412 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE CHESTNUT. 



I am disposed to think that the chestnut, as a fruit for market, will well 

 repay its cultivation. On our high ridges throughout the whole lake shore, 

 and also through the country, its growth appears indigenous. This considera- 

 tion, with the facts that our common chestnut always results in ready sale at a 

 remunerative price, leads me to the impression that land could be most profit- 

 ably employed in the growth of the Spanish or French chestnut varieties, the 

 fruit of which is in size nearly double that of our largest native varieties, and 

 which I think can be profitably engrafted upon the native tree. The sowing 

 the seeds of the Spanish and French chestnuts was some years since done by 

 Prof. J. P. Kirtland of Cuyahoga county, 0., and in six years he had large 

 crops of chestnuts, as large as bantam hens' eggs, while his trees were beauties 

 in form. It is a fruit well known — it is said five hundred years before Christ — 

 and English works give an account of an immense tree in Gloucestershire, 

 measuring fifty-three feet in circumference, although it is not indigenous to 

 that country. Account is also given of one at Mount iEtna, said to be three 

 hundred and four feet in circumference. In the time of Pliny the chestnut 

 was much used as an article of food for the peasants, while the rich used it 

 much in the formation of puddings, etc. In an English work now before me, 

 it is said that there are instances in Italy of persons living to nearly one hundred 

 years who have fed wholly upon the chestnut. 



The uses of the tree in the arts are varied and numerous. As an inside 

 finish to a room, the second growth wood of the chestnut makes the handsomest 

 wood-work, simply oiled, that has ever been known. Not one architect in a 

 thousand knows it. The bark is used for tanning, while the wood is exceedingly 

 durable and strong for any purpose. 



Now is the time to plant, as the leaves have dropped, the soil is warm, and 

 root fibres will at once grow. F. K. Elliott. 



PLANTING A TREE. 



A beautiful custom, not too frequently followed, is the placing of a tree for 

 a friend in his own grounds. Queen Victoria does this in memory of her visit, 

 and her loyal subjects point it out as one of their precious possessions ; visitors 

 pluck a leaf, press and preserve it. We once knew a pair of old ladies, whose 

 botanical nomenclature was peculiar and attractive. All their plants and trees 



possessed a value to them as gifts from friends. Mrs. , or Mr. , had 



presented this and that. A gentleman of our acquaintance, much inclined to 

 visitations when in England, is accustomed to ask the privilege of planting a 

 Cedar of Lebanon in the grounds of his hosts. Mr. Penn, the great-grandson 

 of the founder of Pennsylvania left such a tree of his own importation in the 

 garden of a personal friend in Germantown, where he had passed much of his 

 time during his long visits to us, and it flourishes well. There is no better 

 commemorative act of friendly companionship. The tree is a perpetual and 

 growing evidence of regard, to be passed down to posterity, when — it may be — 

 traces of giver and receiver are nearly lost. The memory of a friendly visit 

 may be preserved even in a more simple manner by the planting of a favorite 

 enduring bulb or flower. — Gardeners' 1 Monthly. 



