R-USH 



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V21/33 



The gypsy moth, a pest of forest trees in the Nev; England states, 

 is another "public enemy" against which our scientists are carrying on a 

 long-time fight. 



Turning from insects to diseases, we find one of the most important 

 of the forest diseases is the well-known white pine "blister rust. 



The white pine blister rust is a destructive disease of white pines 

 doing a lot of damage throughout the northeastern part of the country and the 

 Lake States and the Northwest. Let the rust run unchecked, and foresters 

 say it would kill out our U2C million dollars' worth of white pine forests 

 just as chestnut blight v/iped out the chestnut. 



As you may know, blister rust never spreads directly from one pine tree 

 to another. The rust goes from a pine to a V7ild currant or gooseberry bush, . 

 aad from the wild currant or gooseberry back to a pine. Take out the ?/ild 

 currants and gooseberries within about 9OO feet of the pine trees, and you 

 leave the rust stranded. The rust will go ahead and finish up a tree where 

 it already has a foothold, but it can't spread from that tree to other trees. 



So, for a number of years, v/e've been carrying on a campaign in white 

 pine regions to clear out all wild currants and gooseberries. Every spring, 

 we send out men in small crews to pull out the bushes by hand or dig them 

 out with a grubber. Already, we've cleaned up more than eight million acres 

 of land in Nev/ York and New England alone. But v/e still have other millions 

 . of acres to cover and much land to be gone over a second or third time. 



Besides those millions of acres of forest land which we are trying to 

 protect from fire, and disease, and insects, V7e have other big areas which 

 are already almost completely destroyed. We would have to wait years and 

 years for Nature to reforest those areas by her own methods. So, we are 

 giving Nature a little help by planting those areas with nursery stock. 



So, you see, when the ■unemployed men get into the woods, they don't 

 have trouble finding something to do. The work — and lots of it — lies 

 waiting. 



ANNOUNCEyiENT; And that concludes today's visit with Uncle Sam's Naturalists. 

 Today's Naturalist talk came to you through the cooperation of the ^nited 

 States Forest Service. V/e will bring you another in the Naturalist series 

 at this same time two weeks from today. 



