Mistletoe Control 573 



The possibilities of making a beginning in the eradication of mistletoe 

 from which much is to be expected lies in timber sales. In some 

 respects the problems which usually arise in requiring the pur- 

 chaser to cut every marked tree would not come up in the same 

 way as is often the case when wood-destroying fungi alone are in 

 question. In trees with a portion of the merchantable length de- 

 cayed by fungi, it is always a question whether or not the tree 

 contains enough merchantable material to bring it under the cutting 

 regulations. To decide this point it is often difficult for the 

 marker, even though with wide experience, to escape complica- 

 tions with the fallers and also with the purchaser. In the case of 

 mistletoe-infected trees, with little or no decay, no such difficulty 

 may exist due to the fact that the amount of damage by the para- 

 site in most cases can be instantly determined by the hypertrophy 

 of branch or trunk. A knowledge of the average or maximum 

 size of the species of tree for the region when growing under normal 

 conditions, together with the fact that mistletoe injury may be 

 safely judged from external appearance, eliminates the danger of 

 leaving undesirable trees of the specified diameter classes on the 

 area. In some regions of heavy mistletoe infection, those species 

 most seriously injured which do not quite attain the regula- 

 tion tnmk diameter designated in the contract, or if they do fall 

 under the diameter class, are so badly bm-led and broken as to be 

 wholly cidled, present a most grotesque and unsightly appearance 

 when left standing on the sales area. This not only may repre- 

 sent a present financial loss, but throwing such trees into the open 

 usually invigorates the parasites to greater activity and the young 

 growth soon to appear is open to widespread infection. The 

 standard of health for the forest in mistletoe-infected regions can 

 never be raised so long as this is practised. A far better plan 

 would be to mark every mistletoe-infected tree above a given 

 diameter and to have these trees cut whether or not they contain 

 merchantable material. The resultant litter, it is true, may be 

 sometimes great, but if the extra cost of lopping and piling the 

 brush is prohibitive, then a clean burn, which will often be neces- 

 sary when the reproduction is infected, will rid the forest of this 

 trash. The mistletoe, however, wiU be killed with the cutting 

 of the tree. Frequently it may be quite impossible to impose 

 such restriction on the purchaser because of the large amount of 

 cull material. On the other hand, there may be so few mistletoe- 



