THE CHESTNUT. 91 
and drop the nuts like potatoes, six inches apart, cover- 
ing them with only half an inch of soil. In the fall, be- 
fore frost, cover the young shoots with a litter of straw 
six inches deep. They should be transplanted when one 
year old. This tree has always been considered hard to 
raise, but it has been because it has not been under- 
stood. Treated in the way I describe, twelve chestnuts 
will raise eleven trees. 
In Nevada, California, the proprietor of some public gar- 
dens obtained from France some of the‘finest specimens 
of chestnuts, and planted them on his place.in 1872. In 
1882 the trees bore fruit, and they are described the 
past year as being heavily loaded with fruit, and the 
nuts were the largest ever seen. The burs contained 
from three to seven large-sized nuts, some of them ex- 
ceeding in size a large plum. The climate is admira- 
bly adapted to it. In North Carolina we have trees 
that at six feet from the ground measure from fifteen 
to sixteen feet in circumference. But we read of trees 
in Europe that far exceed our chestnuts of North Car- 
olina in size, viz.: The great chestnut grove of Mount 
Etna, one tree of which is one hundred and sixty feet 
in circumference. Michaux describes one growing near 
Sancerre, in France, which at six feet from the ground 
is thirty feet in circumference. Six hundred years ago 
it was called the Great Chestnut, and, although it is 
believed to be more than one thousand years old, its 
trunk is still sound and its branches annually laden with 
fruit. The principal use of the wood of the chestnut is 
for the inside work of cars and for cabinet-ware ; al- 
though the grain is coarse, yet, when oiled and varnished, 
it makes quite a presentable appearance. It is used for 
making fences, and rails made of this wood have been 
known to last fifty years. 
THE CHINCAPIN. 
This variety of the chestnut on a small scale is found 
