light in wiping out practically all of the
native chestnut trees within its path, with almost equally fatal results
to the European species has for the time being all but eliminated the
chestnut from the consideration of planters in the eastern part of the
country.

The chestnut bark disease has cost the country untold millions of
dollars, and no wonder the public pauses for a second thought before
investing in eastern-grown chestnut trees. Nevertheless, it is not to
be supposed that chestnut growing has disappeared from this country for
all time. No plague has ever been known to wipe a race completely out of
existence, and it is unthinkable that the blight will do so with the
genus _Castanea_.

The native range of the American sweet chestnut centers largely in the
Appalachian region from Portland, Maine, south to Atlanta, Georgia. The
species becomes more sparsely represented as the distance increases in
any direction from this central area, practically disappearing on the
west; in the region of the Mississippi above Memphis. Its northern
boundary might roughly be described as extending from lower Illinois
through northern Indiana, southwestern Michigan, southern Ontario,
central New York and middle New England. As was to have been expected,
the blight has wrought its greatest destruction in places of densest
representation of the chestnut species. It is in the outlying districts
of scant frequency that the danger of infection from chestnut trees from
the forest is least to planted trees, and likewise, there it is that
combative measures should be most successful. Obviously, the farther
from the center of the native range trees can be planted, the less is
the likelihood of infection.

Well outside the native range of the chestnut species, there are a
number of districts in the United States within which it should be
possible to build up a new chestnut-orchard industry. In proof of this,
there are many profitable trees and small orchards in the mid-west and
on the Pacific Coast, particularly in western Michigan, northern
Indiana, southwestern Illinois, in the eastern foot-hill region of
northern California and in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Probably the
most outstanding instance of successful chestnut orcharding now existing
in the entire country is a planting of Mr. E. A. Riehl, of Godfrey,
Illinois, situated on the bluff of the Mississippi River eight miles
west of Alton. Here Mr. Riehl has produced half a doz