EnpotTHia CANKER OF CHESTNUT 599 
roots of these trees and continue to die from the disease and to spread 
the infection. 
“5. Supposing that it might be possible to eradicate all advance infec- 
tions, what method is proposed that is at all feasible for combating the 
disease in its main line of advance? All of the foresters connected with 
the United States Government and the entire army of the United States 
would be utterly powerless to oppose its progress. 
“6, Although the chestnut canker has been known and experimented 
with since 1905, there is not a single instance where an individual tree 
or a grove of trees affected by the disease has been saved. If it is impossible 
to combat the canker under the most favorable circunistances, how 
would it be possible to succeed with an extensive forest? The published 
account of the extermination of the chestnut canker in the vicinity of 
Washington, D. C., cannot be relied upon. The trees most conspicuously 
affected there have been cut and burned, so that the presence of the disease 
is not readily apparent, but with each season additional trees will be 
affected and the attempt to stay the disease will be abandoned, especially 
when the main line of advance, which is now in northern Maryland, reaches 
the Potomac River.” 
Clinton (1912 c:82) says that in the main he agrees with Stewart and 
Murrill. 
Some months previous to this discussion the State of Pennsylvania 
had ‘appropriated a large sum of money for the investigation and control 
of the chestnut-tree blight disease. Metcalf and Collins (1911:14-17) 
quote this act, which embodies the scouting and cutting-out method 
described in the same publication. 
During the summer of 1911 Doctor Metcalf appointed several agents 
‘who scouted in a preliminary manner the different States concerned in 
the control of the disease. With the information thus available (Metcalf 
and Collins, 1911:6), the authorities of the different States considered 
means of controlling the disease. Those States north of Pennsylvania 
took no definite action, mainly for two reasons: (1) the cutting-out 
method (the only method proposed) was not sanctioned by some persons 
to whom the state authorities looked for advice; (2) the disease had gained 
such a foothold that its economic control by the cutting-out method could 
hardly be expected by the most radical supporters of the method. 
The published reports on field operations for the control of the disease 
in Pennsylvania are limited to the reports for the period from July 1 to 
December 31, 1912. The work of organization and preliminary scouting 
occupied the interval from the time of the appointment of the Commis- 
sion in the summer of 1911 until the spring of 1912. The Commission 
reports (Penn. Chestnut Tree Blight Com., 1913:11): 
