degree of definiteness. The combined ranges of these oaks extend 
over a vast area in Europe and Asia Minor, from England and 
Portugal east into Russia and into Turkey. In most of these 
countries, these oaks are more important than chestnut. The fuel, 
lumber, and mast for animal feed that they supply are very vital to 
families in many areas. In many cases one or more of the affected 
oaks are mixed with other tree species that will take over the land 
if the blight should prove to be serious, but in other cases they 
grow in more or less pure stanas anc therefore the replacement 
situation is more serious. In some cases the land will become poorer, 
because it will revert to over-grazed pastures. 
C.THE BLIGHT ON CHESTNUTS 
T Chestnut blight was reported in the vicinity of Genoa, Italy, 
by Professor Paoli in 1938. It had undoubtedly been present there 
for a number of years. Serious infections near Udine in northeast 
Italy in 1940 and severe infections near Avellino in the ; southern 
part in 1943 indicate a rather wide distribution some 10 yearsago. 
The blight has increased steadily each year, extending into ad- 
ditional territory. The disease is also spreading rapidly in Tessin 
Province, Switzerland. 
8. Wherever I examined infected chestnut growth in Italy and 
Switzerland, I noted that the cankers indicated that the disease was 
steadily and rapidly increasing. There was very little indication 
of more resistance in European chestnut than one sees in American 
chestnut. The reports of Dr. A. Biraghi as to the condition of. these 
stands in 1949 indicated rapid increase of the disease. The degree 
of infection in some of the coppice growth varied considerably, but 
in general infection was Jess heavy than one would expect in 
comparable American chestnut coppice. The possibility of utilizing 
infected and dead coppice shoots as thinnings, and so of bringing 
part of the stand through to a profitable age, does not look promi- 
sing, but further observations are needed. 
9, Presumably the chestnut blight infection that I examined near 
Bilbao, Spain, on Asiatic chestnuts has now been eradicated by the 
Spanish authorities. These Japanese chestnuts were more severely 
affected by the blight than they are in the United States, but strains 
of Japanese chestnut vary considerably in susceptibility. Fortuna- 
tely, no stands of European chestnuts were growing near the in- 
fected Asiatic chestnuts; the one European chestnut noted within 
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