METCALF: WHITE PINE BLISTER RUST 331 



not so flexible but that a single unconvinced or cantankerous indi- 

 vidual can nullify the work of an entire community. 



2. The laws governing plant eradication are administered in 

 different states by various ofificers, but in the majority of states by the 

 state nursery inspector, who is nearly always an entomologist. Some 

 of these entomologists are thoroughly trained in plant diseases and 

 fully appreciate their significance. Others have little knowledge of 

 them and less interest. All of these olftcers are overworked already. 

 In spite of the activities of plant pathologists, there is profound popular 

 ignorance as to the nature and significance of plant diseases and 

 especially of the dangerous qualities of newly imported diseases. The 

 general public is far better informed regarding "bugs" than regarding 

 fungi and as a matter of fact the average man considers that plant 

 diseases are caused by "bugs." 



3. In the case of the blister rust, there is no single interest or 

 centralized affiliation of interests whose securities are menaced by the 

 disease. The white pine industry is diffused over a wide territory 

 and in the hands of many separate individuals and organizations. 

 What is everybody's business is likely to be nobody's business. If 

 the white pine industry, like the redwood industry, for example, or 

 like the citrus industry, were in the hands of a few people or consti- 

 tuted the dominant business in certain areas, the control of the disease 

 would be much simpler. 



4. Up to the present time there has been no adequate quarantine 

 against the disease, either state or national. This difficulty, however, 

 will shortly cease to exist as many states have recently declared 

 quarantines and on June i, possibly earlier, an adequate national 

 quarantine will go into effect. 



5. Finally, we have a very serious consideration which is applicable 

 to all undertakings at the present time. The nation is at war. The 

 young men who would ordinarily be employed in an eradication 

 campaign will soon be drawn away into military work or into the 

 various lines of industry which bear directly upon the conduct of the 

 war. The majority of the persons employed in this particular eradica- 

 tion campaign can only be employed from the middle of April to the 

 first of November. Necessarily, men will be loath to accept such 

 temporary employment when they can in other lines secure permanent 

 employment at an equally high or higher wage. In any case, the 

 work if successfully prosecuted or indeed if prosecuted at all will 

 involve much larger expenditures for wages than in normal times. 



What then is the outlook for the control of the white pine blister 

 rust? It may be expected that the future course of the disease will 

 be much like that of the gypsy and brown tail moths; that is, the dis- 



