HORTICULTURE 307 



Slating and sandy hills and mountain slopes like those so com- 

 mon throughout Pennsylvania offer excellent conditions for chestnut 

 culture of this kind. Few of these lands are now cultivated at any 

 profit ; few are of any real value for pasturage even ; many are utterly 

 neglected and abandoned as no longer worth attention. A few acres 

 on each farm planted to chestnuts would entail no great expense or 

 labor, and would at least renew the wooded covering which protects 

 the surface from washing, holds the leaves and vegetable debris, and 

 gradually accumulates humus to enrich the soil. Few trees are more 

 useful to the farmer in furnishing posts and other materials for farm 

 uses; and, with proper care in thinning, trimming and protecting, 

 they would in time become bearing trees a chestnut orchard, as 

 reliable a source of income as an orchard of any kind of fruit. The 

 treatment of such an orchard would naturally vary very much with 

 its situation. In ground easily worked, cultivation, for a few years 

 at least, would be the easiest method of keeping down other plants 

 and leaving the trees a clear field to occupy. In such instance close 

 planting, only a few feet apart, would be advisable. 



Where the surface is very stony or encumbered with stumps and 

 refuse from former growth the cultivation would necessarily be lim- 

 ited to the immediate vicinity of the trees, and would, perhaps, be 

 little more than cutting away about them to prevent their being 

 smothered. It should be borne in mind, however, that neglect to do 

 this so often and so thoroughly as is needed will result in the young 

 trees becoming weakened and soon crowded out completely by their 

 rivals. But where there is a natural sprout-growth of chestnut on 

 land which, often, is abandoned and left to run to waste there is an 

 excellent opportunity for. securing an orchard of nut trees at a very 

 small expense and trouble. The chestnut sprouts should be thinned 

 out gradually until they are so far apart that they will not inter- 

 fere with one another. Trees so exposed will develop short trunks 

 and low, round-headed tops, and will come into bearing much 

 sooner than otherwise. The trees and shrubs of other kinds should 

 meanwhile be cut periodically, at least in so far as they directly 

 interefere with the symmetrical development of the chestnuts, so 

 that the latter will eventually occupy the whole ground. Had a 

 little care of this kind been exercised over a very few only of the 

 beautifully timbered lands of Pennsylvania after the cutting of the 

 original growth there would now be many thousands of productive 

 trees yielding a handsome revenue to their owners. In effect this is 

 but giving a little attention to the second growth which appears after 

 every cutting of chestnut land, and thus turning its energy into a 

 particular channel. When the small amount of labor necessary 

 to do this is considered it is surprising that more do not undertake 

 it. It will be necessary to afford some protection from fire and tres- 

 passers, but what reasons can be given for not protecting and en- 

 forcing the rights on property of this kind as on any other? 



But such sprout-growths can be treated in another way. If 

 taken when they are still young and small they can be grafted with 

 scions of any of the named varieties which are now offered by nurs- 



