ON THE CHESTNUT 
Accounts of the destruction of the trees have 
doubtless brought the chestnut to the attention of 
many people who hitherto have never given it a 
thought. The value of the chestnut as an orna- 
mental tree and its possibilities as a nut producer 
will perhaps be more fully appreciated than they 
otherwise would be on the familiar principle that 
blessings brighten as they take their flight. And 
it may chance that the tree will be placed under 
cultivation so generally as to be more abundant 
twenty-five or thirty years from now in the de- 
vastated regions than it would have been if the 
chestnut blight had not appeared. 
In any event it seems now at least as desirable 
as ever before to urge the value of this tree both 
for ornamental purposes and as a producer of 
commercial nuts, and the rules for the develop- 
ment of chestnut orchards that have been given 
by the Department of Agriculture may be reviewed 
to advantage. 
Even if people living in the infected district are 
slow to take up the cultivation of the chestnut, the 
orchardists of other regions may advantageously 
do so. For I repeat that it is not supposable that 
the coming of a fungoid pest will be permitted to 
exterminate one of our most valuable native trees. 
In developing a commercial chestnut orchard 
it is obviously desirable to graft with the improved 
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