Enpotuia CANKER OF CHESTNUT 535 
imported nuts are injured or killed entirely by our severe winters. It is 
doubtful whether five per cent of the imported European chestnuts live 
long enough to come into bearing, but stocks raised from seed of the few 
exceptional hardy trees which do flourish here are generally hardy, and in 
this way a strain of European chestnuts has been secured that is well 
adapted to the climate of the Eastern States. . . . Trees from nuts 
imported from France and Spain have been fruiting for at least a half 
century near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware.” 
These cultivated varieties are now being grown throughout the eastern 
and southern States, although the greater part of the chestnut-growing 
industry is confined tothe States of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, 
New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. 
There are two native American species of Castanea, C. dentata and C. 
pumila. Sargent ® gives the distribution of the forest species (C. dentata) 
as from ‘‘ southern Maine to the valley of the Winooski River, Vermont, 
and southern Ontario, along the southern shores of Lake Ontario to southern 
Michigan, southward to Delaware and southeastern Indiana, and along 
the Alleghany Mountains to central Alabama and Mississippi, and to: 
central Kentucky and Tennessee . . . . attaining its greatest size 
in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee” (Fig. 77, page 542). 
C. pumila, as described by Sargent,’ is found from southern Pennsylvania 
to northern Florida and west to Arkansas and Texas, is usually shrubby 
in the region east of the Allegheny Mountains and arborescent west of the 
Mississippi River, and is most abundant and reaches its largest size in 
southern Arkansas and eastern Texas. 
ECONOMIC VALUE OF CHESTNUT 
From an economic standpoint the American chestnut is by far the most 
important species. It is one of the main forest trees of New York, Con- 
“hecticut, Pennsylvania, and the Allegheny Mountain region southward 
to Alabama. The cut of chestnut comprised about seven per cent of the 
total amount of hardwood timber cut in the United States in 1910. In 
1907 the United States Bureau of the Census ® reports: “ Chestnut is 
a wood whose use for lumber has increased remarkably within the last 
few years. The total cut in 1907 was over three times as large and its 
total value over four and one half times as great as in 1900 
having a value of $11,130,547. . . . nearly one half of the total eit 
was reported by Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Tennessee. 
In addition to being largely used for lumber, much chestnut is also eu 
into posts, poles, rails, and cross-ties, and used in the manufacture of 
5 Sargent, C. S. Manual of the trees of North prec, pp. 220-222. 1905 
The lumber cut of the United States, 1907. U. S, Census Bureau, Forest Products, No, 2:1-53. 
1908, 
