CHESTNUT TREE BLIGHT. 11 
forestry which can be used to control the disease. Two methods of 
checking its spread and lessening the source of the infection are 
available: 
1. To cut out the diseased trees. 
2. To mstitute a quarantine against the shipment of infected 
material. 
In a forest tract the diseased trees should be cut outright—all 
trees which show the least sign of infection should be removed. In 
other situations, where the trees have a peculiar value, it may be pos- 
sible to save them by cutting off the diseased parts only; but if the 
trunk of a tree is attacked, the whole tree, no matter how valuable it 
is, should be cut at once, for it is practically useless to try to save it. 
Since the disease penerelly spreads less rapidly in dense stands than 
in thin ones, it will often be possible, by close inspection and the 
pew removal of infected trees, to stamp out the disease altogether 
om a forest tract. For the same reason, however, if many diseased 
trees are to be removed and their removal would make the stand 
very open, it will often be better to make a clean cut of all the chestnut. 
All diseased bark should be removed and burned. After that is 
done the wood is practically free from infection and can be used or 
stored with safety. 
Even greater effort should be directed toward preventing the 
spread of the disease to localities which are as yet unaffected than 
to stamping it out in places where it already has a firm hold. 
For this reason definite legislation seems necessary, and it is very 
desirable that each State concerned should enact a law providing for 
a quarantine against infected chestnut products, chiefly nurser 
stock. The law should also provide for systematic and thoroug 
inspection of the disease and require the cutting out of infected trees 
wherever they are a menace to healthy stands of chestnut. 
The nature of the disease and the necessity of fighting it should 
be made known to the people throughout the region affected by 
means of the press and by enlisting the aid of the granges and other 
organizations interested. wort : 
it is to be hoped that some natural limitation to the destructive- 
ness of the. disease may be found and that it may be checked by 
natural causes. But its rapid spread and its great virulence make 
waiting dangerous. Prompt and energetic measures should be 
taken to stamp it out wherever 1b appears. 
