CHESTNUT BARK DISEASE. 385 



W. O. Corning, of Marbledale, however, reports a worse 

 condition, as follows: "I sent two men this morning to cut 

 out my next winter's wood, and I found a very bad condition, 

 nine out of ten young trees about thirteen years old infected. 

 I was on the same ground last winter, but I found only half 

 as many diseased as to-day. Of my Japanese trees, a great 

 many of them will have to be cut down, and with the same 

 ratio of progress none will be left in three years." 



Ellicott D. Curtis, of Bantam, likewise sees no improvement, 

 as he writes: "In our own woods the blight is much more 

 conspicuous than last year, and is doing much greater damage. 

 Some of the infested woods were thinned last winter, and the 

 diseased wood taken out. This winter the disease is very 

 prominent in these, and it looks as if the chestnut would have 

 to be cut clean. It looks to me as if our chestnuts were com- 

 pletely doomed, although I have not so far been able to find 

 the disease in a small stand of trees about sixty years old." 



F. V. Stevens also takes a similar view: "At Torrington the 

 outlook is about as bad as it was here [Stamford] three years 

 ago, i. e., it promises to cause a total loss of all the chestnuts 

 in that vicinity." 



Middlesex County. Forester Moss found a single infected 

 tree in the state forest at Portland in March, 1910, and this 

 is the earliest date we have for the disease in this county. 

 Later examination, however, showed this infection to have 

 occurred probably as early as 1906. The disease was seen by 

 the writer at Middlefield and Middletown in March, and at 

 Chatham and East Haddam in July, 1911. The blight as a whole 

 is probably somewhat worse here than in Hartford County, but 

 not so bad as in Litchfield. We estimate 30 to 40 per cent, of 

 the chestnuts infected. Three persons report the disease worse, 

 and three no worse, in 1912 than in 1911. 



Mr. J. E. Doane, of Centerbrook, writes: "I find plenty of 

 blight in the chestnuts, more in the young than in the older 

 growth. I find about one-half of the twenty-year-old trees in a 

 tract that I have are either dead or diseased. I do not believe 

 that there is any chestnut about here that has escaped from the 

 blight, and think it has spread more in the last year than any 

 time before." D. Herdman, of the Wadsworth estate of Middle- 

 town, also thinks the trouble on the increase, as he says : "There 



