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against what possibly might be done at this meeting, and was 

 accompanied by such a letter as I rather expected would never be 

 written. 



The first statement is : "It is impossible to locate all advance 

 infections, these not being apparent even under close inspection." 



I deny the assertion. Advance infections can readily be found 

 if the man looking for them knows his business. In time every 

 tree will develop to such a stage in its infection that it may 

 readily be detected. There is no hidden mystery about this 

 disease. All you have to do is to know it and find it. It takes 

 probably repeated searching, but when you go out for a thing 

 you search until you get it. You do not look for it in a des- 

 ultory way and then say "It is impossible to find all advance 

 infections." 



"It is practically impossible to cut and burn all infected trees 

 after their discovery." 



Who for a minute will believe thai i( is impossible to burn a 

 tree if you cut it down? 



"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." 



If we cannot eradicate, we may check. We may do something 

 that will be beneficial, and if it is impossible to do as stated in 

 paragraph 3, then let us do the next best thing. Let us not 

 quit because some one thinks that it probably is impossible, but 

 let us go ahead and do the best we can. I question the pro- 

 priety of anyone engaged in work of this kind and in relation to 

 this disease being ready to give up after the first effort. 



"Even if it were impossible to cut and burn all affected trees, 

 for ten to 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." 



I would like to know whether that observation is based upon 

 facts, or whether it is a mere guess, an assumption. An incident 

 was cited to you this morning where a number of infected trees 

 were cut out of a grove near Philadelphia. The bark was care- 

 fully taken from the stumps, burned, every infected portion of 

 tree that could be found was destroyed, and the sprouts from 



