58 



quite resistant, although both the Japanese and the Chinese were far 

 from being immune. Quite recently Mr. Rock, explorer for the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, has brought a new chestnut from southern 

 CliiiLi for experimental purposes. Notwithstanding newspaper re- 

 ports to the contrary the possibilities of this chestnut in this country 

 apparently are unknown at the present time. Nobody seems to know 

 if it will stand our climate, resist the blight, produce worthwhile tim- 

 ber or fruit; nor is its name known, according to late advices that 

 have reached me. 



Some years ago the late Dr. Van Fleet made numerous crosses be- 

 tween the Japanese and the American chestnuts, the Chinquapin, and 

 otlier species and varieties. Personally, I have not been in very close 

 toucli witli Dr. Van Fleet's experiments. Doubtless some of you 

 know more about them than I do. Regarding these I will only say 

 ■it this time that the work begun by Dr. Vnu Fleet is being continued 

 by the Federal Bureau of Plant Industry, with Mr. G. F. Gravatt in 

 direct charge of the work so far as the Office of Investigations in 

 Forest Pathology is concerned. Mr. Gravatt is also testing out the 

 value of scions taken from seeminoly resistant native trees when 

 grafted on resistant stocks. 



Some years after the blight had destroyed most of the chestnut 

 trees in the northeastern states we kept getting reports from various 

 localities to the effect that the blight was apparently dying out. 

 Many of these reports came from sources that made us doubt their 

 value, but others came from more reliable sources. We have had op- 

 portunity to investigate a number of these reports and have usually 

 found that the statement that the blight was dying out was, in a 

 sense, strictly true, the reason beiugi tliat the chestnut trees were en- 

 tirely dead, except for sprouts. This fact naturally prevented the 

 disease from showing us as much as in former years. 



Some twelve years ago I noticed in Pennsylvania a sprout of an 

 American chestnut about an inch in diameter which had a typical 

 hyi3ertrophy of the disease, apparently completely girdling the sprout 

 at its base ; also a girdling lesion farther up on the stem. The hyper- 

 trophy was such a pronounced one and in other respects such a typical 

 example of the disease that I photographed it. A few years later I 

 was surprised to observe that this sprout had increased to more than 

 three times its former diameter and that the two diseased areas just 

 mentioned apparently had disappeared — at least they were no longer 



