Forest Sanitation 489 



cumbed to the disease. In some of the forests of Idaho and 

 Montana the number of infected trees run as high as fifty to 

 eighty per cent of the stand for the more valuable species, and 

 occasionally the more undesirable species show a much higher 

 figure. It is hoped that the disposal of all this infectious mate- 

 rial may be brought about by some modification of the silvi- 

 cultural practice and that some commercial use may be found 

 for it. Considering the close utilization of forest materials now 

 being practised, the outlook is encouraging, but the end is not yet. 

 The removal of diseased material will be a great step toward 

 freeing the forest from disease. How it is to be successfully 

 accomplished with little outlay, and there is no question of the 

 benefits to be derived from it in the future, is the problem con- 

 fronting the conservationist. That it can be done, the history 

 of scientific forestry shows over and over again. I have often 

 searched diligently in some of the more important forests of 

 Austria and Germany without being able to locate a single dis- 

 eased tree, and the results were in part realized in some instances 

 by the simple method of destroying the sporophores of the fungus. 

 Such a procedure in the great /American forests is impossible, and 

 forest management must be handled on broader lines. Local 

 conditions and questions of economy prohibit any great step 

 being taken in many forest regions, although the plan looks easy 

 in theor}\ Even a cursory examination of the problems with 

 which the forest pathologist has to deal shows a situation fraught 

 with much difficulty. If the best results are to be obtained there 

 needs to be, in the words of one of our foremost plant patholo- 

 gists, a little of the spirit of Bunker Hill instilled into the work 

 of forest protection and conservation, as well as in more warlike 

 affairs. 



