Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1907-10-04
LIST Summers BIiqht.

Washington, Sept 30. - After a |
thorough investigation of the peculiar
blight which has attacked 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 ever The in
vestigation is being made by The Forest
Service and the Bureau of Plant Indus
try, of the Department of Agriculture,
and will continue until the real cause of
the trouble is discovered. S. T. Dana,
of the Office silvics, who has charge of
the investigation for the Forest Service,
in a preliminary report to his chief
which has just been made says:
1.-The disease is very widely spread
throughout New England, and it occurs
practically everywhere south of the
White Mountains. By no means all of
this territory is badly affected, however.
In most places only a few scattered trees
are attacked by the blight, although in
few localities as many as ten to twenty
per cent of the trees are affected by the
disease.
brunswick, Maine, appears to have
suffered most severely, and it is feared
that if the trouble should continue to
increase, the beautiful and famous Bow
doin pines, of which Hawthorne and
Longfellow wrote, will soon be a thing
of the past. Another badly affected To-
cality is Eliot Maine. Here the noble
grove of pines on the Greenacre Confer
ence grounds presents a very different
appearance from usual to the hundreds
of health-seekers and others who visit
the place every year.
I'm New Hampshire the vicinity of
Nashua seems to have suffered most,
and brown, blighted trees mar the land
scape wherever one turns. Massachu-
sets too has not escaped, and through
out the State the disease is found, but
more particularly in the northern and
central part. In Rhode Island and Con-
necticut white pine is not an abundant
tree, but in both of these States the
same trouble is found
1T 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 outbreak was not severe one, and
the trouble was not thought to be serious.
In 1906 conditions remained about the
same. Then this summer came the pre-
sent outbreak, which without doubt ex-
ceeds in extent all previous ones, and
has attracted very general attention
( throughout this section of the country.
unfortunately not enough definite
information is available at present to
enable the Government experts to say
/ * hn &c tln
trouble. In many respects the problem
seems to be a complicated one, and one
which will require considerable study to
solve satisfactorily. The all important
point to be determined is whether the
disease is an infectious one and one
which is likely to develop into a serious
epidemic; or whether 1t is purely due to
unfavorable climatic conditions in char
acter and therefore not contagious
The evidence now at hand points
both ways, and it is difficult to say which
explanation is the correct one. Evil
dences of the parasitic fungus Septoria
have been found on all the specimens ex-
amined. but whether this is the cause of
the blight, or the result of it. is not GER
tain. 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 physiological one also has its
weak points. If this latter explanation
should prove to be the correct one, the
trouble will probably disappear of its own
accord next year, having done but little
damaged. If, however, it should prove
to be contagious disease of some sort,
there are how so many centers from
which it might spread that the result
might be a serious epidemic.
The present situation, therefore, is
not one which calls for alarm but simply
for further investigation. With this end
in view the Government has established
several sample plots at Peterboro, n. II. =,
and at Brunswick, Maine where a scien-
tific study of the problem will be carried
on. An examination of the roots of both
healthy and blighted trees is also being
made to determine whether winter-kill-
ing of the roots may not be the cause of
the trouble The State governments
realize the importance of this investiga-
ton and stand ready to cooperate with
the Federal Government as far as posi-
bic.
New Hampshire and Maine have al
ready rendered active assistance in col
Letting information regarding the occur
renee and nature of the disease. ANY
one who has any definite and accurate
knowledge concerning the blight can
greatly assist the Government in its work
by forwarding such information to the
Forest Service at Washington. Any
facts concerning the prevalence of the
disease in particular locality, how long
it has been noticed there, whether af-
fected trees often recover, and whether
there have been any unusual climatic
conditions of late that might have helped
to cause the trouble, will be especially
welcome.
"When the disease first appears in a
place only scattering trees are usually
affected, and these would not be likely
to attract the attention of one who was
not on the lookout for the trouble. Con-
sequently it is probable that the disease
occurs in many localities where it has