10 CHESTNUT IN TENNESSEE. 



The sprouting capacity of chestnut is far superior to that of 

 any other important hardwood growing in Tennessee, and it is ex- 

 ceptional when an unburned stump fails to sprout. On the north 

 slope of Roan Mountain, above Burbank, at an altitude of about 

 3,000 feet, 99 per cent of stumps of trees 3 to 5 feet in diameter, 

 and varying in age from 150 to 300 years, sprouted, and the sprouts 

 from most of the stumps were both numerous and vigorous. In 

 such a situation chestnut is probably at its best. Several vigorous 

 stands were seen which were composed of the second set of stump 

 sprouts. Stumps should be cut low and obliquely, and the fertility 

 of the soil maintained by preserving the humus. Where this is 

 done and the trees are protected from fire, it is probable that many 

 successions of sprouts can be grown from the same roots before 

 their vigor is exhausted or even seriously impaired. The period 

 of sustained vigor depends on the age at which the successive crops 

 of sprouts are cut, and, to some extent, upon the season of the year. 



ROOT SYSTEM 



The chestnut seedling has a central tap-root and long lateral, 

 fibrous roots and rootlets. Early in life this tap-root divides into 

 many vertical roots, above which are numerous widely ramifying 

 laterals that lie from 6 to 8 inches below the surface of the ground. 

 In mature trees the roots frequently descend to a depth of 4 or 5 

 feet. Such a root system firmly anchors the tree and renders it 

 extremely wind-firm. 



Diseases and Defects. Until past the pole stage, chestnut suffers 

 severely from fire because of its thin bark. Sprout trees not only 

 have thinner bark, but are likely to be injured through the burn- 

 ing of the old stumps. Since the sprout stands are those left after 

 lumbering, they have been frequently burned, and the trees are 

 either hollow or defective at the base, although the fire scars may 

 have healed over so that there is no external mark. 



In addition to plainly evident physical defects, the exposure of 

 wood following the killing of the bark by fire affords an entrance 

 to destructive insects. The most important of these are the chest- 

 nut timber worm* and the two-lined chestnut borer.** The chest- 



*For information on the chestnut timber worm, see Circular 126 of the 

 United States Bureau of Entomology, "Insect Injuries to the Wood of Living 

 Trees," by A. D. Hopkins. 



** For information on the two-lined chestnut borer, see "Injuries to For- 

 est Trees by Flat-Headed Borers," by H. E. Burke, Yearbook, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, 1909. 



