No. 4.] NUT CULTURE FOR MASSACHUSETTS. 213 



that ill some of the older cultivated commercial orchards 

 the claims of the owners, that they can keep the blight under 

 control by constant watchfulness and inspection of the trees 

 with control measures, seem to be borne out. But it looks 

 as if our native trees were doomed. 



A bright ray of hope for the cultivation of chestnuts has 

 been shed by the experiments of Dr. Van Fleet of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. It is now ac- 

 cepted that the chestnut blight was imported from the Orient 

 where it is found endemic. The Oriental chestnuts have 

 more or less immunity. So has our native chinkapin. Dr. 

 Van Fleet has crossed the chinkapin with the Japanese 

 chestnut and got resulting hybrids combining the size of the 

 Japanese and the high quality of th^ chinkapin, at the same 

 time securing great, perhaps complete, immunity from the 

 blight. Moreover, these chestnuts bear very young and an- 

 nually, some bearing in less than two years from the seed, 

 and some of them several pounds of nuts in their third year. 

 These nuts are not yet available for distribution, but per- 

 sons who are interested should consult the " Journal of 

 Heredity " for January, 1914, where Dr. Van Fleet de- 

 scribes his experiments and results with illustrations. This 

 number also contains two illustrated articles on the chestnut 

 blight. 



Recommendations for the chestnut in 'New England at 

 present are to try them in very limited numbers, giving 

 them good care to promote vigorous growth, and watching 

 them to discover the earliest evidences of the blight, which 

 should be treated as the pear blight would be. Unless they 

 can be given this careful attention it would be better not 

 to set them at all. 



There are no immune varieties of the American chestnut. 

 Among the best of those we have are the Rochester, Boone 

 and Paragon, which may be bought of several reliable nur- 

 serymen. The Japanese varieties are generally coarse and 

 not of good quality, though there are said to be superior 

 ones. The Japanese chestnuts grow rapidly, bear young and 

 are beautiful, and useful as screens or in masses. 



Many cases of severe illness, and several deaths, have been 



