An exhibit which consists of specimens showing the blight in various stages together with photographs, literature, etc., was placed in about 30 of the county fairs throughout the state. The appreciation of the public has been so clearly shown that next year it is the intention of the Commission to continue and perhaps increase this phase of the work, and to place large permanent displays at the Commercial Museum, Philadelphia, the State Capitol, Harrisburg, and other places.
Many of the Annual Teachers' Institutes have been reached with a display and lecture. We have arranged also to have a speaker at fully one hundred of the Farmers' Institutes this winter. We are also arranging to have a permanent display at many of the public schools, normal schools and colleges, where instruction on the blight is given. An effort was made last winter to enlist the service of the boy scouts and we are indebted to them for considerable work, chiefly in an educational way. The successful outcome of all our work will depend in a large measure upon the owners themselves, and it is our purpose to give them all the information possible upon the whole subject.
The Commission established a Department of Utilization which is collecting information on the various industries which use or might use chestnut wood, listing the buyers and owners of chestnut wood, thus assisting owners of blighted chestnut trees in marketing their timber to the best advantage. The Department is trying to increase the use of chestnut wood by calling attention to its many good qualities, and thus utilize the large quantity which must necessarily be thrown upon the market. There has been more or less discrimination against blighted chestnut timber. This has been in many cases unjust, since the blight does not injure the value of the wood for most purposes for which it is used. However, the owners sometimes fail to realize that the blight cankers are the most favorable places for the entrance of the borers, and that where a large number of trees are being considered, a percentage of them will be materially injured by insects which follow blight infection. Where telegraph poles are barked, it is often seen that borers have attacked the wood under blight cankers, and have not touched any other part of the tree. All blighted timber should be cut before death to realize its best value, since insects and wood-destroying fungi cause the very rapid deterioration of dead, standing timber. There has been a good market in almost every locality for poles, ties and the better grades of lumber. Cordwood presents the difficult problem of disposal. The best market for this is in the central part of the state, at the extract plants. The Commission has secured from the Pennsylvania R. R. a special tariff on blighted chestnut cordwood so that this product may be profitably shipped from greater distances than before.
The Commission has inspected all chestnut nursery stock shipped from nurseries within the state and has also provided for inspection of all chestnut stock entering the state. This should prevent a repetition of infections in the western part of the state which might destroy millions of dollars worth of timber.
From time to time publications have been and will be issued by the Commission, which are obtained free of charge upon request, or they may be consulted in the leading libraries throughout the state.
An appropriation for $80,000 was given by the last Congress for scientific research work upon the blight disease and work is being carried out in cooperation with the various states. Several of the Government investigators are now at work upon our force. Some of the most important unsolved scientific problems of the blight, as given by Secretary Wilson, in his message, to Congress, are as follows:—
First, the relation of the disease to climate.
Second, the relation of the parasite to the varying tannin content of the tree.
Third, the origin of the disease.
Fourth, relation of birds and insects to the dissemination of the disease.