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Georgia. This picture was taken in the very heart of the chestnut 

 region in southern Pennsylvania. Most of these trees are gone. 



Our great hope, we believe, lies in the introduction and breeding 

 of blight resistant and weevil resistant chestnuts. The species which 

 is being relied upon at the present time more than any other is that 

 of the Chinese chestnut, Castanea mollissima. This is an average tree 

 such as we found in northern China several years ago. I think Dr. 

 Smith will agree with us that that is about a typical tree. 



Dr. Smith: I think so. 



Mr. Reed: One thing about this chestnut is that most of the 

 trees we have seen, all seedlings, are light bearers, not at all like 

 the Japanese species which are heavy bearers. 



This is a typical view in the Riehl planting that you have heard 

 about. It is among those scattered trees on those hillsides that the 

 parent trees of a number of varieties originated. The Riehl chest- 

 nuts are, we think, Europeans crossed with the American. They are 

 much larger than the American, and like the Europeans they are 

 difficult to be husked. They have to be husked by hand. The Japanese 

 husk themselves readily. The result is that the Endicotts of Villa 

 Ridge are able to harvest and market their crop during the month of 

 September. Mr. Endicott stated one year ago that the Boone nuts 

 usually began their crop about the 4th of September and by the 25th 

 they were practically all on the market. Fortunately for the people of 

 Illinois, there is no blight in the state, or if there is it is not known; 

 neither is the weevil of the East. The weevil a little farther south than 

 we are here, down about Washington, is scarcely less of a menace to 

 the chestnut industry than is the blight. I think if I were given the 

 choice, I would rather blight killed them than to have the crop gathered 

 and find each nut infested with a dozen weevils. Mr. Brooks, of the 

 Department of Agriculture, kept track of the mollissima one year and 

 found an average of 12 weevils to each nut. 



The Riehl chestnuts are usually harvested from the 15th of Sep- 

 tember to the 1 5th of October. 



This is the parent tree of the Boone photographed one year ago. 

 Its present condition is not due to blight or disease of any kind but 



