practically defunct American
species, _Castanea dentata_. For the principal economic value of the
chestnut was not in its edible nuts but its valuable timber, the loss of
which means at present many millions of dollars subtracted from the
assets of the American people; and when we consider the loss for all
time in the future the figures become astronomical.

[Footnote 5: Consulting Pathologist, Conn. Agric. Expt. Station; Special
Agent, Conn. Geological and Natural History Survey; and Collaborator,
Division of Forest Pathology, U. S. Dept. Agriculture.]

_The Chestnut Blight in Italy._ Early in 1946 we received a visit from
Captain John B. Woodruff, of Wilton, Connecticut, who told us that while
serving as Chairman of the Department of Agriculture and Forestry, and
Instructor in Forestry at the Army University Study Center in Florence,
Italy, he visited chestnut stands infected with the blight. _Endothia
parasitica_ was first discovered by Professor Guido Paoli in 1938 on a
private estate in Busalla, about twenty miles north of the seaport city
of Genoa. Since then the blight has been detected throughout the
province of Genoa in the legion of Liguria; and other widely separated
infections have been found. The fungus has been cultured and identified
by Professor Biraghi of the Royal Pathological Station in Rome, as
_Endothia parasitica_. It is believed to have been present in this
region for from five to eight years previous to its discovery. The
manner of its introduction into Italy is not known, but since Japan and
the U. S. have carried on considerable commerce with Italy, either or
both countries are possible sources.

The disease is spreading in Italy at a rapid rate. "By 1942 one half of
the 190,000 acres of chestnut in the province of Genoa had been infected
and spot infections had been discovered in the adjoining coastal
province of La Spezia, also in the region of Liguria."

I am devoting some space to this situation because it means so much to
the Italian people. In Italy fifteen percent of the forest is composed
of chestnut. Not only does the country use the nuts as a source of food
and income, approximately sixty million pounds being exported annually
in former years, but the young coppice shoots are used for the weaving
of baskets, older ones for poles for vineyards, still older for staves
of wine casks, and the oldest for telephone and telegraph poles. "Before
the war, chestnut flour was the principal f