54 ANNUAL HKPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



manner in which this is being clone and some of the more important 

 results accomplished during the year are set forth under the fol- 

 lowing heads: 



FOREST PATHOLOGY. 



The continued spread of the chestnut-bark disease, particularly 

 southward and westward, has caused great public alarm. The 

 method of destroying advance infections devised by this department 

 and described in previous publications has been energetically applied 

 in Pennsylvania, and recently also in New York. There is every 

 reason to believe that the disease in these two States can be limited 

 to the eastern counties. The State appropriation for this work in 

 Pennsylvania is $275,000. In the New England States it will prob- 

 ably still be possible to keep the disease to the west of the Connecticut 

 River; but this is essentially a local issue, with little bearing on the 

 welfare of other States. What is done in western Maryland, in Vir- 

 ginia, and in AVest Virginia, however, is a matter of national impor- 

 tance, for the fate of the chestnut in the southern Appalachians, 

 where the finest and most extensive stands of chestnut timber occur, 

 depends upon the checking of the bark disease in these States during 

 the next three years. This department can cooperate to any extent 

 in the study of all phases of the disease and in the location of ad- 

 vance infections, but the actual destruction of diseased trees must, 

 for legal reasons, be exclusively a State function. It is therefore to 

 be hoped that these critical States will be able promptly to follow 

 the vigorous example of Pennsylvania. No other tree disease of 

 equal seriousness is known to science, and unless prompt, united, and 

 effective action can be taken there is every reason to believe that the 

 chestnut tree will be practically extinct in certain sections of North 

 America within 10 years. 



' On account of their important relation to reforestation, damping- 

 otf and other diseases of forest-tree seedlings have received special 

 attention. The results of the past season's work have confirmed the 

 previous report of absolute success in controlling the serious " blight " 

 of coniferous seedlings by slight and perfectly practicable changes in 

 the management of water supply and shade. For two seasons past 

 the use of sulphuric acid in preventing the damping-off of coniferous 

 seedlings in the Forest Service nursery at Halsey, Nebr., has been 

 successful. ^If these results are confirmed by work in other localities 

 and other years, damping-off, so far as coniferous seedlings are con- 

 cerned, will cease to be an uncontrollable factor in reforestation. 

 The use of sulphuric acid as a soil fungicide originated in this de- 

 partment, as reported in previous publications. 



It is unfortunate that at this time, when interest in reforestation 

 is at its height, we should laiowingly import a destructive European 



