No. 4.] STATE NURSERY INSPECTOR. 367 



and it is believed at the present time the action has been so 

 radical and thorough that not a case exists in a single nursery 

 in the State, though spring inspection of the pines in the nurs- 

 eries will continue until belief becomes absolute certainty. 



INIany lots of pines, however, have passed either from the 

 nurseries or directly from abroad into private hands, which 

 for the protection of our pine forests has rendered necessary 

 the inspection of a great many plantings on different estates 

 in various parts of the State. The source from which these 

 trees came has been carefully considered, and spring inspection 

 of the pines has been given for three years, followed by fall 

 inspection of currants, seeking for evidence from them of the 

 presence of the blister rust. All diseased pines and all infected 

 currants found have been destroyed, and as far as possible the 

 tw^o kinds of plants have not been permitted to grow within 

 contagious distance of each other. If no currants are near 

 enough to the pines to take the disease, they will, of course, be 

 unable to transfer it to other pines; and only those trees al- 

 ready infected will suffer, for the disease cannot spread from 

 pine to pine, but only from pine to currant and the reverse. 



The situation at the present time is distinctly encouraging. 

 Owners of estates where the blister rust is present are doing 

 everything in their power to co-operate with the inspectors and 

 eliminate the disease, and currants near pines are being re- 

 moved. The main thing now needed is to continue the inspec- 

 tion until all the cases of the disease are discovered as they 

 appear; to destroy those trees, watching any currants in the 

 vicinity, later in the year; and to make sure by the absence of 

 disease then that no undiscovered cases on the pines exist. 



The curious relation betw^een pine and currant with this dis- 

 ease makes its complete extermination possible, though the 

 slowness with which the disease appears on the pine in some 

 cases requires continued inspection. The enforced separation 

 of pines from currants is an effective check, and persistence in 

 the work for a few years more should mean the extermination 

 of the disease in the State. The inspector believes that if this 

 work can be continued along its present lines, no cases of the 

 disease should be found after 1917 and perhaps before that 

 time. Some places are already entirely cleared and many 



