23. The blight organism attacks the nuts of American chestnut 
and eastern American chinkapins very readily. In one test, nearly a 
third of the nuts were infected. The only known blight infection so 
far reported in the State of Washington, on the Pacific Coast, was 
presumably the result of planting infected American chestnut seed. 
24. The Spanish authorities indicate that the blight was intro- 
duced direct from Japan to Bilbac, Spain, on Japanese chestnuts. 
We have made many fungus isolations from Japanese and Chinese 
seeds shipped from Asia to the United States but have not isolated 
the blight fungus in a single case. Blight is present in many 
plantings or orchards in Asia, but it is not so prevalent as in 
American or European infected areas. 
25. We have not conducted any isolation work with nuts of the 
European chestnut. Dr. A. Biraghi, of Italy, stated that he had not 
found the blight fungus on such nuts and that if it should occur he 
did not think that it would survive the treatments given most of the 
nuts going into the export trade. Opinions differ as to the probability 
of the blight being carried on nuts of the European chestnuts and 
experimenta! data on this subject are not available. 
26. In the United States, we found that infected bark fell to the 
floor of railroad freight cars used for hauling blighted extract wood. 
If the next load of freight happened to be rough material not re- 
quiring sweeping of the car, the infected bark might be carried a 
thousand miles before it was swept out along the railroad tracks, 
where it may become moist and produce spores, possibly resulting 
in an advance spot infection. 
27. Chestnut and oak wood used for boxes and staves in Europe 
sometimes have a little bark left attached. If the boards are from 
infected trees, the fungus in the bark and wood remains alive for 
months, and if the materia] becomes moist spores may be produced. 
There is also the possibility of the fungus being carried in the 
chestnut and oak sapwood without bark. The sticky spore stage is 
the only one found on wood. This stage was noted on sapwood of 
cut chestnut stumps in Italy. The probability of a piece of infected 
crating wood being left on the ground, where spores would be 
produced, and of these in turn producing infections on living trees 
is small, however. 
28. There is much greater possibility of spreading the blight from 
logs, poles, piling, mine props, and railroad ties of chestnut and 
oak. Small pieces of the inner bark are sometimes left attached, and 
15 
