116 THE NUT CULTUR1ST. 



where the young trees are scattered and exposed to the 

 full sweep of the winds, the nuts are sound and free 

 from insect enemies. The only remedy is to collect and 

 destroy the weevils, which is not a serious matter where 

 only the larger varieties are cultivated. 



Diseases of the Chestnut. I have never noticed 

 any special disease among chestnuts, neither do I find 

 any mentioned in European works on forestry. The 

 nearest approach to any such malady being recorded as 

 having appeared in this country, is found in a paragraph 

 in Hough's "Report on Forestry," 1877, p. 470, where the 

 author copies from Prof. W. C. Kerr, State Geologist, 

 ^orth Carolina, as follows: "The chestnut was for- 

 merly abundant in the Piedmont region, down to the 

 country between the Catawba and Yadkin rivers, but 

 within the last thirty years they have mostly perished. 

 They are now found east of the Blue Ridge only, on 

 higher ridges and spurs of the mountains. They have 

 suffered injury here, and are dying out both here and 

 beyond the Blue Ridge. They are much less fruitful 

 than they were a generation ago, and the crop is much 

 more uncertain." 



While there is nothing said about any chestnut dis- 

 ease in the paragraph quoted, we only infer that the 

 author intended to convey the idea that the trees were 

 suffering from some endemic malady, although it may 

 have been due to long drouths, insect depredators, or 

 other causes. A few years later Mr. Hough, in his 

 "Elements of Forestry," refers to the subject again, and 

 admits that "the cause of the malady is unknown." 

 But as chestnuts continue to come to our markets in 

 vast quantities from the Piedmont regions, there must 

 be a goodly number of healthy trees remaining. 



Uses. The economic value of the chestnut, as 

 food for mankind and the lower animals, has been, and 

 is still, so well known, that no extended dissertation or 



