a forest on the watershed. This involves at least three things: 1. 
Planting the trees; 2. Giving them adequate care; 3. Removals 
and replacements, or, in other words, scientific forest manage- 
ment. 
After the kind of trees is decided upon, suited to the given 
climate, the planting is comparatively easy; but from that time on 
problems arise which require the constant oversight of a trained 
forester, and of a specialist in the treatment of tree diseases. 
Unfortunately these last needs, of a forester and a plant patholo- 
gist, are too frequently overlooked or ignored. 
The land controlled by New York City on the Ashokan water- 
shed comprises a total of over 15,000 acres. Less than half of this 
area bears a native forest of second growth white oak, red oak, 
red maple, sugar maple, hemlock and white pine. Chestnut trees 
were plentiful until the chestnut bark disease began, about ten 
years ago, to kill the trees, and there are few of them left. The 
dead and dying ones are being cut down and should, of course, 
be replaced with other species. 
The City has already planted on this watershed about one and 
a half million cone-bearing (evergreen) trees, more than one 
million of which include six species of pine. The present value of 
the trees is probably not far from one million dollars, and is in- 
creasing each year. They are also becoming annually more and 
more important conservators of the city’s water supply. 
Every one of these species is subject either to insect ravages 
or to diseases caused by parasitic fungi. Within three or four 
years there has been imported into this country, from Europe, a 
rapidly spreading disease that is destructive to certain species of 
pines. This disease has already reached the areaof the Ashokan 
watershed, and, up to the present time, no effective treatment is 
known. Infected trees should at once be cut down and burned. 
This disease is cited merely as an illustration. It threatens to 
destroy every one of the million or more trees planted by the City 
at large expense, and vital to its water supply. It has long since 
been too late to save the chestnuts, as no remedy for chestnut 
bark disease is known. The public is fairly familiar with the 
forest ravages of insects. 
It is the purpose ofthese few paragraphs merely to call atten- 
tion to these facts, and to urge, with all possible emphasis, the 
necessity of the City appointing a competent plant pathologist, 
whose business should be not alone to act as a practicing physi- 
cian of trees, diagnosing, and applying remedies worked out by 
others, but devoting much of his time and energies to scientific 
research into the nature and causes of tree diseases, so that he 
may be able to contribute toward the solution of the problem of 
their control. He should have a laboratory properly equipped for 
