200 



foreign trip some years ago and then came back in disguise and 

 is now setting up business at the old stand? The thing is with 

 us, is before us, and ^^e want to deal witli tiie concrete present. 

 The other is interesting historically, but let that be as it may. 

 The thing to do is to deal with the problems tliat are witli us; 

 and when we have dealt with them to the best of our knowledge 

 and then failed, we have used our wliole effort and I think we 

 have discharged our duty to the public. (Applause). 



PROFESSOR SURFACE: Mr. Chairman: I should like to 

 direct our thoughts to a subject which I think has, in part, es- 

 caped our attention in discussing the excellent paper of Dr. 

 Hopkins. He has brought our attention to the fact that there 

 are four hundred and seventy-two species of insects known to 

 attack the chesnut tree, and a great number of these are borers. 

 He has brought our attention to the fact that those borers make 

 two holes in the tree, one as the young larva forces its way in and 

 one as it comes out as a mature beetle. It has been shown that 

 the fungus germ or spore enters where the bark is injured or punc- 

 tured. Thus we see that each insect boring in the tree makes two 

 places of injury where the spore germs can enter, and thus it 

 makes a possibility of damage at two places, although as a rule 

 they are not far apart. Now let us remember that the natural 

 and chief enemies by all means of these borers are the wood- 

 peckers, and the natural enemies of these four hundred and 

 seventy-two species of insects are tlie birds of the forest. It 

 has been said tliat the woodpeckers carry the disease germs;" 

 but let us not infer for a minute that the woodpecker should 

 be exterminated for so doing, for, Avere all the woodpeckers 

 utterly destroyed, there would practically be just as much dis- 

 semination of these disease germs as if the woodpeckers were 

 all present. These germs are carried readily by the wind. In 

 the same way the robin, for example, has been accused of spread- 

 ing the San Jose scale. If all the robins were destroyed the San 

 Jose scale would be carried just as much as if the robins were 

 present. The fact that in passing from one injured place to 

 another there may be some germs on the bill of the woodpecker 

 does not argue against that beneficial bird of our forest. I 

 wish to 2:0 on record as saying that one of the most efficient 



