1922-23 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS 197 



SEED COLLECTING 



The season of 1923 was the best seed year for red pine in the history of 

 the Branch, The centre of the work, as in previous years, was. at Angus in 

 Simcoe County, but an effort was made to secure cones anywhere in Ontario 

 where it was known suitable trees are located. 



A circular was published entitled "Gathering Red Pine Cones for the 

 Ontario Government," which was distributed freely throughout the Province, 

 and this, together with newspaper advertisements and dodgers, reached hundreds 

 of people who were interested in the work. The total number of bushels gathered 

 from all parts of the Province was 3,126. 



In order to handle more adequately the work of seed collecting and extract- 

 ing, a station of a permanent nature was opened at Angus. Two acres of land 

 were purchased in the village on the railroad and a building was erected, to serve 

 as a receiving centre for cones and as a plant for extracting purposes. The 

 plant consists of eight drums, each 6' x 3', and has a capacity of twenty-five 

 bushels of red pine cones a day. 



IV.— FOREST PATHOLOGY 

 (Report of Dr. J. H. Faull for 1923) 



I. Introduction 



Several important problems both from the standpoint of utilization and 

 of conservation have received attention during the year. Some have been 

 brought to a solution — the nature of the needle blight of white pine and its 

 effect on reproduction ; the diagnosis of the various types of heart and butt rots 

 of balsam and in part of spruce, and the determination of their causes; the 

 diagnosis and determination of the cause of a prevalent heart rot of birch; the 

 life history of certain fungi causing needle diseases. Progress can be reported 

 also on other problems— spruce diseases; the determination of the age of sus- 

 ceptibility to trunk diseases ; the effect of various fungi on the growth of the timber 

 attacked. New problems have been presented; among them two appear partic- 

 ularly attractive, namely, the nature of "red" jack pine (pertinent to the culling 

 of ties), and the pathology of young stands of conifers (important in relation 

 to reforestation). Numerous inquiries on pathological matters have been received 

 such as, the means of preventing doze in freshly cut birch (applications of zinc 

 chloride solution appear to give every promise of success); the cause and control 

 of bald spots in coniferous seed beds (in the case in question apparently due 

 to local over-fertilization) ; factors favouring deterioration of hardwood and 

 coniferous pulpwoods in the log and in the piles. A few tree diseases newly 

 observed in Ontario have been reported by correspondents and their causes 

 as indicated verified, for example, a twig blight of Manitoba maple caused by 

 Coryneum negundinis B. & C. (detected by Professor J. E. Howitt and Dr. 

 R. E. Stone of the Ontario Agricultural College), and bark blight of the American 

 chestnut (due to the* very destructive fungus, Endothia parasitica) . The latter 

 is serious so far as chestnut growing is concerned as most of the existing trees 

 of this species, Castanea dentata, are probably doomed. Directly and incidentally 

 valuable additions have been made to our reference pathological collections. 



Three technical papers, outgrowths of this work, and one semi-technical 

 paper have been published apart from the annual reports in 1922-23. 



