] BN eee ss ee 
MereaLr: Tae Cnestnut Bark DISskAsE d 
A CHESTNUT GROVE IN CHINA. 
The Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima) 
horticulturists. 
(Ca has been cultivated for centuries by the Chincse 
This photograph, sent in by Frank N. Meyer, 
agricultural explorer 
of the United States Department of Agriculture, shows the low-branching, open-headed 
habit of the species. 
seen plainly. 
from the northwest corner of Susque- 
hanna County to the eastern border of 
Clearfield County and on to the south- 
west corner of Fulton County. West 
of this line the advance infections were 
cut out by the Pennsylvania Chestnut 
Tree Blight Commission. The disease 
has not yet been found in Ohio or 
Indiana. In general it appears to spread 
northeastward and southwestward, fol- 
lowing the direction of the ridges of the 
Appalachians, much more rapidly than 
westward, across the ridges and valleys. 
Scattering infections occur outside of 
this area. Of these, the outposts are two 
infections on planted chestnuts in 
Franklin and Androscoggin Counties, 
Maine, and one infection in a nursery in 
North Carolina. There is reason to 
suppose that the North Carolina in- 
fection, and an orchard infection in 
British Columbia, owe their origin to 
trees in 
Near San tun ying, province of Chili, June 1, 1913. 
Scars on the trunks caused by attacks of the bark discase can be 
(Figure 1.) 
The disease has not yet been reported 
from Europe, but its appearance there 
must be only a question of time. 
It is difficult to estimate the financial 
loss which the above distribution rep- 
resents, as we have no exact statistics 
on the value of standing chestnut tim- 
ber. The estimate of $25,000,000 made 
in 1911 as representing the loss up to 
that time was probably much too con- 
servative. But the total loss to date is 
insignificant compared with the loss 
which will ensue when the disease 
attacks the virgin chestnut timber of the 
South Appalachians. The bark disease 
has killed all the chestnut trees in those 
localities where it has been present long 
enough, and there is not now the 
slightest indication that it is decreasing 
in virulence or that the climate of any 
region to which it has spread is having 
any appreciable retarding effect upon 
f Insects which eat the pustules of the 
