224 The Chestnut, and the Chinquapins. 



the Blue Ridge, until we get high up on its peaks and spurs. 

 Westward of this ridge, the trees do not bear fruit now as they did 

 twenty years ago, so that hog-raising, formerly an important busi- 

 ness, has almost ceased. Occasionally there is still a good chestnut 

 crop, but it is rare and uncertain. 



887. In Europe, a similar fatality has been noticed in some parts 

 of Italy and Spain, and there has been found in connection with the 4 

 roots a fungus, composed of blackish brown filaments, forming a 

 net-work that penetrates the cellular tissues of the bark and wood, 

 feeding upon the juices of the living tree, and upon the decompos- 

 ing remains of the dead. No remedy has been proposed there 

 short of grubbing up and destroying by fire the roots of infected 

 trees, and all the debris ; but of course in our country such a meas- 

 ure would be wholly impracticable, unless possibly in isolated cases, 

 should this treatment be found effectual, and its necessity urgent. 1 



888. THE CHINQUAPIN (Castanea pumila) is usually a shrub or 

 small tree, growing in swamps, in the Middle and Southern States, 

 rarely attaining a height of thirty or forty feet, and generally being 

 too small for use. In Arkansas, however, it grows to a large size 

 sometimes three and even four feet in diameter, but not to a great 

 height. The fruit is small and sweet, and sometimes finds its way 

 into market. A dwarf variety grows upon poor soils, and bears fruit 

 when not more than a foot in height. It has been recommended 

 for cultivation as a covering for land too poor for other growth, and 

 as affording food for swine. 



889. THE WESTERN CHINQUAPIN (Castanopsis chrysophylla) is gen- 

 erally a low and unimportant evergreen shrub, growing in Califor- 

 nia and Oregon; but in the Cascade Mountains, it sometimes grows 

 to thirty feet in height, or even much larger. The leaves have a 

 dark green color above, but are covered with a yellow powder be- 

 neath. The nut is small, with a harder shell than the eastern 

 chinquapin, which it otherwise much resembles. 



1 A writer in Carrol Co., Ga., mentions this disease of the chestnut, which 

 appeared about fifteen years ago, and had made a clean sweep even the 

 bushes having nearly all died; no worms or insects had been found upon 

 them before death, and even now the dead chestnut trees were the most val- 

 uable rail-timber they had, it being soft but very durable, lasting longer in 

 the open weather than any other kind. After being dead over ten years, 

 the trees were sound, and without signs of decay. 



