The Chestnut. 115 



northward. The foreign species are less hardy than the 

 native. 



160. Fruiting habit. The pollen-bearing flowers of the 

 chestnut grow from the axils of successive or alternate 

 leaves on the young shoots, opening in early summer, in 

 long catkins which bear fragrant pollen. The pistillate or 

 female flowers grow from the axils of the leaves on the 

 more extended shoot, in four-pointed burs on stiff spikes. 

 The female flowers are thus developed on later and younger 

 wood than the male. Usually only 1 to 3 flowers near the 

 base of the spike produce nuts. In the American chestnut 

 two to seven nuts are commonly borne in a husk. The in- 

 termingling of pollen from different trees is thought essen- 

 tial to productiveness by some growers. 



Ungrafted trees of the American chestnut commence 

 bearing at 12 to 20 years old; grafted ones at 2 to 7 years 

 after grafting. Wild trees difier greatly in fruitfulness, 

 the more productive ones yielding regular crops of one 

 or more bushels per tree. The Japanese chestnut bears 

 youngest and most freely of all. 



161. Soil. The native chestnut is usually found on high, 

 sandy land, gravel ridges or mountain slopes, and generally 

 on soil nearly or quite free from limestone. On deep prairie 

 soils and alluvial bottom lands it is short-lived. It is thus 

 suited to land not specially valuable for farm crops, 



162. Propagation. The chestnut is readily propagated 

 by planting the nuts. These should be stratified in au- 

 tumn, before becoming dry, in moist sand and kept over 

 winter in a cool cellar or buried in the ground. They should 

 be planted an inch or two deep in early spring. The chest- 

 nut may be grafted on any species of its own genus and on 

 some of the oaks. Most American chestnut orchards have 



