forest areas to obtain fresh grass for their flocks and herds, as it grows up luxuriantly after a forest fire. Motives of revenge, or superstition, as in India, where a deodar forest was burned to propitiate the goddess of small-pox. It follows from a consideration of the numerous causes of forest fires that the forester must be wide awake to prevent such calamities. Private resources are here quite insufficient, and the State must assist by framing suitable laws, and by in- structing officials to be active in enforcing them. 2. Kinds of Forest Fires. Forest fires may be in the ground, in the soil-covering, or in the crowns or stems of the trees. (a) Gronnd-Jires. These occur in peat, lignite, or coal ; they proceed slowly unless they come to the surface, when they partake of the character of fires in the soil-covering. Ground-fires rarely occur in forests. (b) SiiJ-facc- fires. These are the commonest and most important fires the forester has to deal-with, burning the dead leaves, heather, grass and other soil-covering of a forest. (c) Fires in the Crowns of Forest Trees. These are less frequent in Central Europe, though common in North America and not unfrequent in India. They generally arise from surface-fires, which spread to the crowns of the trees. DAMAGE DONE. 541 A dense coating of lichens on the trees increases the danger of the occurrence of crown-fires. (d) Fires in Stems. Green trees seldom catch fire, and when a whole stem is burned, there is generally some decay present, and the trunk or branches of the tree are hollow. 3. Damage done. (a) General Account. Forest fires damage or destroy whole woods, and especially young growth. Reproduction may be stopped for the year by the destruction of blossom or fruit, while owing to repeated fires, broad-leaved trees which are not killed become misshapen and weakly. The burning of the dead leaves or needles on the ground prevents the accumulation of humus and the improvement of the soil, and renders it poor, hard and unsuitable for reproduction. The annual burning of the soil-covering on hill- sides may cause soil-denudation when it is followed by heavy rain ; this was the case in the Siwalik hill-range, extending for fifty miles between the rivers Ganges and Jumna, and its protection from fire was demanded by the Indian Irrigation Department to pre- vent their canals from silting up. Game may be killed by forest fires, especially fawns in heather, and apiaries may be burned. Indirectly, forests suffer by disturbance of their working-plans, by increased tendency to breakage and to damage by insects, also to growth of weeds and consequent increased cost of sowing and planting. After fires in Scotch pine woods the following insects may become extremely abundant and destructive : Hi/hmius pini- perda, L., in England and Germany, in Germany only, Bostrichiis hidens, Fabr., B. Laricis, Fabr., Hylastes palUatus, Gyll., and Hylurgus minor, Hrtg. (b) According to Species. In Central Europe, conifers suffer from fire|tnuch more than broad-leaved species, owing to their resinous nature, and to the 542 PROTECTION AGAINST FOREST FIRES. inflammable evergreen needles, Avliich favour the spread of the fires. The Scotch pine is the most exposed to danger, after it the spruce, then the silver-fir, and, last, the larch. The greater danger the Scotch pine experiences from fire is due to the early drying up of its lower branches and to the dry nature of the soil- covering, owing to the imperfect leaf- canopy of this tree and to the nature of the localities (heather lands) on which extensive pine forests occur. Amongst broad-leaved species rough-barked trees withstand fire better than smooth-barked trees, such as the beech. Fires are evidently more frequent and dangerous in High Forests than in coppices. (c) Age of Trees. Young woods up to thirty years old are most exposed to fire, as the struggle for existence is strongest, and there is usually most dead wood at this period. Well stocked woods between 30 — 60 years of age withstand fires best of all, as middle-aged coniferous woods after the earlier thinnings contain least combustible material, such as dead wood, grass or heather undergrowth. Woods over 60 years of age where grasses and other weeds spring up, again become more endangered. The following average figures, taken from a list of forest fires in Hannover between 1864 — 84, support the above con- clusions. Out of 1,000 acres of forest, there were burned annually during tbese twenty years : — Age. Acres. Broad-leaved woods . . . . . "170 rl— 30yrs. 1-107 Coniferous woods . . . -' 30—60 0-262 ^ over 60 0-354 Mixed coniferous and broad-leaved ) n in i C • • 464 forest . . . . . ) (d) Locality. Forests in plains, on account of the greater dryness of the air, and frequently of the soil, sufier more than mountain-forests. On sunny aspects fires spread much more rapidly than on cool DAMAGE DONE. 543 northerly slopes. A dry sandy soil increases the danger. Fire burns more slowly down-hill than up-hill, and the more so the steeper the slope and the stiller the air. As a slow fire is more easily regulated than a fast one, in jhiims, or cultivations on forest clearings, where the branches and undergrowth are burned, it is better to burn down-hill. (e) Soil-Covering. A tall growth of heather, genista, broom, or grass, &c., increases the danger of fire, and so does an undergrowth of juniper or of sundry conifers. A mossy covering is pre- judicial only in seasons of drought, and a covering of dead leaves or needles is usually a bad combustible, though fire in it may smoulder on for days. Whenever much branch-wood, refuse of fellings and dead fallen wood lie on the ground, the danger is increased. Above all, Scotch pine woods on heather-land with dry soil and soil-covering and combustible foliage are most exposed to forest fires. In India the grass, in badly stocked forests, is frequently 6 — 8 feet in height, and in the open in Assam, the flowering stems of reeds may attain a height of 24 feet. The fierceness with which a fire passes through tall grass during the dry season must be seen to be believed, the sparks and flames sometimes crossing rivers one hundred yards broad. The leaves of many of the Indian forest trees, such as the teak (Tectoria grandis, L. fil.) and the Sal {Shorea rohusta, Gaertn.) fall in March and April during the dry season and when dead are very inflammable. (f) Density of Growth and Extent of Forest- Area. In so far as density of growth kills down heather, grass and other inflammable undergrowth; and provided all dead wood is removed in the thinnings, a densely stocked wood is less liable to be ignited than a thin wood with inflammable undergrowth. Once, however, that a dense forest is ignited, and especially if the fire is in the crowns of the trees, it can generally be ex- tinguished only by a fall of rain, or a sufficiently wide gap in the 544 PROTECTION AGAINST FOREST FIRES. wood caused by a road, river, fields, &c., or by purposely counter-firing or felling trees across its path. If a forest is liable to be burned, it is better to subdivide it into small areas by fairly numerous rides and roads. (g) Season. • Most fires in Central Europe occur in dry springs from March to May when east winds prevail and the dry grass, leaves, and weeds under the trees and the presence of numerous workmen in the woods increase the danger. Forest-fires also occur in hot summers, they generally fall ofi" in violence during the night, but recover force again after sunrise, this being due to the daily variation in the strength of the wind, and sometimes to the nightly dew, which may extinguish a fire. In tropical and semi-tropical countries forest-fires occur daring the dry or hot seasons, and are very rare during the more or less prolonged summer monsoon. Thus in the North-West Himalayan coniferous forests, there may be fires in November and December, until snow has fallen, and then again from April till the monsoon breaks early in July, after the melting of the snow. In the extensive Sal forests at the foot of the Himalaya mountains, extending from the Jumna river to the Borelli river in Assam, there is danger from fire from February till July, and this danger is increased by the fall of the dead Sal leaves in March and April, In the western part of these forests the danger from fire is probably greatest in May and June, whilst in the eastern parts in Bengal and Assam, where spring rains occur, the forests are fairly safe from fire in May, owing to the growth of fresh grass, which is incombustible. 4. Register of Fires. Forest fires are of frequent occurrence in the heather-lands of Berkshire, Surrey and Hampshire. They are not unfrequent in Germany in spite of the great care taken to prevent them, but their extent and frequency are inconsiderable when compared with Austria, the South of France, Sweden, Norway, Kussia, Greece, REGISTER OF FIRES. 545 India and North America. In this last countrv, forest fires frequenth' extend over hundreds of square miles of forest, and little or no trouble is taken to extinguish or prevent them. The most disastrous forest fires which have occurred in Germany during the present century are given below : — 1800, 4th to 21st August, 5,675 acres in the Black Forest near the Katzeukopf in Wiirttemberg. 1857, 28th to 30th August, 3,300 acres near Konigsbruch in W. Prussia. 