RELATION OF INSECTS TO THE DEATH OF 



CHESTNUT TREES 



By a. D. HOPKINS 



In Chakgh of Forest Insect Investigations 

 Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



^^t^HE history of the discovery of the chestnut blight disease in this 

 K^ J country and its rapid development from a local to a State and Inter- 

 state problem is well known. The history of extensive dying of chestnut 

 throughout its range from Vermont to Mississippi and the relation of insects 

 and other factors to the primary cause is, however, not so well known. It 

 appears that there are a number of agencies of destruction other than this 

 new chestnut blight disease which must be taken into consideration and 

 investigated before the problem of protecting the chestnut can be solved. 



Investigations have shown that there must be other specific diseases and 

 we know that there are a number of insects which have been the direct or 

 indirect cause of the death of a large percentage of the chestnut over exten- 

 sive areas in which the new chestnut blight disease is not known to occur. 

 When we review the history of unhealthy and dying chestnut during the 

 past half century, it is surprising that there are any living trees left within 

 the natural range of the species. In fact, there are not many left in some 

 sections of the Southern States where it was abundant fifty years ago. 



reports during the last century 



We have the statement of Mr. C. F. Smith a resident of Stanley, North 

 Carolina, that in 1845 there was a large amount of healthy chestnut in the 

 State and that about that time it started to die very rapidly, that there was 

 considerable chestnut in 1865, but at present there is very little left except 

 on steep northern slopes. 



We find a note in Science of December 29, 1911, crediting a statement 

 to Professor Eugene Hilgard of Berkeley, Cal., to the efifect that he found 

 in the northeastern part of Mississippi, in 1856, that the chestnut trees of 

 that region, both young and old, were dead. 



In an appendix to a report of the Geological Survey of North Carolina, 

 1873, Mr. William C. Kerr, stated that "the chestnut was formerly abundant 

 in the Piedmont region, down to the country between the Catawba and 

 Yadkin rivers, but within the last thirty years they have mostly perished. 

 They are now found east of the Blue Ridge only on higher ridges and spurs 

 of the mountains." 



A correspondent at Sanford, Tenn., in a letter dated October, 1901, stated 

 that the chestnut was threatened with complete destruction in some parts 

 of the country, and that a timberman found on a 100-acre tract only one 

 living tree out of possibly 400. 



SSI 



