A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 59 



FRUIT NOTES FROM WOODBANKS.-THE CHESTNUT CROP. 



T. Gricner, in American Gardening. 



In earlier issues of American Gardening I have repeatedly told of the two- 

 acre Paragon Chestnut orchard, which we planted in 1893 in Ontario county. 

 The results are already beginning to show. Although the wood-growth has 

 not been remarkable in amount for the past three years, the trees being still 

 quite small, yet it has been healthy and the little trees this year have given us 

 all the fruit that they could hold up. It was a sight, indeed, to see these little 

 trees with branches bending low under their load of the remarkably large and 

 heavy burrs. Many of the latter contained four and five nuts of the largest 

 size, larger than we have seen them elsewhere, and especially on the trees at 

 Woodbanks with its apparently ailing foliage. 



It is evident, however, that we have made a mistake. The Paragon tree 

 seems to be bound to fruit almost from the start. We should not allow it to 

 indulge in this wasteful inclination. The few quarts or baskets of nuts that 

 we can get from the trees during their first three or four years, or even the few 

 bushels to bs harvested for some years more, cannot possibly compensate for 

 the loss in wood-growth. Fruit production requires considerable energy. We 

 want the trees to exert all their efforts in healthy wood-growth, in order to 

 come to full bearing size at as early an age as possible. The comparatively few 

 nuts which the trees gave us this year cannot help but reduce the bearing 

 w r ood one-half for another year, and the nuts of the next crop, if allowed to 

 remain on the trees, must necessarily again largely reduce the bearing wood 

 for another year, perhaps one-half or more. 



It will be an interesting experiment to watch the development of trees, 

 some of which are allowed to fruit while others have every effort at fruit pro- 

 duction literally nipped in the bud. This experiment we propose to make. 

 Only a few of the trees will be allowed to fruit for years to come, but we feel 

 even now quite sure of the outcome -so sure that I would advise every one who 

 has a Paragon tree to remove the burrs as soon as set every year for at least ten 

 years, with the exception perhaps of leaving a very few nuts to ripen for the 

 sole purpose of satisfying the grower's curiosity. 



On the whole, I am now more enthusiastic than ever about the possibilities 

 of growing Chestnuts for pleasure and profit when we have such an excellent 

 nut as the Paragon. The only drawback seems to be the difficulty of getting 

 an orchard started. Even with the greatest care in planting and caring for 

 them, an undue proportion of the trees die during the first or second year, and 

 have to be replaced. Even now, after repeated efforts to get the vacancies 

 filled in, there are a number of trees missing, while there is not a vacancy 



