84 THE KOREST TREE CULTURIST. 
maker to see it converted into many useful articles of fur- 
niture. We can scarcely go into a railroad car, steam- 
boat, or hotel without seeing chestnut timber employed in 
some article of furniture or portion of the structure. 
Where toughness is required, or a very fine polish, chest- 
nut will not answer, for it is naturally brittle and very 
coarse-grained ; still, it will receive a polish sufficient for 
ordinary work, and it is now much used for finishing 
rooms; and when in connection with black walnut it pro- 
duces a fine effect. 
When a Chestnut tree is cut down, sprouts will almost 
invariably spring up from the old stump and grow with 
surprising rapidity (especially if the tree is cut in winter), 
so that a forest once planted is for alltime. If these sprouts 
are thinned out when small, so as not to crowd, they will 
grow from four to six inches in diameter and thirty feet high 
in ten years. The Chestnut is also a very ornamental tree, 
with either a broad, oval, or cone-shaped head. It is varia- 
ble in form: sometimes it will branch low and form a round, 
globular-shaped head, such as shown in fig. 22, which is 
Fig, 22, 
an exact representation of a tree growing near Paterson, 
N. J. The leaves are from five to seven inches long and 
