THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
and Yehol. In it Mr. Meyer announces the sending of a 
small fragment of diseased chestnut bark. 
San tun ying, Chili Prov., China, 
June 4, 1913. 
Mr. David Fairchild, 
Agricultural Explorer in Charge, 
U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
Washington, D. C., U. S. A. 
“Dear Mr. Fairchild: 
Here I am sitting in a Chinese inn in an old dilapidated 
town to the northeast of Peking, between Tsun hua toho 
and Yehol and have been busy for several days collecting 
specimens of this bad chestnut bark disease and taking 
photos of same. It seems that this Chinese fungus is ap¬ 
parently the same as the one that kills off the chestnut trees 
in northeast America. I hope to send a cablegram through 
the American legation at Peking about this discovery to the 
Secretary of Agriculture. I am also enclosing a small piece 
of bark with this fungus on it. More material I hope to 
send off from Tientsin and Peking. Here are my main 
observations: 
This blight does not by far do as much damage to Chinese 
chestnut trees as to the American ones. 
Not a single tree could be found which had been killed 
entirely by this disease, although there might have been 
such trees which had been removed by the ever active and 
economic Chinese farmers. 
Dead limbs, however, were often seen and many a saw 
wound showed where limbs had been removed. 
Young trees and trees on level, poor soil were much more 
severely attacked than old trees or trees growing on richer, 
sloping soil at the base of rocks and hills. * * . * the 
wounds on the bigger majority of the trees were in the process 
of healing over. 
The Chinese farmers ascribe this disease to the working 
of caterpillars, grubs and ants, which are very freely found 
beneath the bark on these diseased spots on the main trunks 
and branches. 
To combat the disease they scrape the bark clean every 
winter or early spring. The strips of bark are all collected, 
tied up in bundles and sold as fuel. 
This Chinese chestnut does not grow to such sizes as the 
American one. Trees over 40 feet are rare. They are of 
low branching habits with open heads, more or less in the 
way of European chestnut {Castanea vesca). 
The lumber is hard but even a good sized tree produces 
relatively little good liunber. 
Old wounds are to be observed here and there on ancient 
trees. 
The maximmn age of this Chinese chestnut as seen in its 
native habitat seems to be between 250 and 300 years, but 
when that old they are already in decay. 
The tree is not a fast grower and does not begin to bear 
until 12 to IS years old. 
The soil best suited to these chestnuts is a warm, well 
decomposed granite, with perfect drainage, while as locality 
they love the lower slopes of hills and mountains, where they 
are well sheltered. 
The valleys and ravines in the lower altitudes of the 
Rocky Mountain regions would probably supply congenial 
localities for these chestnuts. 
This northern Chinese chestnut is not a lumber tree, but 
attempts might be made to cross it with the American species, 
trying to give the last one more hardiness and resistancy 
against disease. 
The nuts of this Chinese chestnut are not as large as those 
from the European and Japanese forms, but they are very 
sweet and are in great demand in China. 
The great chestnut district of north China lies in the 
mountain valleys between the town of San tun ying and 
the great Chinese Wall, 4 to 5 day’s journey by carts from 
Peking to the northeast or 1^2 to 2 day’s journey by carts 
from the railroad station Tang Shan on the railroad from 
Tientsin to Shan hai kwan. Most of the trees seen seem 
to be original growth, but also plantations have been made 
at the foot of the mountains and hills.’’ * * * 
A subsequent shipment of the diseased material, consist¬ 
ing of bark and diseased branches of the tree, a few mature 
burrs and nuts, was received July 23, 1913, and on August 
11 a number of convincing photographs of the diseased chest¬ 
nut tree. Full botanical material for identification of this 
particular species which Mr. Meyer has been asked to get 
has not yet arrived, and the burrs do not agree with the 
description of Castanea molkssima, Blume. The species 
collected by Mr. Meyer in the Pang shan region in 1907, 
which carries our S. P. I. number 21875, has been identified 
as Castanea molUssima, Blume. The region where Mr. 
Meyer discovered the disease is very close to the locality 
in the Pang Shan region, where he collected the nuts of 
Castanea molUssima in 1907, but it is impossible at this 
writing to determine with certainty the identity of this 
partially resistant Chinese species from San tun ying. This 
whole question will be discussed in a subsequent 
paper. 
Those better qualified, Messrs. Shear and Stevens, are 
describing in the current number of Science the various 
steps taken by them in corroborating Meyer’s discovery 
of the presence of the disease in China. It is interesting to 
note, however, that from the time Meyer cabled, June 13, 
until the complete link in the chain of evidence of the identity 
of the Chinese with the American disease, which included the 
discovery of the characteristic “mycelial fans,’’ the making 
of cultures which appeared identical, the producing of the 
disease in American chestnut trees by inoculation from the 
cultures, and the discovery on July 24 of the ascospores 
of the fungus, Endothia parasitica (Murr.) and on material 
later sent in only forty-two days had elapsed. When we 
consider that the little town in the Pang Shan district of 
China is a day and a half cart journey from a railroad, it is 
interesting to note the promptness with which exact labora¬ 
tory research methods in Washington can be brought to 
bear on a field problem half way round the globe. 
[Editor's Note —The above article is being published in the cur¬ 
rent issue of “Science" in company with a scientific paper on “The 
Chestnut Blight Parasite from China, by C. L. Shear and Neil E* 
Stevens, Bui'cau of Plant Industry.] 
