PRESENT STATUS OF CHESTNUT BARK DISEASE. 49 
RESTRICTION OF SPREAD. 
HOW THE FURTHER SPREAD OF THE BARK DISEASE MAY BE LIMITED. 
By THE INSPECTION oF DiseaAsED Nursery STocK. 
It becomes more and more evident as this disease is studied that 
diseased nursery stock is the most important factor in its spread to 
distant points. In that part of the country where it is already well 
established in the native chestnuts its progress is rapid and sure, 
but there is no evidence at present that it is able to pass to remote 
districts, tens or hundreds of miles away, except on diseased nursery 
stock. Of course it is conceivable that the spores are carried by 
birds. Such distribution would, however, follow in general the great 
lines of bird migration north and south and hence would not be an 
important factor in the western spread, except locally. During the 
summer of 1908 nearly every chestnut nursery and orchard of impor- 
tance in the Atlantic States north of North Carolina was visited, 
and very few were found free from the bark disease. Several 
cases were observed where the disease had obviously spread from 
the nursery to adjacent wild trees. This is the only way in which 
the disease is likely to spread beyond the Alleghenies. 
It is therefore obvious that every State in which the chestnut or 
chinquapin grows should as speedily as possible pass a law putting 
the chestnut bark disease on the same footing as other pernicious 
diseases and insect pests, such as the San Jose scale, against which 
quarantine measures are taken. The Department of Agriculture 
will be glad to give detailed suggestions or advice regarding the 
framing of such laws. Inspectors who already have legal power to 
quarantine against this disease should now take special care that 
no shipment of chestnut stock escapes their rigid inspection. 
A campaign of education should also be undertaken by patholo- 
gists and inspectors in every State in order to acquaint the public 
with the nature and appearance of the bark disease, so that it may 
be quickly recognized and stamped out in any particular locality in 
which it appears. The Department of Agriculture will cooperate in 
the following ways: Specimens from suspected trees sent in by any 
person will be promptly examined and the presence or absence of 
the disease reported. Typical specimens showing the disease (with 
the fungus previously killed by soaking in formalin to insure against 
any infection from this source) will be sent upon application to 
any inspector, forester, pathologist, or other State or experiment sta- 
tion officer, to any nurseryman or orchardist growing chestnuts, 
or to any botanist or teacher of botany. So far as the supply per- 
mits lantern slides and photographs will, upon application, be loaned 
for special lectures, exhibits, etc., to the officers of States, experiment 
141—y 
