137 



THE CHESTNUT BLIGHT AND THE PRACTICE OF FOR- 

 ESTRY IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



BY DR. H. P. BAKER, PENNSYLVANIA STATE COLLEGE. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am glad indeed of 

 this opportunity of presenting a very informal paper, and I 

 wish you would consider it as an introduction to discussion only. 

 I feel like apologizing a little for presenting so short a paper. 

 In fact, I received a telegram in regard to it just as I was leaving 

 State College and have not been back to the College since, so 

 that what I have gotten together has been on the run and I am 

 afraid will not be facts entirely. 



The Chestnut Bark Disease (Diaporthe parasitica), which was 

 first observed in this country in 1904 in the vicinity of New 

 York, has now spread through the hardwood forests of ten to 

 twelve of the eastern States. Up to this time the loss from de- 

 struction of chestnut trees of all ages kas probably been more 

 than fifty million of dollars. (From Mr. Charles Marlatt, of the 

 Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture 

 in National Geographic Magazine). The chestnut, because of its 

 sprouting capacity, rapidity and vigor of growth, and the natural 

 durability of its wood, is one of the most valuable hardwoods 

 of our eastern forests. It is especially valuable for farmers' 

 wood lots, because of the simplicity of management necessary to 

 produce repeated yields of posts, poles and ties, and that within 

 a shorter time than possible with any other common hard wood, 

 or wood of equal value. The length of rotation for pro- 

 duction of posts and poles may be made so short, with proper 

 care and protection of the wood lot, that the ordinary cry of too 

 long an investment for profit will not apply to the growing of 

 chestnut under simple coppice. By simple coppice we mean the 

 cutting of the forest and its reproduction by sprouts from the 

 stumps. This method has been praticed by our wood lot owners 

 for a good many years. They have not called it simple coppice, 

 but it has been that just the same, and they have been practicing 

 ii very successfully indeed. 



