8 Department Circular 383, U. S. Dept, of Agriculture 
the right. The trees should have good culture, like the apple, peach, 
and pear. They can not be left to care for themselves with much 
hope of success. 
The United States Department of Agriculture, through the Bu- 
reau of Plant Industry, is endeavoring to establish this promising 
tree in the region formerly occupied by our native species. Up to 
this time dependence has been placed on Chinese sources for our 
seed supply, and this is becoming more and more precarious. As 
a first step, it would seem important to establish a considerable num- 
ber of small orchards, mainly for the production of home-grown 
seeds. In the spring of 1926 and in 1927 the Office of Foreign Plant 
Introduction will be in a position to supply limited numbers of 
young Castanea mollissima trees for experimental orchard planting 
oe 
Fig, 3.—A young orchard of Chinese hairy chestnuts at Bell, Md. Trees on the right 
pruned; on the Jeft unpruned. Pruning wounds should be treated to prevent infec- 
tion. (P24253FS8) 
in regions east of the Allegheny Mountains where blight occurs. 
Trees can not be sent outside of the regions indicated on account of 
the danger of spreading blight. It is planned to limit the plantings 
to about 1 acre in each locality. Planting trees 18 by 18 feet will 
require 134 to the acre. They will need to be cultivated and the 
Sige planted to some suitable green-manure crop for the first 
our or five years. After that it will likely be best to put the 
orchard in grass except directly under the trees. Details of this plan 
of cooperative planting will be furnished on request. 
To those interested in breeding and selection work the Chinese 
hairy chestnut offers promising material. Crosses between Castanea 
mollissima and our native chinquapin (C. pumila) might well be 
worth while. Such crosses have already been made (fig. 4). One 
in particular should be mentioned. It was made by the late Doctor 
