258 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



a deep frying-pan with numerous holes in the bottom, being shaken con- 

 stantly to prevent burning. The shell and jjelicle of roasted chestnuts 

 come off' very nicely. The fresher the nuts are the better for roasting pur- 

 poses. Chestnuts can be roasted on a small scale by placing five or six at a 

 time on the hot kitchen stove with a tin cup over them, turning them once 

 in a while until cooked. But before roasting chestnuts one has to be very 

 careful to make an incision with a knife at the sprout or small end, to pre- 

 vent the shell from exploding and scaring the whole house. 



Boiled chestnuts are also a fine dish. The shell has first to be removed, 

 a pointed or pocket knife being best for this purpose. The nuts are then 

 placed in a deep saucepan with water, salt, and a sprig of celery. If the 

 nuts are fresh picked it will take but one hour to cook them; but if a 

 little dried, as when after they have gone through the sweating process, 

 they would require from one and one-quarter to one and one-half hours to 

 cook. Boiled chestnuts should be eaten when right warm, as the pelicle 

 then comes off very easily. Immense quantities of boiled chestnuts are 

 eaten in the chestnut-growing regions of Europe. They are also extensively 

 used for stuffing turkeys, geese, and chickens. This is the way our Thanks- 

 giving turkey was stuffed with Marron chestnuts : The stuffing should be 

 done one day in advance, the nuts being duly cooked in boiling water and 

 peeled off", and the sausage meat to go with them previously fried, the liver, 

 gizzard, and heart of the turkey being cut up fine and mixed with it before 

 frying. The chestnuts and sausage meat might be put inside the turkey 

 sepai^ately : better, I think, to have both mixed. Such stuffing is really fine. 

 As chestnuts can very Vi^ell be kept until Christmas, as described in the 

 course of this paper, such stuffing can be employed with the Christmas 

 turkey. 



JIavron chestnuts — For dessert, that is, to be eaten either roasted or 

 boiled, Marron chestnuts command the best prices on accovmt of their size 

 and beauty. As the term Marron does not seem to be well understood here, 

 I will describe its time meaning. In Bulletin No. XLII of the Delaware 

 College Experiment Station, issued in December, 1898, I read under the 

 head of "Spanish Chestnuts:" 



Marron, Mammoth Sweot Spanish, French Marron, and the like, a general name for 

 European chestnuts with no varietal signiflcance. "Marron" is the French name for 

 the cultivated chestnut. 



Good gracious ! What a definition for the famous Marron de Lyon, Mar- 

 ron Combale, and the fine commercial varieties of France ! It would be 

 well, it seems to me, for the writers of agricultural colleg'e bulletins to be- 

 come better acquainted regarding the subject they treat before trying to 

 enlighten the public themselves. "Marrons'- are chestnuts, it is true, but 

 all chestnuts are far from being "Marrons," and many of the cultivated 

 varieties in Europe are not Marrons, neither, but mere seedlings. Marrons 

 are varieties of chestnuts yielding only one to two nuts to the burr, some- 

 times three, but never four to eight, as is the case with seedlings. Hence 

 the reason why Marrons are invariably propagated by grafting, as they very 

 seldom come true from seed. • It explains, too, why the nuts are so large and 

 round, or flat only on one side, therefore the best marketable nut for dessert. 



