68 LUTHER BURBANK 



occupies a place in the dietary that is not held by 

 any other nut. So there is an exceptional 

 incentive to reintroduce the trees in devastated 



regions. 



THE CHESTNUT ORCHARD 



Possibly the coming of the chestnut plague, 

 even though it has resulted directly in the 

 destruction of the entire chestnut groves through- 

 out wide regions, may be a blessing in disguise, 

 as it may make it necessary to bring the chestnut 

 under cultivation in order to preserve the nut 

 at all, whereas in the past it has grown so abun- 

 dantly in the wild that little attention has been 

 paid to it. 



Accounts of the destruction of the trees have 

 doubtless brought the chestnut to the attention 

 of many people who hitherto have never given 

 it a thought. The value of the chestnut as an 

 ornamental tree and its possibilities as a nut pro- 

 ducer will perhaps be more fully appreciated 

 than they otherwise would be on the familiar 

 principle that blessings brighten as they take 

 their flight. And it may chance that the tree 

 will be placed under cultivation so generally as 

 to be more abundant twenty-five or thirty 

 years from now in the devastated regions than 

 it would have been if the chestnut blight had 

 not appeared. 



