72 LUTHER BURBANK 



with all other plants have been made always with 

 an eye to the exclusion of any races that showed 

 susceptibility to fungous pests of any kind. 



As an illustration of the care with which these 

 selections were made, in the development of the 

 improved varieties, I may note that in various 

 instances only three or four seedlings were 

 selected out of ten thousand. It may be added 

 that orchards made by grafting cions of these 

 improved hybrid chestnuts on ordinary Ameri- 

 can stock have proved enormously productive. 



It has been estimated that rocky and otherwise 

 useless hillsides may be made productive, where 

 practically nothing else could be grown that 

 would be of special value. 



This western golden chestnut (Castanea 

 chrysophylla) is a remarkable species. On the 

 heights of the Sierra Nevada mountains it grows 

 as a shrub only four or five feet tall, much 

 branched. These shrubs produce nuts quite 

 abundantly. Along the coast the same species 

 grows to a height of 150 feet, with an im- 

 mense trunk. One can scarcely believe that 

 the little bush and the gigantic tree are of the 

 same species. 



Being an unusually ornamental evergreen the 

 mountain variety should be extensively planted 

 in cold climates. 



