WORK OF THE CHESTNUT FUNGUS 

 Trees Killed by the Disease which Is Rapidly Destroying the Chestnut Timber of the East 



pustule, the size of a small pea, yellow- 

 ish in color, may enclose several tiny 

 flasks with long necks opening on the 

 outer surface. These flasks are lined 

 with a number of sacs, each containing 

 eight spores. It would take about 500 

 of these tiny sacs to measure one inch, 

 if placed end to end. About 3,000 of 

 these spores, end to end, would meas- 

 ure one inch. These sacs filled with 

 spores are the resting stage and carry 

 the parasite over the winter months. 

 Early in spring innumerable spores, of 

 another kind and size, are produced in 

 long thread-like masses directly from 

 the mycelium threads. A partition is 

 thrown across the end of a thread and 

 it becomes a spore. Thus spore after 

 spore is produced from the same thread 

 by a process called "abstriction.'' The 

 sac spores are fertilized spores and the 

 second kind of spores are the asexual 

 ones. There are two distinct kinds of 

 spores, different in origin, but the same 

 in power, each kind capable of produc- 

 ing a new plant. Spores are produced 

 by countless millions. 



Geographical distribution. — In Octo- 

 ber, 1907, woodchoppers were set at 

 586 



work to cut down all the chestnut trees 

 in Prospect Park in the city of Brook- 

 lyn, N. Y. The park has an area of 

 516 acres, of which about no acres 

 are natural woodland. During last 

 winter over 1,400 trees were felled and 

 cut into cord wood. Brooklyn has an- 

 other park on its eastern border of 536 

 acres, most of which is natural wood- 

 land, and there are in it from 3,000 to 

 5,000 chestnut trees — many are dead 

 and probably not one can be saved. 

 The writer delivered an address to 

 the students in the State Normal School 

 at Trenton, N. J., on Arbor Day, May 

 I, 1908, and an examination of chest- 

 nut trees in the vicinity of Trenton 

 gave ample proof of the ravages of the 

 Diaporthe parasitica. On Staten Island, 

 on property adjacent to Sailors' Snug 

 Harbor, the disease exists in malignant 

 form. From personal inspection of the 

 forests in the northern part of Som- 

 erset County, New Jersey, and also 

 Morris County, very many of the chest- 

 nut trees were badly infected. In the 

 localities examined in these two coun- 

 ties, the chestnut growth was very abun- 



