12 THe JourNAL oF HeErepity 
THIRD STAGE OF THE DISEASE. 
Most of the limbs have been killed, although the withered leaves may remain on them for 
some time afterward, and the bark may show few external symptoms of the disease. 
Sprouts are put out thickly at the base of the tree and in various parts of the top where 
there is still vitality. Any burs produced are dwarfed, but there is no evidence to prove that 
nuts from them are poisonous, 
trunk, or on the branches (figs. 2, 3, and 
4). Sprouts may appear below every 
canker on a tree, and there are often 
many such cankers. These sprouts are 
usually very luxuriant and quick grow- 
ing, but rarely survive their third year, 
as they in turn are killed by the 
fungus. The age of the oldest sprout, as 
determined by the number of its annual 
rings, is an indication of the minimum 
age of the canker immediately above. 
The annual development of sprouts 
from the base of a tree has been observed 
to continue for at least seven years 
after the death of the tree. If infection 
of these basal sprouts could be pre- 
vented, they would develop into a much 
better type of coppice than is usually 
seen, since they are well rooted in the 
ground. After the tree is dead the dead 
sprouts on the trunk, together with the 
(Figure 4.) 
scars left by cankers on the outer layers of 
wood, serve to show what killed the 
tree long after the bark has completely 
decayed and fallen away. 
The wood is not materially injured, 
and may be used for all timber pur- 
poses for which healthy trees might be 
used, provided the diseased trees do 
not stand so long after they are dead 
that they become sap-rotted and check- 
ed. This fact greatly facilitates the 
prompt destruction of diseased trees, 
which will do much to check the rapid 
spread of the disease, and in localities 
where such work is organized under 
State control, as in Virginia and West 
Virginia, may limit it entirely. If the 
course of the discase is not thus checked 
by human effort, the complete destruc- 
tion of the present stand of chestnut is 
a practical certaintv. This will be 
