13 



the locality revealed the fact that it had been swept by fire a year or 

 more ago and the under side of the limbs had been injured. The 

 fungus was merely doing scavenger work, and living upon decayed 

 vegetable tissue. Many times questions have been asked about the 

 horse chestnut, AEsculus hippocastanum. The common horse chest- 

 nut or buckeye is a near relative of the maple and is quite unlike the 

 oak, chestnut, and beech, belonging to the same natural "order, Cupuli- 

 ferae, from the fruit being contained in a cup or burr. Another 

 question, — is the chestnut oak immune? It is just as immune as any 

 other oak. Up to this date the writer has not found the deadly chest- 

 nut fungus on the chestnut oak, sometimes called rock oak, or Quercus 

 Prinus, L. Hundreds of the chestnut oaks have been examined and 

 altliough growing side by side with diseased chestnut trees, no case 

 of an infected oak has been discovered. 



The variety of chestnut called the Paragon, is. quite susceptible to 

 the disease. While the Japanese variety or species is not immune, 

 it is certainly more resistant than the native or the Paragon. In 

 one locality eleven Japanese chestnut trees were in a perfectly healthy 

 condition and bore abundance of fruit in the summer of 1908, although 

 in the immediate vicinity there were many native trees all badly in- 

 fected. Within one hundred yards of these eleven trees there was a 

 Paragon infected in several difl'erent places. In a nursery of twelve or 

 fifteen hundred J'oung Japanese chestnut trees, there weie many 

 young native chestnut seedlings from five to ten feet in height. It 

 v^as almost impossible to tind a native tree free from the infection. 

 On the other hand many of the Japanese were immune, yet on an ex- 

 tended examination some five or six of the Japanese were infected, 

 and under hothouse treatment developed a rich sujjply of spores. 

 Evidently an orchard of Japanese or Paragon chestnut trees can be 

 made profitable and the trees kept in a healthy condition with rea- 

 sonable care. 



ESTIMATED VALUE OP PEOPERTY DESTROYED. 



The statistics furnished by the United States government show 

 that for the year 1907 over 600,000,000 board feet of chestnut lumber 

 were cut. \'alued at |17 per 1,000 the total value would be about 

 110,000,000 for one year. Besides, there were over p,( 100,000 for 

 chestnut cross-ties. Much timber is used in the mines, and also 

 for fence posts and telegraph and telephone poles, and by cabinet 

 makers. The tanneries also use many cords of chestnut wood. The 

 market value of the nuts is no inconsiderable item. In 1908 it would 

 appear, the output of all kinds from the chestnut forests of the United 

 States would aggregate |22,000,000. Should the chestnut blight be- 

 come as prevalent and virulent as on Long Island, and advance as 



