A2S—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 20,1980 Tree WASHINGTON, D.C. - Any chestnuts roasting on open lues this winter are probably European imports. That’s the way it’s been since a killer fungus in troduced in this country about the turn of the century viturally wiped out the American chestnut tree. Yet many old chestnut roots keep sending up new sprouts-only to be knocked back down by the fungus. And although the chestnut enemies are multiplying, researchers keep looking for ways to bring back the tree. The American chestnut, Castanea dentata, was once a 100-foot monarch of the Eastern hardwood forests. Its straight trunk and rot resistant timber were good for furniture, fences, and posts. From its bark came tannin for leathermaking, and its nuts were relished by animals and people. But the American chestnut was no match for Endothia parasitica, a stowaway fungus that arrived in New York on a shipment of Oriental chestnut trees. Entering the tree through a break in the bark, the fungus gradually encircles and strangles it The blight New base for 1981 dairy shows LITITZ The directors of the Holstein Friesian Association have voted to implement the new base dates of September 1 and March 1 for classes m 1981 shows These dates coincide with the Pennsylvania Junior Dairy Show class dates for all breeds published in last month's Dairy Digest. The 1981 Fair Fund guidelines will also be compatible with the Pennsylvania Junior Dairy Show dates This does not mean that the date changes will automatically get into all fair catalogs this year Class Born between Junior calf March 1,1981 and May 31,1981 Intermediate Calf December 1,1980 and February 28,1981 Senior calf September 1,1980 and November 30,1980 Junior yearling March 1, 1980 and August 31,1980 Senior yearling September 1,1979 and February 29,1980 Junior 2-year-old March 1,1979 and August 31,1979 Senior 2-year-old September 1,1978 and February 28,197& 3- September 1, 1977 ana August 31,1978 4- September 1,1976 and August 31,1977 5 years and over Born before September 1,197 b SEALSTOR CONGRATULATES Andrew Krompasky And Family Hamlin, Wayne County ON THE INSTALLATION OF THEIR NEW GRAIN STRUCTURE ORDER YOUR HAYLAGE OR GRAIN STRUCTURE FOR SPRING ERECTION NOW AND SAVE! CALL 717-273-9324 PENN DUTCH FARM SYSTEMS, !NC. 1730 Highway 72 North, Lebanon, PA 17042 researchers work to save the chestnut spread quickly and by 1950 had devastated most of the country’s American chestnuts, an estimated nine million acres. Some researchers are trying to develop a more blight-resistant chestnut, one with the fungus tolerance of Oriental chestnuts yet the form of the taller American species. Such work takes lime, explained Sandra Anagnostakis of the Con necticut Agricultural Ex periment Station in New Haven. “You cross two trees and wait 15 years for the progeny to produce seed of their own,” she said. “Then you make another cross and wait another 15 years....” Work on hybrids has another drawback, she asserted: “You’re not going to reforest the woods with hybrids because they do not propagate well. “At CAES, it has seemed to us that since there are all those roots out there sprouting, the chestnut would come back all by itself if there was some way to bring the fungus a little bit under control.” In Italy’s chestnut or- dates set chards, scientists found a natural cure: weaker strains of the fungus, called hypovirulent or “H” strains, which are infected with viral-type agents. The H strains moved into blight stricken European chestnuts and debilitated the killer fungus. The H strains will also cure cankers on American chestnuts-but only at the spot where they are injected mto the tree. The “cure” won’t spread by itself here, and scientists don’t know why. Another problem, Miss Anagnostakis has found, is that the fungus has diver sified into dozens of strains, so that not every H strain blocks every killer strain. In response, CAES scientists have experimented with mixtures of H strains in their inoculations. In the last few years Congress has earmarked $300,000 for research in chestnut fungus H strains, according to Clay Smith of the US. Forest Service, which administers the grants. The government also has its eye on another tree foe, the chestnut gall-wasp Like the fungus, the gall wasp probably hitchhiked in from the Orient. Jerry A. Payne, an entomologist with the U.S Department of Agriculture, discovered it in 1974 in a Georgia grove of Chinese chestnuts. The insect lays its eggs in the growing tips of chestnuts in July and August, and the irritated plant produces a growth called a