6 SEVENTEENTH Report STATE ENTOMOLOGIST OF MINNESOTA—1918 
but our inspectors proved efficient and the condemned plants were 
destroyed. With the added work of barberry eradication and the extra 
vigilance necessary to keep injurious insects and diseases out of the 
state, an increase in the funds for nursery inspection must be made. 
WHITE PINE BLISTER Rust 
During the season just past, we have co-operated very closely with 
the United States Department of Agriculture on the control of white 
pine blister rust. The federal authorities spent practically $20,000 in 
the state this last year, while the state spent $7,500. 
Three phases of the work were emphasized in Minnesota (1) 
scouting, (2) eradication, (3) nurseries and leads. To better the work 
in Minnesota, Dr. E. M. Freeman, chief of the division of plant pathol- 
ogy and botany of the Experiment Station, personally guided the work 
of scouting. Professor Cheyney, the forester of the Experiment Sta- 
tion, took personal charge of eradication and the writer the leads and 
nurseries. This arrangement, altho somewhat cumbersome in details 
of office work, worked out very nicely under the co-operative plan. 
The work is now so well in hand that next year, if the work continues, 
the State Entomologist will take immediate charge of the three phases 
of the project. 
Like the black stem rust of wheat, the white pine blister rust has 
two hosts, each necessary before the disease can complete its life cycle— 
the common gooseberries and currants and white pines. If there were 
no currants and gooseberries, there would be no fear of the white pine 
being infested with blister rust. In the scouting work, therefore, the 
disease is looked for both on pine trees and currant and gooseberry 
bushes. The thirty places, for the most part in the Saint Croix Valley, 
reported last year as being infected, were scouted thoroly again this 
year as well as the entire country surrounding this area. In six of these 
places the disease was again found, but on only two areas had the dis- 
case spread beyond the area of infection of last year. The entire 
area around the infections for the width of two counties was scouted, 
and no disease was found. In the badly infested areas, the infested 
pines and gooseberries within a radius of one third of a mile were 
destroyed. 
A total of 994 white pine plantings were inspected this year. In 
addition to this 353 leads were followed where no white pines were 
found. Approximately 110,000 white pines were inspected during the 
season, and 1,617 were destroyed to prevent possible infection. Five 
