210 YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE, 1926 
Owners should make plans to utilize their chestnut poles before 
they are killed by blight, because killed poles will usually not be 
accepted by purchasers. Very severe financial losses have been 
suffered by many owners of standing poles, who failed to cut them 
before they were killed. Chestnut trees suitable for lumber should 
preferably be cut before they are killed, although such trees are not 
so much reduced in value as dead poles. To a limited extent chest- 
nut which has been dead for many years has been utilized for making 
tannin extract, but the yield of extract from a given area is much 
. reduced by the loss of 
sapwood and partial 
decay of the heart- 
wood. 
Future for Tanning 
Unpromising 
The future of the 
American chestnut as 
a source of tanning 
supplies is not prom- 
ising. In regions 
where the blight has 
been present for many 
years some trees, which 
are much more resist- 
ant to the disease than 
the general average, 
have been located, but 
still more resistant 
trees must be found 
before it will be possi- 
ESTIMATED DISTRIBUTION OF CHESTNUT BLIGHT 
& 40-00% of Chestnut Infected or Killed 
Ml Less than 80 % Infected 
ble to recommend their 
planting. . 
The hairy Chinese 
chestnut, however, has 
bes Botanical R fCh : 
otanical Range of Chestnut « 726 
Fig. 42.—Map showing distribution of the chestnut blight. 
In the eastern part of the heavily infected zone nearly 
all of the trees are dead, while on the western edge of 
this zone most of the trees though infected are alive. 
In the zone shown as less than 80 per cent infected, 
one PEECVHIBE? of infected trees ranges from less than 
0 
possibilities as a source 
of tannin because of 
its resistance to blight 
and its high tannin 
content. Analyses of 
this species made by 
the Bureau of Chemis- 
try and chestnut-extract companies show that its tannin content: is 
higher than that of the American chestnut. However, the growth of 
this tree in China and in a few plantations in this country indicates 
that it is not so good a forest tree as the American chestnut. 
_ Although America produces an excess of many farm products, 
it at present imports annually approximately 25,000,000 pounds of 
chestnuts as the domestic production from chestnut orchards is very 
small. This country also imports about one-half of the vegetable 
tannin supplies used in making leather, and with the passing of the 
American chestnut, whose wood yields approximately one-half of. 
our domestic production of tanning materials, the United States will 