1880, 1st to Brd May, 3,250 acres on the Liineburg heath. There were on the average, between 1860 and 1880, 29 forest fires annually in the Prussian State forests, extending over an area of 1,335 acres. In Austria, in December, 1872, the whole line of the Carpathians in Hungary was burned, extending for 24 miles from Kakova. In France, between 1865 and 1870, about 25,000 acres of cluster-pine forest was burned in Gascony, and a large area was burned in 1893, including 1,200 acres near Arcachon in the forest de la Teste. The worst districts in France, however, for forest fires are the Dejiartements of the Maures and Esterel, north of Marseilles, where large areas of forest, chiefly consist- ing of Quercus Ilex, L. and Pinus liahyensis, Mill, are burned every year, and a special law has been enacted for their protection from fire. Extensive forest fires occur every year in Kussia. In Canada, in 1868, it was estimated that 400,000,000 dollars worth of standing timber was destroyed by fire. The forest fires in September, 1881, and again in 1894 in the States Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan of the United States of North America were of enormous extent, hundreds of human beings being burned with their houses and cattle. Statistics are wanting to give some idea of the enormous annual destruction of forests in N. America by fire, and especially of the pitch pine (Pinus australis, Michaux) which yields the best coniferous timber known in the whole world. Protection from fire of the State forests in British India has been seriously undertaken during the last thirty years, and measures with this object in view are carried out on a large scale and at considerable cost to the State. Thus, in 1891 — 92, 546 PROTECTION AGAINST FOREST FIRES. measures were taken to protect from fire 27,938 square miles of State forest, which were successful in the case of 24,046 square miles, whilst 3,892 square miles were burned. This gives 14% of failure, showing how difficult it is to protect forests from fire in hot countries. The cost of protection averaged 10 rupees a square mile, or at 1.9. 2cl. per rupee lis. 8d., being as low as 2s. 4d. in the Bombay Presidency. Besides the above, there are 31,805 square miles of State forest, in which either the forest is of such a character as to demand no special protective measures against fire, or its protection has not yet been undertaken. Professor Wallace,* in his book on Indian Agriculture, states ''that periodical forest fires cause a natural i)ro- cess of healthy retardation, cleaning and thinning, under which the magnificent forests of India have heen nursed and reared;'' this and many other of Wallace's statements regarding forestry are quite erroneous, and show complete ignorance of the lamentably crippled state to which the extensive sal, teak and other valuable Indian forests have been reduced by the annual fires, and of the wonderful manner in which they are recovering, wherever the absence of forest fires renders natural regeneration possible. 5. Protective Measures. From what has been already said, it is clear that for Central Europe, protective measures against fire have chieflj^ to be carried out in coniferous forests. The following rules will serve for private forests : — (a) Mixture of broad-leaved species in coniferous forests, either by single trees, groups, or in whole compartments, or as protective belts round the coniferous woods. Such protection is specially needed along the borders and roads through Scotch pine forests. Birch, oak, beech, black poplar, and robinia are suitable species, and the belts should be 25 to 35 feet broad, and may be either High Forest or Coppice. Such belts are largely used in the Landes of Gascony to protect the cluster pine from fire, and should be kept free from heather, ferns, dead leaves, and under- wood, which are readily sold for litter. * India in 1887. Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, p. 303. PROTECTIVE MEASURES. 547 Except in coniferous mountain forests, belts of broad-leaved trees are practically useless in India, as most trees which retain their foliage during the dangerous months will only grow well in moist places. In Assam, however, belts of evergreen forest growing in low ground on either side of watercourses frequently act as protective belts to the drier deciduous Sal forest on either side of them. (b) Fire-Traces. Wherever forests are surrounded by inflammable undergrowth such as heather, grass, &c., fire-traces of sufficient breadth should be made along their boundaries, and internal fire-traces are also required for all extensive inflammable forest areas, to limit the extent of the damage done, in case a fire should cross the boundary, or break out -^vithin it. The number of internal fire-traces required for a forest must be left to local experience, but the forest manager should remember that a considerable area of forest is rendered unproductive when the length or breadth of the internal fire-traces are excessive, and that the cost of protection is thus greatly enhanced, so that he will limit the number and breadth of the fire-traces to the minima compatible with efficiency. Fire-traces in Europe are broadest for coniferous forest, but rarely exceed 100 feet in breadth, while in India they are sometimes 400 feet broad. Whenever the soil-covering on the traces can be utilized for thatching material, litter or fodder, it should be cut and removed. This may often be done by concessioners at no cost to the owner of the forest, or even on payment to him of a certain sum. It frequently happens, however, that the soil-covering has no local value, and must then be carefully burned to avoid the greater expense of cutting it. Before burning fire-traces, the soil-covering is usually cut on guide-lines on either side of the trace, their breadth being about three feet more than the height of the covering. For greater safety, cross lines as broad as the guide-line are sometimes cut at intervals across the trace itself, so as to divide it into segments, each of which may be burned separately. The guide-lines should be cut some time before the fire-trace 548 PEOTECTION AGAINST FOREST FIRES. is to be burned, and the cut material thrown on the trace, where it will dry, and facilitate the burning, A broad short scythe or a sickle may be used to cut the grass, heather, &c., from the guide- lines. In burning the traces, it is a golden rule to remember that grass and heather in the open become dry sooner than under cover of the forest, so that border fire-traces may be burned before the internal ones. In firing a trace, a still afternoon should be chosen and men placed on either side of it, two of whom fire the edges of the traces up to a cross line, if one has been cleared, or if not, to a sufficient distance for the other men to be able to beat out the return fire which runs alou^ the ground in the stubble towards the forest. The other men, armed with evergreen boughs, which they can use to protect their faces from the heat of the fire, keep back on the guide-lines, or even in the forest beyond them, until they see the return fire approaching too near the edge of the forest, when they rush forward and beat it out, leaving the flames from either side to meet in the trace, and burn all the standing grass or heather within it. It should be noted that however still the air may be, before firing a trace has commenced, the ascent of hot air due to the fire will draw in colder air from all sides to fill up the vacuum thus produced, and if the wind be blowing in the faces of the men on one side of a fire trace, lighting in the middle of the trace, as well as along its sides, will draw in the flame away from the men on the dangerous side, in spite of the wind, and will thus greatly facilitate their work. Very full details as regards the practice of burning fire-traces are given in Fernandez' Indian Sylviculture, and need not be repeated here, as in Europe the work of burning fire-lines is much simpler than in hot countries. In every case, however, one or two trustworthy men should follow the firing gang on either side of the trace, and should carefully extinguish all smouldering embers on the guide-lines, and throw all burning twigs and pieces of wood from the latter on to the middle of the trace, so that there may be no possibility of the forest catching fire from the very means which are taken to protect it. On hill-sides, fire-traces should run along ridges, and they PEOTECTIVE MEASURES. 549 may be made zigzag when the bill-sides are steep, and are burned downhill. In forests where numerous fire-traces are cleared annually, it is often advisable to mark off the limits of the guide-lines by a simple trench of the breadth and depth of a plantation-hoe. Where the soil- covering is very dense and tall, it is better to burn the traces twice, at first before they are completely dry, and again whenever dead leaves fall on the traces after the grass has been burned ; dead leaves should be swept away or burned, in order to render the trace impassable by fire. This leaf-burning is, however, a simple operation which may be carried out by three or four men, whilst the first burning in dense tall grass may require 20 men, or more. If by accident, during the burning of a fire-trace, the fire should get into the forest on either side of it, the further burning of the trace must be suspended until the fire in the forest has been extinguished, and to do this it must be attacked on both sides by the gang of men, and driven into the shape of a wedge. (c) Watclnng the Forests. During the dry season, after all the fire-traces have been cleared, and until sufiicieut rain has fallen to render the forest safe from fire, it is often necessary to appoint special patrols to watch the forest, in addition to the ordinary protective establish- ment. These men warn all passengers along the roads of the danger from fire, sweep ofi" or burn dead leaves on the fire-traces, relieve one another in night-watching, and instantly report all cases of fire to the forester and forest guards, when organized measures can be taken to extinguish it. In some cases, seats are made for the fire-watchers in trees, with ladders for ascend- ing them, in order that any outbreak of fire may at once be detected. (d) Trenches round Peat-Deposits. Wherever peat occurs in the forest soil, deep trenches should be dug round the peat-deposits to isolate them from possible forest fires. (e) Conduct of Thinnings. Early and careful thinnings should be made in young 550 PROTECTION AGAINST FOREST FIRES. coniferous woods, and all dead branches should be pruned off and removed. The least that can be done is to clear the boundaries of all compartments of dead wood to a breadth of 30 to 46 feet. (f) Along Railway-Lines. Fire-traces must be kept clear of woody growth, and of dead leaves, heather, and other inflammable material along all railway- lines passing through forests. Most forest fires due to sparks from locomotives