378 CONNECTICUT EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT, I912. 
Cultures have been made from all these specimens and from 
a specimen of black oak, Quercus velutina, sent by Detwiler 
from Pennsylvania, and all have shown the characteristic growth 
of the blight fungus as distinguished from Endothia gyrosa, 
which also grows on oak in the South. However, in none of 
the cases so far reported does the fungus seem to have been 
an aggressive parasite on oak. We doubt very much if it ever 
will produce any serious trouble, since the oaks are hardier 
than the chestnuts, and have not been deteriorated through 
sprout renewal. 
DAMAGE AND LOSS ALREADY CAUSED. 
Character of Damage. The injury caused by the blight 
fungus to the wood of the chestnut tree is not considered to 
be very important. Lumber, poles or ties cut from recently 
killed trees are not distinguished, as a rule, from those taken 
from perfectly healthy trees, and no data have yet been pro- 
duced fo show that they are in any way inferior. This is 
because the fungus limits its attack to the bark, and the super- 
ficial layers of sapwood. After the death of the tree, the 
mycelium does not, apparently, form any progressive decay or 
deterioration of the wood. ; 
If the blight killed only the old trees ready for marketing 
the damage would not be very great. Loss arises in part from 
the irregularity of its attack. Each season some trees die, 
thereby making cutting and marketing inconvenient. The 
market is often glutted so that they cannot be disposed of ‘to 
advantage. Further loss may arise in the deterioration of the 
dead trees if they are not cut soon after death, through decay 
started by other fungi and by insect depredations. 
The situation in Stamford, Conn., was shown in 1909 by 
Morris (42), as follows: “Millions of feet of fine chestnut 
timber, valuable for planking, piles, telegraph poles’ and cord- 
wood, will be lost within the next two years. Right now the 
blighted trees are still good for cutting purposes. I tried to 
dispose of about one thousand chestnut trees, but could not 
find a purchaser. All my neighbors are in the same predicament. 
‘No market,’ is the regular reply to all my letters asking dealers 
if they handle wood of any sort. Forty or fifty cords of hard 
wood were rotting on the ground last autumn because I could 
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