37 8 CONNECTICUT EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT, 



Cultures have been made from all these specimens and from 

 a specimen of black oak, Quercus velutina, sent by Detwiler 

 from Pennsylvania, and all have shown the characteristic growth 

 of the blight fungus as distinguished from Endothia gyrosa, 

 which also grows on oak in the South. However, in none of 

 the cases so far reported does the fungus seem to have been 

 an aggressive parasite on oak. We doubt very much if it ever 

 will produce any serious trouble, since the oaks are hardier 

 than the chestnuts, and have not been deteriorated through 

 sprout renewal. 



DAMAGE AND LOSS ALREADY CAUSED. 



Character of Damage. The injury caused by the blight 

 fungus to the wood of the chestnut tree is not considered to 

 be very important. Lumber, poles or ties cut from recently 

 killed trees are not distinguished, as a rule, from those taken 

 from perfectly healthy trees, and no data have yet been pro- 

 duced to show that they are in any way inferior. This is 

 because the fungus limits its attack to the bark, and the super- 

 ficial layers of sapwood. After the death of the tree, the 

 mycelium does not, apparently, form any progressive decay or 

 deterioration of the wood. 



If the blight killed only the old trees ready for marketing 

 the damage would not be very great. Loss arises in part from 

 the irregularity of its attack. Each season some trees die, 

 thereby making cutting and marketing inconvenient. The 

 market is often glutted so that they cannot be disposed of to 

 advantage. Further loss may arise in the deterioration of the 

 dead trees if they are not cut soon after death, through decay 

 started by other fungi and by insect depredations. 



The situation in Stamford, Conn., was shown in 1909 by 

 Morris (42), as follows: "Millions of feet of fine chestnut 

 timber, valuable for planking, piles, telegraph poles and cord- 

 wood, will be lost within the next two years. Right now the 

 blighted trees are still good for cutting purposes. I tried to 

 dispose of about one thousand chestnut trees, but could not 

 find a purchaser. All my neighbors are in the same predicament. 

 'No market/ is the regular reply to all my letters asking dealers 

 if they handle wood of any sort. Forty or fifty cords of hard 

 wood were rotting on the ground last autumn because I could 



