BLIGHT OF CHESTNUT AND THREE EUROPEAN OAKS 
A. INTRODUCTION 
1. Chestnut blight, caused by the fungus Endothia parasitica, is 
a disease of Asiatic origin. This disease was first reported at 
New York City in the United States of America in 19064. It spread 
rapidly through the abundant native American chestnut stands and 
has now destroyed all chestnut timber in a vast area extinding from 
Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The chestnut blight fungus is also 
seriously attacking and killing many trees of one important 
American oak, the post oak, Quercus stellata. 
2. In Europe, chestnut blight is now widely distributed in Italy 
and is also present in Tessin Province, Switzerland. The disease is 
rapidly killing European chestnut in the affected areas and is 
Spreading into new areas. In Italy, the blight is also killing some 
trees of Quercus pubescens and is attacking trees of Q. sessiliflora 
and Q. ilex. How soon the disease will spread into and kill the 
chestnut growth in other countries and damage the oaks is difficult 
to forecast. Its spread may be very materially delayed by quaran- 
tines and eradication of advance infections. Complete destruction 
of the chestnut and damage to the oaks can be expected in each 
country where the disease becomes established. As the chestnut 
and affected oaks play an important part in the forest and food 
economy of many European countries, the situation is very serious. 
3. Because I had had many years of experience with chestnut 
blight in the United States, the Office of European Economic Co- 
operation made arrangements for me to spend several months in the 
late summer and fall of 1950 visiting six European countries and 
Turkey, advising on the chestnut blight problem. Conferences were 
