40 
P A R K AND C E M ET E R Y. 
lional authorities appears to be the only- 
possible salvation for the pines. Nature 
has not intervened in checking the chest- 
nut blight and other imported diseases, and 
it seems probable that we shall have to pay 
with the white pine, or a partial cash 
equivalent of its value, for our open door 
policy in importing plant pests. 
Public support will secure the following 
measures, by which the control of the dis- 
ease may become a reality instead of a 
hope'; 
1. A federal quarantine prohibiting ship- 
ment of all five-leaved pines and all cur- 
rant and gooseberry bushes beyond the 
western boundaries of Minnesota, Iowa, 
Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, to pre- 
vent the introduction of the pine blister dis- 
ease from the eastern white pine area into 
the western white pine forests of the Rocky 
Mountain and Pacific Coast states. 
2. A federal quarantine regulation 
should be issued prohibiting the shipment 
of all five-leaved pines and all currants and 
gooseberry bushes from infected areas into 
regions where the disease has not yet been 
found. This action could be taken at 
once and would save the public great 
prospective loss, .^t the present time, all 
pine, currant and gooseberry planting 
stock, from nurseries or the native woods, 
must be suspected of being infected. The 
direct loss through death of diseased pine 
stock, though considerable, is insignificant 
when compared to the cost of controlling 
the disease, or, if not controlled, the early 
loss of native and planted pines which 
might otherwise thrive for years. 
3. Scouting should be continued on an 
extensive scale, to determine definitely the 
boundaries of infected areas, and to locate 
possible infections in new territory. 
4. Large-scale experiments should l5e 
undertaken to determine the feasibility of 
controlling the pine blister disease, and the 
least expensive means of accomplishing 
this result most effectively. 
Tn addition to this action, the various 
states in the white pine belt should proceed 
against the disease, as follows : 
1. Adequate laws should be enacted, 
giving authority to the proper state official 
to destroy all white pine, currant and 
gooseberry plants infected with the dis- 
ease or in danger of becoming infected. 
Because of the need for persons handling 
diseased plants to take the greatest pre- 
cautionary measures to avoid distributing 
the spores of the disease from one place 
to another, eradication of the diseased 
plants should be done by men in state em- 
ploy, specially trained and wearing a uni- 
form than can be disinfected before ap- 
proaching the vicinity of pines or areas, of 
disease-free currants. 
2. Each state should establish a quaran- 
tine preventing the introduction of any 
five-leaved pines, or any currant or goose- 
berry bushes from any area in which in- 
fection is known to exist, duplicating the 
action taken by the states of Wisconsin, 
Idaho, Montana and Oregon. 
3. Each state in which white pine is im- 
portant as a native or planted tree should 
appropriate sufficient funds to enable the 
proper state officials to conduct such op- 
erations as may be necessary for detailed 
scouting and the control of the disease 
when found. 
4. Cultivated black currants should be 
declared a pest, and the bushes destroyed 
in all states where five-leaved pines grow, 
regardless of whether the disease has ap- 
peared in the locality. This action is ad- 
visable because the cultivated black currant 
is especially susceptible to infection, and 
the elimination of this plant would do 
much to prevent the rapid spread of the 
fungus. 
Federal and state action, to be success- 
ful, requires the active co-operation of in- 
dividual citizens in the following par- 
ticulars : 
1. When the disease is found on pines, 
currants or gooseberries, the state officials 
in charge of control work should be 
notified, and the diseased plants destroyed 
promptly according to the recommendation 
of the authorities. 
2. Where state authorities deem it neces- 
sary to destroy all currant and gooseberry 
bushes, or take other drastic action to con- 
trol the disease, individuals should give all 
possible aid and influence others to do so. 
3. The general planting of five-leaved, 
pines should not be encouraged. The grow- 
ing of currant or gooseberry stock should 
not be favored in localities where thev 
mav endanger white pines. In the case of 
white pine planting stock, the nursery from 
which it is purchased should be required 
to give a written guarantee that the stock 
was grown from seed in their own nur- 
series, that no infections of the white pine 
blister disease have ever been found in the 
nursery or within 300 yards, and that the 
trees have not stood near currant or goose- 
berry bushes. 
The first warning against the white pine 
blister disease was issued in 1906 when 
Doctor Stewart announced its discovery in 
New York. During the past ten years the 
disease has 'become well established, and it 
is safe to predict that by the time all of 
the needed laws and appropriations are 
made, the boundaries of the diseased areas 
will be considerably advanced. Under 
present conditions we face the unpleasant 
certainty of the widespread introduction of 
the disease into new localities, through dis- 
eased pine, currant and gooseberry plant- 
ing stock, exactly as the chestnut blight 
was carried on nursery stock into Indiana, 
Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Washington 
and British Columbia. Data collected by the 
United States Department of Agriculture 
shows that over 60 nurseries have handled 
stock infected with the pine blister disease. 
It is highly important that the inspectors 
employed in pine blister control be pre- 
vented from carrying the spores of the 
fungus from place to place on their hands 
and clothmg, but far greater danger lie.s 
in the shipment of nursery stock into areas 
now free from the disease. Every new in- 
fection outside of the present known areas 
not only will add greatly to the cost of 
control, but will hasten the time when 
white pine trees can be grown only where 
the strictest control measures are con- 
stantly enforced. 
The fullest co-operation between state 
and federal agencies and individuals is es- 
sential to practical control work. A single 
individual or a single state that refuses to 
apply the measures necessary to check the 
disease in a given area may add greatly to 
the cost of the work, or may even make 
control impossible. In this connection it 
is our du.ty to prevent the disease from 
crossing the Canadian boundary, and thus 
co-operate with the Canadian government, 
which is making every effort to control the 
disease in Canada and prevent it from 
sweeping westward into Michigan. The 
Canadian government likewise is now tak- 
ing steps to safeguard the western pine 
areas through absolute quarantine of white 
pine, currant and gooseberry nursery stock. 
One question bound to arise and quite 
apt to be judged from a narrow and selfish 
viewpoint, is the comparative value of 
white pine and currants. In the pine re- 
gions of New England where currants and 
gooseberries are found principally in scat- 
tered garden patches, little thought is given 
to such a question, but when we reach 
the fruit belts, such as the southern shore 
of Lake Ontario, where there are large 
numbers of nurseries and plantations, the 
value of currant and gooseberry bushes 
becomes somewhat of a factor. The an- 
nual cut of white pine lumber, lath and 
shingles in 1909 in the New England States, 
New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
Ohio, Minnesota and Wisconsin was re- 
ported by the Bureau of Census to be 
worth in excess of $55,000,000. This figure 
includes Norway pine in the states of Min- 
nesota and Wisconsin, but since it does 
not consider the value of white pine wood 
used in slack cooperage, ties, pulp and 
veneer, it is safe to say that the white pine 
timber cut in the area in which the pine 
blister disease has been found was worth 
from 40 million to 50 million dollars in 
1909. According to the 1910 census, the 
value of the currant and gooseberry crop 
of 1909 in these same states was slightly 
in excess of a half million dollars. The 
value of the bushes in this area may be 
estimated roughly at 50 cents each, which 
would make their total value slightly less 
than $11,300,000 for 5,646 acres of currants 
and gooseberries which were growing on 
59,837 farms, if the bushes were planted at 
the rate of 4,000 per acre. These figures 
show that in the states where the blister 
disease has appeared, the annual returns 
from white pine are more than three times 
the combined values of all gooseberry and 
currant bushes and their annual crop. The 
value of the cultivated currants and goose- 
