80 DA VET'S PRIMER 



" Under the spreading chestnut tree 

 The village smithy stands." 



You have read that beautiful poem ; but the reading 

 might have suggested a question. The word " spread- 

 ing" might have led you to think of the tall clean 

 trunks of the chestnut trees that you have seen in the 

 forests much to your annoyance when you could not 

 climb them to thresh off the nuts. Perhaps you have 

 wondered how a tree of this kind could become 

 ''spreading." But you will learn by observation that 

 these differences are common to nearly all trees. The 

 oaks, pines, spruces, etc., have long, clean bodies when 

 grown in the forests ; but in the open field, if left 

 alone, their lower branches will lie almost flat on the 

 ground. 



The American sweet chestnut is prized highly for 

 its fruit, being far superior to the larger nuts from 

 foreign varieties, but the wood also is of great service. 

 The young tree grows rapidly and in about ten years 

 from planting the seed, they make good fence posts ; in 

 twenty years, first rate telegraph poles. 



Now, boys, I want to start you making money. 

 Invest in a nickel's worth of chestnuts. Pick out one 

 hundred of the best nuts. Put them in a cigar box of 

 sand and leave them out of doors all winter. As soon 

 as the frost is out of the ground plant them, eight 

 inches apart, don't let a weed grow among them. At 

 the end of two years they will be worth five cents a 



