12 



Tiiiv JOURNAL or IIkrhditv 



THIRD STA(;E of THE DISEASE. 



Most of the limbs have been killed, although the withered leaves may remain on them for 

 some time afterward, and the bark may show few external symptoms of the disease. 

 Sprouts arc put out thickly at the base of the tree and in various parts of the top where 

 there is still vitality. Any burs produced are dwarfed, but there is no evidence to prove that 

 nuts from them are poisonous. (Figure 4.) 



trunk, or on the branches (figs. 2,3. and 

 4). Sprouts may appear below every 

 canker on a tree, and there are often 

 many such cankers. These s])routs are 

 usually very luxuriant and quick grow- 

 ing, but rarely survive their third year, 

 as they in turn are killed Ijy the 

 fungus. The age of the oldest sprout, as 

 determined by the number of its annual 

 rings, is an indication of the minimum 

 age of the canker immediately abox'c. 

 The annual develo])ment of sprouts 

 from the base of a tree has been observed 

 to contintie for at least seven years 

 after the death of the tree. If infection 

 of these l)asal si)routs could be j^re- 

 vented, they would develop into a much 

 better type of coppice than is usually 

 seen, since they are well rooted in the 

 ground. After the tree is dead the dead 

 sprouts on the trunk, together with the 



scars left by cankers on the outer layers of 

 wood, serve to show what killed the 

 tree long after the bark has comjiletely 

 decayed and fallen away. 



The wood is not materially injured, 

 and may be tised for all tim])er pur- 

 poses for which healthy trees might be 

 used, provided the diseased trees do 

 not stand so long after they are dead 

 that they become sap-rotted and check- 

 ed. This fact greatly facilitates the 

 prompt destruction of diseased trees, 

 which will do much to check the rapid 

 s])read of the di.sease, and in localities 

 where such work is organized under 

 State control, as in Virginia and West 

 X'irginia, may limit it entirely. If the 

 course of the disease is not thus checked 

 by htiman effort, the complete destruc- 

 tion of the present stand of chestnut is 

 a i)ractical certainty. This will be 



