37 2 CONNECTICUT EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT, 1912. 



state, and in February, 1912 (12), it had been found in 164 

 out of 168 towns of the state. Since that time it has been 

 reported in the remaining four. 



We have no doubt that a careful examination would have 

 revealed the blight's presence in many of these towns much 

 earlier than it was first reported. There is no question, how- 

 ever, that it was much more conspicuous in Fairfield and New 

 Haven counties at first than elsewhere, and that to-day it is 

 much more prevalent west than east of the Connecticut River. 

 This is probably due to the fact that in the western part of 

 the state chestnut is more abundant than in the eastern half, and 

 also to the fact that the disease started earliest in the south- 

 eastern part of the state. We doubt very much, however, if it 

 has spread from a single infected locality in Fairfield County 

 through all the rest of the state, but hold rather to the idea 

 that it was present in a very inconspicuous way in a number of 

 localities scattered over the state, and has spread from these. 

 See Plate XXI. 



Manner of Distribution. Many persons believe that the chest- 

 nut blight started at some one locality in the region of New 

 York City and from there spread to all of the localities where 

 it is now known to occur. Maps issued from time to time by 

 Metcalf and Collins are based on this idea. Williams (54, 

 p. 198) has rather positively stated this in the following 

 quotation: "I would like to ask the gentlemen from around 

 the neighborhood of New York City whether if they had been 

 really active and alert and on the firing line when this thing 

 was discovered in 1904, might they not have accomplished some 

 real thing which would have redounded to the benefit of the 

 other states, as Massachusetts has done in her gypsy moth fight? 

 If instead of sitting down and nursing their hands in idleness, 

 and allowing the scourge to go on, simply because they could 

 not originate sufficient interest in their state, they had gone out 

 and done what they could, this thing would probably not have 

 come upon us." 



This view almost of necessity carries with it the additional 

 belief that the chestnut blight is of foreign origin, since if of 

 native origin there is little likelihood that the fungus would 

 have been limited to one locality; whereas if imported, it could 

 have spread from one center or even from a single tree. On 



