ON THE CHESTNUT 
varieties. Quite aside from the matter of produc- 
ing trees that are immune to the fungus pest, the 
orchard may be made far more productive if 
grafted with foreign stock than if the native 
species were used. And of course my new hybrid 
varieties offer attractions that excel those of any 
other variety of chestnut. 
Some of my seedlings, for example, produce 
nuts two inches in diameter, each weighing an 
ounce or more; and these are borne in clusters of 
from six to nine nuts to the burr. It is notable, 
however, that the excessively large nuts are usually 
lacking in flavor; although the reasonably large 
ones are of the best quality. 
These hybrid varieties graft readily on the 
native stock. They may be counted on to bear 
abundantly in their second season. It may be 
well, however, to pick off the burs as soon as 
formed during the first year or two, in order that 
the energies of the tree may be given over to the 
production of branches. 
Even where the blight has destroyed the chest- 
nut, the sprouts that spring up everywhere about 
the stumps of the trees may be grafted and trees 
of more satisfactory shape than the old ones and 
far more productive may thus be developed in the 
course of a very few years. 
Where the chestnut orchard is developed from 
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