378 Forty-sixth Report on the State Museum 



It would seem, therefore, that the unhealthful and diseased condition 

 of the evergreens is owing to some unfavorable soil condition or atmos- 

 pheric influence, akin to, or possibly identical with, those that are 

 affecting fruit trees (to an unusual extent this year), where the blossoms 

 or leaves blight or die aud are cast from the tree, and the fruit, if any, 

 also falls. While many of the diseases infesting our trees are clearly 

 traceable to fungus attack or bacterial presence, for others no satisfac- 

 tory reason can be assigned. Among these is one which has lately 

 been brought to my notice, as causing the death of the white pines 

 on Beede mountain, near Keene valley, in the Adirondacks. A local 

 name for the disease is " ring-rot," but why it should have been so called 

 is not obvious. From account received from Forest Warden Parker, 

 through Secretary Train of the Fore.-t Commission, the attack is first 

 to be seen in discoloration of the inner bark, arrest of circulation 

 beneath it, and consequent death of the wood adjacent. It may occur 

 on any portion of the trunk or limbs. The wood thus killed becomes 

 brittle, valueless for working, and all that can be done is to fell the 

 tree and convert it into lumber upon the first indication of the disease,, 

 and before it has spread. 



It Is not at all improbable that the affection of the evergreens in- 

 Southern New York, above noticed, is due to soil conditions. The 

 Austrian and Californian pines might naturally be expected to respond 

 more quickly to any unfavorable surroundings than would our native 

 species. While the cause of this difliculty is for the present unknown, 

 it would be well to make the experiment of applying fertilizers to the 

 trees, in the hope that some exhausted or lacking material might be 

 restored or given to the soil, or growth and vitality so stimulated that 

 the disease or the attack, whatever it may be, may the better be resisted 

 and overcome. 



The State Botanist suggests that a liberal aj^plication of hard-wood 

 ashes, would, under the apparent conditions, give promise of the best 

 results. — Cuuntry Gentleman, for October 16, 1890. 



Note. — Mr. William F. Fox, Superintendent of State Forests, has informed me of another 

 form of " ring-rot " in the white pine long known to him, in which a decay within the trunk 

 occurs, usually midway between the sapwood and center, and encircling the heart as a cylinder 

 of decayed material extending from the base upward for fifteen feet or more. 



