lOG 



there, and tlie anion iit of infection, Not 011I3' that, l)nt thcj' can 

 find out if tliere is old infection there. In tliat wa}^ we can find 

 out whether there lias been infection in America for a number 

 of years, as has been suggested by some, and possibly get those 

 states interested, if the infection ajDpears to l>e spreading. In 

 some places that I have seen lately there was evidence of the dis- 

 ease working on trees tliat Avere partly dead, but Ave should find 

 out more about that while the Avork is going on. 



DE. J. AV. HAHSilBEKGEII, University of Penna. : Mr. 

 Chairman : Professor SteAvart, in his communication this af- 

 teriioon, discouraged the Avork Avhich is being done by the Penn- 

 sylvania Chestnut P>light Commission in the removal of trees 

 along the outposts of the disease. I Avould like to present my 

 view of the problem, because I think it is largely a question of 

 the attitude of the State of Pennsylvania toward these larger 

 questions of conservation Avhich have agitated the country for 

 the past few years. 



Pennsylvania is the Keystone State. She is so situated Avith 

 regard to the other states of the Atlantic Seaboard that she oc- 

 cupies a central position, halfAvay betAveen the North and the 

 South. It would be to the lasting shame of Pennsylvania if she 

 Avould let the opportunity pass of taking some means of attempt- 

 ing to check the disease. The states to the south and Avest of 

 us, Ohio and West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee and North 

 Carolina, Avhich are very largely concerned in this movement, 

 Avould point to Pennsylvania as having let the opportunity slip 

 of doing something to clieck the ravages of t^his disease. Two 

 hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars seems a large sum 

 of money to appropriate for the prevention of the destruction 

 of property ; that is, it seems a large sum to iise in the combating 

 of a single disease. Yet Pennsyh^ania is a wealthy State, and, 

 if we take the many millions of dollars which are at stake, the 

 amount of money Avhich the State has appropriated is merely 

 a drop in tlie bucket, and it seems to me that tlie money is AA^ell 

 s]>ent, because Ave an; standing, as a l)uffer State, l)etween tlie on- 

 spread of this disease from the locality AAdiere it started, and the 

 States beyond. In the future, Avhen we look back on the history 

 of the conserA'ation movement in the United States, this move- 



