The sun., 1908-06-21
HEAVY LOSS DUE TO A FUNGUS
THE CHESTNUT BLIGHT HAS Az
READY COST MILLIONS.

nut Trees Threatened, No Remedy
Aspect OF Forests May Be Changed.
II Ia predicted that the people OF this
oty will in a comparatively short time
boo,n to feel In personal way the effects
Of the blight which is rapidly killing off
the chestnut trees hereabout. The tree
experts at the New York Botanical Garden
have said that every chestnut tree In the
United States will eventually suocurnb
to the disease unless remedy Is found.
In and around Now York the damage done
in the last two years has been estimated at
from ten to fifteen million dollars.
The trouble 10 due TO a fungous growth.
which kills the tree In year or two by
girdling the bark and cutting OF the supply
Of sap. The spores which spread the
infection are caught up by the wind and
carried for many miles.
This means that all the chestnuts oon-
sumed here may soon have to be brought
at first from distant parts Of this country
and later from abroad. Not only will the
familiar street vender no longer be able to
offer for sale one Of the most popular nuts
Indigenous to the United States but there
will also be an end to tho nutting excursions
which almost every one treasures among
his experience and In which thousands Of
city people still indulge every autumn when
the country foliage Is taking on Its red and
yellow tints.
In these ways two results Of the chestnut
Hight will be brought home to the in
diyidual man. but there are other effects
which, though less directly felt, will prove
much more serious. From an economic
standpoint grave danger threatens tho
timber industry.
Millions Of dollars a year are spent by
the telephone. telegraph and electric light
and power companies for chestnut poles.
Locust, cedar and chestnut, in the order
named, are considered the most valuable
trees for carrying wires aoross the country,
their strength and decay resisting qualities
being of a high order, but chestnut is the
only species which can be obtained in large
quantities and IL is widely used for poles.
The railroads too consume enormous guam
titles of chestnut in the manufacture of
ties and hundreds Of thousands Of fence
pests are made from it.
The loss Of this material to the public
utility companies is parallsled by similar
less in the income OF the owners Of wood
lands not only the professional lumbernan
but every farmer and wood lot owner
throughout the country. It would be inn
possible to compute the amount Of money
obtained annually by small land owners,
even around this city, by the sale Of chest
nut timber from their wood lots.
The telephone companies. for example,
when constructing or repairing one Of the
rlsny lines which follow the country roads
in all directions obtain their poles as far as
possible directly upon the ground. thus
swing the expense Of freight and carriage.
When such company plans to build or
reconstruct certain line the foreman in
charge will make preliminary visit to the
farms along the route andstart negotiations
for the purchase OF the necessary poles.
Some such conversation as this will take
place:
We're going to rebuild our line out this
way and we want about forty-fve good.
Straight chestnuts. Think you can 40
commodate us2"
How big be they7' answers the farmer.
we want thirty IS foot poles. 8 inches
through at the top, nine 40 foot poles and
six so foot poles to carry us over the rail-
road crossings
Wall" scratching his head, Il guess I
can accommodate ye with the thirty-flve
and forty footers; I got few left up on the
hillside yonder; but don't know as got
any fifty foot poles. Cy Green, up around
the bend Of the road where ye see that patch
Of poplars CROWN. kin fix ye up all right on
them, guess
That much determined. the farmer and
the foreman will Immediately begin to
dioker over the price, and IL the owner of
in abl 70, lv-tu hor d.,
which he generally Is. he will get about a
for each Of the shorter poles and about
$3.50 for the forty foot poles. Mr.. Green,
for each Of the tall chestnut poles which
he has contracted 70 sell.
These men will then go out into the woods,
take OF their coats, swing their axes and
bring down the trees, which they will shortly
afterward. in accordance with the agree
ment. deliver along the line.
The money which q farmer 10 able to
obtain In this manner, varying from 81 to
$40 or more for each pole. according to it's
size and quality. Is just 80 much extra profit
acquired without expense except for his
time and that Of his son or hired man. Il
will thus be seen what loss the disappear
ance OF the chestnut tree from his woods
may be to him.
Nowhere else on the continent are there
80 many electric wire lines an radiate from
New York and its nearby suburbs. and the
firm hold which tho disease haa already
taken on Long Island and along the Hudson
River Valley is already beginning to affect
the chestnut groves ON which they depend
In 20 large measure.
Another effect OF the chestnut blight
may bo to rob the forests Of southeastern
New York OF one OF the species picked out
by scientists as especially adapted to growth
under tho peculiar sylvioultural conditions
which prevail there. Prof. Roy l.. Marsten
OF Yale University, the forester Of the $500
acre military reservation at West Point, on
which the United States Government has
recently instituted a system Of rational
woodland management, stated In his report
on preliminary working plan for the
reservation forests that the chestnut tree
on account of it's adaptabiIity to the soil
and its habits OF rapid growth and early
maturity would probably prove the most
profitable species Of tree on the tract. II
the gloomy forecast OF the Bronx Park