break out within 30 feet of a railway-line, but to render the fire-traces quite effective, they should be 60 feet broad. The French law regarding forest-fires in the Maures and Esterel, makes such fire-traces compulsory along all railway- lines running through the forests of those Departements. (g) Roads and Rides in the Forest. The net- work of forest roads and rides may afford considerable assistance against fires. In order to protect the forest on either side of roads from any risk of fire from sparks from pipes, &c., of travellers, or cartmen, all inflammable undergrowth and dead leaves should be cleared from the roads, and from a strip 10 to 15 feet broad on either side of them. Some of the rides may be cleared as fire-traces, and where the prevalent winds are from the west, it is better that rides to be cleared as fire-traces should be at an angle of about 75'^ to the wind direction, as it is easier to burn them, and they afford a broader barrier to a fire coming from the west than if they were simply at right angles to the direction of the wind. Besides roads and rides, watercourses often form effective fire- traces when the undergrowth is cleared away and burned on only one side of the watercourse at a time, but crossing the water- course at its bends, so as to form a uniformly broad trace. (h) Size of Working Sections. Where forest fires are to be feared, the working-sections should be comparatively small, so that there may not be extensive tracts of young woods, in which the danger from fire is greatest over large areas. PROTECTIVE MEASURES. 55J (i) Clearance of Felling- Areas. The felling-areas should be rapidly cleared of all refuse, aud the produce of the thinnings also removed quickly, especially in the case of faggots from coniferous trees. When workmen sleep on the felling-areas, great care must be taken as regards smoking, and fires should be allowed only inside their huts, which should be surrounded by broad fire-traces, as the wind might otherwise blow sparks into the forest. In parts of Northern India during the hot dry months of May and June, it has been customary to suspend all timber works owing to the risk of fire from the woodmen and carters, but these men can easily be taught to guard the forest from fire, and it is doubtful whether this restriction is necessary. (j) Other Measures of Protection. Regulations restricting fires and smoking in forests in dry seasons, and also regarding the use of fire-arms, should be made by the State. The most complete State-regulations regarding forest fires are those enacted in 1893 by the French Legislature. Somewhat similar rules are enforced in British India, except as regards railways, but they apply only to certain State forests. The private forest- manager must see that all State regulations regarding forest fires are observed, and should instruct the workmen engaged in occupations endangering the forest, such as charcoal or lime-burning, what protective measures they must adopt, and should see that his instructions are followed. During the dangerous season, the forest guards must be constantly on the watch against fires, as well as the fire-patrols, if it has been found necessary to engage additional men. All contraventions of the State regulations regarding forest fires should be at once reported to the police, or to a magistrate. In order to prevent intentional firing of a forest, no privileges to cut grass, or to graze, should be conceded on an area which has been burned. Difficulties arise in India with sportsmen, when from fear of fires the forests are closed to shooting during a season which would be otherwise open. Special permission is some- VOL. IV. P P 552 PROTECTIOK AGAINST FOREST FIRES. times given by Government to forest officers to open the forest temporarily to shooting after a heavy shower of rain, during the dry season, or in order to shoot tigers, or other destructive beasts. The shelter afforded to game or noxious animals by high grass near villages may become a great nuisance to the villagers, and the forest officer should not carry the practice of protection from fire too far in such cases, and it may even be advisable to burn off worthless tracts of scrub forest or grass-land for pasturage, so as to keep public opinion on the side of the forester. On the other hand, State forest officers have frequently direct power to arrest offenders, and to call on all forest right-holders and workmen to assist in extinguishing a fire, and in certain cases, privileges and rights to forest produce may be temporarily suspended by the Government, in cases of wilful firing of a forest by villagers, or their refusing assistance when once a fire has broken out. In Belgium, there are so many small private forests that insurance against damage to forests by fire can be effected at reasonable rates.* 6. Rules for Extinciuishing Forest Fires. (a) General Hides. If a fire should break out in a forest, the manager must call on all available labourers from the nearest villages, as well as the forest workmen, to hurry to the site of the fire, and carry out the necessary measures for extinguishing it. The workmen should bring bill-hooks, hoes, iron-rakes, and axes, and provide them- selves with saplings or branches to beat out the fire. The chief object should be to limit the progress of the fire at the smallest possible sacrifice of still unburnt woods. This is best done by attacking the fire on both sides nearly parallel to the direction of the wind, and gradually beating it out in the shape of a wedge. The burned area must be abandoned to the flames. The result depends on the presence of mind, courage, energy, decision of character, and practical directions of the head forester present, and on the obedience, zeal and skill of the men. The chief forester present must be thoroughly acquainted with * 60 centimes per 1,000 francs for broad-leaved woods. 6 francs , , , , , , conifers under 20 years. 5 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, over PROTECTIVE MEASUEES. 55:3 the locality, as it maj' be necessary to sacrifice an area of nnburned forest by couuterfiring. In order to detect at once any fires arising from sparks which may cross fire-traces, men must be posted at all threatened points around the actual fire. As it may take several days to extinguish an extensive forest fire, arrangements may be required to work the available labour force by relays, and to supply the men at work with food and drink. In countries like India, where forest fires are common, wherever the villagers willingly come forward to help in extin- guishing fires, concessions may be made to them of dead firewood or thatching grass, and in case of the fire burning the houses of a village, situated near the forest, the manager should be ready to help with building and thatching material, either free or at cheap rates. In such localities more than half the battle against forest fires is won, when the protection of the forest from fire meets with sympath}' from the neighbouring villagers. In France and Germany, it is usual to call out the soldiers of a regiment quartered near the forest to assist in extinguishing extensive forest fires. (b) Against Ground Fires. The burning area must be isolated by digging trenches, which must be deep enough to prevent the fire from finding its way below them. Water should be poured on the burning turf, or soil from the trenches heaped on to it. (c) Against Surface Fires. The fire should be beaten out with green branches as already explained. Wherever there is a dense undergrowth, as in the case of heather, it is better to beat down the fire vertically, but where the soil-covering is low, the branches should be used backwarks and forwards like brooms to sweep it out. At the spot where the fire commenced, workmen should clear away a strip of the soil-covering in order to isolate the fire. Iron rakes, fig. 255, of a special kind can be used for this pur- pose with advantage, and nnburned litter may thus be drawn by the teeth of the rakes towards the workmen, or burning litter be pushed away by using the rake reversed. p p 2 554 PROTECTION AGAINST FOUEST FIRES. Freshly dug up earth may be thrown on the fire. A clearance, or fire-trace, may be made in front of the fi.re to stop its further progress. The distance of this from the fire should be so chosen that the fire-trace may be completed before the fire reaches it. In making this fire-trace, all the soil- covering should be cut and removed, and if there is time, a trench may be dug, and the earth from it piled up towards the fire. It may be necessary to counterfire from a road, stream, ride or fire-trace ; the soil-covering is then burned, and this fire directed so as to meet the advancing forest fire, when the two fires meet and become extinguished for want of fuel. This is a very efficacious remedy, but demands great care, and can be carried out only when the air is fairly still, and the undergrowth Rake used in protection against fire. not too high, or fire may ignite the crowns of the trees ; it will evidently be resorted to only in extreme cases. (d) Against Crown Fires. The wooded area must be interrupted by felling a strip of trees in front of the fire, which is best done along a road or ride. The smaller trees should be dragged away, if there is time to do so, taller trees should be felled towards the fire and their crowns lopped ofi", if possible. Counterfiring is of little use against crown-fires, but may be tried, if only young growth is burning. (e) Against Stems on Fire. When a solitary hollow tree is burning, the hole may be stopped with sods or earth. If, however, the hollow extends to the top of the tree or through one of its main branches, the tree TREATMENT OP INJURED WOODS. 