402 CONNECTICUT EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT, 1912. 



prime reason is their decreased vitality, which makes them easy 

 prey to their natural enemies." 



If the chestnut blight has no relation to the age or vigor of 

 the tree, it is certainly a curious coincidence that the blight 

 makes its first appearance and causes its greatest damage in the 

 regions where the chestnut has suffered most from repeated 

 cutting over. This is indicated by the two following statements. 



Nellis, of the United States Forest Service, in an unpublished 

 working plan on "Utilization of Blight-killed Chestnut," writes : 

 "It is expected that this study will show that the present range 

 of the chestnut bark disease is in a region of entirely second- 

 growth chestnut, which has been culled of its most valuable 

 timber, where only rough products are now being produced." 



Barrus, of New York (54, p. 160), says: "In those sections 

 of New York state where the chestnut disease is present most 

 of the marketable timber has been cut out. Fire has gone 

 through the remainder, and as a result, there is a great majority 

 of the chestnut which is sprout growth of small dimensions. 

 I should estimate that one-fifth of the chestnut is of merchant- 

 able size, and perhaps in the districts where the disease is, more 

 than four-fifths is under merchantable size." 



It has been our experience that young, especially isolated 

 coppice growth, has suffered first and most severely in Con- 

 necticut. We believe that these sprouts are naturally weak 

 and easily killed by drought, etc. On the other hand, very 

 large seedling trees have been the last to go with the blight. 

 We noticed also, in our inoculation work, that it was somewhat 

 easier to infect sprout growth than young seedling trees, and 

 that the cankers on sprouts developed more rapidly. 



In June, 1912, we examined a field where the Ansonia Water 

 Company had planted about seven bushels of chestnuts in 1908, 

 in 1909 had set out 6,900 one-year seedlings, and in 1910, 

 9,875 two-year seedlings. While many of these seedlings had 

 been killed by drought soon after they were set out, as shown 

 by the vacant places, we were able to find only two seedlings 

 that showed any signs of the blight fungus. Yet the woods 

 surrounding these trees were quite badly infected with the 

 blight. 



At one of the Connecticut nurseries, however, in September, 

 1911, we inspected about three hundred five-year-old American 



