164 



MR. >VILLIAMS: I happened to be in charge of that Main 

 Line investigation, and probably know something about it. We 

 found there all conditions of forest growth. We found that ma- 

 ture forest giants, running up in diameter anywhere from five 

 to seven feet, and we found the tiny sprout coming out of the 

 stump. We found the infection attacking trees of all sizes. It 

 seemed not to prefer any particular age or size of tree. I have 

 in mind to-day a splendid old tree belonging to a gentleman 

 living near Philadelphia, that was worked on by a tree doctor. 

 He punched it full of holes with his climbing spurs, and in a 

 few months afterwards that tree was infected from top to bottom 

 in those punctures. That was a tree, the owner told me for which 

 he would not take a thousand dollars if it were possible to save 

 it. In Avorking on a tract to the north of Philadelphia, near 

 Jenkintown, we found large timber prevailing in the area. There 

 were some three hundred and forty trees in the tract. The trees 

 probably averaged over a foot in diameter. We found that in 

 the top of the largest trees there was occasionally a single dead 

 branch, and that always, of course, excited attention; but the 

 minute investigation that A\'as made of the tree was at the ground 

 line, about the trunk; and almost invariabl3% in those big trees, 

 when we found any suggestion of infection in the top, we found 

 pustules nearly at the ground line, and it made no difference 

 what the size of the tree was. We likewise found sprouts no 

 thicker than a straw badly infected, and from that size up to 

 the giant forest tree. Frequently we found pustules at the base 

 of large trees, but were unable to find anything in the crown 

 of the tree. With the strongest spyglasses which we carried 

 with us, Ave could pick out nothing; but getting down on our 

 knees and going around the l»ase Avitli a hand magnifier, almost 

 invariably, where the disease was in the neighborhood, we would 

 find a pustule or tAvo on the base of the tree, and of course that 

 classed it as infected. I take it that this disease shows no prefer- 

 ence in trees, and, while it is probably true that it will attack 

 somewhat more readily the young, sappy sprout growth and kill 

 it much more quickly, it is equally certain to do its work with 

 the older trees. 



THE CHAIRMAN: Does that answer the question, Mr. 

 Fisher? 