555 must be felled, after clearing away the undergrowth and soil- covering all round it, and the fire should then be extinguished with water or soil. 7. Watching the Site of the Fire. In order to guard against a fresh outbreak of a forest fire, its site should be carefully watched by trustworthy persons until all further danger is over. This may not be the case in a coniferous forest, where the soil is deeply covered with dead needles, for a week or more after the fire has been extinguished, unless rain falls. The manager should go completely round the burned area and see that it is properly isolated from the surrounding forest by clearings of the soil-covering and trenches. All burning pieces of fallen wood on the site of the fire should be covered with earth, and wherever any fire reappears, it should be at once beaten out. 8. Treatment of Woods Injured hy Fire. The treatment of burned woods depends on their age, the extent of the fire and the amount of injury done to the trees. Burned young coniferous woods should almost always be dug up and the area at once restocked. Occasionally young Scotch pines may put out fresh needles and recover. Older woods with uninjured crowns and with merely their bark singed may be left standing. If, however, the bast and sapwood should be seriously affected, it will be necessary to fell the trees, and especially if it is subsequently found that they have been attacked by beetles, as for instance, Hylurgus pinijwrda, L., which will breed in the summer in pine woods which have been burned in the spring, and proceed in the autumn to thin out the crowns of all the trees around the site of the fire. Where this is to be feared, it is better to fell all trees likely to be so weakened by the fire as to encourage the breeding of these destructive insects. We should not, however, be very ready to fell broad-leaved trees, as oak-woods, for instance, sometimes recover after being burned, especially the dominating trees, but beech are more susceptible to damage by fire. It is better in doubtful cases to 556 PEOTECTION AGAINST LIGHTNING. await the next season of vegetation before deciding what is to be done. Young broad-leaved woods may be cut back if seriously injured, but even this operation may be put off till the ensuing spring as it may then prove unnecessary. Section II. — Effects of Lightning on Tkees. 1. Mode of Striking. When lightning strikes a tree, the wet cambium-zone con- ducts the electrical discharge, and the contained water is suddenly converted into vapour. The expansion thus caused strips off the bark at the points of least resistance, and if the bark be smooth and thin, large pieces of it may be removed. The wood ma}^ also be split from the top of the tree downwards, the lightning entering at the fine twigs on the top of the tree and running down the stem straight or spirally according to the direction of the fibres. 2. Damage done. (a) General Account. The effects of lightning on a tree are very various ; if the tree be split, the bark is usually removed only in a narrow strip on either side of the tree, otherwise occasionally in large flakes. Even in the former case the tree generally dies, it may be after a few years. In other cases, pieces of wood are split off the stem, of all sizes up to several yards in length. The lightning has even been known to enter a tree horizontally and then strike down through its axis as shewn in fig. '25Q. Sometimes large arms of a tree, or its whole crown, have been broken off by lightning. As a rule, the lightning runs down the tree into the ground, but in 3% of the cases observed it passed off to other trees before doing so. The cambium, wood, and pith of a tree struck by lightning become discoloured, and often the topmost leaves turn brown, those below remaining green ; the wood becomes soft and weak. Wood- and bark-beetles, sawflies and fungi speedily attack the injured tree, which should therefore be felled as soon as possible. DAMAGE DONE. 557 When an unsound tree is struck by lightning it is sometimes set on fire, and the fire may then spread to the surrounding forest. It has also been repeatedly observed that sometimes a whole group of trees may die from the effects of lightning, the marks of which may only be visible on one of the trees. This takes place some time after the occurrence, and leaves an ugly gap in a fine wood. This has been observed only in woods of spruce, Fig. 256. ^ — ^ \ Jlllllllllilll(.l llilll ^ ijJJ Lightning-stroke along ah c on a beech tree. silver-fir, Scotch pine and larch, and is probably due to the badly conducting nature of the soil, after a tree has been struck. (b) According to Species. All species of trees are liable to be struck by lightning, but oaks and other species with deep roots appear to be most liable to this danger, perhaps on account of their roots forming better conduc- tors to the moist subsoil than those of shallow -rooted species. According to the valuable observations made annually since 1874 in the forests of Lippe-Detmold* the Scotch pine suffers most frequently after the oak, then the spruce and beech. The birch, poplar, ash, alder, and larch only suffer exceptionally. * Ztschrft. fr. Frst. u. Jgdw., 187^—1889. 558 PROTECTION AGAINST LIGHTNING. Other observations by Collodon,* Hellmann,! Cohn, and Cas- pary give somewhat different results. Thus Hellmann, considering danger for the beech from lightning as 1, gives — Conifers . . . .15 Oaks . . . .54 Other broad-leaved trees . 40 Cohn — Oaks . . . . 14 1 out of 40 trees Poplars . . . . 12 j struck. Caspary — Oaks . . . . 15 | out of 93 trees I Poplars • . . 34 J struck. According to Collodon, near the Lake of Geneva poplars rarely suffer from lightning. In the Revue des Eaux ct Forets,l the results are given of 15 years' experience in a forest composed as follows : — Oak. Beeoh. Spruce. Pine. Others. Per-centage of trees . . 11 70 13 6 — Trees struck by Hghtning . 159 21 20 59 20 Relative frequency . . 48 1 5 33 — This agrees with the results obtained in Detmold, except as regards the beech. On the whole, from these observations it is evident that local circumstances such as dampness of soil, density of growth, healthy or unhealthy condition of tree, affect the question whether one species will be more liable to attack than another in any particular locality. Some experiments as regards the conductivity of electricity by w^ood have been recently made by Janesco Dimitric of the Wiirttemburg Society of Natural Science. In these Holz's electric machine was used. 1 turn passed the spark through oakwood. 12 to 20 turns through beech. 5 turns through poplars and willows. The use of heartwood or sapwood and state of dryness of the wood made no difference in the results, but the richness of beech in oil prevents its being a good conductor. * Allg. Frst. u. Jgdztg., 1873, p. 440. t- Frstl. Blttrn., 1889, p. 26. • t- February, 1894, p. 78. DAMAGE DONE. 559 After the oil had been extracted from beech-wood, it became as good a conductor as oak. Pine is rich in oil in winter, but not in summer, when it be- comes a good conductor of electricity. It is evident that more observations must be made as regards the comparative frequency with which trees of different species are struck by lightning, before any certainty can be arrived at. It is probable that when sound well-conducting trees growing on damp soil are struck, the lightning passes rapidly down to the earth without causing much breakage, but that when rotten wood is met with, which is a bad conductor, the crown or branches may be broken, or even the tree set on tire. (c) Locality. Damp soils conduct electricity well, but in dry places when the lightning has reached the ground, it may spread from root to root of neighbouring trees and cause them to die in groups. The relative frequency with which trees are struck on different soils in Lippe-Detmold is given below : — Calcareous soil. ... 1 Keuper marl Clay _ . Sandy soil Loam 3 7 14 38 This may explain the greater danger to trees from lightning in North Germany as compared with South Germany and Austria. Trees are said to be more frequently struck by lightning in badly-wooded plains, than in well-wooded mountain districts. It is supposed that dense forests act as conductors and allow electricity to pass gradually from the earth to the clouds, whilst clearing the land of forests increases the heat of summer and hinders the neutralization of the electricity of the clouds. (d) Density of Crop and Condition of Trees. Lightning, according to Hess, strikes in preference trees standing free from their neighbours, those in avenues and on 560 PEOTECTION AGAINST LIGHTNING. the border of a "wood and also trees dominating over the rest of a wood. Sound trees are more frequently injured than unsound trees, but dry trees may be struck, and stag-headed oaks are frequently smashed to pieces by lightning. Thus, a positively electrified cloud induces the separation of the electricity in a tree, driving the positive electricity into its roots and the earth, whilst the tree becomes charged with negative electricity. The strength of this charge becomes weakened by gradual discharge into the atmosphere from the numerous twigs and leaves in the crown of a vigorous tree. On the contrary, a tree with many dry branches and scanty foliage becomes thoroughly charged with negative electricity, and when struck by lightning receives a more violent shock than a sound tree. (e) Season. In Central and Western Europe the most frequent thunder- storms are in June and July, between 3 and 5 p.m., or 1 and 2 a.m. These storms usually pass from S.W. to N.E. or from W. to E. In the case of heavy rain before the lightning-stroke, the trees become better conductors, and are more liable to be struck. 3. llegisUr of Damage by Lightniufj. The frequency of thunder-storms in Central Europe decreases as the latitude increases and in proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, as the following average figures show : — No. of Thunder-storms Name of CouTltrJ^ per annum. Italy 38 Austria ....... 23 Hungary, Baden, Wiirttemberg . 22 Silesia, Bavaria, and Belgium 21 Holland ....... 18 Saxony and Brandenburg .... France and South Piussia .... 17 IG Spain and Portugal ..... 15 SchleswigHolstein, Mecklenburg, Hannover, West Prussia ...... 13 DAMAGE DONE. 56.1 No. of Thunder-storms Name of Country. per annum . • • • %y 8 . 7 . 