THE CHESTNUT. 71 



ber, and the underbrush, composed of seedlings and 

 sprouts, is left to grow up again into a forest. There 

 are many thousands of acres in New Jersey, New York, 

 and other Eastern States, from which the timber is cut 

 every twenty or thirty years, and no further attention 

 paid to the land or what it produces. Wherever such 

 clearings are found "Containing chestnut trees, good 

 stocks can usually be procured by selecting those varying 

 from one to two inches in diameter at the ground, and 

 if the soil in which they are growing is rather poor and 

 stony they will usually have pretty good roots, if care- 

 fully taken up. They should be pruned to a single 

 stem, and this cut off at a hight of from five to six feet 

 or less, then planted where they are to remain perma- 

 nently. Such stocks, if carefully taken up and planted, 

 will throw out numerous sprouts from their stems dur- 

 ing the summer, but all should be rubbed off while small 

 and tender, except three or four at the top, and the fol- 

 lowing spring, if wanted for this purpose, they may be 

 grafted in the same way as the young stocks growing in 

 the nursery, thereby saving three or four years of time 

 in securing bearing trees. Having often employed such 

 wildings for stocks with just as good results as with 

 those raised from the nuts in nursery rows, I am inclined 

 to recommend them, where obtainable, knowing that 

 there are thousands of farmers and owners of small 

 places in the country who can do likewise, but may have 

 never thought it practicable to transplant nut trees from 

 the forest, although well aware of .the fact that elms, 

 maples, and similar kinds were obtained there, and in 

 immense numbers, for planting in the streets of villages 

 and alongside country highways. 



The Season for Grafting. — The proper time for 

 grafting the chestnut is in early spring, just as the buds 

 begin to swell, but not until all danger of freezing 

 weather is past, although light frosts will not seriously 



