456 



Yearboo\ of Agriculture 1949 



of land ownership. Like other trees, the 

 white pines require years of growth to 

 produce a crop of timber. Many young 

 stands cannot be harvested within the 

 lifetime of the present owners. Under 

 such conditions, only the support of all 

 citizens can effect the coordination and 

 cooperation required to control the 

 disease. 



Areas selected for blister rust pro- 

 tection total about 28 million acres. 

 This control area is made up of the 

 better white pine growing sites which 

 were selected to supply our present 

 white pine lumber requirements. How- 

 ever, the range of the white pines 

 extends over large areas outside the se- 

 lected control acreage. Some of this 

 land is good white pine site, and when- 

 ever more favorable economic condi- 

 tions justify such action, it can be 

 brought into production by ribes eradi- 

 cation and by pine planting to sup- 

 plement natural reproduction from 

 surviving seed trees. 



Practical control of blister rust was 

 begun by the Department of Agricul- 

 ture as a Federal-aid program in co- 

 operation with the Northeastern States. 

 As the disease spread, other States and 

 the Federal land-managing agencies of 

 the Department of Agriculture and the 

 Department of the Interior joined in 

 the control program. Responsibility for 

 general leadership, coordination, and 

 technical direction of the program is 

 assigned to the Bureau of Entomology 

 and Plant Quarantine. This avoids 

 duplication of effort and provides a 

 single basis for the coordination of field 

 work in white pine areas. In this 

 capacity the Bureau performs the over- 

 all activities that have a common ap- 

 plication to the work of all cooperating 

 agencies, such as the development of 

 control methods for cheaper and better 

 ways of destroying ribes. The results 

 benefit all cooperating agencies and are 

 made available for their use. 



The Bureau is jointly responsible 

 with landowners for control of the dis- 

 ease on white pine areas in State and 

 private ownership. Besides the 32 

 States participating in control work, 



many counties, townships, lumber com- 

 panies, timber-protective associations, 

 and individuals cooperate in the work. 

 Control operations on State and pri- 

 vate lands are financed jointly with 

 Federal and State funds, supplemented 

 by county, township, and local con- 

 tributions and services. Control work 

 on federally owned lands is financed by 

 Federal appropriations. 



The Forest Service is responsible for 

 control operations on national forest 

 lands. In the Department of the Inte- 

 rior, the National Park Service is re- 

 sponsible for work on national parks, 

 the Office of Indian Affairs for work 

 on Indian reservations, and the Bureau 

 of Land Management for the revested 

 Oregon and California railroad grant 

 lands. This cooperation develops a mu- 

 tual interest, understanding, and pur- 

 pose that has resulted in effective 

 operation of the control program. The 

 Division of Forest Pathology in the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and 

 Agricultural Engineering had charge 

 of the research and field work during 

 the early years of the control program 

 and now performs the research on the 

 fungus. 



RIBES ARE REMOVED from the control 

 areas by hand, mechanical, and chem- 

 ical methods. 



Crews of one to five men systemati- 

 cally search selected white pine areas 

 and uproot the ribes by hand or with 

 picks. The method is in general use. 



For use in places where hand meth- 

 ods are not practicable, the bulldozer 

 is adapted for clearing concentrations 

 of ribes from brushy bottom lands. 

 Equipped with a brush-rake blade, it 

 uproots the brush and ribes and pushes 

 them into windrows for burning. The 

 cleared area is seeded to forage crops 

 and made into permanent meadows. 

 Bulldozers with a winch rear-mounted 

 to drag a five-toothed grapple can up- 

 root large clumps of upland ribes. 



In the western white pine forests of 

 northern Idaho, sprays of sodium chlo- 

 rate in water were used against the 

 western black currant (Ribes petio- 



