Part I.] STATE NURSERY INSPECTOR. 81 



chusetts. A co-operative agreement with the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry in charge of the government work was made, by 

 which the salaries of most of the men employed by the State 

 were paid by the United States, while their expenses were paid 

 by the State. In addition the Bureau furnished three scouts, 

 entirely at its own expense, to cover the State as far as possible 

 and ascertain the conditions existing. 



Early work, therefore, was divided between scouting and 

 elimination work. Later, when the disease began to make its 

 appearance on the currants, it became evident that the rust was 

 far more widely distributed than any one had supposed. The 

 problematical area in southeastern Massachusetts proved to be 

 generally infected by the disease, and everywhere its location 

 by the scouts was a slow process, so much ground had to be 

 covered. 



It finally appeared that if the distribution of the blister rust 

 in the State was to be determined, all exterminative work 

 must cease for a time, and the entire force be turned to scout- 

 ing. Accordingly this was done, and every town in the State 

 was inspected for the disease. 



It is manifestly impossible in such work as this to examine 

 every pine, currant and gooseberry to be found. It was there- 

 fore decided, perhaps somewhat arbitrarily, that infections 

 less than 5 miles apart should be regarded as signifying con- 

 tinuous infection, and currants and pines were examined at 

 about half-mile intervals along all the main roads in the towns, 

 and in cases where fuller knowledge of conditions seemed de- 

 sirable the byroads and woods were also examined to some 

 extent. Plantations where the disease had been found and 

 those where the conditions were unknown were also gone over, 

 and their surroundings for a long distance in every direction 

 were scouted. 



While this work was not intended as exterminative in its 

 nature, the scouts in every case where the disease was found 

 reported it to the owner of the property, requesting him to 

 destroy the plants infected, and in many cases did this them- 

 selves by his permission. In the statements which follow, 

 therefore, the places infected represent the conditions as found 

 rather than those existing when the scouts left the town. 



