134 SCIENCE IN FORESTRY 



such causes may be, owing to the lack of system 

 and the lack of records of all things relating to our 

 woods; but in the case of a single disease, Irametes 

 pini y it is calculated that the loss on the annual 

 cut, in Prussia alone, exceeds 50,000. The fungus, 

 Hysterium pinastri, often devastates the seed-beds 

 and causes the death of millions of seedlings. 

 Other diseases are so aggressive that it is hardly 

 possible to rear to maturity any specimens of the 

 host tree, as for example, Peridermium strobi, on 

 Weymouth Pine. There are also hosts of diseases 

 which do damage in a lesser degree. The preven- 

 tion and cure of such diseases cannot be discovered 

 by practice alone. Careful investigation in the 

 laboratory is necessary in order that we may 

 discover the intimate life-history of the fungus. 

 The plant pathologist may work to discover the 

 bare facts of the life-history, but the discovery of 

 these facts will point the way to the practical 

 eradication of the disease. A single laboratory 

 discovery could save the country many thousands 

 of pounds each year. 



There is perhaps no question of greater import- 

 ance in tree growth than that of heredity. It has 

 for long been the custom, in the practice, to get the 

 seed for future timber crops in the cheapest market, 

 and with the least trouble, and in the case of the 

 bulk of the planted woodlands of the present day, 

 the planter has no knowledge of the characteristics 

 of the parent trees, or the least idea of where the 



