THE CHESTNUT. 115 



the ground until the following season, then come forth 

 in their winged or weevil stage, except the belated 

 Wroods, or those that have not reached full size in the 

 autumn ; these remain in the ground the entire summer, 

 coming out late in the fall, or pass over until the second 

 year, as I have proved by burying the grubs in a barrel 

 sunk in the ground, covering the top with fine wire net- 

 ting, to prevent the escape of the weevils as they emerged 

 from time to time during the season. 



As a rule, we find only one grub in a nut, of the 

 American sweet chestnut, but in the larger varieties of 

 the European and Japanese, two or more is not unusual, 

 which rather favors the idea that the female weevil does 

 possess something akin to reason, which guides her in 

 locating stores of food available for her progeny. I have 

 never observed that the weevils had any choice among 

 varieties, all being subject to their attacks alike, pro- 

 vided all were growing in equally favorable positions. 

 But if the trees are of different sizes, some tall and 

 others short, some exposed to the winds and others pro- 

 tected, then the ravages of this pest will, no doubt, be 

 as variable as the surrounding conditions. As the 

 weevils emerge from the ground in spring or early sum- 

 mer, they will naturally seek the nuts most convenient 

 and on the small trees, then those on the lower branches 

 of the larger ones, while those on the upper part of the 

 tree, where they are fully exposed to the winds, may 

 wholly escape the attacks of these pests. This leads me 

 to think that whoever attempts to cut off native chest- 

 nut forests, with the expectation of renewal with the 

 larger varieties, by grafting the sprouts, will find the 

 chestnut weevil a rather formidable enemy. I have 

 found it so on a limited number of trees in my own 

 grounds, that are grown from grafted sprouts near large 

 native specimens, the weevils destroying nearly every 

 nut ; but out in the field, away from the woods, and 



