CHESTNUT BARK DISEASE. 409 



since that time I am convinced that there must be some other 

 cause, for the tree continues still to die up to the year 1845, 

 and if the disease is not arrested, in a few years I fear it will 

 be entirely exterminated." 



1856. Following is a letter from Professor G. W. Hilgard, 

 received October 25, 1909 (similar observations by him have 

 been recorded by Dr. Rumbold in Science, Vol. 34, p. 917) : 

 "Your paper on the chestnut disease in New England reminds 

 me of some old observations of mine made in the state of 

 Mississippi in 1856. Traveling in the pine hills of northeastern 

 Mississippi, I noted that of the small percentage of chestnut 

 trees among the pines only a few were living, the great 

 majority, mostly very large, tall trees, dead and decaying. On 

 inquiry of the inhabitants, I found that this deadening had 

 occurred lately, and they were at a loss to account for it. To 

 my question why so many were charred at the base, the reply 

 was that when the boys wanted to make a fire for nooning, 

 they made it against these trees because they burned easily. 

 The trees had not been killed in that way, but had died 'of 

 their own account/ No other kind of trees seemed to be 

 diseased. It was distinctly a dying off of the chestnut alone, 

 and it extended far into Alabama. It would be interesting to 

 know whether the results of that epidemic have been permanent, 

 or whether a new growth has come since the time I saw it. If 

 the Diaporthe disease existed in Mississippi, the presumption is 

 that it extends or extended all along the western Alleghany 

 slopes, and has perhaps reached the Atlantic Coast only recently." 



1856. This note was found in The Horticulturist, 1856, p. 97 : 

 "All the chestnut trees throughout Rockingham County, North 

 Carolina, and the surrounding counties have died this season." 



1^55-75. The following references are taken from an article 

 on Statistics of Forestry in the U. S. Dept. Agr., 1875, p. 262, 

 and are concerning chestnuts in the southern belt: "In several 

 localities chestnut for some undiscovered reason appears to be 

 dying out." Under notes on forestry conditions in Henry 

 County, Va., is the following statement: "Chestnut has been 

 dying out for years, and there are fears that it will become 

 extinct." Concerning Elbert County, Ga., is the following: 

 "The forests are a mixture of almost all kinds, but chestnut 

 during the last twenty years has nearly died out." Under 



