Notes and Brief Articles 



167 



in western Pennsylvania and in two villages in northern West 

 Virginia, all being in the soft-coal section, except one of the West 

 Virginia localites. Apparently no other extensive area of infes- 

 tation exists at all comparable to the Hazleton district, but un- 

 doubtedly there are other undiscovered isolated points of infes- 

 tation in regions out of touch with modern agriculturists. These 

 can be brought to light only by further intensive survey. 



" Wood-destroying fungi in pulp and paper mill roofs " was the 

 title of a paper presented by Mr. R. J. Blair, which was ab- 

 stracted as follows : When the roof of a paper mill is built of 

 wood moisture in the air permits the development of wood- 

 destroying fungi in the timber. Rapid rotting takes place and 

 it is often necessary to renew the timber after six or eight years' 

 service. The roofs of eighty of the Canadian paper mills have 

 been examined to find the different types of construction used 

 and the services secured from each. The common faults in every 

 case are that moisture enters the spaces between the planks and 

 reaches their upper side, where it condenses, causing a moist con- 

 dition of the planks during prolonged periods and at the same 

 time the wood is of a non-durable species. There is no evidence 

 that other species of fungi than three of those mentioned last 

 year in connection with the cotton mill roofs, Lent odium tigrinum, 

 Lenzites trabea, and Poria xantha,» cause these losses. The 

 remedy for such timber decay lies in a combination of four fac- 

 tors, which need consideration when the roof is being built. 

 These are the use of wood which resists decay, ventilation which 

 carries away the moisture, liberal dry-air heating, and a heat- 

 insulating layer placed on the upper side of the planks. 



Dr. J. C. Arthur reported that there were two destructive rusts 

 ready to invade the United States at the first opportunity. A 

 rust on peanuts has long been prevalent in South America. In 

 Trinidad and the nearby islands of the Antilles it is a great 

 menace to the crop, often covering every leaf on the plants with 

 a heavy powder of urediniospores. No successful method of 

 controlling the rust has yet been found. A rust on potatoes and 

 tomatoes, comparable in its life history and behavior with the 

 hollyhock rust, has recently come to light in Costa Rica and 

 Ecuador. The possibilities for its spread and harmfulness de- 



