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Show 00 THE DOOM OF THE CHESTNUT TREE. t-" The chostnut tree will sQon be nothing noth-ing but a tradition In America. It is being destroyed by a mysterious disease dis-ease "which, scientists concede, cannot can-not be cured. In New York city practically prac-tically evory cheBtnut tree Is already dead. Over Long Island thlB tree malady Is traveling fast. It Is present in Connecticut, New Jorsoy, Pennsylvania, Pennsyl-vania, Delaware, and, to some extent at lea6t, In Maryland and Massachusetts. Massachu-setts. The whole chestnut treo area In American, which reaches as far south as Buffalo, Is Infected. Only a few scattered trees can possibly escape. es-cape. This blight wag first discovered In tho New York Botanical Gardens five vears ago, and over since scientists have been working to find a remedy for It in this they have been unsuc-cueeful. unsuc-cueeful. Tho chestnut blight is a disease dis-ease that can best bo compared to ti cancer In the human body. In some way that even the most expert of foresters for-esters cannot determine it eats Into the living tissue of tho treo. It doos not attacks any other tree than the chestnut But it spreads from one to another of those with startling rap-idity. rap-idity. Though the disease was discovered five years ago, the progress It has been making has only Just been fully realized. With no possibility of stamping stamp-ing the blight out, scientists can now only sorrow that American forestry fores-try did not come into Its own a quarter quar-ter of a century ago. Then the cheBtnut cheBt-nut might havo been sa'vod. Prompt chopping down years ago would navo arrested tho epldomlc Now tho devastation dev-astation is too complete; the plague has too much headway. Ini Forest Park, Brooklyn, alone thero aro standing stand-ing 16,000 dead chestnut trees. Tho difficulty and danger are that the disease spreads In almost the same manner as doeB a plague among human beingB or animals. It Is contagious. con-tagious. The blight forms on the tree's bark in tiny pockets. Tn these there grow little spores or seeds The wind scatters the sporeB everywhere, and any chestnut tree that any spore lands on is doomed. The Bpores carry car-ry the cqntagion for miles. They are also carried In the fur of squirrels and In the plumage of birds, and in the end no treo escapes unless it is completely Isolated. In this w'ay for years the blight has been creeping through the chestnut forests and has done Its work. The blight does not show itself in the bark until the tree is thoroughly Infected. Thaddeus S. Dayton In Harper's Weekly. 00 |