Part I.] STATE NURSERY INSPECTOR. 77 



it also attacked quite large ones. In Finland Hisinger found 

 thirty-year-old trees diseased and finally killed. Klebahn 

 reports that large trees are usually attacked only on the 

 branches. Kohler (1909) found the larger part of the white 

 pines in the Altenburg Park dying from this disease. Somer- 

 ville, writing of the disease in England, says: 



The disease is so much on the increase that it is not too much to say 

 that the outlook in this country for the Weymouth (English name for 

 the American white pine) and other five-leaved American pines is almost 

 hopeless. . . . But it is to be feared that the day is not far distant when 

 it will gain a footing in North America, and if it spreads there as it has 

 done in Europe, the loss that will result through the destruction of one 

 of America's most valuable lumber trees can only be described as ap- 

 palling. 



Ritzema Bos states that the fungus is so prevalent in Hol- 

 land that the culture of white pine is impossible. Ravn has 

 stated that the white pine would be very successful in Denmark 

 were it not for the attacks of this fungus. The blister rust, 

 however, has resulted in the virtual abandonment of the use 

 of this tree in that country. 



The above statements (taken from a United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture bulletin on the blister rust) indicate that 

 the disease is regarded as a serious one in Europe. Further 

 quotations show that it is most serious on the smaller trees, 

 the loss reaching 100 per cent in some cases. 



Whether the bliste'r rust will be as serious in this country 

 as it is in Europe is the next question. Here, to a certain ex- 

 tent, conclusive evidence is lacking, as the disease has not been 

 here long enough to have had full opportunity to show what 

 it can do. Still, in two or three places it has probably been 

 present for twelve years or so, and some indications as to its 

 effects, though not complete, are significant. As regards old 

 trees the following statements may be of interest. 



Dr. Perley Spaulding of the United States Bureau of Plant 

 Industry has probably had more experience with the blister 

 rust than any one else in this country, having studied it ever 

 since it was first discovered here in 1909, and having visited 

 practically all the areas of serious infection many times to 