4 North Russia Sweden and Finland . England and Switzerland Nor\\ay late years in tlie number There has been no increase oi of thunder-storms in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but in most other European countries their frequency has increased almost three-fold, and this is considered to be due to increase of railways, metallic roofs and pipes for gas, water, &c., inside houses. Some interesting facts regarding trees killed by lightning are given below. 1848 (early in July) : 52 Scotch pines about 125 years old were killed by lightning at Sprillgehorge in Hannover, only one of them being directly struck. 1865 (spring) : 70 sixty-year-old spruce trees, only one of which was struck, were killed by lightning in the Harz Moun- tains. 1868 (11th May) : A green spruce tree struck and burned in Kothenwald in Reuss. 1876 (17th July) : After a long drought, a dried-up moor stocked with a thicket of 11 -year-old Scotch pines and spruce was tired by lightning at Aurich near Neuenwald. 1887 (summer) : Two lightning strokes about 70 feet apart killed all the trees on about -J-th of an acre stocked with Scotch pine and a few beech near Neustadt. 1887 (15th July) : 72 large spruce trees were killed by one stroke of lightning at Briickenberg. It was clearly seen from marks on the branches that the lightning had passed from tree to tree. 562 PART VI. PEOTECTION AGAINST CERTAIN DISEASES OF FOREST TREES CHAPTER I. GENERAL ACCOUNT.* 1. Definition. A FOREST plant is said to be diseased when owing to disturb- ances in the functions of its organs and of the chemical or physical processes going on within them, it assumes such a con- dition that it is hindered from further useful development and may consequently die, either wholly or in part. Disease there- fore causes blanks in woods of all ages, and also loss of wood- increment and consequent reduction in their value. 2. Causes of Disease. Many different causes of disease in forest trees may occur, for instance, old age, injuries by men and animals, or by atmos- pheric agencies ; also owing to certain local circumstances, such as soils too poor in the chemical compounds which are necessary for plant-life, soils too dry or very wet, insufficiently porous, &c. Although much progress has been made during the last twenty years in the study of the diseases of forest trees, a wide field is still open for discovery in this respect. 3. Classification of Diseases. The diseases of forest plants may be grouped according to * A capital account of the conditions of environment which encourage disease in a phmt is given in the Proceedings of the Royl. Soc, vol. 4.7, " The Croonian Lecture," by H. Marshall Ward. PROTECTIOX AGAINST DISEASES. 563 their origin, the nature of the organs which are attacked, the progress of the disease and its importance in forestry. These four headings have heen considered in the following list : — 1. Diseases arising from 'plnisical agency (frost crack, bark blister, &c.) and those from physiological causes, such as red and white-rot. 2. Local diseases, such as of the roots, or of the stem, bark, buds, leaves or shoots, or of the inflorescence and fruits of the trees. 3. Acute, or rapidly developing diseases, or chronic diseases which develop slowly. 4. Diseases which merely cause loss of increment, and others which affect the technical value of the wood, the latter consisting either in an abnormal growth of otherwise healthy, woody tissue, such as burrs, twisted fibre, &c., or in an unhealthy state of the tissues, as in red or white-rot. The worst kinds of damage to forest plants by men, animals, plants, and atmospheric agencies have been already dealt with in the preceding chapters of this book. For the study of abnormal growth in healthy wood-tissues, the reader is re- ferred to treatises on Forest Utilization. In the following pages certain diseased conditions will be described which could not well be classified under any of the foregoing heads and are limited to the following : — red-rot, ivhite-rot, stag-hendedness, abnormal needle-shedding, and damage by factory -smoke. 564 PROTECTION AGAINST DISEASES. CHAPTER II. RED-EOT.' 1. Description. Red-rot is a decomposition of wood, by which its elementary organs are gradually detached from one another and it becomes Fig. 257. Section of a spruce suffering from red-rot. a. Sound wood. h. Discoloured wood where decay has commenced, c. Rotten wood. eventually converted into a loose-textured mass, at first reddish- brown and passing through a dark brown condition into a peaty substance resembling humus. Frequently whitish mycelia may be noticed traversing the wood longitudinally. Red-rot occurs, according to its position, as root, stump, stem, or branch-rot. A transverse section through the rotting wood * Willkonim, Dr. Moritz, Die Mikropischen Feinde des Waldes. Dresden, 1866, pp. 31 and 219. Hartig, Dr. R., Die Rotfiiule dcr Fichte. Monatschrift fr. das Forst und Jagdwesen, 1877, p. 97, an excellent and coiDprehensive work. RED-ROT. 565 shows a great variety in the phenomena and course of this disease, often in the same tree. Either certain annual zones, or groups of annual zones of wood between the heart and sapwood are attacked,* or the disease occurs in patches, or attacks merely the central zones of the tree or branch. The sap- wood is never attacked by red-rot. The rotten wood may eventu- ally be completely decomposed, when it disappears, leaving a hollow cylinder, in place of the heart wood, and this frequently without involving the death of the tree. Sometimes the inner- most portion of the stem remains, forming a thin columnal, hard strand of wood united with the sapwood here and there by similar strands where branches have been enclosed in the wood. The commencement of the disease may be recognized by a light violet or reddish colour of the wood, and by the porous spring zones being attacked before the harder autumn zones. 2. Modifying Factors. (a) Species. Eed-rot occurs in almost every species of forest tree. Among broad-leaved species, oaks and elms suffer most, and among conifers, the spruce and Scotch pine. The disease usually commences at the roots of spruce trees. Root-rot usually spreads upwards through the heart-wood to the branches. It may, however, on the contrary, gradually descend from the branches through the stem to the roots. (b) A(je of Tree. Red-rot is a normal condition of very old trees, but a disease in the case of young trees. It has been observed in the spruce from the age of ten years and upwards. (c) Locality. Wood may become rotten in all kinds of localities, but certain conditions of the soil predispose trees to this disease, such are: — Soils very rich in humus, calcareous soils, soils very compact or wet and cold, such as clays and peats which are not properly aerated, or where an impermeable substratum occurs *_Termed Mondring in German and lunurc in French. 566 PROTECTION AGAINST DISEASES. at an inconsiderable depth below the surface of the ground. Wood also readily rots in places much frequented by cattle. (d) Treatment of Woods. A dense condition of a wood, especially in moist or wet localities, favours the evil. Tapping for turpentine, barking by game, and other injuries, such as pruning living branches without tarring, frequently give rise to the first symptoms of red-rot in wood, especially when the trees are growing in localities predis- posing them to disease. 3. Causes. Widely differing and frequently contradictory hypotheses have been started to explain the origin of red-rot. Usually it is attributed to external circumstances, such as unfavourable localities, injuries, &c., without further enquiry into its possible causes. The first scientific enquiry into the cause of red-rot is found in the works of Willkomm (1866), who designated a microscopic fungus as the sole origin of the disease. He named this fungus XenedocJius ligniperda, and another allied form which springs from it, llhynchomyces violaceus, which causes the bluish colour in rotting wood. The question as to the origin of red-rot was not by any means solved by Willkomm's researches, as he merely proved the presence of the above fungi in rotten wood, but did not make experiments to infect sound wood by means of their spores, so that it remained doubtful whether the fungi were the causes or merely the consequences of red-rot. Robert Hartig, in 1874, solved this question, by proving that red-rot in the case of spruce, Scotch pine, oaks, &c., really arose from infection by parasitic fungi. Later on, in 1877, he further proved that, at least for the spruce, unfavourable soils and external injuries also induced the disease. As we have already in Chapter III., Part II., discussed the infection of trees by fungi, we have now only to deal with the two latter cases. (a) Unsuitable Sods. The kinds of soil which induce red-rot in the roots of trees. KED-ROT. 567 and chiefly in their deeper-lying roots, are generally peaty humus, soils containing pans or impenetrable substrata of ochrous iron ore, lignite, clay or loam, also very fine sand, not infrequently found in the Lias formations in Germany. Such subsoils interfere with aeration of the surface-soil, the oxygen so necessary for the roots of trees being unable to reach them in sufficient quantity. This is due to the fact that the air in too compact or waterlogged soils is gradually deprived of its oxygen by the roots of the plants growing on it, and by the decomposition of the litter, and this loss of oxygen is not suflficienlly replaced by the admission of fresh air to the soil. The denser the wood, the faster the evil progresses ; fungi also accelerate the disease. This form of red-rot is more prevalent with larch, and sometimes with Scotch pine, than with spruce, as the roots of the larch, as well as those of Scotch pine, penetrate more deeply into the soil, and therefore rot more readily than those of spruce, which spread in all direc- tions in the upper layers of the soil. Scotch pine, however, can produce superficial roots like those of spruce when grown on shallow soils, whilst experience in Windsor Forest shows that larch growing on a gravelly soil above a pan always gets red-rot, and this is confirmed by A. D. Web- ster,* who states that larch always gets red -rot when grown on gravelly soils. (b) External Injuries. Trees are frequently w'ounded during the felling, conversion, and transport of timber. Wounds also arise owing to forest pasture, game, mice, insects, from pruning green branches, or from meteoric influences, frost-crack, bark- scorching, wind or snow-break, hail, kc. Wherever the living tissues of the wood are exposed, especially where the wounds are not clean-cut, moisture penetrates into them, unless they are protected by antiseptic substances, such as a natural flow of turpentine, or by tar. With the entrance of water into the tissues, certain chemical changes take place in their contents, and local disease may arise. Spores of fungi also penetrate the tissues, such as of species of PuhjporiiH in the upper parts of the tree, or of Agaricus meUciis, S^c, in its roots. * Practical Forestry. William Rider aud Son. London: 2nd edition, 1895. VOL. IV. Q Q 568 PROTECTION AGAINST DISEASES. 