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llic sin'cad of (his disease? Is i( worlli wliilc <l(»iiig soV Wliut 

 are the besi, iiiediods (<> use While no one, perhaps, will ven- 

 ini'C lo i)ropliesy the ontcome, all donl)tless agree that (he j;;reat 

 iiderests at stake jnstily an agi^ressive tight; and all alike are 

 anxious to see the warfare waged in the most effective v,ay. 

 Other contests against fungous foes have been won in spite of 

 apparently insuperable obstacles, and we now look back from 

 the vantage ground of knowledge gained through the contests, 

 and wonder that the tasks should have seemed hard. Each year 

 witnesses the conquest of more than one important pest, just as 

 each year is apt to bring into the limelight some hitherto unob- 

 trusive pest. Mention might be made of scores of animal and 

 plant pests that, in the wide interchanges incident to modern 

 civilization, have been brought into contact with new host species, 

 or with iiew^ environmental conditions, and have forthwith en- 

 (ered upon a period of riotous devastation. At the present time, 

 federal and state resources are being drawn upon, and concerted 

 state action is being had, in the tights against the gypsy and 

 brown-tail moths in New England, and against the cotton boll 

 •weevil in the southwestern portion of the cotton belt. I cannot 

 refrain from recalling to mind the eradication of the cattle tick 

 in certain districts within its range, and the stamping out of yel- 

 low fever in territory undtr United State jurisdiction, as notable 

 examples of success that hafe in recent times come from complete 

 knowledge of the situations, cambined with efficient administra- 

 lion. As a citizen of Pennsylvania, I take pride in pointing to 

 the successful suppression of the fcot and mouth disease of cattle, 

 during 1908, by the State Livestock Sanitary Board in co-opera- 

 tion with the Federal lUireau of Animal Industry. These w^ere 

 campaigns of quarantine and sanitation. 



These examples of very diverse nature do not prove anything in 

 r(\gard to the chestnut bark disease; but they do serve to em- 

 phasize the fact that persistent effort in the right direction may 

 win in the face of great odds. 



To the specialist in plant diseases, a most interesting question 

 is, why is it that this disease has made such headw^ay in this conn- 

 try in so short a time. Is it that there are factors involved, aside 

 from administrative difficulties, that are not found in the many 



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