195 



the attempt to i3tay the disease will be abondoned, especially 

 when the main line of advance, which is now in nortliern Mary- 

 land, reaches the Potomac River. (Applause). 



MR. CASSELL, of Philadelphia: 1 wish to say to Dr. Murrill 

 that I will be glad any time to show him trees that have been 

 treated for two years and are alive to-day and apparently quite 

 healthy. (Applause). 



PROFESSOR STE\A'AKT: Mr. TMiairnian: I wish to speak 

 of two points mentioned by Professor Collins in connection with 

 the Washington experiment. I think that he has left the im- 

 pression that those points of infection discovered after June, 

 1911, could be regarded as new infections. Now, one of them, 

 which we examined, Pi'ofessor Collins says must have occurred 

 in 1910, and I quite agree with him that it occurred as early 

 as that, and perhaps earlier. That certainly cannot be regarded 

 as a new infection. Anoth(?r point: Professor Collins states that 

 in those two cases where the trees were cut and the stumps left 

 unbarked, that the disease has not reappeared. Perhaps he did 

 not put it quite that way ; I believe he said, "they are not now in- 

 fected." Now on the 30th of December last, when we examined 

 them (Dr. Metcalf, Prof. Collins and others being present), we 

 found the fungus on the bark of one of those stumps, and also at 

 the base of an adjoining tree, as stated in my paper. 



MR. I. C. ^VILLIAMS: Mr Chairman: I wish to direct the 

 attention of this Conference to the character of some of the 

 scientific investigation that is going on with respect to chestnut 

 blight disease. I think we have a right to know what some 

 scientists are doing, what they are saying and what they are at- 

 tempting to do. It is for that purpose, therefore, that T have 

 brought before you a copy of the report of the New York State 

 Museum, and I wish to read you a short paragraph therefrom. 

 On page 7 of that report it is written as follows : 



"While there (referring to a locality which was visited) 

 my attention was called to a diseased chestnut tree. It 

 was a young tree, Avitli sickly looking foliage and a few dead 

 branches. T1 was suffering from the chestnut bark disease, 

 caused l)y a parasitic bark fungus. Both branches and trunk 

 were affected by the fungus, the latter dead a few feet above the 



