work, and it is a thing which Doctor Peck,
our state botanist, suggested at the chestnut bark conference that was
held in Albany not long since. Doctor Peck says that he has lived a good
while, and he has seen epidemics come and go. Certain plants, certain
varieties were threatened with extermination, yet at the present time
they are still with us. I suggested to Mr. Rankin that, while it looked
as if chestnut blight was going to be with us indefinitely, the chances
were it would all be gone before he had a chance to find out all the
things he thought he was going to. Our friend Doctor Clinton of
Connecticut would have us think it is only a matter of a few years to
have conditions come around so that the chestnut blight will not be a
thing of serious importance. In other words, Doctor Clinton stoutly
maintains that, while this fungus is doing so much now, it is largely
due to the condition to which our trees have come, owing to a succession
of very unfavorable summers and winters; and as soon as the conditions
get around to normal, the disease will be no more. Some of us are not
inclined to agree with him entirely.

Professor Craig: Perhaps you can tell us what Mr. Rankin has been doing
this year.

Professor Reddick: At the beginning of the past summer, from the surveys
and observations that had been made almost entirely by the United States
Department of Agriculture authorities, it was known that the chestnut
disease had extended up the Hudson River perhaps as far as Poughkeepsie.
It was our idea that he would probably find the border line of healthy
and diseased trees somewhere in the vicinity of Poughkeepsie, so Mr.
Rankin located it opposite Poughkeepsie at Highlands. During the course
of the summer, the assistance of the State Survey Commission and the
State Department of Agriculture was enlisted, and there were six or
eight men who spent part of July and all of August surveying the portion
which now appears on this map in red. The results of this survey show
that the entire Hudson River Valley, with the exception of a small part
in the vicinity of Albany, is now infected. In fact, it is the general
opinion that there is no use whatever to attempt in any way to save the
trees in this locality. Very fortunately there is a strip of territory
which is almost solid spruce forest, and in which there are almost
absolutely no chestnut trees. We have already, then, abandoned the
Hudson River Valley, but with this great n