THE CHESTNUT — BEARING 

 NUTS AT SIX MONTHS 



A Tree Which Responds to Education 



WHEX a boy in Massachusetts, I used 

 to observe the great variation among 

 the native American chestnuts in my 

 father's woodlots. Like most boys I was fond 

 of nuts, and in gathering them soon learned that 

 there were certain trees that bore large, glossy, 

 rich brown nuts with sweet meats, and that there 

 were other trees that bore only small, flat, ash- 

 colored nuts of insignificant size and inferior 

 quality. 



I observed that the trees that bore these seem- 

 ingly quite different nuts differed also in size 

 and in foliage, and particularly noted that such 

 variations were not due to any local conditions, 

 inasmuch as the trees bearing fine nuts and those 

 bearing poor ones might stand side by side. 



Similar variations were noted regarding a 

 good many other trees and plants of various 

 kinds. But the variations among the chestnuts, 



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