145 



77/0 IJliijIil TJircdlciis a XhUoikiI Loss. Wlio Loses? 



If anybody tliiiiks he i.s not ii loser becuuse he has not a ehest- 

 iiuL Jorcsi all his ow n, he has another think etjniing. 



(aj Do you wear shoes? If so, the chestnut interests you, 

 because we are just be^^inning to make tannin for leather from 

 the wood of the chestnut. 



(bj Do you read? The pulp that remains after the tunnin 

 is gone makes paper ; also a new industry just starting. 



(cj Do you rent a house? Chestnut wood is one of the most 

 satisfactorN' woods for finishing the plain man's house. 



(d) Do you use the telephone or teh'gra[)h? <,'hrstnut makes 

 one of the best telegraph and tt'h'[)lii»ne pedes. 



(ej Do you go a-trolleying? The chestnut is the tie-produc- 

 ing tree of tiie future, if we do not let the blight kill the species. 



(fj Do you own a farm or a town lot? Chestnut is one of the 

 great fence post trees of America. 



Lastly in its list of virtues we should not forget its value, and 

 especially its possibility as a producer of food for man, and sheep, 

 goats, hogs, and possibly other livestock. Already the chestnut 

 <,rchards of Europe make rough mountain sides worth on(^ hun- 

 dicd and lifty dollars per acre. Comi)are that to American farm 

 lands. The chestnut forests of Italy are reported to make more 

 bushels of nuts year after year than the continuously cropjied 

 lands of Dakota and Minnesota yield in wheat. Fully one- 

 fourth of the State of Pennsylvania, which is worthless for wheat 

 or corn, is better fitted for chestnut culture than any other use 

 now in sight. If we make them yield no better than the Italians 

 «lo, that would give us ninety million bushels of nuts, an amount 

 50 per cent, greater than our wheat and corn crops combined. 

 It would make this one of the greatest sheep and jiig fattening 

 states of the country. 



The stake in maintaining the chestnut species from destruc- 

 tion is large. The estimate of three hundred millicm dollars is 

 probably under, rather than over, the proper figure. In the ab- 

 sence of definite knowledge of the cure, liow much are we justified 

 in spending in uncertain efforts? The problem is one of insur- 

 ance. Forty billion dollars' worth of ]»i'operty in the 



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