Part I.] STATE NURSERY INSPECTOR. 65 



carried on to determine the best methods, costs and results of 

 eradicating Ribes and pines on a large as well as on a small 

 scale and under varied conditions." The establishment of these 

 areas was not undertaken until the general State w^ork had 

 been gotten under way, but it was begun August 1. One place 

 selected was Warwick, which has a large and valuable pine 

 growth, is not thickly settled, and where Ribes therefore would 

 not be abundant; and also because one of the objections to 

 taking Mount Grace, located in that town, as a State reserva- 

 tion was the danger that the pine on the proposed reservation 

 might become infected by the rust. Then, too, the town is 

 typical of conditions general along the northern border of the 

 State, and it seemed desirable to be able to compare work there 

 with similar work under differing conditions in other portions 

 of the State. 



A second eradication area was established covering the towns 

 of Athol, Petersham, Barre and Dana. Here the value of the 

 pines is probably greater than for any similar area elsewhere in 

 the State. As the territory east of here is comparatively free 

 from the disease for a long distance, and there is also little for 

 some distance to the west, it seemed a promising place to at- 

 tempt eradication work, both because of the value of the timber 

 and because it might stand as a sort of protective belt across 

 quite a part of the State between the western and eastern in- 

 fected areas. 



Later in the season an eradication area was also established 

 covering the towns of Hanover, Hanson, Halifax, Pembroke, 

 Marshfield and Duxbury. These towns have a large amount of 

 valuable pine growth, few wild Ribes to complicate the situa- 

 tion, and conditions there differ so greatly from those in the 

 other areas that it was thought wise to determine the effective- 

 ness of this work under coastal plain conditions. 



In addition to these areas it was also decided to go over 

 those eradicated in 1916, in order to preserve what had already 

 been accomplished. 



To do this work rearrangements became necessary, and re- 

 sulted in cutting down the time spent on the work in many of 

 the towns. Many of the local men objected to working as little 

 as one day per week, claiming that they must have regular 



