lo Oct., 1910. 



The CJicstiiut . 



65: 



once sparse forests into open country, rendering the use of breakwinds and 

 .shelter belts a more and more widely acknowledged necessity every year. 

 In the planting of these it is well that preference should be given to trees 

 which, while providing shelter, should also be productive. Many tine 

 .shelter trees are now being planted, notably our own eucalypts, the rapid 

 growth of which renders them special fa\ourites in this country, where we 

 are usually in a hurrv. Eucalypts, unfortunately, apart from their 

 timber value, bring in no revenue. 



As a tree, which, in addition to providing abundant shelter, aLso yields 

 valuable crops, few have more to recommend them than the chestnut. The 

 tree itself is too well-known for much description to be necessary. It 

 attains a height of 50 feet, and its graceful and characteristic habit of 

 growth makes it one of the most ornamental of deciduous trees. The 

 photographs reproduced of chestnuts at Anduze, department of Gard, 

 France, will give some idea of the general appearance. Its abundant 





(^hl. 



CHESTNUTS NEAR ANDUZE. 



foliage, composed of large, bright green, lanceolate, sharply-toothed 

 leaves, similar in shape to those of the Loquat, though finer in texture 

 and lighter in colour, enable it to provide dense shade. Coming into leaf 

 early in spring it blossoms about November, the nuts ripening in March 

 or April. 



As regards climate, its requirements are very similar to those of the 

 vine, with, perhaps, not quite such a wide range ; whilst it will thrive in 

 regions rather too cold for this plant to be profitably grown. The warmer 

 portions of Victoria, such as the Murray and Mallee, where the vine does 

 so well, are rather too warm for it. In Spain, it is in the northern pro- 

 vinces — from Catalufia right across to Galicia— that it is most frequently 

 m.et with, being scarcer in warmer parts such as Valencia and Murcia ; 

 whilst in France, it is the cooler parts of the south, such as the flanks 

 of the Cevennes Mountains and the Pyrenees, where it finds it^vlt most 

 at home, although it also does remarkably well in Corsica. 



