231 



Long Island, and the clays soils of the Connecticut Valley, 

 which are made up of the granite erosion of the White Moun- 

 tains, all yield but little lime. Granite soils yield potash, but 

 our analysis shows that our chestnut tree needs 120 times as 

 much lime as potash. It was brought out at the convention 

 that the place where the chestnut trees attained the greatest 

 age was in Eastern Tennessee, where they grew to the immense 

 size of six feet or more through. If you will take a geological 

 map of Tennesee, and look at the rock formation in the region 

 of Knoxville, you will be impressed with the large area of lime- 

 stone and lime shale outcrops in that region. Please note that 

 it was also stated in the Convention that there is no blight as 

 far as is now known in the whole State of Tennessee. If trees 

 can be shown there that are 500 years old and free from blight, 

 growing on a lime shale or limestone soil, it will go far to sup- 

 port our supposition that the blight is not so much a dread 

 disease that threatens to SAveep away our native chestnut trees, 

 as it is an evidence that blighted trees are merely trees that are 

 starved for want of lime in the soil on which the tree is growing. 

 It will not take over six weeks or two months to collect sam- 

 ples of soils from every state represented at the convention, 

 and analyze them. If the soil where the blighted trees are 

 growing show on analysis a low lime content, as against a 

 high lime content where the trees grow large, then we will know 

 almost-beyond the shadow of a doubt that the blight is most 

 likely to be caused by lack of lime, but in order to fully prove 

 the supposition, / would recommend that solutions of lime luater 

 he soaked into the ground thoroughly around trees known to he 

 affected toith the hlight, and soak the ground around the trees 

 as far as the branches ahove extend out. Soak the ground thor- 

 oughly for a, distance of two or three feet down, so that ever]! 

 root hig and little tmll get a little lime in solution in which shape 

 it is readily taken up hy the roots. Then spray the trees ahove 

 u'ith the Bordeaux mixture as well. The reason why I recom- 

 mend lime water solution soaked into the ground, instead of 

 scattering lime around under the trees is this: It is known 

 that the sap in blighted trees is sour; this sourness is not the 

 natural sourness of tannic acid, but an abnormal sourness; 

 therefore every little fibre and rootlet must be fed lime to cor- 



