[Footnote 4: C. H. Hadley, "The Japanese Beetle and its Control." U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmers' Bul. 1856. 1940.] Diseases Blight is the disease attacking the chestnut tree with which the public is most familiar. The Chinese chestnut is strongly resistant although not immune as few old trees entirely escape attack in areas where blight is prevalent. In most cases healthy vigorous trees of this species overcome the disease within a few years after being attacked. The ones that die are usually those that have been devitalized in some way. The nuts are subject to attack by any of several diseases either before or after the harvest. A preliminary report on these has been made by Gravatt and Fowler.[5] [Footnote 5: G. F. Gravatt and Marvin Fowler. Nor. Nut Growers Ass'n. Proc. 31: 110-113. 1940.] Present Extent of Planting With few exceptions the known plantings consist of small numbers of trees about residences. Occasionally there are one or two hundred trees in orchard arrangement. Production is not large and in most cases all sound nuts are either consumed locally or used by nurserymen and others for planting. The quantity that has reached the wholesale market is known to be small although a beginning in that field has been made. Future Outlook Extensive expansion has not appeared possible in the near future until the 1946 crop was harvested. This was unexpectedly large and a number of tons are known either to have been planted immediately or set aside for planting in the spring of 1947. It is conceivable that annual production of nuts available for seed purposes will increase rapidly. In this case, the extent of planting within the next few years will be entirely a matter of guesswork. Extensive planting in the early future cannot be considered economically safe for in addition to the usual number of problems that must be solved in establishing any new horticultural enterprise, chestnut growers must expect keen competition with imports from both Europe and Asia. At the outbreak of World War II, an average of more than 16 million pounds of chestnuts were yearly being imported into this country.[6] These imports will doubtless again appear with the return of normal international relations. [Footnote 6: Computed from Table 541, p. 413, Agricultural Statistics 1938. U. S. Dept. Agr. 19] Furthermore almost an exact half-century ago, the chestnut outlook was regarded as being so bright that it could hardly go wrong. During the middle and late 'nineties extensive chestnut developments were established in certain eastern districts mainly by use of Paragon and other varieties of European parentage. Thousands of small plantings were developed about home grounds and occasionally there were large orchards. The greatest developments were conducted by top working suckers that sprung up from stumps of native chestnut trees on cutover mountain land. Hundreds of acres were handled in this manner. Without exception, all ended in financial disaster.