ON THE CHESTNUT 



our native chestnuts is indeed a calamity, but it is 

 a calamity that is not irreparable. We may have 

 full assurance that new chestnut groves will spring 

 up in the wake of the pest. 



It is obvious that the quick growing chestnut 

 offers great advantages for such reforestation. 

 The probability that these will prove immune to 

 the pest gives them added attractiveness. If, how- 

 ever, the existing varieties should prove not to be 

 immune, it will be necessary to develop resistant 

 varieties. For it is obvious that the cultivation of 

 the chestnut will not be abandoned merely because 

 it has met with an unexpected setback. 



It has already been pointed out that the chest- 

 nut has exceptional food value on account of its 

 high percentage of starchy matter. It therefore 

 occupies a place in the dietary that is not held by 

 any other nut. So there is an exceptional incentive 

 to reintroduce the trees in devastated regions. 

 THE CHESTNUT ORCHARD 



Possibly the coming of the chestnut plague, 

 even though it has resulted directly in the destruc- 

 tion of the entire chestnut groves throughout wide 

 regions, may be a blessing in disguise, as it may 

 make it necessary to bring the chestnut under 

 cultivation in order to preserve the nut at all, 

 whereas in the past it has grown so abundantly in 

 the wild that little attention has been paid to it. 



[115] 



