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CHESTNUT {Castanea dcntata Borkh.) 



OVER the Southern States the chestnut is native 

 to the hilly and mountain sections. It is one 

 of our most useful trees and as such, has been called 

 the ''farmer's best friend." 



The long-pointed leaves with their coarse teeth, 

 each bearing a slender spine, are quite distinctive. 

 They are simple, alternate, average 5 to 10 inches in 



CHESTNUT 



Leaf, one-third natural size. 

 Twlff, one-half natural size. 



/ 



length, and are dark green in color. The flowers 

 are of two kinds on the same tree, the long, slender, 

 whitish catkins opening in midsummer. The fruit 

 is a prickly burr, which opens at the first frost, or 

 earlier, and drops 2 or 3 shiny, brown, sweet, edible 

 nuts. 



The bark becomes broken into light-gray, broad, 

 flat ridges, which often have a tendency toward a 

 spiral course around the trunk. 



The wood is light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, 

 and very durable in contact Avith the soil — qualities 

 v.hich make it particularly valuable for posts, poles, 

 orossties, as well as for light building construction. 

 The wood is rich in tannin, and in the southern Ap- 

 palachians it is extensively cut and used for the ex- 

 traction of this valuable commercial product. 



A bark disease, known as the chestnut blight, is 

 proving fatal to the chestnut, and has already prac- 

 tically exterminated the tree over much of north- 

 eastern United States. It has already reached por- 

 tions of \'irginia and North Carolina. 



34 



