Promising New Fruits. 123 



All germinated, but with the exception of two trees they 

 made a feeble growth and gave promise of no value. The 

 two more vigorous trees made a growth of about 3 feet 

 during the first season. One of these the variety now 

 under consideration ripened six burs of nuts early in Sep- 

 tember of the following year; that is, the second year from 

 seed. 1 The name by which the variety is known was applied 

 by Mr. Endicott in 1902 after he became impressed with its 

 value and was given in memory of that early American 

 pioneer, Daniel Boone. He began propagating it about the 

 same time for his own use, but it was introduced to the trade 

 by Mr. E. A. Kiehl, of Alton, ' Madison County, 111. The 

 name, appearing as " Daniel Boone," was published first in 

 the Transactions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society 

 for 1906. 2 



DESCRIPTION. 



Burs large, color rather dark green; spines short, stiff, dense, several 

 times branched on peduncles one-eighth to one-fourth inch long; nuts 

 large, 55 to 62 per pound when fresh ; usually 1 to 4 nuts to the bur, occasion- 

 ally as many as 6 ; color rich brown, pubescent only at tip ; shell of medium 

 thickness; inner husk rather thick, quite pubescent; flavor sweet; quality 

 good to very good, comparing favorably with the best of the Japanese 

 varieties; season about September. 



The tree is thrifty and vigorous, with a symmetrical, 

 roundish head. In August, 1913, the original tree measured 

 38 inches in circumference at breast height and was esti- 

 mated to have a height of 25 feet and a spread of limb of 

 more than 30 feet. The foliage is dense and rich green in 

 color; the leaflets average about 6 inches in length and are 

 deeply serrated. The tree usually blossoms about June 5 

 and matures its crop before September 20, about 30 days 

 earlier than the native American chestnuts growing in the 

 same locality. 



This variety is apparently strongly self-fertile and in this 

 respect is unlike most chestnut trees. For the first three or 

 four years after it came into bearing and while it was some- 

 what isolated from other trees, seedlings of it which were 

 grown by Mr. Endicott came nearly "true to the variety/' 

 but later other trees standing near it began to blossom ; fol- 

 lowing this the seedlings of Boone varied greatly. 



1 Letters from George W. Endicott, October and November, 1913. 



2 Transactions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society for the year 1906, vol. 40 (1906), 

 p. 219. 



