Bud worm
And the effort must be built
Here’s the first of the 40-odd up more in 1951. It demands
verses of an old song of Southern real money and many men.
field hands:
Heliothis
“Oh, the boll weevil am a little
In none of the proceedings and
black bug.
orations on the budworm that
Come from Mexico, they say.
have come my way so far is
Now it’s up all the way from there any mention of the vital
Texas,
fact that the beast is the larva
Jes’ looking fer a place to stay— of a diminutive noctuid moth
Jes' lookin’ fer a home,
that beats the family name of
Jes’ lookin’ fer a home.”
heliothis. All breeds of helio-
Now the people of the woods this are tough babies. One chews
in this big-timber country of ours tobacco in the raw, right off the
are facing the spread of a men bush. Our breed would no
ace not unlike that of the boll doubt take to snoose.
weevil in the South. Foresters
A story is already going the
are already calling the spruce rounds of the camps that the
budworm a more powerful threat Latin name originated in Walla
to our forests than fire. The Walla, where an ungodly swarm
spruce budworm would be a true hatched out one night and
terror if it were not for that blanketed the city like snow.
miracle of insecticides, DDT. The Next morning the citizens were
danger is requiring a vastly all asking each other, "What
01 ganized joint effort of foresters the heliothis?” So it was under
and entomologists backed by stood, the loggers tell. Plain
both government and industry speaking was impossible because
and financed for aerial surveys a Walla Walla man would no
that ran over 26,000 air miles more than open his mouth than
last year, to set up effective de moths would fly in, looking for
fense against the spruce bud a home.
worm.
"Oh, the budworm is a little
white moth,
Comes from Canada, they tell
It’s come way out to Oregon,
Jes’ lookin’ for a place to dwell.”
I’ll rig a ballad up for Stan
Borenson and his accordian,
while I’m in the mood.
A Mighty Mean Moth
The budworm infested Pacific
Northwest Douglas fir and White
fir in 1944, this spreading to an
alarming extent by 1948. The
next year a cooperative serve /
by government and industry men
showed that a total of 2,232,250
acres had been invaded by a
deadly species of heliothis larvae
a 56 per cent increase over 1948.
This was apart from a 567,000
acres that were sprayed.
The epidemic is being held, as
the 1950 spraying of a million
acres reduced the acreage of
infestation to a little over two
million acres. Government and
industry shared the year’s cost
of control—$1,300,000. The fight
must go on.
The spruce budworm, while
in the caterpillar stage, is a
gluttonous devourer of the leaves
of the Douglas fir and White fir.
When an epidemic loads a forest
area the stripped trees starve to
death—as trees feed through
leaves on light and air.
Back east the tree-killing helio
this has made away with an esti
mated hundred billion board feet
of timber in the past 40 years.
In TREES, the USDA Yearbook
of 1949, the grim story is told
on Pages 423-427 by three top
notch entomologists. It pictures
the spread of the spruce noctuid
from Quebec in 1909, through
Maine, Ontario, the Lake States,
the Rocky Mountains, on to the
Pacific Northwest.
•
The Douglas fir, heretofore so
resistant to all bugs and blights,
bows to the budworm. Our de
fense is DDT spraying, which
takes planes, men in consider
able numbers and surveys to find
infested forests. Back of all
this must be public understand
ing and support. I’ll keep you
folks posted.
Wildcat Bagged
By Timber Man
THE
EAGLE,
VERNONIA, ORE.
cat last week while out target
practicing.
Mr. and Mrs. Earl Beyer and
Connie of Warrenton spent Sun
day with Mr. Beyer’s parents,
Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Beyer.
A pink and blue shower was
given at the Stewart Taylor
home for Mrs. Pete Rover Sat
urday
night. Invited guests
were* Mr. and Mrs. Don Cole
man, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Mur
phree, Mr. and Mrs. Russ Dunn,
Mr. and Mrs. Ben Burleigh, Mrs.
Emery Bailey, Pat Dunn, and
Chet Beyer.
THURSDAY, DEC. 21, 195» 3
LOG SCALE BOOKS
•
• Scribener's
i
• 1948 Columbia River
• Waterproof
/
• From 12 to 80 Feet
• Only 50c
. J
Vernonia Eagle
Office Supplies
TIMBER — Leo Lolly of Port
land is spending an indefinite
time with his parents, Mr. and
Mrs. Walt Lolley.
Mr. Lopez is convalesing at the
Jones hospital after a recent
appendectomy..
Bill Tate bagged his first wild-
A bit of starch makes white
gloves more resistant to smudges.
In all sincerity-
the fullness of §
SEASON GREETINGS
MOVING?
joy be yours
CASON TRANSFER
/
this Yule.
Call 581 for Free
Estimate
Wilbur (Shorty) Davis, Prop.
Office at
Sundland Electric
Vernonia Service Station
HXHXHZHZHZH
May heaven
and nature sing
for you this
We want to say, with
; Joy be
§ yours this
. Christmas
Nichols
Variety Store
deepest sincerity,
a very happy
holiday
to you.
1950
if
(-----------
äcosctox
50
The Pal Shop
Hoffman Hardware
George and Louise Hahn
X
*
M zhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhz R
Again We Extend to Our Employees
Simple, unadorned
thoughts are best at
Christmas So we
would only wish you a
joyful and happy holi
day season when
every step you take in
and to the
Residents of Vernonia
best wishes for a
MERRY CHRISTMAS
creases your desire to
be a friend to man.
And a Merry Christ-
mas to you.
PEACEFUL AND HAPPY
( IIRISTMAS
Bill and Reatna Hom
Straight Bourbon Whist«» • 86 Proof i
National Distillers Products Corporation, N.Y. '