96 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



improving foreign varieties of chestnuts. Most of these men lived and carried on 

 their experiments within a radius of fifty miles of Philadelphia. For some years 

 there was a mania for importing trees and nuts, and each importer expected to find 

 the one tree which would be par excellent for this country ; but the failure on the 

 part of most of the imports to withstand the change of climate eventually curbed 

 the interest and checked the importation. 



The chestnut will not grow true to seed, but often it varies only slightly ; hence, 

 selected nuts of both foreign and native varieties were frequently planted in the 

 hope of securing from the seedlings a nut in which large size and good quality 

 would be combined, and which at the same time would be able to endure the vicissi- 

 tudes of our climate. In most cases the attempts resulted in failure, although in a 

 few instances desirable trees were secured. The same was true with the many 

 imported seedlings. The greater number of the imported trees proved frost-tender, 

 and otherwise unsuited for their new environment. Of the large number planted 

 probably not over one in a hundred has been retained as possessing desirable 

 characteristics. Good quality rather than quantity in the acclimated varieties seems 

 the most difficult to obtain. Trees which bear large sized nuts in abundance are 

 many, but few of them produce a finely flavored nut. The European nuts are 

 usually less bitter and astringent than the Japanese ; but neither of them can 

 approach the small native nut in sweetness and delicacy of flavor. The nurserymen 

 have still before them the task of producing by judicious selection and crossing a 

 large nut of fine quality. 



A large number of European varieties are listed by nurserymen, but the experi- 

 ence of practical growers indicates that only a small proportion of these are worthy 

 of propagation. The best are : 



PARAGON. 



Undoubtedly the best variety for general planting produced up to date. The 

 original tree, according to Thomas Meehan, was grown by W. L. Shaffer, of Ger- 

 mantown, Pa., from a nut produced on one of the old Spanish trees growing in a 

 Philadelphia garden. H. M. Engle, of Marietta, Pa., was the first to discover its 

 exceptional value, and by him it was first grown extensively and introduced to the 

 public. It is the variety now exclusively grown by Mr. C. K. Sober, of Lewisburg, 

 Pa., who owns a promising grove of 300 acres near Shamokin, Pa. The nuts are 

 large, three-fourths of an inch in circumference, and somewhat pubescent. One 

 average specimen will cover a silver dollar, while thirty-two selected nuts will weigh 

 one pound. The tree is hardy within the, range of the native chestnut, ripening 

 moderately early in Central Pennsylvania about October I, comes into bearing very 