4. Damage done. Bed-rot aifects the technical value of wood in propovtion to its extent and degree of development, and to the innate value of the tree which is attacked. Wood affected by red-rot cannot be used as timber, and is only of slight value as fuel. The worst form of this disease is when it attacks a tree's roots, as it then generally affects the whole stem ; the least dangerous form is in the branches. It is not rare in spruce-woods 60 — 70 years old to find that 10 per cent, of the trees are rotten, whilst the liability of rotten trees to wind and snow-break is another cause of disaster. 5. Treatment of the Disease. The rules for combating red-rot depend on the cause of the disease. (a) JJlten chic to Unsuitable Soils. Great care should be taken in planting to allot the species of trees to soils suitable for their welfare. Remove densely growing mosses and other unfavourable vegetation from damp mountain soils. Drain and work up the superficial layers of compact soils. In wet soils which cannot be drained, plantations should be made on mounds or ridges. Broad-leaved species should be intermixed with Scotch pine and spruce on calcareous soils ; low rotations should be adojited for spruce, 60 years can hardl}' be exceeded with safety. (b) WlieJi due to Injuries. Great care should be taken during timber-feliiugs and transport. Pruning of green branches should if possible be avoided, or restricted to branches under 4 inches in diameter ; all wounds made by pruning should be smeared with tar. All rotten trees and stumps should be speedily removed from the forest. All measures dictated by forest protection should be strictly followed in order to prevent injuries to the trees. AVHITE-ROT. 569 CHAPTER III. WHITE-EOT.* White -ROT is distinguished from red-rot by the colour of the decomposing wood, which is of a whitish instead of a reddish hue. It is commoner among broad-leaved species (beech, hornbeam, maple, oak, chestnut, poplars, and willows) than among conifers, and appears to be due chiefly to fungi, l^idyporus Ixn-ralia on the spruce, P. fiilvus on the silver-fir, P. dryadens, 1*. ujniarcus, and Hi/dninn dirersidots on the oak, and P. IfCiifiatus on the birch. "White-rot is rarer than red-rot, and its course less rapid. The protective measures to be taken are similar to those against red-rot. * Books referreil to under rcil-iot. also see page 390 of present work. Q Q '-i 570 PROTECTION AGAINST DISEASES. CHAPTER IV. STAG-HEADEDNESS. 1. Description and Causes. It has been already stated that red-rot frequently attacks very old trees, rendering their stems hollow, but another sign of excessive old age is the death of some of the topmost branches of a tree, which has no longer sufficient vigour to pump water so far. The death of these branches causes them eventually to break off, and atmospheric moisture is then admitted into the trunk, and rot commences and penetrates downwards towards the roots. Stag-headedness may, however,* occur in immature trees, and is then due to one of the following causes : — (a) When trees which have been growing in a dense wood are suddenly exposed as standards, as in natural regeneration in High Forest, or after the felling of the underwood in Coppice- with-Standards, the surface-moisture of the soil may be reduced and the trees consequently become stag-headed. In some cases such trees, and especially oaks, having comparatively soft bark, owing to their formerly protected state in a dense wood, put out numerous epicormic branches from the dormant buds along their stems, Avhich absorb the sap that would otherwise reach their crowns. This tends to cause stag-headedness, which may, however, be obviated by one or two prunings of the epi- cormic branches, until the bark becomes too hard for them to form. (h) In forests of light-demanders such as oak, larch, ash, Scotch pine, the soil may be completely sheltered by the crop, up to a certain age, but after 40 — 60 years, the leaf-canopy ceases to be sufficiently close to protect the soil from the sun, which gradually dries it up, and thus causes stag-headedness in the trees, unless the soil be protected by an underwood of shade-bearers. This result follows more rapidly on hot aspects, and the more superficial the soil, and the more porous the subjacent rock, STAG-HEADEDNESS. 571 such as chalk or coarse grave), and the less the rainfall and relative liumidit}- of the air in the locality. (c) Any interruption of the Icaf-canoiiy in forests of all kinds may cause deterioration of the soil and consequent stag-headedness. (d) Drainage also, by lowering the level of Avater in the soil of a forest, may deprive formerly thriving trees of sufficient moisture, which their roots, adapted to reach water near the surface, can no longer absorb in sufficient quantity. Trees thus affected may become stag-headed. This happened on a large scale with oaks growing in the IJ'ild Park at Carlsruhe, owing to the rectification of the course of the Rhine, and consequent lowering of the water-level in the soil. A similar result followed drainage in "Windsor Park, with regard to some of the elms in the Long Walk avenue, and it is not uncommon with alder-woods, after drainage. Continual and excessive removal of litter from a forest may cause stag-headedness in immature beech forest.* It has been noticed in certain two-storied coniferous forests in N. America, after the upper stage of trees had been felled, and the sun allowed to dry up the soil-covering, that the lower stage, the roots of which had spread superficially in the layer of dead leaves and humus, became liable to stag-headedness and death. (e) Stag-headedness in the Scotch pine may be caused, as stated on p. 391, by the fungus Prridermiiim Pin'i, such trees being termed " foxy." It is found that though in the case of conifers, stag- headedness is speedily followed by the death of the tree, and beech also speedily succumbs when similarly affected, yet that some other broad-leaved species, and especially oak, may remain stag-headed for many decades without dying, although the technical value of their timber rapidly deteriorates, and their trunks may become completely hollow. 2. Trealmrnf. (a) Preventive'. (i) Maintain the soil-covering of dead leaves, moss, &c., in order that the soil may not lose its moisture. * Fiirst's WaUlschntz, translated by J. Nisbet, p. 59. Edinburgh, 1893. 572 rROTECTION AGAINST DISEASES. (ii) Keep up a dense leaf-canopy, especially where the soil is shallow and liable to dry up, and where the subjacent rock is of a porous nature (chalk, gravel, &c.)- (iii) Under-plant all High Forests of light-demauders with a shade-bearer, such as beech or silver-fir, as soon as grass or other herbage appears on the soil, and fill up with shade-bearers any gaps which may have occurred in a forest owing to windfall, or other injurious causes. Under-planting oak forest with spruce may cause stag-headedness, on account of the quantity of moisture the spruce absorbs. (iv) Do not plant spruce, alder, ash or pedunculate oak in dry localities. The sessile oak will thrive on well drained hill- sides, where it is hopeless to plant the pedunculate oak. (v) Avoid draining, unless it is absolutely necessary. (vi) High Forest is more suitable than Coppice-with-Standards in dry localities and those with superficial soil, or above a porous rock. (vii) When epicormic branches appear on oaks and other standards in Coppice-with-Standards, or on standards left after regeneration in High Forest, they should be pruned off before the next spring. It may be necessary to repeat the operation, but after two seasons in the open, the bark of the standards becomes hardened and the epicormic branches do not generally reappear. In any case, the stems of the standards will be gradually sheltered again by the rising underwood, which will effectually kill any epicormic branches still on the tree. A growth of epicormic branches on oak trees growing in a dense forest is a sign of disease, and such trees should be gradually removed in the fellings, as they will certainly become stag-headed. (b) lleniedial. As a rule no remedy can be adopted when forest trees become stag-headed, the only measure to be followed being to fell them and utilize their timber before it becomes further deteriorated. Slightly stag-headed ornamental trees in parks or avenues may, however, be given a fresh start in life, by trenching the ground under their crowns, breaking uj) any impermeable stratum under their roots, and manuring them with rich leaf- mould. ABNORMAL NEEDLE-SHEDDING. 573 CHAPTER V. ABNORMAL NEEDLE-SHEDDING.