46 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



WHITE-PINE BLISTER RUST. 



Field surveys during the past season by Federal, State, and Do- 

 minion scouts have disclosed that the destructive rust of five-leaved 

 pines, vehich in western North America was first observed on pines 

 and currant bushes in southwestern British Columbia in the autumn 

 of 1921, is widespread throughout the coast belt of British Columbia. 

 As several large areas in that Province have been found where the 

 disease is epidemic on pines, and the advance infections have been 

 found on pines within 100 miles of the international boundary and 

 on cultivated black currants within 35 miles of that boundary, the 

 situation must be regarded as serious. The climatic and topographic 

 conditions of the western region and the host plants involved are 

 markedly different from those in the east, so that eastern methods 

 will presumably require considerable modification to adapt them ta 

 the western conditions. 



"WAR ON TUBERCULOSIS. 



Rapid advances were made in the cooperative campaign to eradi- 

 cate bovine tuberculosis. An increase of 76 per cent was made in 

 the number of herds of cattle officially accredited as free from 

 tuberculosis. At the close of the fiscal year there were 28,536 such- 

 herds, comprising 615,156 cattle, and there were under supervision 

 more than 400,000 herds containing nearly four and a half million 

 cattle. Unfilled applications for testing nearly a million additional 

 cattle were on file. 



The plan of eradicating tuberculosis from circumscribed areas, 

 with the county as the unit, has met with marked success. Fifty 

 additional counties were freed during the year, raising the total 

 to 81. Arrangements have been made to accord special facilities for 

 shipping cattle from counties known as " modified accredited areas " 

 without the usual quarantine restrictions. In the course of the 

 year's work the tuberculin test was applied to nearly three and a 

 half million cattle. Those found diseased were slaughtered under 

 inspection, as a rule, and indemnity was paid to the owners. Larger 

 financial support is being provided by States and counties, and the 

 work is growing in favor with cattle owners. 



