Sessional_Paper_1895 — Page 428

424

for payment at our stations. This was found to be a necessary precaution, as, in a few days, what was expected took place, and many people were turned back who were in possession of loads of cater- pillars.

68. The exact quantity of caterpillars collected was 60,579 catties (36 tons 1 cwt. 0 qr. 201bs.) and of cocoons 5,617 catties (3 tons 6 cwt. 3 qrs. 13lbs.) and the total cost of the work, exclusive of wages of members of the permanent staff who were employed, was $4,889.95.

69. Appendix F gives the quantity of caterpillars and cocoons received at each receiving station, and appendix G the daily expenditure from beginning to end. These will give an idea of the work performed in regard to its distribution and daily quantity.

70. I again express my appreciation of the value of the services of those police officers who gave such willing assistance, which was at a time when several of them were also engaged in special work in connection with the bubonic plague. The names of those police officers I had the honour to submit to the Government in letter No. 43 of the 10th September, 1894, when I specially brought their services to the notice of the Government.

71. Although there is no known record of such devastation committed elsewhere by the caterpillar which infested this Colony last year, it will be interesting to state here that terrible injury to trees has been wrought in other countries by other species, notably the Gipsy Moth in the United States, where in Massachusets, I am informed, $350,000 have been spent in attempts to exterminate it.

72. The Kew Bulletin for 1890, also, contained an account of a Forest Plague in Bavaria. The following extracts will be of interest. The documents in which they were contained were a despatch and enclosures from Mr. VICTOR DRUMMOND, at Munich, to the Foreign Office, which were sent by the Foreign Office to Kew Gardens,

“Mr. Drummond to Foreign Office.

"A very serious pest of the insects known as Liparis Monacha or "Nuns" has lately been causing great destruction to the Pine and Fir Forests in certain districts of Bavaria. This serious calamity to the kingdom had its first germs two years ago, when the Government, according to a statement made by the Upper Bavarian Agricultural Association, took measures to prevent it spreading. On the other hand, if public opinion is correct, the foresters, instead of carrying out hand and eye work in the forests, did not visit them as often as it was their duty to do.

In any case the fact remains that the forest administration has been defeated by the "Nuns," and although everything is being done to extirpate them by killing thousands daily, it is now reckoned that Nature alone, winter frosts," can rid the forests of the pest.

"It is calculated that the loss to the revenue from woods and forests for the nex tfinancial

year will amount to 800,000 marks (40,000 L.), and it is even feared that the amount may be larger, as where forests are injured by any special cause the "Bark beetle" follows and attacks the diseased wood; this will probably result next year.

"The enclosed translations of extracts taken from the "Münchener Neueste Nachrichten" show the extent of the calamity, and give a chronicle of the destruction caused by the "Nonne" and other insects since the year 1449.

**

**

***

*

"(ENCLOSURE No. 1.)

*

**

"Note from the Bavarian Forest Administration ( Finance Department) on the “ Nonne.”

"The Forest Department of the Ministry of Finance state that the "Nonne" plague is now extended over nearly all Bavaria south of the Danube in scattered tracts. The infested districts are estimated at about 10,000 hectares. The fertility of the insect is great, and its numbers so enormous, that the Forest Department fear that no measures of destruction are of any avail. "We stand powerless before the immensity of the pest." The insect attacks chiefly the pine and fir with which Bavarian forests abound, but in default of these it does not despise the beech, oak, and other forest trees, and is even known to feed on shrubs and garden plants. It never attacks corn or wheat, and, curious to say, there is one tree it will not touch, viz., the horse chestnut.

"The means of destruction are various.

Forest bonfires of worthless wood form an easy means within reach of all communes, &c. The insects are attracted by the fire and are smothered in the smoke, but only a comparatively small number are killed. Children and boys are also sent out to destroy the insects. From September to April, similarly, the eggs can be found in the bark and destroyed, and in April the very young caterpillars can be more easily killed. All these, however, are mere partial measures. The only efficient general measure seems to be the cutting down of whole forests when much infected, in which case the remedy is almost worse than the disease. One other method is used by the State, but not within reach of communes, therefore not described in the official pamphlet. A large electric light is placed in the forest by night and attracts thousands and hundreds of thousands of nonnen to the mouth of a large funnel through which a rapid exhaust current of air is forced, sucking in the insects by thousands into a hole under the earth where they are buried. Even this is only a partial measure, for in a forest containing perhaps a hundred millions of "nonnen" it is not much to destroy 200,000 or 300,000.

66