CHESTNUTS 215 



CHINKAPIN 



I have made a large number of hybrids between 

 the American chestnut and the chinkapin which is 

 highly resistant to the blight, and some of the hy- 

 brids carry the resistant quality of the chinkapin 

 parent while bearing nuts of good size and high 

 quality. Hybrids which show the chinkapin parent 

 in the tree most distinctly have resisted the blight 

 best, while those which show the American chestnut 

 characteristics markedly are more vulnerable to the 

 blight. Most of the hybrids bear nuts which do not 

 possess much value, but three of the best hybrids 

 have been presented to nut nurserymen who will 

 keep them in stock. None of the hybrids so far 

 have shown a tendency to make valuable timber of 

 the sort belonging to the American parent. The 

 chinkapin, while not wholly immune to the blight, 

 resists it so well that trees may bear heavily for 

 many years, making it worth while to* include hybrid 

 kinds in nut orchards. Blighted limbs must be 

 trimmed out from time to time. The chinkapin 

 illustrates one of Nature's ways for checking the 

 distribution of a species. It has a habit of sprouting 

 its nuts as soon as they have fallen in the autumn. 

 In the south the new growth becomes sufficiently 

 well lignified to withstand the winter. In the north 

 this is not the case. The chinkapin then would nat- 

 urally be limited to areas in which autumn sprouting 

 of nuts could make good winter wood. The tree 

 itself, however, is hardy after its first year of age. 



