CHESTNUT BARK DISEASE. 395 



And this has been the case with a number of investigators who 

 have laid winter-injury troubles largely or entirely to the 

 fungi which later became prominent on the winter-injured 

 tissues. One of the first problems the writer had in Connecticut 

 was to connect, as the cause, a Cytospora fungus found on 

 cankered bark of apple trees. We did not know as much about 

 winter injury then as now, and were using the agent that was 

 most evident at the time of the investigation, which occurred 

 some time after the winter-injured cankers were produced. 



As to the relationship of winter injury to the chestnuts 

 themselves, we have this statement by Murrill (45, p. 153), when 

 he first began his investigations: "It is possible that the con- 

 spicuous ravages of the disease about New York City are 

 largely due to the severe and prolonged winter of 1903-04, in 

 which many trees of various kinds were killed or injured." 

 Later, Murrill seemed to have given up this idea. Stone (Report 

 2 3 P- 57) a ^ so writes on this point: "The writer has been 

 informed by one who has had some opportunity to observe 

 this disease, that it appears to be less prevalent on high eleva- 

 tions than in the valleys. * * * It is, however, quite significant 

 that the Connecticut Valley region should possess such a large 

 amount of infection as compared with other sections. We have 

 noticed for some time that there is a difference in the degree 

 of winter killing occurring in valleys and high elevations in 

 this state. By far a greater amount of winter killing of trees 

 occurred in river valleys and on the lower elevations, the Con- 

 necticut Valley being especially notable in this respect. It is, 

 moreover, a significant coincidence that the chestnut disease 

 should make its appearance at about the same time that vegeta- 

 tion was so severely injured by the severe cold which occurred 

 during the winter of 1903-04 all over the northeastern part of 

 the United States." 



From the preceding discussion we have made it evident that 

 there was a general and severe injury of trees of various kinds, 

 resulting especially from the winters of 1902-03 and 1903-04 

 in New England and New York. We believe that the same 

 conditions would have been found true for at least New Jersey 

 and eastern Pennsylvania, had observations been made there 

 at that time. This winter injury took severest effect along the 



