CHESTNUT CULTURE IN THE NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. 107 



In the case of the Paragon the burs must be picked from the trees by hand, or, 

 by waiting, they may be gathered from underneath the trees, as the closed burs soon 

 fall. Ripeness is indicated by the yellow color of the bur, and a slight cracking 

 open at the end, disclosing the nut within. The collected burs if spread in the sun 

 a few days will open fully, and liberate the nuts. 



Care of tl)e Crop. 



Having secured a crop of nuts the next step is their proper care and disposition. 

 Those sold immediately need no special care, and from present indications prompt 

 sale of a large crop will not be difficult. There is a growing demand for large, 

 sweet chestnuts, especially in the Middle West, and dealers are usually on hand to 

 buy up the crop even before it is harvested. Prices for the best nuts range from 

 five to twelve dollars per bushel. On the streets of Philadelphia, Paragon nuts sell 

 readily at forty cents per quart. 



If not immediately disposed of the nuts should be subjected to some treatment 

 to prevent their getting hard and being destroyed by weevils. Probably the best 

 treatment is the scalding method. By this plan a quantity of nuts are put in a tub, 

 or other water-tight receptacle, and covered with boiling water. If stirred for a few 

 minutes the wormy, and otherwise defective ones, will come to the surface and may 

 be removed and destroyed. The good nuts in the bottom should be allowed to 

 remain for ten minutes, so that all eggs and larvae may be killed, then removed and 

 dried. Nuts thus treated will not get flinty hard when subsequently dried for 

 winter use. Another plan is to put the nuts in cold storage as soon as harvested, 

 removing them only as required for market. Those which are to be planted the 

 following year should be treated with carbon bi-sulphide to destroy all insect life, 

 and then layered in sand during the winter. 



Uses. 



. 



Mention has already been made of the extensive use of chestnuts in many 

 foreign countries, notably France, Spain, Italy, Korea and Japan. In all of these 

 countries the chestnut is considered, not as a luxury, but as a staple article of diet, 

 to be prepared and used as such. It is said that Paris alone consumes twenty 

 million pounds of Marrons (table or desert chestnuts annually, while the consump- 

 tion of nuts and meal in France as a whole is so great that, despite the enormous 

 production within her own territory, several million dollars worth of nuts are 



