Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1907-10-07
BLIGHT ON WHITE PINE IN NEW
ENGLAND.

the peculiar blight which has attacked I
the white pine Of New England so
generally this summer, government \
experts after two weeks work say .
that the disease remains as much of a (
mystery as over. The investigation is
being ~ ade by the forest service and F.
the bureau Of plant industry, OF the I.
department. Of agriculture, and will
continue until the real cause Of the
trouble is discovered. S. T. Dana, OF
the Office Of siivics, who has charge of
the investigation for the forest service,
10 a preliminary report to bis chief,
which has just been made, says:
"The disease IS very widely spread
throughout y England, and it oc-
c1rs practically everywhere south of
thu White Mountains. By no means
all OF this territory ia badly affected
however. In most places only few
scattered trees are attacked by the
blight, although in a few localities as
many as 10 TO 30 per cent of the trees
are affected by the disease.
"Brunswick, Maine, appears to have
suff sre1 most severely, and it is
feared that if the trouble should con-
time to increase, the beautiful and
famous Bowdoin pines, of which Haw-
thorne and Longfellow wrote, will
soon be athing of the past. Another
badly affected locality is Eliot, Maine.
Here the noble grove of pines on the
Greenacre Conference grounds pre-
seuts a very different appearance from
usual to the hundreds of health
seekers and others who visit the place
every year.
ain New Hampshire the vicinity of
Nashua seems to have suffered most,
and brown, blighted trees mar the
landscape wherever one turns. Mas
sachusetts too has not escaped, and
throughout the state the disease is
found, but more particularly in the
northern and central part. In Rhode
Island and Connecticut white pine is
not an abundant tree, but in both of
these states the same trouble is found.
"It is evident then that the disease
has suddenly made its appearance in
very widely separated localities all at
once. Just how new the trouble is,
is still an unsettled question. A few
claim to have noticed the blight for
the last twenty five years, but most
people agree that they never saw it
until two years ago in the summer of
1905 At that time it was reported
from several localities, but the out
break was not a severe one, and the
trouble was not thought to be serious.
In 1906 conditi ms remained about the
same. Then this summer came the
present outbreak which without
doubt exceeds in extent all previous
ones, and has attracted very general
attention throughout this section of
the country.
Unfortunately not enough definite
infor nation is available at present to
enable the government experts to say
precisely what is the cause of the
trouble. In many respects the prob
lem seems to be complicated one,
and one which will require consider
able study to solve satisfactorily. The
all-important point to be determined
i5 whether the disease is an infectious
one aud one which is likely to develop
into a serious epidemic; or whether
it is purely dae to unfavorable cli-
matte conditions in character and
therefore not contagious.
'The evidence now at hand points
both ways, and it is difficult to say
which explanation is the correct one.
Evidences OF the parasitic fungus
Septoria have been found on all the
specimens examined, but whether
this is the cause of the blight, or the
result of it, is not certain. In some
respects the behavior of the disease
would seem to indicate that it is not
caused by fungus; but on the other
hand the explanation that the trouble
is q physiological one also has its weak
points. II this latter explanation
should prove to be the correct one,
the trouble will probably disappear oil
It's own accord next year, having done
but little damage. If, however, il
shol I'D prove to be a contagious dis
ease of some sort, there are now sc
many centers from which it might
spread that the result might be a Sc
rious epidemic.
"The present situation, therefore, il
not one which calls for alarm bu
simply for further investigation
With this end ia view the government
has established several sample ploti
at Peterboro, N. H., and at Brunswick
Maine, where a scientific study of The
problem will be carried on. An ex