KEPORT FOR 1912 AND 1913 39 



that such investigations must necessarily be the basis for any well- 

 developed system of forestry. 



Beginning in 1906, forest surveys were carried on systematically 

 in the different counties to determine the area of the woodland, the 

 stand, the condition and the value of the timber, and to secure other 

 information that should furnish a careful inventory of our natural 

 forest resources. This work was completed in 1912, resulting in an 

 inventory of the forest resources of the State by counties. Indi- 

 vidual forest reports, accompanied by large-scale forest maps, have 

 been published for four counties, and reports for five other counties 

 are in preparation. While the large mass of data that has been 

 collected is not fully in published form, it is nevertheless available, 

 and furnishes the information so useful not only to the land owner 

 but to the timber buyer as well. Subjects of particular importance 

 have been taken up and careful studies made. Some of the specific 

 problems now being worked out are here indicated. 



Chestnut Baric Disease. 



The investigation made by the State Forester in 1911 to determine 

 the extent of the chestnut bark disease and the amount of damage 

 occasioned showed that it had spread very generally over the north- 

 western part of the State and was spreading southward and westward. 

 During the past summer, in connection with other work, parts of the 

 same areas were examined to determine how rapidly the blight had 

 spread during the past two years. In one large tract of approxi- 

 mately 10,000 acres in Cecil Qounty, containing a large per cent, of 

 chestnut, where less than 10 per cent, of the trees were reported as 

 dead or diseased in 1911, it was found in 1913 on the same area 

 that approximately 90 per cent, had been killed or were infected by 

 the chestnut blight. This is indicative of the rapid spread of the 

 disease in the northeastern section of the State. 



Another large tract in the Catoctin Mountains in Frederick County, 

 which in 1911 marked approximately the southern limit of infection, 

 was then found to have only a small per cent, of diseased trees, less 

 than 3 per cent. When this same area was examined again during 



