THE CHESTNUT BLIGHT CAMPAIGN 179 



persons and organizations in fighting it, and these were followed by most 

 interesting discussions. 



Several able men expressed the opinion that it is merely wasting the 

 people's money to fight the blight when there is no certainty that the 

 methods employed would prove effective. On this point there were some 

 heated discussions, the men opposing it contending that no progress would 

 have ever been made in anything had it not been that optimistic men had 

 tried various plans for accomplishing the results desired. "Had we waited," 

 declared I. S. Williams, deputy commissioner of the State Forestry De- 

 partment of Pennsylvania, "until it was possible to build a perfect engine, 

 we would not have locomotive engines, trains and steamboats today." His 

 views were generally shared by a majority of the other delegates and it was 

 decided that any methods tried in an effort to eradicate the disease were of 

 benefit. Many, it was said, might prove failures, but they would show how 

 not to fight the blight, while there is always the possibility that the right 

 method would be discovered during the experiments. 



THE METHOD OF FIGHTING 



What has been most effective so far in the effort to check the disease 

 has been the cutting down of diseased trees as soon as they are discovered, 

 and the establishing of dead lines on the borders of land to which the disease 

 has spread. This has resulted in greater good than any other method and is 

 now being generally adopted. 



There were a number of advocates of cutting down, at once, every stand 

 of valuable chestnut timber in affected territory and marketing it, in order 

 to prevent the blight extending further, but it was pointed out that this 

 would be no assurance of the blight not appearing in other localities. 



As to the means by which the blight spreads opinions differed. Some 

 believe that woodpeckers, other birds and squirrels are the chief mediums 

 for distributing the parasite while the majority held that the spores are so 

 very light that particles of them can be carried long distances on a light 

 wind. The concensus of opinion was that the wind is a far greater aid in 

 the distribution of a blight than is any other medium. It was also admitted 

 that the holes which the woodpeckers bore in the trunks of trees in search 

 of grub worms permit easy ingress of the chestnut blight parasite, with the 

 result that it soon penetrates beneath the bark. 



Members of the Pennsylvania Commission urged the adoption of their 

 plan of preventing the spread of the disease. This is to at once cut down 

 and destroy any affected trees, and to as far as possible establish a dead 

 line and confine the affected area within it. This appears to be the only 

 plan at all effective so far in checking the blight. 



Members of the Commission also wanted the convention to know that 

 out of the State appropriation of $275,000 for investigating the disease only 

 a little over $20,000 has so far been spent. 



