MR. WEBER: From Richard Leber. It was discovered by a man by the name of Williamson, and he suggested that the state acquire the land in order to preserve the tree. DR. SMITH: It will be another source of carbo-hydrate food. THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Zimmerman is a specialist on chestnut blight, and particularly on inducing immunity. INDUCED IMMUNITY TO CHESTNUT BLIGHT _Dr. G. A. Zimmerman, Piketown, Pa._ Several years ago I started out to get rid of the chestnut blight. On several occasions before this notable body I told of the successes and failures I had encountered, still believing that I was on the right road and insisting that an antigen would be absorbed in sufficient amount to stimulate immunity. Science has since vindicated that assertion and men are now injecting all sorts of chemicals, and even dyes to stain the grain of the wood. I have been very cautious in the past and perhaps should be more so now, in view of the fact that only a comparatively few years have elapsed since I began my work on plants. Still, after having used vaccines on human beings and animals for twenty-one years, and observing that plant life reacts to an antigen in a similar manner, I am at least entitled to the same conclusions. This gives me an opportunity of knowing years in advance just what to expect. While my work is still going on as an experiment I have no hesitancy in saying that I can and have put as much active immunity to the blight into the chestnut in five years as nature has been able to place in perhaps four or five thousand years by her usual method. However it is only fair to state that such results cannot be accomplished by mere oratory. Injections must be made and the antigen must go into the plants, not in single doses, if you please, but by the thousands. In recent years there has been considerable discussion relative to the chestnut coming back. This simply means further delay. The chestnut will come back but not before from 25 to 150 years yet. There are few roots that will stand mutilation for that period, and the few plants that do survive will have taken the shrub form like the chinquapin, and the nuts will likely be as insignificant. I have plants from a tree that holds as much immunity in the natural way as any I know, being rated at 2X, and these plants have inherited an immunity equal to the parent, no more and no less. I have, however, a lot of seedlings from Paragon and Champion trees rated at from 6X to 7X. These seedlings may confidently be expected to perform as their parents and produce many plants of equal resistance.