CHESTNUT CULTURE IN THE NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. 103 



solved the problem of " complete utilization " in nearly every branch of commercial 

 activity, except forestry. 



The chestnut orchard, it is true, often has the advantage of location, accessibility 

 to market, freedom from underbrush, and lessened danger from fire, while as an 

 additional advantage the purely artificial orchard may be started in a region where 

 the chestnut is not indigenous. To the man, however, who is after the largest 

 returns in the shortest time, the chestnut grove, produced by grafting the coppice 

 sprouts in the natural chestnut forest, provides the most. A combination of the 

 two may perhaps be profitably effected under certain conditions. 



Tt>e Cl)e$tnat Orchard. 



Although chestnut orcharding in its extreme form is not considered as profitable 

 as the grove system, yet the method of procedure is here briefly outlined for the 

 benefit of those who wish to grow chestnuts and yet do not have the native sprouts 

 upon which to start their scions. 



The first step is the starting of the seedlings in the nursery. These may be 

 grown from native or imported nuts, it being immaterial which so long as vigorous 

 seedlings are produced. The seeds (nuts) may be planted in the fall or spring in 

 nursery rows four or five inches apart in the row and covered one to two inches 

 deep. Fall planting is advisable if the nuts can be protected from mice and 

 squirrels. If planting is delayed until spring the nuts should be kept over winter, 

 layered in damp sand. In one year they should have attained a height of six to 

 twelve inches, and in two years stand two to three feet high. The third spring they 

 should be grafted while yet in the nursery rows, and the following spring trans- 

 ferred to the orchard rows. Tongue or whip grafting is the most successful 

 method. Budding, grafting one year olds at the collar, and root grafting as done 

 with apple trees, have all been tried, but with little success. As a variation on the 

 above, the two or three-year-old seedlings are sometimes first transplanted to the 

 orchard rows and then grafted. This, however, results in a loss of time because the 

 trees must be allowed to get their root system firmly established before setting 

 the scions, otherwise they will not have sufficient vitality, to withstand the shock of 

 both grafting and transplanting. 



The trees are usually set thirty feet apart each way J but with the smaller 

 Japanese varieties they may be set as close as twenty feet. In the New Jersey 

 orchards the ground is kept cultivated for some years, during which crops of corn or 



potatoes are raised between the rows. MrpR. Williams, of Riverton, N. J., tried the 



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