122 FOREST PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION 
or eradication of said disease in the State, and for the carrying out of such 
investigations as are deemed advisable by the commissioner. 
Section 4. Any white pine trees or currant or gooseberry bushes which 
are found to be infected with cronartium ribicola are hereby declared to be a 
public menace and any such diseased trees or plants and any and all wild 
plants of the genus ribes, may be destroyed by order of the commissioner or 
his authorized agents. If within any designated area, as specified in section 
two of this act, currant or gooseberry bushes or white pine trees which are 
not infected with cronartium ribicola are designated by the commissioner or 
his agents for destruction, and destroyed by their specific order, the owner 
may be compensated therefor; the damages to be assessed by the commis- 
sioner or his agents at not to exceed the actual value of the material destroyed, 
and paid to said owner by the State treasurer upon authorization of the com- 
missioner. In lieu of money damages for any trees or bushes destroyed under 
this act, the commissioner may offer and the owner may accept forest plant- 
ing stock to be furnished from the State forest nursery, and to be paid for 
at cost by the commissioner. 
Section 5. The State nursery inspector, under direction of the commis- 
sioner of agriculture, is hereby authorized and empowered to enter upon any 
land contiguous to or within the vicinity of any nursery within the State, for 
the purpose of determining the presence or absence of cronartium ribicola in 
any of its stages or other threatening fungous disease or insect pest, and 
within such area, he shall have the same power and duties for control and 
eradication of the white pine blister rust or its hosts as is vested in the 
forest commissioner or his agents, and shall have the power to enforce and 
carry out necessary measures for the control or eradication of other threat- 
ening fungous diseases or insect pests. 
Section 6. The forest commissioner is hereby authorized and empowered 
to prohibit and prevent or to regulate the entry into the State of Maine or 
movement within the State from any part thereof to any other part, of any 
living five-leaved pine trees or any plants of the genus ribes, or other nursery 
stock or plants, which in his judgment may cause the introduction or spread 
of a dangerous plant disease or insect pest. The said official is hereby author- 
ized to issue such orders, notifications and permits as may be necessary to 
carry out the provisions of this section, and any person violating any of the 
provisions of sections five and six shall be subject to a fine of not more than 
twenty dollars for each and every offence. The expenses necessary for carry- 
ing out section five of this act shall be paid from the appropriation for nursery 
inspection or other fund of the department of agriculture. 
Section 7. The sum of five thousand dollars is hereby appropriated to 
carry into effect sections two, three, four and six of this act for the year 
ending December thirty-first, nineteen hundred seventeen, and five thousand 
dollars for the year ending December thiry-first, nineteen hundred eighteen. 
Section 8. If any balance remains in the hands of the forest commissioner 
from the funds appropriated under section seven of this act which are not 
necessary for carrying out the purposes of this act, such balance shall revert 
to the State contingent fund. 
