FOREST TBEES. 123 



native Chestnut, still by careful selections from the most hardy 

 seedlings, and the propagation of these, we could no doubt 

 secure very valuable varieties well adapted to a wide range of 

 country. Several such promising varieties are now being prop- 

 agated and promise to be acquisitions to our list of nut- 

 bearing trees. One of the best and most promising of these 

 varieties with which I am acquainted is call Numbo, and was 

 selected from a large number of seedlings raised by Mr. Moon, 

 of the MorrivsiUe Nursery, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, some 

 thirty years ago. The original tree is now about forty feet 

 high, and produces a large crop of nuts every year. This vari- 

 ety is now being disseminated, and if successful others will no 

 doubt follow. The European varieties appear to succeed better 

 when worked on our native stocks than on their own roots. 



Ct Tcsca (var. Americana). — American Sweet Chestnut. — 

 Leaves more acute at the base, and not usually as large or as 

 thick. Nuts smaller, more delicate, shell thinner, and kernel 

 much finer grain, and sweeter than the European. The nuts 

 are in great demand in the fall and early winter, but are so 

 delicate that they soon wither up if kept in a dry place, and 

 become mouldly if kept in a moist and warm one, but those who 

 may wish to extend the season for these nuts, may readily do 

 so by mixing them with clean, moist sand, which if buried in 

 some dry place in the open ground, where they wiQ be kept 

 cool, and neither too dry or too wet, may be preserved in good 

 condition a long time. If put in small boxes a supply of fresh 

 chestnuts may be kept up from fall to late in spring. I have 

 practised this method of preserving chestnuts for many years, 

 and have never failed to carry them through the winter in a 

 sound condition, and in spring they were in good order for 

 eating or planting. It is not necessary to bury the boxes con- 

 taining the nuts below the reach of frost, but merely so deep 

 that they will not be effected by every change in the weather. 

 The wormy and imperfect nuts will of course decay, and it is 

 a good plan to keep the nuts for a few weeks after gathering, 

 and then carefully select the good ones before putting away in 

 sand. The chestnut is one of our most valuable forest trees, 

 growing to an immense size in favorable situations. The wood 

 is rather coarse-grained, only moderately tough, but strong and 

 durable. It is of a Ught-yeUowish or brown color, and is much 

 used for fence rails, posts, stakes, railway ties, also for beams, 

 joists, and other parts of buildings, although it is very liable to 



