Protection from White Pine Blister Rust 



There does not seem to be any reason why the man 

 who wants to plant white pine should abandon his 

 project on account of the white pine blister rust. 

 This is especially true of prairie plantings and other 

 farm plantings where there is little wild land. The 

 disease has been proven to be serious enough under 

 certain conditions, but fairly simple prevention meas- 

 ures have been found and those measures are most 

 easily applied under the conditions cited above. 



It has been proven conclusively that the presence 

 of currant or gooseberry bushes within a comparative- 

 ly short distance of the pine trees is absolutely neces- 

 sary to the spread of the disease. Trees which are 

 not less than 600 feet from such bushes are considered 

 safe. It is a very easy matter to remove all bushes 

 of those kinds for this distance around a plantation 

 or grove where the surrounding land is prairie or 

 under cultivation. 



It becomes difficult only where the wild currants 

 and gooseberries are very abundant as in some of our 

 woodlands. Even there it is not at all an impossible 

 thing to do. It requires only a little care and per- 

 severance in cutting out the bushes in and 600 feet 

 around the pine to be protected. It requires care 

 because they must be cut off below r the surface and 

 none of them missed. It requires perseverance be- 

 cause they are likely to sprout if any of the crown 

 is left or the root ends are exposed. Moreover seeds 

 may germinate and seedlings, which were too small 

 to see when the work was first done, may develop. 



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