8 BULLETIN 89, U. 8S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 7 
hae mm 6, 
The chestnut over this area originated mainly from seedlings, and, 
judging from the large annual increment, it made a healthy and _ 
vigorous growth before this trouble appeared. 
NUMBER AND CONDITION OF THE INDIVIDUAL TREES EXAMINED. 
The roots of 71 dead or badly diseased trees were examined. Of 
this number, 64 were chestnuts, 5 black oaks, 1 a chestnut oak, and 1 
a sassafras. Of the chestnuts, 55 were already dead and 23 of them 
had been blown down when the studies were made. This afforded : 
an opportunity to examine the condition of the roots. Nine of the 
living chestnuts studied were either dying or badly stag headed. — 
Chestnut trees of all sizes were found dead or dying. Of the 64 
chestnuts studied, 7 ranged in diameter from 4 to 10 inches, 23 from 
11 to 20 inches, 29 from 21 to 30 inches, and 5 had diameters greater 
than 30 inches. An occasional black oak was found dead or badly 
stag headed, especially when adjacent to the worst affected chestnuts. 
The chestnut oaks, however, seemed to be vigorous and in the best 
of health. Especially valuable data were obtained from a wind- 
thrown chestnut 38 inches in diameter, which had been living but 
was badly stag headed when blown down. This tree was blown down 
only 11 days before the data were taken. The condition of its roots 
and stool was, therefore, exactly the same as when alive. When this 
tree was overthrown, several of the most superficial roots were still 
alive, but all of the deeper roots were dead. The sapwood of the 
dead roots was white rotted and covered with a network of black 
rhizomorphie strands. This rot was gradually encroaching on the 
living roots and killing them. The tree stood on the top of a rocky 
red-clay ridge, with the bulk of its roots within 2 feet of the surface 
of the soil. 
All of the 71 trees examined had the ‘‘shoe strings”’ of Armillaria 
mellea on their roots. They were also found in a few instances ex- 
tending from 3 to 8 feet upward beneath the bark on both living and 
dead trees. As a rule, however, the rhizomorphs were inconspicuous 
and were confined mainly to the roots and stools of the affected trees. 
The area studied was very limited, and no attempt was made to 
examine the roots of a large number of living trees. The data given 
here are therefore too meager to justify any positive opinion as to the 
amount of damage done by this root-rot in North Carolina. How- 
ever, the prevalence and apparent destructiveness of this fungus over 
the area examined seem to point to it as very probably an important 
factor in the gradual recession of the chestnut in that State. If such 
an organism is at work, it would in a large measure explain the 
hitherto unexplained phenomena associated with this recession, 
such as the lack of reproduction from sprouts and the failure of the 
chestnut to reoccupy its former territory. A more extended investi- 
