106 



THE NUT CULTURIST. 



family were the first to raise European chestnut trees to 

 a bearing size in this country, for some of its members 

 were settled in Delaware before the war of the Revolu- 

 tion. Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, during the 

 French ministry of Vergennes, was employed in form- 

 ing the treaty of 1783, in which the independence of the 

 United States was formally recognized by England. In 



FIG. 33. OPEN BUR OF THE RIDGELY CHESTNUT. 



1795 (Am. encyclopedia) he came to this country and 

 joined his sons, who had become successful manufactur- 

 ers of gunpowder at or near Wilmington, Del., where 

 their descendants, or at least some of them, are still en- 

 gaged in the same business. If any of the old and orig- 

 inal chestnut trees have escaped the numerous "poder 



