63 
ceptible to disease.) We believed that among the offspring some 
individuals would inherit the tallness of the American parent plus 
the disease-resistance of the Japanese parent. 
Some of the Results to Date—Our best hybrid so far, a Japan- 
ese-American, with now four years of growth to its credit, stands 
11 feet 2 inches high. (Fig. 6.) The normal height for a native 
American chestnut would be about 4 feet, or one foot per year. 
Many other Japanese-American hybrids of the four year age class 
are now from 6 to 8 feet in height. 
In 1935 we made 5 new crosses and 3 new reciprocal crosses. 
Whereas, heretofore, we have used the American chestnut as 
the male parent only, we demonstrated this year that it is entirely 
feasible to make reciprocal crosses, using the American chestnut 
as the female parent. The American chestnut used in this case 
consisted of ordinary, wild, flowering shoots coming from the base 
of cut stumps or of dead trunks. 
The early blooming, at the age of 3 years, in 1934, of three of 
our Japanese-American hybrids, put an entirely new aspect on the 
whole breeding problem. This blossoming occurred on a much 
wider scale in 1935. Fourteen of the Japanese-Americans (4 yrs. 
old) bloomed, eight of them bearing only male flowers. As we 
said in our last year’s report, we do not expect that this precocious 
blooming (evidently a manifestation of hybrid vigor) will be 
maintained at the same rate in future generations; but nevertheless 
it means that we can encompass many generations in a reasonably 
short time. 
We now have, growing on the trial grounds at Hamden, Conn., 
116 of our own hybrid trees from various crosses, representing 
eight combinations (p. 69) of chestnut species and varieties, seven 
of which were made in 1934 for the first time. The 2 nuts re- 
sulting from the crossing of the 3-year old Japanese-American 
with American pollen germinated, and this second generation is 
growing well. We have, in all, seven species of chestnut growing 
on the plantations, and these, plus the varieties and hybrids, make 
a total of 452 trees. 
Outside Assistance —For the year 1935, we received a grant-in- 
aid from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to help de- 
fray the cost of the undertaking. With this help we were able to 
keep a man in the field during the months of May, July, and Au- 
