Comment. 655 



which the young generation of American foresters are starting 

 their work, when compared with what the conditions were when 

 Hartig and Cotta began their labors of reclaiming mismanaged 

 forests. We have the entire theory and experience with an ap- 

 paratus of knowledge, which was unknown to the early workers. 

 For, whatever may be said against Mayr's ambitious attempt to 

 write a volume of silviculture for the whole world, he is right in 

 his contention that silviculture as far as it is based on natural 

 laws, is universal ; the fundamental principles involved are the 

 same anywhere. But, to be sure, judgment as to their practical 

 application under given conditions cannot be dispensed with any 

 more than in any other business. 



We have the advantage that we have nothing to unlearn or to 

 undo. There is a German proverb, "the good is the enemy of the 

 better." Having in silvicultural lines nothing good we have a 

 chance to apply the better, provided we have an open mind and do 

 not fall into the error of the early empiricists, of generalizing and 

 limiting ourselves to the belief that one medicine can be the 

 remedy for all evils. 



The strenuous work of American foresters and pathologists in 

 arresting and trying to prevent the introduction of so destruc- 

 tive an enemy as the White Pine rust could readily become de- 

 serves our highest commendation. 



At the same time, it is only just to point out that the danger is 

 to a large extent minimized, if not entirely removed, by the ac- 

 tion of the German nurseries from which the disease was im- 

 ported. 



In 'Dr. Spaulding's bulletin, reviewed in this issue, the one nur- 

 sery which probably has the largest trade of nursery stock for- 

 forest planting, Heins & Sons at Halstenbeck, is repeatedly quot- 

 ed as the source of the evil. It is, perhaps, if not the only nursery 

 which ships material of this description,, yet the one which does 

 so in the largest amounts. 



From a representative of the firm we learn that to obviate any 

 further propagation of the evil not only was the entire remaining 

 stock of infected White Pine seedlings destroyed, but the nursery 

 for growing this material removed six miles from the original 

 location, and a German official of the pathological bureau em- 

 ployed to inspect the new plantation and make sure that no traces 



