198 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



Bell, G. H. - — Fern Rusts of Abies. Botanical Gazette. (In press.) 



Faull, J. H. — Forest Pathology in Relation to Forest Conservation. 14th 

 Annual Report of the Quebec vSociety for the Protection 

 of Plants. 1922. 



Fritz, C. W.— Cultural Criteria for the Distinction of Wood-destroying 

 Fungi. Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada. 

 1923. 



Moss, E. H. — Observations on Two Poplar Cankers in Ontario. Phyto- 

 pathology, Vol. XII, 1922. 



The field work for 1923 was carried on mainly in the Timagami Forest 

 Reserve, but in May a careful examination of diseased birch was made at Cache 

 Lake in Algonquin Park, and Dr. Faull was permitted to transfer to the service 

 of the Laurentide Company, Quebec, during July and August, to direct the 

 assembling and grading of defective balsam and spruce for an extensive utiliza- 

 tion experiment on pulpwood carried out under the auspices of the Technical 

 Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry, the News Print Service Bureau, 

 the Forests Products Laboratory at Madison, and a number of interested 

 companies. As in the past there has been active co-operation between the 

 Ontario Forestry Branch and the Provincial University. Besides to those directly 

 associated in the office, field, or laboratory who have aided in carrying forward 

 the year's work, an expression of appreciation is especially due Mr. C. E. Hindson, 

 Chief Ranger of the Timagami Forest Reserve, and Mr. Mark Robinson, Superin- 

 tendent of Algonquin Park. A summary of three researches completed in the 

 past season follows. 



II. "Sapin Rouge" or Red Heart Rot of Balsam, its Cause and its 

 Relation to Slash Disposal. 



Because of the increasing scarcity of spruce, the newsprint pulp industries 

 are now relying more and more on the balsam forests of Eastern Canada for 

 their supplies of raw materials. But these heretofore neglected forests prove 

 to be frequently overmature and highly defective, hence an acute problem of 

 utilization looms large on the horizon at present. Linked with this problem 

 is that of the maintenance of the forests. In the forests of to-morrow, balsam 

 is bound to have a place; it grows rapidly, it re-forests readily without planting, 

 is is especially well adapted to our soil and climate, and its wood makes a good 

 quality of pulp. The call, therefore, is urgent for a maximum utilization of 

 our diseased virgin forests as we find them and the production of healthy forests 

 for the future. 



A study of the pathology of balsam in these connections has revealed an 

 almost unexplored field. One of the amazing features has been the encountering 

 of a prevalent trunk disease, a heart rot of living trees, the bane of operators, 

 often disastrously so, since fifty per cent, or more of affected stands may be 

 discarded as unmerchantable, about the cause of which and its mode of Spread 

 and establishment nothing has been known. Trees affected with it are individ- 

 ually designated sapin rouge by the French-Canadian lumberjacks. The 

 disease has been called "hemlock rot of balsam," but the name red heart rot of 

 balsam based on the French appellation seems more appropriate. 



-"Sapin rouge" obtruded itself upon the attention of operators when they 

 first began to cautiously introduce a few balsam logs into their cuts. It was 

 an annoyance and a loss. "Sapin rouge" was believed to be worthless for pulp, 

 it was not possible without experience and close observation to detect it before 