gall. The larva winters and develops IT'S BARGAIN TIME! YEAR END MYEDIORy REDUCTION SALE “Our Loss Is Your Gain” I || The Mueller Model “OH” with HiPerForm cooling, , £ I Mueller-Matic Automatic Washing System, and built-in f freezer protection control is the most advanced bulk " | I milk cooler in the world. The nation’s most progressive J <s I dairymen are using it. Shouldn’t you be? ’ - j 400 gal Girton 1000 Gal Girton 600 Gal. Mil333S - 400 Gal. Dan-Kool D-2 500 Gal Girton (2) 500 Gal. Milkeeper 800 Gal Milkeeper ASK US TO SEE A QUEEN ROAD REFRIGERATION ONE OF THE Box 67f intercourse, PA 17534 Phone: John D. Weaver - 717-768-9006 or 768-7111 dealers or Answering Service - 717-354-4374 in the gall, then eats its way out in spring. “It kills the shoot or limb it’s on, and severe in festations will kill the tree,” Payne said. “The gall-wasp is moving about 15 miles a year. It’s now in at least 10 counties in central Georgia.” The state has lost about half of its commercial Chinese chestnuts—lso acres. Will the gall-wasp move farther north? “We have no idea,” said Payne. “But the history of epidemics of new, exotic insects is they tend to for heating greenhouses WILLIAMSPORT - Commercial greenhouse operators aren’t the only persons experimenting with fuel conservation, according to Michael A. Sedlak of The Williamsport Area Com munity College, William sport. Sedlak, associate professor of horticulture at the College, pointed out that an increasing number of educational institutions are analyzing methods of reducing fuel in campus greenhouses. WACC is one such in stitution and is quite in terested in fuel conservation as it has three types of greenhouses, covering approximately 7200 square feet of space, Sedlak said. All three are located at the College’s Earth Science Campus, near AUenwood. SI * */ ?/ s * F~ Hi: H I~ J\ TER spread wherever the host is.” He has shown that the gall-wasp will attack American, Japanese, and Chinese chestnuts. Chinese chestnuts have become a popular yard tree. Payne advises homeowners with gall-wasps to remove the galls and destroy them. And after two years of experiments, he reports success with growth regulators so that trees also break buds in autumn, ex posing the insect at the wrong time of year. “Its a new method of in- Fuel use cut 36% Sedlak, “We are listening to what the researchers tell us about their energy con servation methods and then trying them on our houses.” “In one of our greenhouses, the heating system consisted of two above ground oil burners feeding a fan-jet poly-tube distribution. Since its con struction, air stratification at the plant level had a serious problem, Sedlak said. “We lowered the oil burners to the floor and ducted the heat along the sides. The results were amazing,” he continued. “Savings have been averaging 36 percent over the previous year.” Other greenhouse changes including recalculating and adjusing the environmental controls. The changes in that THE MUELLER MODELS OH, MHL, AND MW WITH HIPERFORM MAKE ALL OTHER BULK MILK COOLERS OBSOLETE SEE THE MUELLER NEW MODELS ★ 500 MW ★ 600 MW The “MW" is one of the Lowest pouring Height Bulk tanks. Check with us all the new features on the “MW" bulk tank. If you are in the market for a bulk milk cooler and you don’t check all the advantages of the Mueller “OH" “MHL", and “MW" you may he buying an obsolete cooler. IN OPERATION, RIGHT ON THE FARM. THE ALL STAINLESS STEEL MODEL-C FRE-HEATER FOR ALL BUNK TANKS «* sect control.” he said. “I’m using the tree to manipulate the insect.” With all those enemies msects and fungus-is it worth trying to save the chestnut? Citing its timber quality, Miss Anagnostakis said, “I think its commercial value could be quickly re established.” And recalling that Americans import up to 10 million pounds of chestnuts a year, Payne said, “There’s still a demand for them.” particular house, Sedlak said, showed a drop of 23 percent fuel. The College has in vestigated covering a greenhouse with 602 poly film, Sedlak also noted. He explained that as a class project, the students were asked to determine the savings which would result from a house covered with 602. Students, using a Greenhouse Energy Saver Analysis Form, calculated savings at $3OOO a year. Sedlak said the actual figure should be higher, perhaps as high as $4300. As the College has a complete fuel consumption and heating degree day record for the last four years, it will be possible to see whose estimate is the closest, Sedlak concluded. ,N . stock oa ily . I i I x i rl / 24 HOUR SERVICE
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