EFFECTS ON CHESTNUTS OF SUBSTANCES INJECTED 
47 
Alkali Metals 
In September the effects of an injection of lithium carbonate 1/20 G.M. 
were visible in the leaves three days after the injection started. The leaves 
nearest the point of injection were first affected, those furthest distant 
last. When the dilution was 1/200 G.M. or weaker, the leaves first affected 
were at the ends of the branches; in August they were those nearest the burs. 
Trees injected in late summer with a 1/20 G.M. dilution produced normal 
leaves in the following spring at the normal time, but after the leaves were 
full grown they gradually showed the characteristic lithium curling and 
spotting (PI. I, fig. A), although no more injections had been made in the 
trees. The other lithium salts acted in the same manner. 
What happened in the case of the lithium salts, happened to some extent 
with the other alkali metals (ammonium compounds excepted). Sodium 
solutions 1/20 G.M. in strength produced effects like those of the lithium 
salts; but when diluted to 1/200 G.M. they did not blotch the leaves or 
affect the young bark, so that the presence of unusual quantities of sodium 
in the branches could not be vouched for. Potassium salts behaved like 
the sodium. It was observed in October that the sodium-, potassium-, 
and ammonium-injected trees (i/ioo G.M. and 1/200 G.M.) generally lost 
the leaves on the ends of the branches near the burs first, and that this 
leaf fall was previous to the fall on the water-injected trees. The am- 
monium salts: chloride 1/200 G.M., carbonate i/ioo G.M., and hydroxide 
i/ioo G.M., also appeared to affect the leaves on the ends of the branches, 
causing them to drop; the sulphate 1/200 and 1/500 G.M. blotched the 
leaves. The normal growth of the trees was not seriously affected by the 
injection of the alkali metals. 
Heavy Metals 
Of the heavy metals injected, potassium chromate and bichromate 
and copper sulphate and chloride showed their effects most quickly. The 
chromates were more toxic and spread through the tree more quickly than 
the copper salts; the bichromate was more poisonous than the chromate. 
The leaves of the tree injected with the chromate solutions became 
affected in 48 hours. The veins of the leaves browned first, then the leaves 
curled upward, dried, and dropped off. New leaves formed, but they in 
turn fell. The dilution i/ioooo G.M. of potassium chromate behaved like 
the 1/20 G.M. copper salts. With the exception of those trees injected 
with this latter dilution, the trees of this series were almost bare in August, 
whereas samples of cankered bark have shown Ph values as low as 3.24, A Ph of 3.24 
represents an acidity about 23.7 times that of 4.8. When N/ioo and N/iooo alkalies are 
injected into the tree the acidity automatically increases very slightly as a kind of im- 
munity to offset the effect of the alkali. When larger quantities of N/io alkali are injected 
the sap becomes decidedly alkaline and the tree dies. The details of these investigations 
will appear later in the Journal of Agricultural Research." (C. Rumbold, M. R. Meacham 
and S. F. Acree.) 
