144 



THE CHESTNUT BLIGHT AND CONSTRUCTIVE CON- 

 SERVATION. 



By DR. RUSSELL SMITH, OF THE WHARTON SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY 



OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



"A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!" In these words 

 Shakespeare makes the defeated King Richard III express the 

 value of a certain piece of property, as he paced the field of de- 

 feat, seeking flight, not what the horse would actually cost in 

 the horse market; not what he would bring in the horse mark el, 

 was the basis of valuation, but what was going to happen to 

 Richard III if he had to go without him. 



On that basis I question if the estimates of the value of the 

 chestnut species have been placed anywhere near high enough. 

 The United States, with a big timber cut, is within from one to 

 three decades of an era of timber scarcity which will put us in 

 the position of having to go raise timber, rather than go find tim- 

 ber. In the timber-raising epoch the chestnut comes to the 

 front. Taken altogether it is for the next sixty years of this 

 nation a tree without a peer, for no other tree can touch it 'for all- 

 around efficiency. 



1. It grows rapidly. No other good tree of the forest can 

 equal it in the speed with which it makes wood. By the time 

 the wiiite oak acorn makes a baseball bat the chestnut stump has 

 made a railroad tie. Cut it down and it throws its shoots up 

 six feet the first year and keeps them going. This astoundingly 

 fast start, in connection with its record fast growth, makes it a 

 forest marvel. 



2. The wood of no other tree is so generally useful. It is dur- 

 able in the ground as posts, a quality which makes it a standard 

 telegraph and telephone pole, and a good railroad tie or mine 

 prop. It is durable above ground, giving it many virtues as lum- 

 ber. It is also a beautiful, prized, and much used wood for in- 

 terior finish. Lastly, it is full of tannin, so that any chip, top, 

 slab or scrap can be digested for this valuable manufacture. 



