GO 



^I slioiild sa}' they were/ said the owner of the estate. 'My 

 husband said before he died that he wouldn't take five hundred 

 dollars for that big chestnut out in front there. I will willingly 

 pay twenty dollars to have them saved.' 'All right. Let me get 

 my outtit.' 



He went to his buggy, brought back a paper bag of powder and 

 a whitewash brush, and borrowed a pail, some water and a step- 

 ladder. In an hour he had swabbed the trees from as high as he 

 could reach from the ladder down to the ground, pocketed the 

 pleased widow's twenty dollars, got into the buggy, said 'Gid- 

 dap' to his horse, and was down at the next door yard, swabbing 

 more trees and pocketing more dollars." 



It is true that many unscrupulous persons have been making 

 money in a manner similar to the one mentioned in this story. 

 It is true also that the ravages of the disease, and especially the 

 legislative appropriation to combat it in Pennsylvania, have sud- 

 denly brought to light numerous unsuspected infallible cures for 

 all the ills (including the chestnut bark disease) to which trees 

 are or ever will become heir, if we should judge only from the 

 statements of the advertisers and inventors. 



Apropos of this, the Chestnut Tree Blight Commission of 

 Pennsjdvania might relate some of their experiences along this 

 line that would make more interesting reading than the above, 

 though the incidents Avere less profitable financially to the fakirs. 



The main point that I want to emphasize, however, is that the 

 value of ornanmental trees cannot, like forest trees, lie gauged by 

 the mere timber value of the wood, nor, like the orchard tree, 

 merely by the value of the annual crop of nuts. The chestnut 

 tree undoubtedly attains its highest value as an ornamental tree. 

 You will all recall, I am sure, certain estates where one or more 

 ch(\stnut trees are the main aesthetic or decorative features. Per- 

 hai)S the tree may have been a veteran, famous in the country- 

 side, long before the present owner purchased the land and built 

 his domicihs Oftentimes tlie value of tlu; ornamental tree is 

 largely enhanced by its location Avith reference to the house, and 

 even more largely, at times, by historic or ancestral traditions 

 with which it may have been, long since, associated. The value 

 placed by the oAvner of (he estate upon such tree may occasion- 

 allv be almost without limit. 



