CHESTNUT BARK DISEASE. 409 
since that time I am convinced that there must be some other 
cause, for the tree continues still to die up to the year 1845, 
and if the disease is not arrested, in a few years I fear it will 
be entirely exterminated.” 
1856. Following is a letter from Professor G. W. Hilgard, 
received October 25, 1909 (similar observations by him have 
been recorded by Dr. Rumbold in Science, Vol. 34, p. 917): 
“Your paper on the chestnut disease in New England reminds 
me of some old observations of mine made in the state of 
Mississippi in 1856. Traveling in the pine hills of northeastern 
Mississippi, I noted that of the small percentage of chestnut 
trees: among the pines only a few were living, the great 
majority, mostly very large, tall trees, dead and decaying. On 
inquiry of the inhabitants, I found that this deadening had 
occurred lately, and they were at a loss to account for it. To 
my question why so many were charred at the base, the reply 
was that when the boys wanted to make a fire for nooning, 
they made it against these trees because they burned easily. 
The trees had not been killed in that way, but had died ‘of 
their own account.’ No other kind of trees seemed to be 
diseased. It was distinctly a dying off of the chestnut. alone, 
and it extended far into Alabama. .It would be interesting to 
know whether the results of that epidemic have been permanent, 
or whether a new growth has come since the time I saw it. If 
the Diaporthe disease existed in Mississippi, the presumption is 
that it extends or extended all along the western Alleghany 
slopes, and has perhaps reached the Atlantic Coast only recently.” 
1856. This note was found in The Horticulturist, 1856, p. 97: 
“All the chestnut trees throughout Rockingham County, North 
Carolina, and the surrounding counties have died this season.” 
1855-75. The following references are taken from an article 
on Statistics of Forestry in the U. S. Dept. Agr., 1875, p. 262, 
and are concerning chestnuts in the southern belt: “In several 
localities chestnut for some undiscovered reason appears to be 
dying out.” Under notes on forestry conditions in Henry 
County, Va., is the following statement: “Chestnut has been 
dying out for years, and there are fears that it will become 
extinct.” Concerning Elbert County, Ga., is the following: 
“The forests are a mixture of almost all kinds, but chestnut 
during the last twenty years has nearly died out.” Under 
