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THE POSSIBILITY OF A MEDICINAL REMEDY FOR 

 CHESTNUT BLIGHT. 



BY DR. CAROLINE RUMBOLD, IN CHARGE OF THE PENNSYLVANIA 

 CHESTNUT TREE RLKJIIT COMMISSION'S LABORATORY. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: Although in the pro- 

 gramme, the title of my remarks has been given as the possibility 

 of a medicinal remedy for chestnut blight, I much prefer to con- 

 tine myself to a question of medicinal treatment as I believe it 

 would limit me too much were I to try to discuss a remedy, a 

 cure-all, one might say, when we have only started to work out 

 the problems in the case. My main task is to attempt to find the 

 relation between the chestnut tree and the fungus which causes 

 its death; consequently my work is with individual trees. 



The question of medicinal treatment should be considered 

 broadly from two sides. Firstly, the side of securing better 

 health conditions for the chestnut trees, in order that they may 

 have the ability better to resist the disease. This we will call 

 preventive treatment. Secondly, the aspect of curative treat- 

 ment. 



Under the first heading come the details of water, food, light, 

 in other words, matters of environment. As for water, there is 

 the question as to whether or not droughts of recent years are 

 partially responsible for the spread of the disease in the chestnut 

 tree. I am now conducting experiments in which chestnut trees 

 are being exposed to infection under varying conditions from dry- 

 ness to excessive moisture, both of atmosphere and soil. These 

 experiments may also throw some light on the report that the 

 blight spreads rapidly where trees are in a crowded coppice, 

 while trees growing on the ridge of a hill are uninfected. 



In the matter of food, various fertilizers are being subjected to 

 tests on growing trees. 



I am about to start a series of experiments in which young 

 trees are to be grown in solutions of different chemicals, with 

 the object of hastening the growth of the bark, or of increasing 