* 1. Description. Since the end of the eighteenth century, a disease termed in German ScJtiitte, has been remarked on young pines, the ex- ternal signs of which consist in the gradual reddish or reddish - brown discoloration of their one or two-year-old needles, which eventually die and fall off the plants. As a rule these symptoms appear first in the spring, but not uufrequently also in the autumn and early winter, and in South Grermany the latter often happens in years when the ground is free from snow. A steel- blue or violet colour of the one-year-old pine-needles in autumn is no sign of disease, provided yellow or reddish-coloured spots do not also occur ; this is an instance of the normal winter- colour of many evergreen plants, which disappears as the ther- mometer rises in the spring, and gives place to the ordinary green colouring of the needles. The reddish discolouration and death of the needles proceeds from their tips downwards, and chiefly affects the lower parts of the plant near the ground. Pines thus affected resemble those injured by drought, but at the commencement of the disease, more or less regularly distributed dark spots and stripes appear, and later, in May, small black sporangia of the fungus HysteriiiDi Pinastri, Schrad.f Also resin collects on the sickly needles. The worst form of the disease may be recognized when the buds become encrusted with resin and dry-up, and then no recovery is possible f-^' the diseased plants. * FreiheiT vou Luffelhok, Beitrag zii einer kritisclien Xachweisxing liber die Scluitte-krankheit der Kiefer. Berlin, 1865. Holziier, Dr. Georg, Die Beobachtungen iiber die Schutte der Kiefer imd die Winterfarbuug immergiliner Gewiichse. Freisiiig, 1877. t fc'ee p. 407. 574 PKOTECTIOX AGAINST DISEASES. 2. Modifi/infi Factors. (a) Species. The Scotch pine suffers most from this disease ; also the black, cluster and mountain pines, and even exotic pines, but the disease does not appear to have been as yet observed in the case of the Wevmouth pine. (b) Age of Plants. Two-year-old plants suffer most from this disease, but three to four-year-old plants may also be attacked, though the danger becomes less every year. In years when the disease is very prevalent, weakly plants may suffer up to the age of fifteen years, but only up to about six feet from the ground. (c) Locality. Pines growing in all kinds of localities are subject to this disease, but it is chiefly prevalent in damp or wet places exposed to frequent fogs. Thus valleys and plains suffer more than hills and mountains, where the snow protects the plants during winter. In depressions and in cold valleys, the disease is often very destructive. As regards aspect, southern and western slopes are most endangered, eastern slopes also suffer, but northern slopes either not at all or only exceptionally. The soil appears to have some influence on the disease, but its effects have not yet been clearly explained. Stein* states that Scotch pine suffers most on j^ure sandy soils, but after all it is on such soils that most indigenous Scotch pine-woods are found. Von Loffelholzt has observed that plants suffer less on thoroughly cultivated soil than Avhen the laud has not been previously broken up, and this may be due to the better root- systems and superior hardiness of the plants in such cases. It also appears that on peaty soil, needle-shedding is little to be feared, which fact may be due rather to the treatment of the pine-forests on such localities than to the nature of the soil. Emmerling + states that sowings of one-year-old pines in the * Ueber die Schulte, Dr. F. Stein. Tharandter Jahrbucli, vol. viii., 1852, pp. 208—225. f The same, p. 41. J Untersiichuiig iiber die Ur.sacbe der Kiefernschiittc in Sobleswig-Holstein, von Dr. A. Emmerling iind Dr. G. Loges. Alig. Frst. u. Jgdztg. 1882, p. 135. ABNORMAL NEEDLE-SHEDDING. 575 North German beather-laucl sufter severely every year from needle-sheddiug, whilst those on the more favourable, sandy loam are not affected by it. It is clear that no very useful conclusions can be drawn from the above observations. (d) Soil-coveriiui. It is not yet decided what influence the nature of the soil- covering has on the disease, though it may be laid down as a general rule that ground covered with grass or weeds is less liable to it than bare localities, but the favourable influence of the soil- covering may be counterbalanced by other causes. (e) System of Management. Under a shelter-wood, the young pines may entirely escape the disease, or suffer only slightly, and lateral shelter from old pine-woods acts favourably by reducing insolation and radiation of heat from the ground. On large clearings, pines are almost always subject to needle-shedding. Areas densely sown late in the year suffer most of all, when the individual plants have very small root- systems and thin elongated stems. (f) Weather. The disease is most frequent in March, April and May, and a wide range of temperature, such as warm sunny days and cold nights with rime, favours it. Cold, dry easterly or north- easterly winds increase the evil. During cloudy, rainy weather in spring, the disease may not appear at all, or only slightly. It is also more frequent after damp winters with light snowfall than after the ground has been well covered with snow. o*^ 3. Geograjjhieal Ramie. The disease occurs wherever the Scotch pine is cultivated, but is less common in colder countries, such as Russia. It is not prevalent in the British Isles. In Germany it appears to be connected with the extension of clear-cutting and planting, which, since the end of the eighteenth century, has so largely replaced the system of natural regeneration of the Scotch pine. 576 PROTECTION AGAINST DISEASES. In the damp, cold years 1850 to 185"2 it was widespread and very destructive in North Germany, and again in 1881 to 1884. Pine-plants which have once suflered from it are liable to be again attacked, as they are greatly weakened by the disease. 4. Causes. (a) Introdactory. Numerous and contradictory reasons have been given for the needle-shedding disease as quoted by both Yon Loflel- holz and Holzner. The nature of the soil, the state of the wea- ther, and combinations of these have been cited. Some think that Ilystcriiiin Puuistrl is the sole cause of the evil, whilst others hold it to be due to a more rapid transpiration of water by the needles than the roots of the plants can supply. It is therefore probable that we have here to deal with many causes acting in combination, one with another, but these may be reduced to the three following : — Pine-scab, Hysteriiim Pinastri, Schrad. Frost, and especially early frosts in autumn. Insufficient absorption of water to supply that transpired by the plants. It is difficult to distinguish these causes from one another, as the pine-scab is always present, though frequently it may be only secondary. (b) Pine-scab. The necessary account of this disease h:is been given above on p. 407. Hartig,* Prantl, and Tursley have sup- ported the fungus theory, but many phenomena appear which contradict it, for example, from the disease beginning at the points of the needles, and the lower parts of plants suffering most, and above all from the fact that the disease fre- quently appears in a single night, and is much commoner in broadcast-sowings than in natural regeneration-areas. Hess has frequently observed the needles to have been attacked in every plant on a nursery-bed, after one night's hoar-frost succeeded by a sunny day, and this altogether excludes the action of the * Fwfc Hartig, Lelirbuch der Baumkraukheiteii. liiul L'diiion. lierliii, 1SS9, p. 10-3. ABNOEMAL NEEDLE-SHJ:DDING. 577 pine-scab as cause of the disease. Moreover, infection by the scab, which is favoured by heat and damp, woukl be easier under a shelter-wood than in the open, which is not the case. The Hysteritiiii is, however, widely spread as a saprophyte on dead needles of pines, as well as on those of the spruce and juniper. (c) Fruat. G. Alers* and Nordlingerf have proved that the disease is frequently due to refrij^eration of the plants on unprotected soil free from snow by radiation from the soil-covering, and this opinion has been adopted by most practical men. Generally iiutumnal frost is the cause, and early frost is not injurious, except when there is a great difference between the night- imd day-temperatures. The fact that on older plants only the lower branches lose their needles, points to I'rost as the oause. Needle-shedding due to frost is common after wet, cold summers, during which the young shoots of the plants have not been properly lignified. Only late frosts can account for the needles turning red in the spring, but experience has shown that they -are not nearly so destructive as early frosts. The fact that needle-shedding is so prevalent on clearings, in depressions and valleys, and on uncovered ground where there is no obstacle to radiation, renders it probable that in many cases frost is the cause of the disease. (d) Drijing-iip of Needles. The drying-up theory of the origin of the needle-shedding Il=. Fig. 259. — Same Oaks photograpiied July. 1S8S. Several years' cumulative injury having killed the trees.* * From Croonian Lecture bj- Jlarsliall Ward (vide p. 562). 588 PROTECTION AGAINST DISEASES. Webster* gives a list of trees and shrubs suitable for town- planting, but among conifers only mentions the deciduous Ginkgo hiloixt, or maidenhair tree, as flourishing in the worst smoke-in- fected parts of London, and Iletinospora plunwsa aurea which has stood for seven years in one of the most smoky districts of Glas- gow, and looks almost as well as when brought from the country. Masters also recommends Ginkgo hiloha and Pinus excelsa. J. W. Sowerby, the Secretary to the Royal Botanic Society of London, who has resided in the Botanic Gardens, Regent's Park, since 1842, states that Avhen the gardens were first laid out (1839 — 45), special mounds were made and planted with nearly all hardy species of conifers, and although the natural soil of the Gardens is a stiif yellow clay, suitable soil was furnished for the diff"erent trees: but at present (1895) only a few miserable plants remain, including five or six deodars, and some yews, which last longest, but are now looking very bad. The amount of damage done to broad-leaved trees depends not only on the susceptibility of the leaves, but also on the powers of recovery of each species, so that trees which unite least susceptibility to greatest powers of recovery will sufler least. Schroder has drawn up the following list : — Very susceptible : the beech. Moderately so : hornbeam and birch. Least : maples, ash, alder, and oak. The immunity of oak is not, however, confirmed by English experience, and Marshall Ward states that oaks sufter greatly from acid fumes. Perhaps the German authorities refer to sessile oak, which is rare in England, where the pedunculate oak abounds. A Belgian f official report also considers the hornbeam and oak as suffering most of all broad-leaved species from acid fumes and even places them above the larch in this respect. Borggreve at Miinden drew up a similar table to that of Schroder, in the following order : — 1. Silver-fir, spruce, Scotch pine. ""■ Practical Forestry, by Angus D. Webster. Rider and Son. 2ud edition. London 1895. t Rapport par la Commission d'Enquete relative a I'influence des Emanations aeides sur la Vegetation. Quoted by Dr. Angus Snutli in an Appendix to Air and Rain. DAMAGE TO TREES BY ACID FUMES. 