194 



cutting-out experiments can be made, and the end will give re- 

 sults of great value, on account of the difference in local condit- 

 ions. 



DE. MUKBILL, of New York: Mr. Chairman: I wish to 

 speak just for a moment in reply to the preceding paper, and 

 I wish to speak very briefly and plainly, as to why the chestnut 

 canker cannot be controlled by cutting-out method proposed: 



1. It is impossible to locate all advance infections, these not 

 being apparent even under close inspections. 



2. It is practically impossible to cut and burn all infected trees 

 after their discovery. 



3. Even if these trees are cut, it is impossible to discover and 

 eradicate the numerous infections originating from millions of 

 spores produced on these trees and distributed by birds, insects, 

 squirrels, wind, and rain. 



4. Even if it were possible to cut and burn all affected trees, 

 for ten or twenty years afterwards numbers of sprouts would 

 grow up from the roots of these trees and continue to die from 

 the disease and to spread the infection. 



5. Supposing that it might be possible to eradicate all ad- 

 vance infections, what method is proposed that is at all feasible 

 for combating the disease in its main line of advance? All of 

 the foresters connected with the United States Government and 

 the entire Army of the United States would be utterly powerless 

 to oppose its progress. 



6. Although the chestnut canker has been known and experi- 

 mented with since 1905, there is not a single instance where an 

 individual tree or a grove of trees affected by the disease has 

 been saved. If it is impossible to combat the canker under the 

 most favorable circumstances, how would it be possible to suc- 

 ceed with an extensive forest? The published account of the 

 extermination of the chestnut canker in the vicinity of Wash- 

 ington, D. C., upon which experiment the requests for state 

 appropriations are said to be founded, cannot be relied upon. 

 The trees most conspicuously affected there have been cut and 

 burned, so that the presence of the disease is not readily appar- 

 ent, but with each season additional trees will be affected and 



