Castanea 845 



With regard to soil, the chestnut is rather fastidious, as, though it will exist for a 

 time, it rarely thrives on soils of a chalky or limy ' nature, and will not grow in stiff 

 clay or in peaty soil. 



All the largest I have seen are on greensand or old red sandstone ; and when 

 cultivated for coppice-wood, which is probably its best economic use, it requires a 

 better soil and climate than any other tree usually so treated. It is propagated by 

 seed, which ripens in the southern counties abundantly in good seasons, though the 

 fruit is inferior in size and quality to what is imported from Spain and France. The 

 largest nuts should be chosen and kept dry in sand until spring, as they are devoured 

 by mice, and if sown in autumn are liable to rot if exposed to much frost and wet. 

 They should be transplanted when one year old and kept rather crowded in the 

 nursery until they are 5 to 6 feet high, as they are liable to become very bushy if 

 they have room to spread. They are not difficult to transplant, if grown in light 

 soil, but must not be left more than two years before transplanting. 3 



A remarkable instance of the grafting of the chestnut on the oak s was shown me 

 in the Botanic Garden of Dijon in France by M. Genty, the professor of botany 

 there. The history of this tree is given in full by M. A. Baudot, in a pamphlet 

 published at Dijon in 1907, from which I gather that in 1835 some acorns of the 

 pedunculate oak were sown by M. Meline, five of which were grafted in 1839 with 

 scions from the chestnut. Three of the grafts failed to take, another was injured by 

 wind, the fifth pushed a shoot in the first year about 4 feet long, and grew so 

 vigorously that it is now nearly 40 feet high with a girth of 4^ feet. The tree 

 bore small fruit in 1852 ; and in 1903 some were sown, which germinated and 

 produced three young plants, of which two are now planted out in the garden at 

 Dijon, and a third was sent to M. M. de Vilmorin at Les Barres. 



The varieties of the chestnut grown for fruit are usually grafted in French 

 nurseries, but are rarely planted in England at present so far as I have seen. 



As coppice-wood the chestnut is principally found in the hop-growing districts 

 of Kent, Sussex, and Hants, where, until wiring was introduced, it was one of the 

 most valuable products of English woodland, being cut at intervals of 8 to 12 years and 

 realising frequently 2 to $ per acre per annum. But now, though still more 

 valuable than ash or hazel, it has fallen so much in price that these coppices are not 

 as carefully managed as they used to be ; and the split poles, which are so largely used 

 for fencing, are said to be imported from France. In such coppices the stools are 

 at 5 to 6 feet apart, because the thinner a hop pole is in proportion to its height the 



1 Fliche and Grandeau (Ann. Chtmit el Physique, 1874, P- 354) proved by experiments, that the presence of a consider- 

 able amount of lime in the soil causes the chestnut to languish or to die, as too little iron is absorbed by the tree, and the 

 normal function of the chlorophyll is deleteriously affected. Alphonse de Candolle, in Nutrvo Giortt. Bot. Ital. x. 228 

 (1878), states that the chestnut is never found growing in Switzerland on limestone, and that in places where it is believed to 

 occur on limestone, careful examination shows that the roots are surrounded by siliceous soil. However, he brings forward 

 evidence to show that in the climate of south-eastern Europe, as in Hungary and Istria, the chestnut is occasionally found 

 thriving on pure limestone. 



2 Sir H. Maxwell recommends sowing the best foreign nuts, but these produce seedlings which in my nursery are much 

 more tender when young, than those raised from smaller English-grown seed, and when required for timber trees I should 

 prefer the latter. 



3 M. Trabut, in his pamphlet, Le chataignier en Algerie, published as bulletin 37, by the Department of Agriculture in 

 Algeria, states that he saw at the Villa Thuret in Antibes, a fine chestnut, which had been grafted on Quercus Mirbcckii. 



