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"(ENCLOSURE No. 2.)
"Translation of an Article in the "Münchener Neueste Nachrichten" of August 10th, 1890, entitled "Chronicle of the Destruction of Forests through the 'Nonne' and other Wood Insects."
"Just as men and beasts are from time to time carried off in multitudes by epidemics, which epidemics it has not yet been found possible entirely and finally to suppress by art and science and by doctors and veterinaries, in like manner the trees of the forest are now and then attacked and destroyed by forest insects. Fortunately these vanish, as a rule, as quickly as they come, by the operation of natural agencies. This is the only consolation we have in view of the desolate condition to which many of the pine forests of Germany, and in particular of Bavaria, have been reduced by the horrible devouring caterpillar the "Nonne."
"Before now in earlier centuries our woods have been attacked by similar calamities, and yet the German forests grow green and thrive, and yield, year by year, higher rents. This may serve to calm too anxious minds and to correct the views of those who are so ready with their judgments, and who ascribe the blame of the misfortunes which have fallen on the forests solely to the forest officials.
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"1. In 1449 and 1450 a considerable plague of caterpillars attacked the Nürnberg forests, for which no remedy could be found (Nürnberg, Chronik.)
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10. In 1737 the caterpillars made such a dreadful invasion into the Thuringian Forest, that in a small part of the Duchy of Meiningen in 1742, 2,985 cords of dead wood still lay on the forest; but by good fortune at this time glass furnaces were introduced, which absorbed the wood killed by the
nonnen pest. (K. v. Sprengeisen. Topograph, etc.)
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"11. In 1783 and 1784, in the Fichtelgebirge (Bayreuth district), the "nonnen caused great damage to the old and young pine trees. The bark beetle followed and finished the trees. (Kob.) *
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"12. In 1791-96, in the forests of Kurmark, although for five years no trace of the caterpillar had been found, 650,000 "morgens of pine forest were devoured by the great pine caterpillar and the seventh part totally destroyed. (Hennert.) The bark beetle also took part in this destruction. The pest also spread to Mecklenburg, Saxony, and Bohemia.
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"13. In 1794-97 the 'nonnen' caterpillar appeared in Vogtland, viz, in the pine and fir forests of Lobenstein, Schleiz, Ebersdorf, and Saalburg, and worked vast destruction, so that the loss was reckoned at 2,000,000 cords of wood, and the plague also threatened the neighbouring forests of Altenburg, Electoral Saxony, Saalfeld, and Schwarzburg."
"Bechstein, in his Forest Insectology (1818), describes the great destruction caused by the 'non- nen' caterpillar in 1794-97 in Vogtland, Lithuania, and West Russia, and gives figures which corres- pond exactly with our present situation. Seventy-two years ago he wrote as follows:
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"It is horrible to travel in those districts where these caterpillars swarm. Many thousands crawl up and down the trees. One cannot take a step without treading on a number of them. There is a perpetual rain of their excreta, which often lies six inches deep, and being dissolved by the rain, collects in puddles, which diffuse a pestilential stench. One can form no idea of the magnitude and terrible nature of the destruction. Fortunately Nature herself stopped the pest through a kind of dysentery which attacked the cater- pillars in the beginning of June 1797. This deadly sickness was attributed to a kind. of mildew. The caterpillars collected together in great thick clumps, four to six inches across, the excreta became pale, the intestines dirty, and so they died, leaving behind them a disgusting stench."
As to the measures of prevention and suppression of that day, they hardly differed from those in use now. Bechstein, in 1818, recommended-1st, protection and encouragement of insectivorous birds; 2nd, protection of useful insects which attack and pursue the "nonnen"; 3rd, scraping the eggs off the trees with brooms and scrapers with long and short stems; 4th, picking off the moths, caterpillars, and cocoons (in 1796 the Prussian district administration at Hof caused 1,838,000 female butterflies to be caught, and paid 6 krenzers for every thousand); 5th, the lighting of a number of small bonfires on dark nights (for it is well known that butterflies are attracted by the moonlight), and they paid in Bayreuth in 1796 for one night's maintenance of fire and bringing wood 5 groschen; 6th, isolation of the districts attacked by broad paths and ditches; 7th, cutting off in March and April of the branches nearly to the vertical, and burning them; 8th, cutting down of whole standing trees, and burning of the branches and bark; 9th, removal of moss and litter from the forests and burning, if eggs or cater- pillars are found therein.
"In connexion with the injury caused by the 'nonnen' in this century, we may briefly mention here the extensive 'nonnen' plague of 1839-40 in Upper Suabia (Würtemberg), which ravaged many hundreds of morgens' of pine forest. The same thing was repeated in 1855, and at the present
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