CHESTNUTS FOR PROFIT 



Fig. 1461.- The Killed Chestnut. 



either European, Asiatic or American, the 

 Killen is the largest I have seen, and I 

 do not beHeve there is any other as large 

 in this country. The Giant, which is of 

 Japanese origin, is the nearest to it, and 

 some of the Parry seedlings are almost 

 as large. 



"The Killen is a seedling of the Jap- 

 anese species, Castanea Japonica, and 

 originated from a nut planted within the 

 last lo years by J. W. Killen of Dela- 

 ware. The tree began to bear very early, 

 and it was a remarkable sight to see the 

 large burrs on so small a tree. The first 

 time I saw it was in 1893 ; it was then 

 bearing several burrs and not so high as 

 my head. Mr. Killen began to graft the 

 scions in other trees and found that they 

 bore the next year after being set. This 

 precocity and abundant fruitfulness 

 seems to be typical of the variety, judg- 



ing by all the young trees and grafts as 

 well as by the old tree. 



" The nuts are very large, as may be 

 seen by the accompanying life-size illus- 

 tration. Last fall I weighed three nuts 

 from one burr which aggregated 3^ ozs. 

 and another nut from a burr which had 

 two in it turned the scales at i^ ounces 

 and measured almost six inches in cir- 

 cumference. There are rarely less than 

 three nuts to the burr, and the above 

 sizes are not uncommon, and single nuts, 

 when they do occur, are even larger. In 

 quality the Killen chestnut is not equal 

 to our native wild chestnuts, nor are any 

 of the varieties of the foreign types, so 

 far as I have tested them. But it is bet- 

 ter than the average of either the Euro- 

 pean or Japanese kinds. 



" In habit the tree is not so robust as 

 some of the Japanese varieties, but it is 



427 



