THE CHESTNUT—BEARING NUTS 
AT SIX MONTHS 
A TREE Wuicu REeEsponps To EDUCATION 
HEN a boy in Massachusetts, I used to 
\ Y observe the great variation among the 
native American chestnuts in my 
father’s wood lots. Like most boys I was fond of 
nuts, and in gathering them I soon learned that 
there were certain trees that bore large, glossy, 
rich brown nuts with sweet toothsome meats, and 
that there were other trees that bore only small, 
flat, ash-colored nuts of insignificant size and 
inferior quality. 
I observed that the trees that bore these seem- 
ingly quite different nuts differed also in size and 
in foliage. And I particularly noted that such 
variations were not seemingly due to any local 
conditions, inasmuch as the trees bearing fine nuts 
and those bearing poor ones might stand side by 
side. 
I noted similar variations regarding a good 
[VoLumE XI—Cuapter IV] 
