A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 75 



that he bought some of it just before the war at $20 per acre. Now it could 

 probably be bought for $12. On this hillside I found twenty acres of Paragon 

 Chestnuts grafted on sprouts from the stumps of natives, which were cut off 

 for firewood, or posts and rails. None of these trees is over five years from the 

 graft, yet with only the older ones in bearing the estimated yield this year is 

 seventy-five bushels of nuts. To one who can actually see the trees and the 

 way they are growing, the possibilities of this nut culture are very apparent. 



For over fifteen years Mr. Engle has propagated and tested the Paragon 

 Chestnut. The Rural New Yorker has already given the story of this nut, 

 and described its behavior at the Rural Grounds. As to its size, the Rural New 

 Yorker found that forty-two Paragon nuts weighed a pound, while two hundred 

 and eight native American Chestnuts were needed to give the same weight. As 

 to quality, while not so sweet and tender as the small natives, it has none of the 

 coarse and bitter taste so objectionable in the Japan and Spanish varieties. 

 We have always found it a very heavy bearer of large, handsome burrs. In 

 fact, the Rural New Yorker from the first has been almost as enthusiastic as 

 Mr. Engle over the possibilities of Chestnut culture. 



Mr. Engle was quick to see the chances for profit in a good Paragon 

 grove. Every year we import large quantities of Spanish nuts, even though 

 no effort has been made to popularize the Chestnut as a cheap food not as a 

 luxury. If he could grow large quantities of the Paragon a better nut in all 

 resp*ects than the Spanish there seemed no good reason why they should not 

 sell readily. Then the question arose, where should they be grown ? Should 

 he set out orchards on good lands suitable for vegetables or fruits ? Mr. Engle 

 is an " intensive " farmer. He grows now, on twenty-five acres, with the aid 

 of green crops and fertilizers, a more valuable crop than he formerly grew on 

 one hundred and twenty acres with the manure from ttiirty cows. 



He could not afford the land for a Chestnut orchard, for his soil must yield 

 crops at once. But there was that idle Chestnut ridge across the river. If it 

 could grow wild Chestnuts, why should it not grow Paragons ? If it is possible 

 to graft a fine and valuable apple on the stock of a worthless variety, why 

 would not the same hold true of Chestnuts ? The result was that a small por- 

 tion of the timber was cut off and sold. Paragon grafts were set on the 

 sprouts, and these first grafts are the five-year-old trees of to-day. 



CHESTNUT GRAFTING IN NEW ENGLAND. 

 By J. H. Hale, in Rural New Yorker. 



Taking a day off last week, I visited the farm of Judge Andrew J. Coe, of 

 Meriden, to look over his extensive operations in the grafting of Japan Chest- 

 nuts upon our native stock. As the Rural New Yorker has, I believe, been 



