STATE WORK 



The Chestnut Bark Disease 



The Pennsylvania legislature at its last 

 session enacted a law providing for a com- 

 mission to investigate and combat the 

 chestnut blight, and appropriating $:i5,000 

 for the expenses of the commission, whose 

 members are to serve without pay, and a 

 further sum of $250,000, available on ap- 

 proval of the governor, for the perform- 

 ance of the duties required. The commis- 

 sion is made up of Winthrop Sargent, 

 chairman; Harold Pierce, secretary; T. N. 

 Ely, Samuel T. Bodine, and George F. 

 Craig. The commission has opened head- 

 quarters in Philadelphia and engaged as 

 its forester S. P. Detwiler, assistant pro- 

 fessor of forestry in the University of Min- 

 nesota. In a detailed account of the work 

 thus far done in the state, published in 

 Science, September 29, Deputy Commis- 

 missioner of Forestry Williams says: "In 

 order that valuable time might not be lost 

 while the organization was being perfected, 

 the Department of Forestry of the state 

 organized the outside work by sending men 

 first to an instruction camp and then start- 

 ing them out as scouts in lower York 

 County, to locate infection and report on 

 its prevalence. 



Reports from these parties are now be- 

 ing received daily. With additional par- 

 ties organized, York County will soon be 

 covered and the work will then continue 

 up the west side of the Susquehanna River 

 and westward along the Maryland line. A 

 large amount of preliminary work will be 

 done this year in the hope that the winter 

 work of taking down infected trees may 

 accomplish the desired end, preventing 

 further westward spread of the infection." 



In Massachusetts the disease has been 

 studied by Arthur H. Graves, a United 

 States government expert, who says in his 

 report to the state forester: 



"The chestnut bark blight has been 

 found in seventy Massachusetts towns. 

 The disease appears to be more general in 

 the south-central and southwestern parts 

 of the state. This is perhaps due to the 

 fact, that these portions are nearer to the 

 badly infested regions in New York and 

 Connecticut, and possibly also because on 

 the whole more chestnut occurs here than 

 in other parts of the state. In the south- 

 ern part of Berkshire county the disease 

 has already done a great deal of damage. 

 There is every reason to believe that if the 

 disease continues to spread as it has within 



the last half dozen years, it will ultimately 

 cause tremendous havoc in Massachusetts, 

 as it has already done in New York, New 

 Jersey and Connecticut." Supplementing 

 the report of Prof. Graves, Prof. Metcalf, 

 pathologist in charge of the bureau of 

 plant industry, U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, writes State Forester Rane that 

 "during the past summer the disease has 

 spread more than in all its previous his- 

 tory. Whatever is done in Massachusetts, 

 as well as in every other state north of 

 Virginia, must be done within the next 

 year. Otherwise we definitely face the is- 

 sue of the extinction of the chestnut tree. 



The methods of control already adopted 

 in New York and Pennsylvania are the 

 only practical methods that we know of 

 controlling the disease. These methods 

 are, briefly, the location and destruction 

 of the small advance infestations beginning 

 in that part of the state farthest away 

 from the center of infestation. We can- 

 not too strongly advise the eradication as 

 soon as possible of all advance infestation 

 of this disease in Massachusetts, beginning 

 in the eastern part of the state. It is prob- 

 ably already too late to save the south- 

 western part of the state by any method." 



An illustrated bulletin on the disease 

 for the information of the public has been 

 issued by the state forester. 



In this connection the following com- 

 munication to American Forestry from 

 Mr. T. L. Hoover of New iork is of in- 

 terest, as it offers a theory of a possible 

 underlying cause of the development of 

 this disease: 



"Never before in the annals of forestry 

 has disease wrought such havoc with any 

 species as has the chestnut-tree blight. On 

 Long Island, and in western Connecticut, 

 southern New York, and New Jersey the 

 scourge has utterly devastated the chestnut 

 forests. And the last Pennsylvania legis- 

 lature manifested its concern over the situ- 

 ation by appropriating one-quarter million 

 dollars to investigate and combat this fa- 

 tal and progressive disease. 



While the origin of the infection is a 

 mystery, and although its remedy remains 

 undiscovered, certain well known facts 

 suggest some reason for the complete and 

 overwhelming fatality of the blight. It is 

 significant that the habitat of the chestnut 

 along the Atlantic seaboard is co-extensive 

 with the earliest settled parts of America. 

 Thus from colonial times the species in- 



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