1$2 FOREST COMMISSIONERS REPORT. 



WHITE PINE BLISTER RUST. 



In my recommendations, I have urged the incoming Legisla- 

 ture to provide means whereby a systematic fight may be waged 

 against this extremely dangerous enemy of our white pine. 



Although this may properly come under the jurisdiction of 

 the Commissioner of Agriculture through the Bureau of Hor- 

 ticulture, yet the extermination of this disease is of such vital 

 importance to this Department that I am taking the liberty of 

 going into this matter in detail as a form of information to 

 those interested. 



The Interstate Committee for the Suppression of the Pine 

 Blister Rust, with headquarters at Boston, was formed and is 

 made up of State Foresters, Horticulturists, Nurserymen and 

 Lumbermen. This Committee, of which I have the pleasure of 

 being a member, has rendered valuable service, thus far, in the 

 dessemination of information on the disease and in securing 

 Federal appropriations and assisting in the work of securing 

 State appropriations. 



Maine has done nothing yet in the way of starting any pre- 

 arranged preventative measures against the Rust for the want 

 of legal authority and necessary appropriations. Thus, I 

 earnestly hope that the incoming Legislature may deliberate on 

 this subject and take such measures as seem necessary. 



For a general history and description of this disease, I shall 

 submit a Press Bulletin issued by the above named Committee 

 in the early part of 1916. 



A Serious Danger to all oe the Five-Leaved Pines of the 



United States. 



"The white pine blister rust is a fungus disease, native to 

 Europe, and according to eminent authorities, it has rendered 

 the growing of our native white pine in England, Denmark, 

 Holland and parts of Germany impracticable. The disease was 

 imported to this country on nursery stock of white pine, and 

 plantations made from such stock in the states of New York, 



