RANKIN: DUTCH ELM DISEASE CONTROL 
59 
The field program as conducted by the Federal Department of Agri¬ 
culture, because of dependence on W.P.A. funds, has fallen far short of 
applying these methods effectively, both from the standpoint of syste¬ 
matic and timely coverage of the area and from the standpoint of the 
essential efficiency and skill in the field employee that is necessary in 
examining elms to locate those dying of the disease. For example, dur¬ 
ing the past summer W.P.A. funds failed for various reasons to provide 
for 64 per cent of the man-days needed to inspect and sample the elms 
of the New. York infected area. As a result large sections were not 
scouted and Westchester and Rockland Counties received only one 
systematic inspection which was not finished until the middle of August. 
Furthermore, a large part of the man-days put in were non-productive. 
The errors of omission and commission in locating diseased elms that 
will become centers of spread are increased greatly by using unskilled 
labor and by delay in covering the territory beyond the season for best 
symptoms expression. 
The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets under 
State law arranges for the conduct of the work on private and public 
lands. Permissive agreements for the destruction of designated items 
are sought by personal contact where possible or by letter and if neces¬ 
sary official orders requiring the destruction are served. Exceptionally 
satisfactory owner response has been developed and zealously guarded. 
Besides these property owner relations, the State has assumed responsi¬ 
bility for the functions that require a skilled and experienced personnel 
to insure careful attention to preventing spread from known diseased 
locations. These activities are: 
1. Removing and destroying all diseased elms and completing the 
sanitation for possible root-grafted elms and beetle breeding material 
within 50 feet. 
2. Inspection of all recent diseased locations for local spread every 
two weeks in the summer months. 
3. Special sanitation for 500 feet around the current diseased locations 
including pruning of beetle breeding wood. 
4. Planning and supervising selective sanitation in dense stands and 
swamps near diseased locations to leave only healthy elms. 
5. Also the State, to the extent that funds permitted, has employed 
experienced men to assist in the summer scouting of the heavily infected 
zone east of the Hudson River in order to gain the greatest headway 
possible in reducing the rate of spread. 
