52 PRESENT STATUS OF CHESTNUT BARK DISHADL. 
already girdled the trunk. If such is the case it will be a waste of 
time to attempt any treatment; instead, cut the tree down at once. A 
rigid watch must be kept, especially during the growing season, for 
new infections or infections which were overlooked in the earlier ex- 
aminations, and if any are observed they must be treated promptly, as 
above mentioned. Constant vigilance is necessary to keep the disease 
in check. It is suggested that examinations be made about June 1, 
July 15, and September 1. During a very rainy or foggy season, 
when conditions are particularly favorable for the growth of fungi, 
it may be advisable to inspect as often as once a month. 
In regions in which the disease is so widespread that almost every 
tree is infected, as, for instance, within 25 miles of the city of New 
York, it is extremely doubtful whether any individual treatment will 
pay. Under such conditions immediate reinfection is almost sure to 
occur at one or more of the small unnoticed abrasions or injuries 
which are quite certain to exist on most trees. In a region, however, 
where only isolated cases have yet appeared it is quite possible to 
stamp out the disease, or at least to prevent its rapid spread, by 
promptly cutting out and carefully burning all diseased bark and 
limbs, thus destroying these new sources of infection. If a tree is 
too badly infected to be worth treating it should not be left standing, 
for it will then become a continual menace to all surrounding chest- 
nuts. 
The Office of Investigations in Forest Pathology asks the cooper- 
ation of all persons who have observed the disease or experimented 
with it in any way. If such people will send in an early report of the 
kind of treatment used, time of treatment, methods employed, and 
results obtained (even if adverse), it may be possible to arrive at an 
earlier and more definite conclusion in regard to the possibilities or 
impossibilities of control than would otherwise be the case. 
CONCLUSIONS. 
It is to be hoped that in the economy of nature some limiting fac- 
tor will arise to check the spread of the bark disease before it has 
wrought the same destruction throughout the country that it already 
has in the vicinity of New York. But at present there is nothing in 
sight that promises even remotely to check its spread into new ter- 
ritory except the general adoption of the measures advocated in these 
pages. It can not be argued that because of its apparently recent 
origin and rapid spread it will soon disappear of itself. Such dis- 
eases as pear-blight and peach yellows have been in the country for 
more than a century and yet show no sign of abating except when 
actively combated by modern quafantine methods. Nor can any 
conclusions be drawn from the fact that chestnuts in the Southern 
141—y 
