These records offer a fairly complete and graphic history of the effort to control and eradicate white pine blister rust in Wisconsin. The disease was first discovered in Wisconsin in 1915 and by the 1930s the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and several federal agencies were engaged in a vigorous, systematic effort to survey the state's pine stands and to destroy the sources and carriers of the disease.
Boxes 1-2 contain the correspondence files of the state entomologist regarding white pine blister rust. The correspondence is generally between state and federal authorities and provides an interesting study of federal-state cooperation and also of the relatively primitive methods used in the early years of the battle against blister rust. These files are arranged alphabetically by correspondent and thereunder chronologically. Also included in Box 2 are semi-monthly crew reports for 1920 and 1921.
Box 3, “Control Studies,” consists of published and unpublished studies, reports, brochures, etc. on blister rust control in Wisconsin and elsewhere, 1922-1954, many from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Box 4 contains miscellaneous reports and correspondence, 1930-1945, and a folder of newspaper clippings, 1931-1958.
Boxes 5-21 contain annual reports on Wisconsin's blister rust control program in general (1916-1979) and also annual reports on specific areas of the state, including study plots, Indian reservations, and national forests. The reports for 1967-1971 also include reports on barberry eradication efforts. Photocopies of the pertinent segments of the Department of Agriculture's printed annual reports, 1916-1934, are also included. Several of the reports were generated by the federal government, and those identified as “North Central,” “Great Lakes,” “Northeastern,” and “National Forests” cover other states in addition to Wisconsin.
The logbooks in boxes 22-24 are arranged by administrative region—South, Northwest, and Northeast—and thereunder alphabetically by county and thereunder by town and range. They show survey dates, agency doing the surveying, acreage covered, plantings, ribes pulled, days worked, remarks, etc., for the 1930s-1970s. These logbooks contain the raw data from which the maps in boxes 25-29 were created. The maps are organized the same way as the logbooks (region, county, town and range) and are color coded to show control areas, protected and unprotected pine stands, and locations of pine and ribes known to be infected with blister rust.
The “Detail Records” in boxes 30-65 consist of field reports, maps (scale: four inches equals one mile), correspondence, and aerial photos from which were created the logbooks and maps described above. These records are filed alphabetically by county and thereunder by town and range. They are followed by similar records in boxes 66-69 for the national forests and Indian reservations in Wisconsin. These are arranged alphabetically by forest or reservation, thereunder by ranger district, thereunder by county, and thereunder by town and range.
