218 NUT GROWING 



CASTANOPSIS 



The Castanopsis, or golden chinkapin, is an ever- 

 green tree from the Pacific coast. It has been 

 transplanted experimentally in the east, but it does 

 not thrive in the eastern climate of North America. 

 It occurs in two forms, perhaps with specific differ- 

 ences the larger form sometimes giving a tree one 

 hundred and fifty feet in height with a diameter of 

 ten feet. The nuts, while very small, are delicious, 

 but too tiny for market purposes. The smaller species 

 is sometimes little more than a shrub. It grows at 

 such an elevation on Mt. Shasta in California that 

 it must be subjected to winter conditions similar to 

 those of the northeast. It may be that the smaller 

 form secured from the Mt. Shasta region may be 

 made to grow eventually in the northeast. 



Our best outlook for the chestnut in this country 

 at the present time includes the idea of developing 

 valuable blight-resistant hybrids or of establishing 

 chestnut orchards in prairie regions where they 

 would remain isolated from blight areas. The chest- 

 nut market is such an important one and so well 

 established that it should be maintained in some way. 

 Mr. E. A. Riehl, of Godfrey, Illinois, has given at- 

 tention to this question and has developed several 

 varieties of chestnuts in his orchards which are out 

 of the blight region. Fourteen dollars per bushel 

 has been obtained for the nuts of some of these va- 

 rieties. The trees bear precociously and so well that 

 I asked Mr. Riehl for a report indicating prospects 



