October, 1921 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 7 



Commercial Possibilities of the Chestnut 



niiillitiiiniMililiitiiiiiiiiiiiiilMltllimiiiiillllllllililiiiiiiriiiniiriMMiiillllllliiiiiiiiiirnr^ 



The chestnut, tihile not of the \ 



high g'aie of some of the other | 



American grown nuts, finds a ready | 



and frofitabU sale, farticularly on | 



the fruit stands in many of th* larger | 



cities in the East. Of late years it | 



I has been found that it is being at- | 



I tacked by a fest that is greatly lessen- | 



ing its yield exceft on the Pacific \ 



I Coast. The fossibilities of its frof- | 



j agation in the latter region therefore | 



I are of wide importance and are foint- | 



I ed out in the following article by | 



I Mr. Pearcy. — Editor. | 



^|||||||||||)lllllllllllll^ll^Illlll^lllllllllllllnlllrllllllltMll^lltrllllIlllnlllllllllllllllllllllll? 



T 



f I "^HE chestnut, at the present time, 

 is one of minor importance as a 

 commercial product of the North- 

 west. There are but very few commercial 

 plantings and those are small in extent. The 

 behavior of the trees in these few small 

 plantings, together with the performance 

 of the many trees planted all over this sec- 

 tion as shade and ornamental trees have 

 demonstrated that our climate conditions 

 are suitable for chestnut culture. An an- 

 alysis of conditions in the eastern chestnut 

 growing regions should be made before we 

 decide whether we are warranted in making 

 commercial plantings here. 



Twenty years ago great chestnut forests 

 were growing in the eastern part of this 

 country. Today these forests are disappear- 

 ing, apparently doomed to extinction and 

 that quickly, too. In 1904 it first was 

 noticed that many of the trees in the vicin- 

 ity of New York City were dying of some 

 strange disease. Investigation by patholo- 

 gists demonstrated that the disease was 

 caused by a fungus, Endothia parasitica by 

 name. It spread rapidly all through the 

 native chestnut area and by 1916 was found 

 in 1 3 states, and had caused damage esti- 

 mated at $50,000,000, half the total valua- 

 tion of the American chestnut forests. .-\t 

 the rate that it is eating into the forests the 

 American chestnut will soon be wiped out 

 of its native home. 



With most diseases of this nature there 

 always appears some immune trees in the 

 forests or the orchards from which may be 

 bred resistant strains of trees, but no Ameri- 

 can sweet chestnut tree has yet been found 

 that shows any degree of resistance. 



TT HAS been discovered that this fungus 

 -'■ has its home in China, Japan and 

 Korea and that it was evidently transported 

 to America on imported nursery stock. The 

 fungus spreads by means of birds, insects, 

 wind, rain and by shipment of nursery 

 stock, chestnuts and chestnut timber on 

 which the bark is permitted to remain. It 

 causes death by penetrating the bark and 

 attacking the cambium and sap wood areas. 



By Knight Pearcy, Horticulturitt 



This disease is deadly both to Amer- 

 ican and European varities. It is spreading 

 rapidly, 99 per cent of the trees in Eastern 

 Pennsylvania already have been killed ac- 

 cording to reports. None of our American 

 and European varities are inmune, although 

 certain nurseries have claimed the Paragon 

 to be so. The disease is practically uncon- 

 trollable, although where one has but few 

 trees he can keep it in check by cutting. 



An embargo is needed to protect the un- 

 infected western district. The disease can- 

 not be detected on nursery trees. We should 

 not import chestnut trees of any kind from 

 any of the blight districts of the East, 

 which means from any of the native chest- 

 nut area. 



The Japanese and the Chinese chestnut 

 species are attacked by this fungus, but the 

 injury seems comparatively light since these 

 species in their agelong struggle with the 

 blight have developed resistant strains. The 

 hope of eastern United States to remain a 

 chestnut producing section seems to be in 

 discovering some Japanese or Chinese 

 variety or a hybrid that is blight proof and 

 which at the same time has other qualities 

 which are desirable. Dr. Van Fleet, of 

 the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, has developed a number of hybrids 

 between the Japanese chestnut and our 

 native chinquapin, which hold considerable 

 promise to the eastern growers. 



