221) 



CHESTNUT BLIGHT AND ITS POSSIBLE KEMEDY. 



By W. M. BENSON, NEWPORT, PA. 



In discussing the causes of the chestnut blight perhaps the 

 past experience of the extract manufacturers who make extract 

 for tanning leather, may be of assistance in pointing out the 

 proper remedy. 



The chestnut wood received at the extract factories was at 

 first supposed to be all alike in tanning strength, but costly 

 experience proved that wood from good, strong lime, shale or 

 limestone lands is far richer in tannin than wood from soils 

 that are rocky, sterile, and which contain little lime. This 

 difference is so marked that even the workmen in the leach 

 house at extract plants can tell when wood from a lime shale 

 or limestone region is being leached, simply by the unusual in- 

 crease in the strength of the li<]uors obtained from such wood. 

 Chemical analyses proved the same thing beyond all question, 

 that in order for chestnut timber to attain its full tannin 

 strength, it must grow on limestone or lime shale soil. This 

 is not a secret of the extract trade, but a trade fact that extract 

 manufacturers Avant the public to know, as it explains why 

 the extract manufacturer will take wood from one region, but 

 will refuse wood from some other locality, where analyses of 

 the wood, and practical results in the leach liouse show a wide 

 difference in the yield of extract per cord of wood. It pays 

 better to pay freight for long distances to obtain wood from a 

 lime shale or limestone region, than to buy wood that is closer 

 to the factory, but which has less tannin. 



An analysis of the ashes from the extract factory which was 

 made at State College in the Spring of 1911 shows that there 

 is over 40 per cent, of lime in the ashes. The analysis was made 

 with a view of selling the ashes for the potash they were sup- 

 posed to contain, but the result was surprising inasmuch as 

 the analysis showed about one-third of one per cent, of potash, 



