FOREST COMMISSIONERS REPORT. 23 



tree the more severe the injury. Most large trees only showed 

 scattering tufts of dead needles, and these usually only on the 

 more exposed sides. In the case of severe injury on young 

 growth, it was impossible at a distance to distinguish from 

 scorching by fire. The entire needles were withered or dried 

 out and were of a deep, rich, reddish-brown. Very frequently 

 the twigs themselves were killed back for several inches. In 

 fact acres of young trees in exposed localities which were 

 apparently healthy in the fall of 1907 were entirely dead by the 

 last of May, 1908. Usually the injury zvas confined almost 

 zvlwlly to the north and northzcest sides of the young trees, or 

 if they occurred in clumps or were otherwise protected it was 

 confined to the more exposed portions of the tree. The fact 

 that the injury was confined to one side of the young trees was 

 the most characteristic thing about the trouble, for it was of 

 almost universal occurrence with trees up to twenty or more 

 feet in height. Young scrub pines were frequently observed 

 early in May on exposed hillsides with the branches on the 

 north and west sides of the tree and the entire to]i dead while 

 the lower, more protected branches on the south side were still 

 green, and apparently uninjured. 



Xor was this injury confined to the pines alone, for spruces 

 and firs and some other conifers showed the same trouble and 

 in the same manner. It was especially severe in the case of the 

 arbor vitse. Hedges of this tree were practically exterminated 

 in some localities. 



Microscopic examination by means of sections of the needles 

 of aflfected pines and other conifers failed to show any parasitic 

 fungus constantly associated with the disease. In fact dead 

 needles collected from the trees early in the season usually 

 showed no signs of fungi of any kind.* An opportunity came 

 to examine the roots of trees dug u]) out of an arbor vitne hedge 



* Pine needles lying on the ground are usually quite thoroughly infested 

 with saprophytic fungi. Late in the season these fungi were found in 

 some cases to have spread to the dead needles still adhering to the trees. 

 Examination of needles on the same trees earlier in the season failed to 

 show any pustules on them and no mycelium within the tissues, except 

 in an occasional instance. Spots on the living needles of pines in the 

 State due to fungus attacks can be found quite frequently but these were 

 by no means constantly associated with the trouble here described. 



