treatment is apt to seriourily weaken the tree. Before the work begins, 

 a careful inspection of the diseased areas should be made. B^in 



at the base and thofou^hly exainine all portions to the tips of the 

 branches, for signs of blight unless the base is badly diseased, when 

 it will be useless to attempt to save the tree. 



3. When the tree is in an unhealthy condition, due to borers or 

 wood rottiug fungi. Trcos having borer holes and bark wounds 

 present entrances for more spores of the blight and do not respond 

 to the treatment. 



4. In localities where the blight is very prevalent and where 

 little is being done to fight it. There is little hope of saving a tree 

 when there are many trees in the vicinity producing millions of 

 spores. 



FERTILIZERS 



It is believed that a healthy, rapidly gi-owing tree is less liable 

 to infection and will certainly recover better under treatment. It 

 is advisable to apply a fertilizer to the soil about the tree. The soil 

 should be treated a few feet further than is covered by the spread 

 of the crown of the tree. The fertilizer to be applied should contain 

 all the chemical elements in which the soil is deficient — nitrogen, 

 phosphorus, and potash are the most likely to be absent from or 

 deficient in the soil. A mixture of these three is advisable. The 

 following formula, which contains these three elements in readily 

 soluble form, is suggested : 



Per 100 square feet: 



4 oz. muriate potash (Potash-content 50%) 



13 oz. nitrate soda (Nitrogen-content 15%) 



14 oz. acid phosphate (Phosphorus-content 14%) 



Per Acre 



100 lbs. muriate potash (50%) 



330 "' nitrate of soda (15%) 



350 " acid phosphate (14%) 

 It has also been suggested that an alkaline condition of the soil 

 may have some favorable inHuence in checking the blight. As a 

 remedy, lump (fresh burned j lime should be used, in quantities of 

 about 9 lbs. per 100 square feet, or two (2) tons per acre. If used 

 with the above fertilizer, it should be applied either two weeks be- 

 fore or after — not at the same time. 



SUSCEPTIBILITY AND IMMUNITY 



All wild and cultivated varieties of American land European 



chestnuts seem to be susceptible to the blight, but not all to the 



same degree. So far as can be ascertained, pure strains of Chinese, 



Japanese and Korean chestnuts seem to be almost, if not quite, 



