135 



transportation of barked and unbarked products of diseased 

 trees, two points which have a direct bearing on cost and 

 efficiency of control. 



The woodpecker and other birds have been blamed for spread- 

 ing the blight, when in my opinion it is more apt to be the fault 

 of insects. Further investigations may prove this to be as much 

 a problem for the entomologist as for the pathologist. We feel 

 a sentimental interest in the birds. Nevertheless, this does not 

 free us from alsg investigating them to find out scientifically 

 their exact relation to the spread of this disease. In other w^ords, 

 we must investigate everything, whether we believe one thing 

 or another. At the present time three field agents have been de- 

 tailed to make special studies of field conditions for the purpose 

 of securing further facts relative to several of these problems. 

 Many lines of co-operative investigation and experiment are in 

 progress and others are planned. Detailed knowledge of the 

 agents causing infection and the time of year when infection 

 occurs, which will be obtained as the work progresses, will un- 

 doubtedly assist in making control more effective and in cheapen- 

 ing the cost of the work of eradication, by pointing out the 

 simplest methods required to give satisfactory results. In the 

 n lean time, however, it is our belief that sanitation is practical 

 jii id should give good results in checking the spread of this dis- 

 ease as it has done in the case of other diseases. Quarantine 

 measures proved successful in checking outbreaks of yellow 

 fever after the mosquito was convicted. It is more than prob- 

 able that by destroying the diseased bark of infected trees in the 

 eastern half of the State, we shall also destroy the agency 

 which spreads the disease. 



In my opinion, the big problem which confronts us and wliiHi 

 more than any other will determine the success or failure of 

 our undertaking is the question of profitable utilization. A 

 Satisfactory market for the various classes of chestnut wood 

 which must be disposed of as a result of the cutting-out method 

 of control, appears to me to be vital to the ultimate success of 

 the plan. The active co-operation of chestnut owners cannot 

 be willingly secured if they must do the cutting at a loss. We 

 luivc found that owners who were reluctant to cut have been 



