18 P.D. 123 



to some given boundary, possibly another road. As a crew progresses, one end 

 man in the line drops small pieces of paper as he walks along, thus demarking 

 the boundary of the area the crew examines. When the other boundary is 

 reached the crew reverses itself and the paper trail that was dropped, now 

 guides the crew on its return trip across the area. 



A summary of the records regarding the control of the rust in Massachu- 

 setts shows that from 1922-1934 inclusive, measures to prevent further damage 

 by this disease had been carried out on approximately 1,117,500 acres of land. 

 On this vast acreage more than ten and one-half million wild Ribes were 

 growing. The plants were uprooted. The removal of such a large number of 

 host plants has had the effect of establishing what may be termed temporary 

 control of the disease. During the progress of this so-called initial control 

 work, however, it was clearly demonstrated that control areas become re- 

 stocked, with Ribes. It became more and more evident that it is humanly im- 

 possible in one working of an area to eradicate all the Ribes. Some of the 

 small seedling bushes are overlooked. Seeds in the soil produce new plants 

 and sprouts may develop from improperly removed plants. After several years 

 of favorable growth conditions, these persisting bushes become a menace to 

 the pines and should be destroyed. Therefore, initially protected areas need 

 to be periodically re-examined. 



It is with this problem of the imperative re-examination of control areas in 

 Massachusetts that the division was particularly concerned during the 1935 

 field season. The State appropi-iation allotted to the division for this work was 

 not restored by the 1935 legislature to an amount adequate to the present needs 

 for the maintenance of the control of the disease. 



During May and June the work was carried on with the balance in Federal 

 funds remaining in the allotment from the appropriation of the National In- 

 dustrial Recovery Administration for Public Works (PWA). Forty-four men 

 were employed. 



Late in July the situation with regard to available funds was relieved thru 

 a special grant of funds by the Federal Works Progress Administration 

 (WPA) to the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture for use in the employment of relief labor 

 to combat the blister rust disease in the pine-growing regions in 28 States in 

 the country. In accordance with the cooperative agreement between the 

 United States Department of Agi'iculture and this division, an allotment from 

 these emergency relief funds was made for work in Massachusetts, in collab- 

 oration with this division. 



Funds for this activity were released on July 22 and field work in Massa- 

 chusetts was started eight days later on July 30. During the field season, em- 

 ployment was given to approximately 257 men and very satisfactory control 

 results were accomplished, in spite of the fact that most of the men available 

 from relief rolls had never been engaged in this type of work heretofore. 

 Costs, however, were considerably higher than heretofore. 



The special field work that has been in progress since 1927 incident to the 

 elimination of all European black current bushes in Massachusetts was con- 

 tinued during 1935. The drastic action banning the European Black Currant 

 was deemed necessary, because investigations had conclusively demonstrated 

 that this species of Ribes is most susceptible to the rust, and the continued 

 presence of such plants constituted the most dangerous factor involved in the 

 spread of the disease. This special work was completed in fourteen more cities 

 and towns during 1935. During the year 2,924 black currant plants were 

 found and destroyed. This work on the mainland of Massachusetts has now 

 been completed except in the city of Worcester. 



The division, in collaboration with the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture also cooperated with the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) au- 

 thorities in the conduct of control work on State lands owned by the Massa- 

 chusetts Department of Conservation and the Metropolitan District Commis- 

 sion. This work was carried on by the use of the personnel of the Civilian 

 Conservation Corps. 



The combined State, local and Federal funds (including emergency relief 



