I04 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



experiment of setting native seedlings, four to six feet high, in rows twenty feet 

 apart, cutting back the Hmbs to the two-year-old growth, and inserting scions of 

 Japanese varieties. The plan is not advisable because it makes the crown too hio-h 

 and heavy to be safely supported b)' the long slender trunk. 



No case is known where grafted seedlings have been set in brush land. The first 

 cost would be somewhat greater; but there seems no evident reason why such treat- 

 ment would not be successful. If seedlings will thrive equally well in cultivated 

 or brush land, one of the objections to chestnut orcharding would be removed. 

 The long time element remains, however, an unchanging disadvantage in such 

 management. 



Tl)e Cl)estnQt Grove. 



Given a mixed stand of coppice chestnut and oak and other hardwoods, to trans- 

 form into a nut-bearing grove of improved exotic varieties. The system applied in 

 the best groves of Pennsylvania and New Jersey is practically as follows: 



In the late fall or winter all trees and brush are removed from the area under 

 management, care being taken to cut the chestnut near the ground and leave 

 smooth stumps. From these stumps there will spring up during the following sum- 

 mer a vigorous growth of sprouts, usually several around each stump, which in one 

 year reach a height of four to six feet, and a diameter from one-fourth to three- 

 fourths of an inch at two feet from the ground. Experience has shown that sprouts 

 of this size are the best for grafting; hence it follows that the second spring after 

 the timber is cut off grafting operations may begin. 



Grafting may be commenced when the buds first start ; but it is better to wait a 

 little later, until the sap flows freel}-. May is the best month in ^vhich to graft, 

 although it may be commenced as early as the middle of April. The tongue or 

 whip graft is the method which should be exclusively used. Budding, cleft (wedge) 

 grafting, prong grafting, crown grafting and many other methods have been tried, 

 but experience has shown that they are in general impracticable. The cleft or 

 wedge graft can be set in stocks of a size up to several inches, and usually succeeds 

 to the extent of making a union ; but it seldom heals smoothly, and usually leaves 

 an opening between the scions which becomes a source of infection and point of 

 structural weakness to the whole tree. With the small sprouts and the whip graft 

 the union is seldom discernible after a few years. 



The scions should be cut early and kept dormant in a cellar or ice house until 

 the buds on the stocks are well swollen in the spring. It should be remembered 



