A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 63 



CULTIVATION OF THE CHESTNUT. 



FACTS ABOUT GRAFTING THIS NUT. 



From Rural New Yorker, 5, 79, '<?./. 

 Any Practical Future for .the Business? 



7. How high are your trees grafted? 2. Does the scion unite perfectly? 

 j. Have you known the top to blow off on account of weakness at the point of 

 union? 4. At what size and age do your improved Chestnuts bear? 5. How 

 many nuts to the burr? 6. How about size and quality compared with wild 

 Chestnuts? 7. Do you think Chestnut culture promises any practical rewards 

 to farmers or others ? . 



How to Start the Graft. 

 By a Reader. 



i. Five to six feet. 2. Not always on young trees. On large trees worked 

 in branches from one to one and one-half inches thick, the scions take as readily 

 and make as perfect a union as the Apple. In the nursery I have the best suc- 

 cess in whip-grafting, having the scion and stock of equal size. 3. Yes; some- 

 times the scions will make a growth of two to three feet, and do not apparently 

 form a particle of union with the stock. My opinion is that this occurs from 

 too free a flow of sap. If the scions are cut before the sap begins to flow, and 

 left to wither somewhat, they may be successfully grafted up to the middle of 

 May, and the union will be more perfect. 4. They usually commence bearing 

 the second year after grafting. I am alluding to the Paragon. The Numbo 

 will take several years longer. The Japan I consider of very little account 

 compared with the above varieties. Some of the Japan varieties bear very fine 

 nuts, but they shrink much quicker than the Paragon and Numbo. 5. From 

 one to four, sometimes five to six. 6. The size is generally from three to four 

 times as large as the common Chestnut. In quality they are not as fine as the 

 common Chestnut, but, like the Concord among Grapes, they are good enough 

 for the masses of consumers; boiled or roasted they are excellent. 7. Emphati- 

 cally, yes. If a young farmer would plant a grove of one thousand trees now, 

 ten years hence he would have an independent competence. 



Chestnuts or Apples for Profit. 

 By W. Atkinson. 



i. I think about one foot high. 2. It does in the case of Numbo, per- 

 fectly; of my first trees of Paragon, apparently the union was not so perfect. 

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