589 2. Beech, lime, poplar, alder, maples aucl ash. 3. Hornbeam, aspen. 4. Oak (least susceptible). According to Hess's* own experiments elms (Ulmus montana and camjjestris) must be reckoned among resisting species. The above grouping cannot always be relied on, as there are too many modifying factors in particular cases. Loudon, with its constant coal- smoke and numerous factories and frequent dense sulphurous fogs, should give better practical results as to the comparative powers of resistance of trees than any merely artificial laboratory experiments. There are fine large flourishing plane - trees (Platanus orientaUs,-f L.) in Cheapside and on Ludgate Hill, which are entirely surrounded by tall buildings, and the plane is growing well on the Thames Embankment and in many parts of London. The fact that the plane-tree sheds large flakes of its bark annually, and that its buds are sheltered by its sheathing petioles probably contribute to its immunity. The following account of the trees and shrubs which flourish in the Botanic Garden in Begent's Park, London, has been kindly supplied by J. W. Sowerby. " Plataitiis occidentalis and several varieties between it and P. orlentalis. Of the former there are many very large trees. Maples of several species and varieties. Horse-chestnuts flower and fruit as well as in the country. Poplars of many species.:^ Elms, of which a belt surrounds the Gardens, and one old elm which was on the ground in 1838 is still healthy. " Lime withstands smoke but sufters from green aphis and other pests, and looks shabby in early autumn, as the leaves fall early. Eobinia thrives for 30 — 40 years, but then dies gradually, per- haps owing to the cold clay soil of the Gardens. Two oaks remain small and scarcely grow, but have kept alive for over 50 years. Laburnum does well, and so do white and red thorns. * Frstl. Blttr., 1874, p. 31. + Masters and Webster recommend for town planting P. orientalis acerifolia, which has less deeply divided leaves than the normal y)lant, and may be dis- tinguished from P. occidentalis, L. by the many fruit balls attached to its peduncles. X Populus canadensis, Desf. has a reputation in the Black Country for immunity from the effects of fumes. P. balsamifera is growing well in St. James' Park. 590 PROTECTION AGAINST DISEASES. " Of shrubs Aucuha japonica is best and fruits freely, and so do several varieties of privet. Lilacs and box do well, and Mahonias fairly." Webster adds the following to this list: species of Rhus and Cotoneaster, Virginia-creeper, ivy and the vine, besides Daphne Laureola, L., Skimmen japonica, Rihes sanguineus, and Jas- minum nudiflorum. He also gives a list of trees suitable for town-planting, which generally agrees with Sowerby's list, but also contains the following : Ailanthus glandulosa, Desf., Magnolia acuminata, Liriodendron tulipifera, Catalpa higno- nioides, Morus nigra, L. He states, however, that horse- chestnuts, limes and elms soon show signs of distress when grown in smoky localities. According to the Belgian official report, the black alder {Almis ghitinosa, Gaertn.), naay be seen growing close to chemical works, and in situations very much exposed to acid fumes, but apparently suffering very little from them. In planting avenues, or parks, in a crowded city, however, not only immunity from fumes has to be considered, but also the nature of the soil, the desirability of the tree and the amount of shade it gives, and whether it bears radiation of heat from the houses and streets. The poplar having a straggling crown and its branches being very brittle is not suitable, while limes, except Tilia argentia, and some other species, are liable to lose their foliage prematurely in hot dry summers. Probably the plane and sycamore are the best trees for the purpose. Of oaks probably the Turkey oak {Quercus Cerris, L.) is the only deciduous species which can at all resist the smoke of a large city. Quercus Ilex is termed by Masters a good town tree. In the Black Country, near Wolverhampton, Dudley and Bil- ston, the air is at present not nearly so impure as was formerly the case when the shafts of the smelting furnaces were open, and the furnaces themselves much more numerous than at present. Dudley Park is exposed on the east to the acid fumes of smelting furnaces, and yet ash, poplar and sycamore trees are growing there fairly well with elder, white-thorn and hazel undergrowth, and beech appears on the western slopes of the Park, which are exposed to open country where there are no DAMAGE TO TREES BY ACID FUMES. 591 furnaces. Grass grows well enough in the Black Country, and there can be no reason wh}^ the large extent of uneven grassy land near Bilston (about 14,000 acres), where the coal- fields have been worked out, the soil being weathered shale, should not be planted with trees, instead of remaining, as it is at present, a dreary waste. It is said that to level this land would • cost £100 per acre, but no levelling would be necessary, if it were to be planted up with trees, which grow well enough on similar land in Belgium. There are Works at Bilston for galvanizing iron, and the molten zinc in which the sheets of iron are plunged is covered with chloride of ammonium to prevent its oxidising. The fumes given off during the process are said to kill all leaves of trees near the Works by June every year, but these fumes probably extend only for a short distance from the Works. (c) Age of Trees. Woods suffer from acid fumes at all ages, but poles 15 — 30 years old appear to suffer most. (d) Locality. The influence of the locality makes itself felt chiefly by the direction of the prevailing winds which bring the fumes towards the trees. The Belgian Commission mentions 2000 meters as the greatest distance from chemical works, in the direction of the prevailing winds, at which damage was observed. Li certain cases, however, woods have been injured at distances of 4| miles from the Works, but naturally the amount of injury done varies inversely with the distance. Trees bordering on the wood, and especially on woods to the east and north-east of the Works, will suffer most. Even the smoke of locomotives in narrow valleys has proved prejudicial to trees on either side of a railway. Oliver states that the effects of London fog extend to 35 miles westward and that seedlings of Ciicurhitce and Tomatoes are thus killed at even that distance from London. It has been observed, chiefly in the Oberharz, that woods growing on fertile soil resist acid fumes better than those on poor soils. VOL. IV. s s 593 PROTECTION AGAINST DISEASES. (e) Climate. Exposure to light and moisture are not without influence on the action of acid fumes. More damage is done by day than by night, when assimilation is arrested. Leaves suffer more when dew is resting on them than when they are dry. Thus the damage will be at its maximum after rain at midday, and at its minimum with cool nights and dry days. The damage during rainy weather, though more severe than in dry weather, does not extend far from the Works, as the rain speedily dissolves the fumes. (f ) Sundry Circumstances. When older woods overshade an underwood, the former may protect the latter from damage by fumes, and trees standing above the general leaf- canopy of the wood, such as standards in High Forest or above Coppice, suffer most. The shelter afforded to crops and orchards by walls and hedges is also considerable. 4. Remedial Measures. No thoroughly efficient measures have been devised against this evil. Tall chimneys, sometimes 500 feet high, indeed carry the fumes into the higher strata of the atmosphere, but it has been found that hydrochloric acid descends from them to the ground in dense clouds, and lays waste the vegetation at greater distances from the Works than before. The best protective measure against hydrochloric acid is to get it condensed, as is now done in the British Isles under the Alkali Acts of 1863 and 1870, so that less than 1 per cent, of the acid generated in the Works escapes into the air. There is more difficulty in dealing with the sulphur dioxide, and even the most perfect smoke-combustion cannot free the air of it. Attempts have been made in Germany to convert it into sulphuric acid, but this removes only one-third of the injurious gas, and at Clausthal in Germany 1,250 tons of sulphur are annually sent into the air, greatly damaging the coniferous woods in the neighbourhood. The forester in districts where hurtful fumes exist can there- fore act only by planting protective belts of strong transplants DAMAGE TO TREES BY ACID FUMES. 593 of the most resisting trees in the direction of the factories, and managing them entirely by the Selection system. Under the shelter of these belts it will be better, if possible, to grow Coppice, or Coppice- with- Standards, which do not attain the height of High Forest. As owners of woods injured by factory fumes can claim com- pensation in the Courts of Law, the question of estimating the damage done is of great importance. In 1864 the Freiburg Works had to pay £2,750 compensa- tion for damage done to vegetation. Estimates of the value of the damage must be made in accordance with the principles of Forest Valuation, and involve much difficulty. More will not be said on this subject here, but references are given below* to German books specially dealing with it. * Kraft, Ueber die Berechnung der durch Hiittenrauch veranlassten Schadi- giing von Holzbestiiudeu. Ztschrft. fr. Frst. u. Jgdw., 1887, p. 270. Ruduick, Id., 1889, p. 417. END OF VOLUME IV. BRADBURY, AONEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. v