398 CONNECTICUT EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT, 1912. 
the state has been dying out a few trees at a time. * * * Trees 
in the hollows and.on cool north slopes and on land where a 
moderately dense shade and soil cover exist have not been 
affected. * * * The dying off of the trees is certainly not 
due to the chestnut bark disease.” Local conditions such as 
outcrop of rocks, depth and. character of soil, water table, 
presence of streams, exposure, etc., are all factors in the regula- 
tion of soil moisture,* and are not always easily determined by 
superficial examination. We do know that the blight often 
acts quite differently with these conditions varying in the same 
vicinity. : 
It is. often hard to distinguish drought injury from winter 
injury, as trees that have suffered from severe droughts with- 
out much outward evidence of the trouble often succumb dur- 
ing the following winter, and winter injury is given the entire 
blame. This was well illustrated after the drought of 1911, 
by a:number of fine large chestnut trees on the Experiment 
Station grounds. The drought of 1911, following the pre- 
ceding dry years, was very hard on certain of these trees, as 
the rock in spots comes very close to the surface. The result 
was that, following the winter of 1911-12 they were seen to 
be very badly injured at their base, the dead bark in some cases 
almost entirely encircling the trees. On one tree this dead bark 
ran up the side for a considerable distance. A. little of the 
blight fungus showed on these injured areas shortly afterward, 
but it was entirely a secondary factor. 
There can be no question whatever that these droughts have 
injured various trees; and there is no getting around the fact 
that the blight has been more prevalent because of these 
droughts, and seems to have gotten the credit for injury to the 
chestnuts that is in part due to the droughts. Most persons 
admit that drought has injured and killed many trees other 
than the chestnut, yet are reluctant to concede that anything 
but the blight is responsible for the death of the latter. The 
injury by drought is well illustrated by the death of trees in 
* We understand that, due to the installation of a large water reservoir 
in the southwestern part of Long Island, the water table of the surround- 
ing region has been lowered considerably. This in turn has severely 
affected the forest trees, among which are many chestnuts. The blight is 
quite bad in this region. 
