10 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A total of 930,348 acres were cleared of 12,927,494 

 currant and gooseberry bushes in the New England 

 States and New York from 191 7 to 1920, inclusive. In 

 1920, 267,076 acres were brought under control in these 

 States, and 11,672 acres in Wisconsin and Minnesota. 

 The owners of cultivated 

 currants and gooseberries 

 have shown a fine spirit of 

 co-operation in destroying 

 their bushes, even when 

 the pines thus protected are 

 on adjacent property. In 

 New Hampshire, 43-377 

 cultivated bushes were up- 

 rooted in 1919 and 1920, 

 and 2,130 owners, out of a 

 total of 2,139 signed cards, 

 releasing all claim to com- 

 pensation from the State. 

 Pine owners and communi- 

 ties in pine-growing sec- 

 tions are financially co- 

 operating in control work, 

 and many individuals are 

 protecting their pines with- 

 out assistance. A total of 

 $25,344 was subscribed by 

 local co-operators in New 

 Hampshire, New York, 

 Massachusetts, and Ver- 

 mont. The voters of 50 

 New Hampshire towns ap- 

 propriated $8,421 and in- 

 dividuals in this- State sub- 

 scribed $5,168 additional. 



In 1920 the cost of con- 

 trol in all States averaged 

 35 cents per acre as com- 

 pared with 54 cents in 1919, 

 and 66 cents in 1918. These 

 cost figures include labor, 

 supervision and transporta- 

 tion of field men. In the 

 New England States in 

 1920, the total cost per acre 

 ranged from 16 cents in 

 Rhode Island to $1.24 in 

 Vermont, averaging only 

 23.6 cents per acre for these 

 six States. The cost of the 

 work varies considerably 

 according to the number of 

 bushes per acre and oth- 

 er conditions. In New 

 England, there was an 

 average of 13 bushels 

 per acre, 98 in New York, 

 and 178 in Minnesota. The 

 results of three years' ex- 



EFFECT OF A BLISTER RUST CANKER ON A FINE WHITE PINE 



This tree is twenty feet high. It was infected with the rust eight years 

 before the top died. The blister rust is an insidious disease. A tree is 

 severly diseased before the infection becomes noticeable to anyone not 

 expert in detecting the cankers. Blister rust infection on pine in the 

 northeastern states is increasing rapidly. A strip survey tn one locality 

 in New Hampshire indicates that one-fourth of the pines on an area of 

 72 square miles are already infected with the rust. The disease is also 

 widespread in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ontario and Quebec. There Is 

 abundant evidence of the destructiveness of the blister rust to merchant- 

 able trees as well as young white pine stands. This destruction is 

 caused by infected currant and gooseberry bushes near the pines. The 

 longer such bushes remain, the more rapidly pine infection increases. 

 After several years, all of the trees becomes infected and gradually die. 



periments in killing currants and gooseberries with fuel 

 oil and dip oil indicate that much expense will be saved 

 by the use of these oils, instead of uprooting the bushes 

 by hand. Other experiments now in progress give prom- 

 ise of greatly reducing costs where conditions are most 



difficult. 



The cost per acre of 

 control work has decreased 

 and the efficiency has in- 

 creased each year. This 

 has been accomplished 

 through improved methods 

 and effective field organiza- 

 tion under the direction of 

 the State officials in charge 

 of this work, in co-opera- 

 tion with the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. 

 The bushes are uprooted by 

 crews of laborers under the 

 direction of a trained fore- 

 man. Uniform efficiency is 

 secured through systematic 

 checking. Every day or 

 two the crews check part 

 of the area they have al- 

 ready worked. At times, 

 a special checking crew 

 goes from one control area 

 to another, making com- 

 plete checks of large-sized 

 blocks. 



The currant and goose- 

 berry bushes removed by a 

 crew in each working of an 

 area, are recorded by num- 

 ber and species for each 

 "block" or small sub-divi- 

 sion of the control area. 

 This enables the checking 

 crew to determine the per- 

 centage of bushes removed 

 by the crew which first 

 covered the area. A "com- 

 plete check" means that the 

 area has been gone over 

 many times until no more 

 bushes are found, not even 

 tiny seedlings. In 112 

 such checks covering 316 

 acres, 65,014 bushes (97 

 per cent) were destroyed in 

 the first working of the 

 plots. Only 1,965 bushes 

 (3 per cent) were found in 

 going over the area three 

 to five times after the first 

 working. Five other meth- 

 ods of checking are used. In 