THE chestnuts of the world are of sev- 

 eral species. The American chestnut, 

 known to botanists as Castanea dentata, is .i 

 tall straight tree, when grown in forests 

 and produces nuts of the highest quality, 

 although smaller than those of most other 

 species. There are comparativly few named 

 varieties of this species, the Rochester being 

 perhaps the leading variety. 



The European species is known to sci- 

 ence as C. sativa. Its tree is smaller than 

 that of the American species, but its nuts 

 are larger, although of poorer quality. 

 Blight resistance is greater than that of the 

 native chestnut, but not enough to permit it 

 to survive when planted in a diseased sec- 

 tion. There are many varieties of this spe- 

 cies, although most of these are varieties 

 that originated in this country from seed- 

 lings of the European species. 



Named varieties imported directly from 

 Europe have not succeeded as well in East- 

 ern United States as have the varieties origi- 

 nating on this side of the water, although it 

 is claimed that many of these named 

 French varieties, when grown on the Paci- 

 fic Coast do exceptionally well. This we 

 would expect in keeping with the well 

 known horticultural law that plants im- 

 ported from the Asiatic Coast countries do 

 better in eastern America than on the 

 Pacific Coast while plants from the western 

 Europe succeed better out here than in 

 eastern America. Numbo and Paragon are 



two of the most popular named varieties of 

 European chestnuts growing in the East. 



THE Japanese chestnut, C. crenata, is 

 highly resistant to blight, has a very 

 large nut, although its quality is so low 

 that it usually has to be cooked to be 

 palatable, is precocious, a prolific bearer 

 and produces an earlier maturing nut than 

 does either of the above mentioned species. 

 The tree itself is semi-dwarf. It seems to 

 have everything but quality of nut to make 

 it a desirable nut producing species and 

 plant breeders feel that they can improve 

 the quality of the nut and are now working 

 upon this problem. Alpha, Beta, Parry, Coe, 

 Boone and Giant are varieties of this 

 species. 



The Chinese chestnut, C. molissima, is 

 a relative stranger in this country and we 

 know less about it than the others. It makes 

 a taller tree than the Japanese and produces 

 nuts of good quality. 



We have not experimented with the 

 chestnut enough in the Northwest to be 

 able to say just what soils are best, but it 

 appears to do well on most of our fruit soils 

 where drainage is good. 



Spacing of 40 to 45 feet seems to be 

 about the need of the American and Eu- 

 ropean varieties, while the Japanese tree 

 will do with a 30-foot spacing. General 

 culture is about that of the apple orchard. 

 Little is known regarding pollinization, but 

 the general advise is to plant several varie- 

 ties. The Japanese varieties are apparently 

 self fertile. 



One grower in the Middle West reports 

 the following yields from a Boone seedling 

 tree Eight pounds the sixth year; 26 pounds 

 the ninth year; 50 pounds the 1-th year; 

 80 pounds the 15th year, and 140 pounds 

 the 17th year. He received 25 to 40 cents 

 per pound in the Chicago market that year. 



One grower near Salem with 20 crowded 

 trees, all seedlings, harvested an average of 

 50 pounds per tree from trees in their 

 twenties. One tree yielded 100 pounds. We 

 have records of other Oregon trees that have 

 borne as high as 1 50 pounds of nuts, and of 

 a number that have averaged 50 pounds per 

 tree for years, which would give 1,200 to 

 1,500 pounds per acre. 



Most of our nuts are high in fat con- 

 tent and fairly high in protein content. 

 The chestnut, however, is lo win fats, but 

 very high in carbohydrates. Its composi- 

 tion and food value is very close when an- 

 alyzed to that of corn meal or of wheat 

 bread. Many of the Europeans use it much 

 as we use the potato, to supply the starches 

 in their diets. They use this nut boiled, 

 roasted, made into cakes and in many other 

 forms. It enters into their diet very exten- 

 sively. They also use it for feeding hogs 

 as do the Japanese. It has a high feeding 

 value and acre for acre will produce more 



