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No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 471 



disappointing commission merchants. Is it any wonder that the 

 fabulous profits predicted eight or ten years ago have proven 

 to be a myth? The writer does not want to discourage any one 

 from engaging in chestnut culture, but fourteen years treasure- 

 ship of a chestnut company, from which no dividends have as 

 yet been paid, has prevented the writer from extending his 

 holdings in chestnut culture stock until we get a better under- 

 standing of the business in all its details. We have Pandora's 

 only blessing left us: 'We hope for better things.' " 

 There are several large plantations in my neighborhood owned 

 by companies that do nothing but raise nuts. They keep men es- 

 pecially for that Vv'ork, while I can care for mine and trim them at 

 odd times with my ow^n help. In this way what must be used to pay 

 expenses with them becomes profit to me. I was able to buy a large 

 grove adjoining me two years ago for a good deal less than the 

 owner had spent on it but it has paid me very well. 



We don't understand how to keep nuts nor how to cure them, 

 but we will learn. In fact, we are learning. One little thing was 

 learned this year with great satisfaction, and that is how to man- 

 age the worms. I found that treating the nuts with carbon-bi-sul- 

 phide did the work. As soon as gathered we put them into a barrel 

 set a saucer with four or five tablespoonsful of carbon-bi-sulphide 

 on top the nuts and shut it up tight. After three or four hours, the 

 barrel was opened and chestnuts dumped on to the packing house 

 floor to air, and that was the end of the worms. They will be there 

 just the same but what the buyers objected to was the live worms 

 crawling over their stores. By treating and packing them at once 

 the worms don't seem to develop and that simple little remedy that 

 cost me less than two cents a bushel brought definite results. In- 

 stead of having to find a new customer each time as we did before, 

 customers would come back and want more chestnuts, even at an ad- 

 vanced price. AVe are very much encouraged over the busi- 

 ness. This year the revenue from my chestnuts would make a good 

 rent for the farm and they grow at a minimum expense on land where 

 1 can't raise anything else. My neighbors who have gone into the 

 business as a specialty have not succeeded so well. In entering 

 the business of raising nuts, I would advise you to feel your way a 

 little as I have done. 



This last summer, I had a chance to see the new chestnut dis- 

 ease. Within ten miles of my home, one of my friends in the 

 business lost 2,000 trees. How expensive it will be to combat this 

 trouble I cannot say, but we will not let that discourage us. You 

 may not have it down here. It is a fungous disease and it attacks 

 the top of the trees and works downward. I understand, however, 

 that it is not entirely new, but has been noticed in former years to 

 some extent. It is the same disease they have had in Bronx Park, 

 New York, which you have doubtless seen mentioned in the news- 

 papers during the past summer. 



Member: What variety of chestnuts do you use? The Japan? 

 MR. ROBERTS: At first the new Japanese chestnuts were a 

 novelty and the bigger they were the better they sold. Bitter nuts 

 sold just as well as the other kind on account of the size, but people 

 have learned better, and it is hard to sell the very large nuts, We 

 now grow Cooper, Paragon, Numbo and Scott mostly. 



