P.D. 123. 31 



to be found in corn. Experiments have proved that most of the borers 

 in infested corn stubble are unable to survive if the stubble is buried in the 

 fall to a depth of six inches. Therefore, if this law is complied with, it 

 should aid materially both in checking the spread and reducing the number of 

 borers. 



A thorough educational campaign has been carried on this fall under the 

 direction of Mr. Q. S. Lowry, assistant director in this division. He endeavored 

 to bring this law to the attention of each corn grower. Cooperation was 

 secured thru the offices of the Farm Bureaus and County Agents and notices 

 were posted in conspicuous places in the infested towns. In addition a corps 

 of inspectors canvassed a greater part of the area and received hearty 

 cooperation. Some of our farmers have become accustomed to sow down 

 the field where corn had been planted, after the last cultivation. This practice 

 will necessarily have to be discontinued. 



The late spring and native parasites were instrumental in reducing the 

 corn borer infestations, which were not over 60% as numerous as a year 

 ago. A large number of parasites brought to the country from Europe have 

 been liberated, but it wull be some time before their usefulness can be 

 determined. 



The scouting this fall showed that the borer had not spread farther west 

 and that the only additional to^vns to be quarantined are on the Islands of 

 Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. 



White Pine Blister Rust. 



When the white pine blister rust was first found in Massachusetts, the 

 responsibility for the prevention of the further spread of the disease was 

 assigned to this department and the work has been conducted by this division 

 in close cooperation with the Office of Blister Rust Control, of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. In 1922, the Extension Service of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College was added as a cooperating organization. 



At the present time, the plan of work takes the form of a campaign of 

 education and demonstration organized for the purpose of furnishing to all 

 interested parties thru personal contact, the essential facts relative to this 

 disease and the simple means by which its further spread can be checked; 

 that is, by the general elimination of currant and gooseberry bushes (Ribes) 

 from pine-producing lands. In accordance with this plan, the Federal depart- 

 ment has assigned agents to six districts in the state; namely, Essex, Plymouth, 

 Worcester (South), Worcester (North), Franklin, and Hampden. The State 

 department in carrying out its obligation under the plan guarantees to aid land 

 owners by providing men to supervise the actual practice of control work; that 

 is to say, to assist in locating areas in which currant and gooseberry bushes 

 are growing and thus menacing nearby white-pine stands. In this manner, 

 the State and Federal departments are attempting to fulfill an obligation 

 to the community as a whole, while the responsibility for and the actual cost 

 of control work is borne by the individual owner whose interests are prin- 

 cipally at stake. 



The procedure followed is to select a group of towns in every district, each 

 year, and to concentrate effort in these towns so that the Avork can be handled 

 systematically. It is expected that by completing work in a series of five to 

 eight towns in each district each year, the entire pine-growing sections of the 

 state will have been canvassed and the pines properly protected in the 

 shortest possible time. 



From the observations of the last two years it may be said that blister rust 

 is quite generally distributed thruout the state, at least as local or spot 

 infections. During the year 1923, the stage of the disease developing on the 

 white pines was found in 20 additional towns, making a total of 144 towns 

 to November 30, 1923. Infection seems to be most general in Essex, Northern 

 Plymouth, Western Hampden, Southern Berkshire, and Northern Worcester 

 Counties. In the other sections it is distinctly spot or local, as far as can 

 be determined from present records. 



