84 



mies, by Mr. C. K. Sober, who lias been working wilh I lie Para- 

 gon chestnut since 1890 and 1897. In 189G Mr. Sober began to 

 graft the Sober Paragon chestnut, as it is now called, on native 

 chestnut sprouts. He had on his farm in Irish Valley about four 

 hundred acres of waste mountain land. This mountain land lie 

 wished to reclaim. It was not suitable for ordinary farm crops. 

 His method was to remove everything and, by means of cleanli- 

 ness, which he obtained by using the grubbing hoe, the saw, the 

 axe, and the pruning knife, and then burning everything, to keep 

 his growth clean. In this way he hoped to keep out the enemies, 

 such as the weevil, and another worse than the weevil, the burr 

 worm. There are two species of the burr worm, one of which is 

 new to scientists. It belong to the genus Holcocera, and has been 

 named, in honor of Mr. Sober, Holcocera Soberii. The other 

 larva, the adult of which is not known, is equally injurious. By 

 means of removing the nuts as soon as they emerge, removing 

 the burrs from the grove and burning the shucks as soon as the 

 nuts are taken out, Mr. Sober on fifty acres has practically re- 

 moved the weevil and burr worm, so that last year the nuts 

 gathered from fifty acres contained scarcely a peck of wormy 

 chestnuts. He has done this by means of cleanliness in every way, 

 and by removing the larvae and not allowing them to mature. In 

 other parts of the grove it has not been possible to do this in 

 every respect, and there the weevil is an enemy. It has been his 

 custom, during the last ten years, to remove every dead limb that 

 has appeared in the four hundred acres and if there was chestnut 

 blight, it has been cut off and burned. An actual count of the 

 chestnut trees now in the grove showed forty-four thousand and 

 thirty-five trees that are bearing, and in addition to those there 

 are others that are not yet matured. 



By means of these slides I will take you in harvest time over 

 the grove as it now is, and then, by means of other slides which 

 I have taken during the last ten years, show you the various steps 

 that have been taken in developing this grove. If we may have 

 the lantern, we will begin our trip. 



The first slide is a portrait of Mr. C. K. Sober. (Applause). 



The next slide represents a portion of a fifty-acre tract, as it 

 appeared when he took possession of it. It was covered with 

 waste wood of various sorts. Very little of this was of any use. 



