230 



^vIlile as before stated it showed over 40 per cent, of lime. Is 

 ii, not a remarkable thing to realize that a chestnut tree wants 

 120 times as much lime lor its composition as it does of potash? 



Another fact from the manufacturer's costly experience with 

 the lime in extract liquors is the expense it costs him to keep 

 the oxalate of lime which is leached from the wood from coat- 

 ing up the copper tubes in the evaporating apparatus, or vacuum 

 pans as they are called. Oxalic acid has a powerful affinity for 

 lime, and it is used as a test in the chemical laboratories to 

 detect the presence of lime in a solution. In the boiling down 

 process the lime combines with the oxalic acid in the tan liquors, 

 and it is precipitated as oxalate of lime, and coats the 4,500 

 tubes of the evaporating apparatus with a coating which has 

 to be removed by hammering it loose. Acids that will eat the 

 lime off the copper tubes will also eat the copper of the pans, 

 so mechanical and other means must be used to keep the tubes 

 free. It is no small job to do this; and wliile the constant 

 presence of lime in chestnut tan liquors is one of the drawbacks 

 to evaporating liquors economically, the fact of the presence 

 of lime in the liquors is regarded as a good sign of plenty of 

 tannin in the wood. 



Now the writer has little or no scientific knowledge of the 

 chestnut blight, further than having seen it and being able to 

 recognize it in the woods, but would suggest for your further 

 thought and consideration, the supposition that it is due to a 

 lack of lime in the soils in which such blighted wood is grow- 

 ing, and that a blighted tree is simply a tree that is in the pro- 

 cess of being starved to death for lack of lime. If this is true 

 then blighted wood will be found on soils that are known to 

 lack in lime, and on the contrary the soils where the chestnut 

 tree attains its greatest size and age will be found on analysis 

 to be composed of a considerable proportion of lime. 



The map shown in this convention which outlined the area 

 in which the chestnut blight is at its worst, shows the worst 

 affected area to be in the vicinity of New York City, Long 

 Island, portions of Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware. 

 No doubt nearly all who attend this convention know of the 

 palisades of the Hudson, and how little lime such a weather 

 resisting rock is likely to have. The sea sands of New Jersey, 



