1916-17 DEPAETMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 155 



II. Ekforestation. 



The nurseries at the Provincial Forest Station, Norfolk County, contain at 

 present the following plants : 



White Pine transplants 150,000 



Scotch Pine transplants 20,000 



Scotch Pine seedlings ,. 100,000 



Jack Pine transplants 25,000 



Jack Pine seedlings 50,000 



White Cedar seedlings 25,000 



Red Pine seedlings 25,000 



Miscellaneous conifers 10,000 



Black Walnut seedlings 30,000 



Butternut seedlings 10,000 



Sugar Maple seedlings 75,000 



White Maple seedlings 50,000 



Il£d Maple seedlings 5,000 



Manitoba Maple seedlings 2,000 



White Ash seedlings 10,000 



American Elm seedlings 5,000 



Tulip or Whitewood 5,500 



Carolina Poplar cuttings 25,000 



Miscellaneous Hardwoods 8,000 



Total 630,500 



The production pi planting material in the nurseries this past season is low 

 owing to the difficulty of procuring suitable seed, Scotch Pine, one of our best 

 trees for waste land planting, is grown largely in Europe, whence we obtain our 

 seed. At present it is impossible to obtain reliable seed of this tree. The native 

 Red Pine is an important tree in connection with this work and we have not had a 

 crop of seed for two years. 



The experimehtal plantations made at this Station during the past years are 

 showing splendid growth. The earliest plantation of pine, made in 1909 on a blow 

 \sand ridge, is now twelve to fifteen feet in height and is of great interest to visitors. 



During this season we shipped to other parts of the Province about 100,000 

 plants. Applications for planting material are not coming in as they did previous 

 to the war, and ] presume this is largely due to lack of labour. 



III. Tree Diseases. 



This has reference largely to the White Pine Blister Rust. 



During the season twenty inspectors were engaged in scouting for the disease, 

 and eradicating the currant and gooseberry hosts. This work was carried on with 

 the co-operative supervision of the Dominion Plant Pathologist at St. Catharines, 

 Mr. W. A. McCubbin, to whom we are greatly indebted for this assistance. 



On the opening of the fall term the public schools of old Ontario were circular- 

 ized with a description of the disease and requested to send in suspected currant 

 leaves. Some 4,500 teachers were reached, of whom 1,450 sent in material. This 

 method showed the disease to be much more widely spread than had been thought. 

 Ths Forestry Branch takes this occasion to express its sincere thanks to the county 

 inspectors, teachers and pupils for their hearty co-operation. 



The disease has now been found in thirty-eight counties. So far as known, the 

 northern limit to which it has progressed is a line through northern Simcoe and 

 Ontario, southern Haliburton, southern Peterborough and eastward, and all the 

 peninsula east of Perth town, with an outlying infer ^'on at Petawawa. The situa- 



