ON THE CHESTNUT 



Accounts of the destruction of the trees have 

 doubtless brought the chestnut to the attention of 

 many people who hitherto have never given it a 

 thought. The value of the chestnut as an orna- 

 mental tree and its possibilities as a nut producer 

 will perhaps be more fully appreciated than they 

 otherwise would be on the familiar principle that 

 blessings brighten as they take their flight. And 

 it may chance that the tree will be placed under 

 cultivation so generally as to be more abundant 

 twenty-five or thirty years from now in the de- 

 vastated regions than it would have been if the 

 chestnut blight had not appeared. 



In any event it seems now at least as desirable 

 as ever before to urge the value of this tree both 

 for ornamental purposes and as a producer of 

 commercial nuts, and the rules for the develop- 

 ment of chestnut orchards that have been given 

 by the Department of Agriculture may be reviewed 

 to advantage. 



Even if people living in the infected district are 

 slow to take up the cultivation of the chestnut, the 

 orchardists of other regions may advantageously 

 do so. For I repeat that it is not supposable that 

 the coming of a fungoid pest will be permitted to 

 exterminate one of our most valuable native trees. 



In developing a commercial chestnut orchard 

 it is obviously desirable to graft with the improved 



[117] 



