ves as Secretary of the Commission. An international conference on
chestnut problems was held in France in 1950, the first meeting of the
Commission was held in Italy and Switzerland in 1951 and the second in
Spain and Portugal, June 18-30, 1953. The average attendance at the
meetings was 50 to 60 persons. I have attended all three conferences as
the representative from the U.S. Departments of State and Agriculture.
The International Chestnut Commission meetings differ from the meetings
of the Northern Nut Growers Association in many ways. Our Northern Nut
Growers Association meets annually for 2-1/2 days while the meetings of
the International Chestnut Commission last from 10 to 12 days but not
every year. In Europe the members travel mostly in a large tourist bus,
which carries the party for hundreds of miles, visiting nurseries,
orchards, chestnut utilization plants and not neglecting the scenic
parts of the route. All lodging and meals are carefully arranged for in
advance. The group in Europe is made up quite largely of Federal and
State professional workers, University professors, and representatives
from the chestnut utilization industries.
Among the places which the delegates visited in Spain in 1953 was the
Agricultural Experiment Station at La Coruna, where the Phytophthora ink
disease of the chestnut has been studied extensively. They also visited
the Experiment Station at Pontevedra, where new methods of propagating
chestnuts are being studied. At Bilboa and at Villa Presente Nursery,
Santander, we inspected plantings of Asiatic chestnuts; I found chestnut
blight present on several trees at both locations and recommended
immediate removal of the diseased trees. Fortunately, the Asiatic
chestnuts are some distance from any native European chestnuts at each
place and, according to the local foresters, the blight has not spread
to the distant stands of native chestnut. Some years ago the Spanish
authorities imported seed from Asia; chestnut blight probably was
brought in on these nuts. All infected trees that are found are being
destroyed, but a thorough inspection and eradication program is needed
to control the disease before it spreads into the native European
chestnut stands, from which the disease probably would spread into
Portugal and southwestern France.
In Portugal we inspected many very fine chestnut orchards. These
orchards are composed of grafted varieties, with only 3 or 4 varieties
in each lo
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