The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1923-01-04


pine left in the United States against
an original stand Of perhaps a thous.
and billion feet
There are no species in the west
ern white pine region OF Idaho and in
the sugar pine region Of California
that can replace these two trees in
quality and value" say officials of the
department Of agriculture They add
that their loss would be a serious blow
to the lumber and wood using indus
tries. saying: In the five needle
(white) pine regions of the west every
thousand board feet of lumber manu-
featured, irrespective of ownership
means an average of $13 to SIG in pay
rolls and supplies in the community
and state. This represents a COM
munity interest far greater than that
of the individual stumpage owner 1t
is therefore apparent that the protec-
ton of the white forests is a matter
of individual, national and state con-
Germ"
Transmission of Infection.
The blister rust, which does not af-
feet any but the five-needle pines, is
not transmitted directly from tree to
tree but has to find an intermediate
host" in the cycle of its propagation,
in currants and gooseberries. There
are some sixty varieties of such bushes
in the western forests in addition to
domestic varieties, and they grow
among an unbroken chain of five
needle pines from the Canadian line
south into California. 1t is therefore
considered certain that if the rust gets
a foothold before it can be extermin-
ated it viii eventually reach every
portion of the western white and sugar
pine forests. AS they are the principal
hope of commercial reforestation in
their range the future possibilities of
injury from rust are not less than por-
tentious
The white pine blister rust was in
troduced into the northeastern states
trees from Europe twenty years ago.
If eradication in the eastern white pine
forests, extending through the north
ern states from Minnesota to Maine,
is now considered impossible, fighting
it being confined to the protection of
individual stands by the eradication of
all currant and gooseberry bushes
growing among the trees or within 900
feet of them. In Europe the rust has
long since prevented the growing of
the white pine as a forest bill. In
some of the New England forests as
many as three -fourths of the trees are
already infected. Every infected tree
is doomed, young ones succumbing
rapidly and older ones holding out for
a number of years.
The war against the white pine bis
ter rust has become one of the most
important activities fthe department
Of agriculture, as many as $50 persons
being employed in various phases of
the work, to say nothing of the local
in the various affected
states. The cost of graduating the
host bushes has now been reduced to
about 35 to 40 cents to the acre In
the pest has become so
obstructive lldl III lle late senatorial
there, Col. CASTOR, the dem
ocratic candidate, made advocacy of
larger federal appropriations and more
extensive measures against it one of
his 'planks."
Wholesale Cutting May Be Necessary.
Should the rust get we'll into the
Idaho forests there will be nothing
for the lumbermen to do but to cut
The timber as rapidly as possible in |
order to save the lumber before it is |
90 late. This will naturally result in /
, widespread disturbance of the whole |
western pine lumber industry. whe- !
her white or yellow, as it will be i'm /
possible for lumbermen in the i'm
hume or non-infeeted districts TO com
'ete with the forced, wholesale mar
.eting of Idaho pine. Then when Ida
10 is cleaned up. they will have to face
like fate themselves. This is the
ossible outlook sketched by Dr. E. p
1einecke, pathologist of the bureau of
liant industry, in emphasizing the inn
ortance of the Portland conference,
he outcome of which he says, twill
ave a decisive influence on the future
Pacific coast pine forests and the
inc lumbar. industry