FOEEST SERVICE. 309 



pine forests of the West within which many of the national forests 

 are situated. In these pine forests an insect attack seldom destroys 

 the possibility of further growth on the land as does fire, but the ag- 

 gregate loss of commercially valuable timber is enormous, since the 

 oldest and therefore the largest and more valuable trees are chiefly 

 affected. The public forests urgently need an adequate and sys- 

 tematic organization for protection from insect losses along lines 

 similar to those now followed in fire protection; and as in the case 

 of fire protection, this organization must be able to cooperate ef- 

 fectively with the owners of intermingled or adjacent timberland 

 within the threatened area. 



The immediate requirements, particularly for the pine forests in 

 the West, are adequate provision for research by the Bureau of 

 Entomology looking to the development of the technique of control 

 methods, and a fund which the Secretary of Agriculture may ex- 

 pend in protecting publicly owned or controlled timber, of whatever 

 status, as emergencies require. At the present time serious losses 

 from tree-destroying insects are occurring or are threatened particu- 

 larly in certain of the pine forests in California, in Oregon, in 

 northern and central Idaho, in central Montana, and in northern 

 Arizona. 



PROTECTION OF PUBLIC FORESTS FROM TREE DISEASES. 



The need for adequate means of meeting dangers to our forests 

 from tree diseases is brought home forcibly by the discovery, made 

 by the Bureau of Plant Industry, that the white-pine blister rust is 

 established in the forests of British Columbia and on its alternate 

 host (the genus Ribes) in the State of Washington. This discovery 

 marks the beginning of a serious economic problem. Tlie presence 

 of this imported disease is a danger not only to many millions of 

 dollars' worth of merchantable western white-pine timber, both 

 public and private, but also to the future crops of these trees, which 

 are the most valuable of the important commercial trees in their 

 respective regions. Other kinds of trees may keep the land produc- 

 tive, but these five-needled pines will bring the largest returns, and 

 inability to grow them would be an economic disaster to the regions 

 concerned and to the nation-wide users of lumber. It is good public 

 economy and an elemental business precaution to prevent losses from 

 this disease in the existing merchantable timber on the national for- 

 ests and to protect the young stands from which the future crops of 

 the same timber must come, just as losses from fire are guarded 

 against. 



The white-pine blister rust is an undesirable alien from Europe, 

 where it prevents the growing of species of white pine over large 

 areas. In its life cycle it alternates between the five-needled pines 

 and currant or gooseberry bushes in the same way that wheat rust 

 alternates between barberry and wheat plants. The Bureau of Plant 

 Industry has demonstrated that in the case of this disease, as with 

 others which have alternate plant hosts, protection is possible by the 

 removal of one of the hosts, and in the case of this disease the eradi- 

 cation of all currant or gooseberry bushes within or near stands of 



