The Chestnuts 



four velvet-lined valves, from which the smooth brown nuts fall. 

 The over-anxious small boy who beats the nuts off earlier wounds 

 his fingers painfully in attempting to force open the stubborn 

 husks. The nuts are not nearly so sweet and rich flavoured as 

 those that wait until the frost unlocks their cells. But boys will 

 never believe this. 



The chestnut tree turns to gold again in autumn, and the 

 naked tree stands "knee-deep" in its own leaves all winter. Then 

 its massive trunk, with deep furrowed bark, and the multitude 

 of horizontal branches, striking out from the short central shaft, 

 are distinctly etched against the sky. The small limbs are numer- 

 ous and contorted, the lower boughs often drooping. Few trees 

 are more attractive in winter. 



Chestnuts are among the trees of longest life and greatest 

 trunk diameter. The famous giant at the foot of Mount /^tna, the 

 "Chestnut of a Hundred Horsemen" (because it sheltered them 

 all at one time), had a diameter of over 60 feet, and lived to be 

 2,000 years old. Though hollow, and with its shell in five parts 

 when measured, records showed that a century before it had been 

 a continuous cylinder. Each year these decaying stems wore a 

 crown of green, until an eruption of the volcano destroyed the tree. 



In our woods old chestnut stumps 6 feet in diameter and 

 more stand covered with moss and lichens and crumbling to decay, 

 while a circle of fine young trees, each tall and slender, with a 

 diameter of a foot or less, have sprung up from the roots of the 

 old tree. Specimens 10 feet in diameter were not unusual in the 

 virgin forests, though the tallest ones were usually more slender. 



The tannic acid in chestnut wood is what preserves it from 

 decay in contact with the soil. Because of its durability it is 

 largely cut for railroad ties and posts. It is well worthy of culti- 

 vation as a lumber tree. In woodwork and furniture chestnut is 

 almost as handsome as oak. The chestnut is a valuable nut tree. 

 Had it none of these merits it w6uld still be saved from the saw in 

 many instances because the landscape can ill afi'ord to lose a fine 

 old chestnut tree. 



The Chinquapin (C. pumila, Mill.) is the chestnut in minia- 

 ture rarely a tree of medium height and spreading habit usually 

 a shrub that seizes the land by its suckering roots, and forms thick- 

 ets on hillsides and bare ridges or on the margins of swamps. It 

 is found from Pennsylvania to Florida, and west to Arkansas and 



18S 



