150 . 



PKOFESSOE KANE: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the 

 Convention: In so far as Massachusetts is concerned, we have 

 this chestnut bark disease and we have also gone at it in what 

 seems to us a practical way. I simply wish to give you an idea 

 of how we are tackling the problem. In the first place, the. dis- 

 ease was found scattered here and there. I made arrangements 

 with Dr. Metcalf, because I considered he was the man of the 

 hour to give us instructions and ideas, to go forward and carry 

 out this work. Dr. Metealf came on to Boston and we went over 

 the whole proposition, and finally arranged to have a man come 

 on last spring and go over the whole State. He spent the 

 months of June, July, and August, visiting on a motorcycle all 

 the forest sections of the State, to study the problem, and we 

 found that the disease was far more prevalent than even Dr. 

 Metealf realized. Now when the report came out from Dr. Met- 

 ealf s assistant, the first idea he conveyed to us was that the 

 State of Massachusetts should call upon its Legislature for a 

 large sum of money. Most of you know undoubtedly that we 

 have been tackling the gypsy and brow^ntail moth problems, and 

 that these depredations, which have been pretty much confined 

 to Massachusetts, and more recently New Hampshire and 

 Maine have incurred much expense. Now w T e have been tackling 

 problems more or less of this sort and, as State Forester, I cer- 

 tainly did not wish to make the mistake of plunging into this 

 chestnut disease problem before I was sufficiently familiar with 

 it. We have a pretty thorough organization in Massachusetts 

 from the forestry management standpoint, and of the papers and 

 discussions that have come up here, the one that pleased me per- 

 haps most was the talk that was given by Professor Baker of the 

 State College. Gentlemen, it seems to me that in spite of the 

 question of our needs for plant mycologists and specialists, that 

 the necessary thing is to get further at the root of the trouble, and 

 that is to introduce a better organization in this present develop- 

 ment of our forest states and nation, a more definite forestry 

 management from a fundamental standpoint. The whole prob- 

 lem, it strikes me, of insect and fungus depredations, is one of 

 looking at it and studying it from the broader viewpoint, namely 

 that of the system of forestry management. We have had the 

 gypsy and browntail moth work in Massachusetts, more or less 



