12 A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 



been sufficient progress already made in the way of selecting and preserving 

 from destruction by the ax, certain choice varieties, to furnish a fairly promis- 

 ing field of labor. A few of the best that have come under my personal notice 

 and that have been deemed worthy of varietal names may be briefly mentioned : 



Dulaney, Excelsior, Griffin, Hathaway, Murrell, Otto, and other choice 

 varieties. 



There are rocky hillsides and other waste patches already covered with 

 young chestnut growth, that, by grafting, might be changed into groves of 

 these and other choice varieties. Old timber slashings that have very young 

 growth would be the best suited to such treatment. 



European I?or P ront able planting at the present time, the 



Chestnut European type, Castanea sativa, is the best species of 



Chestnut, all things considered. The trees of some 



of its varieties are somewhat tender in some sections of the United States, but 

 numerous trials in New York have proven that there is little to be feared from 

 this cause. 



The nuts are large but of inferior flavor, compared with our wild Chestnuts, 

 and some varieties have quite bitter skins covering the kernel, which must be 

 removed before eating. Much less pubescence is found in the nuts than on 

 those of our wild species. One objection that many practical men make to this 

 species in nearly all its varieties, when worked on native American stocks, 

 is that the union is not perfect and that winds are apt to break off the grafted 

 top. There is considerable difference in this respect among the varieties; 

 advantage can be taken of this, and only the most successful kinds worked 

 upon the native stocks, either in the nursery or the wild sprouts in brush lands. 



Mr. H. M. Engle, of Pennsylvania, told me very recently that he had more 

 than forty acres of wild sprouts grafted principally to Paragon and the union 

 seemed to be good in nearly all cases. He said that he had many grafted trees 

 several inches in diameter, which were so perfectly healed at the graft that no 

 evidence of the operation could be seen. I have seen such trees in several 

 places. 



If scions of varieties of the European typ are set upon seedlings of the 

 same species, there will be almost no uncongeniality of stock and scion. This 

 can easily be done. 



There are a gbodly number of well tested varieties that have been so 

 well thought of that they have long ago been named and are propagated in the 

 nurseries by grafting and budding. Among them are the following: Paragon, 

 Numbo, Ridgely, Hannum. 



Japanese ^^ e J a P anese Chestnut, Castaneu Japonica^ has been 



Chestnut thought by some to be only a variation of the 



European type, but there are sufficient points of dif- 

 ference to warrant botanists in giving it a separate specific name. The tree is 



