The Chesnut. 



seen four trunks coming out of one old stem, which had 

 been the support of a very large tree, each of the four mea- 

 suring more than a hundred feet in length, and that, too, 

 in very poor but light land ; and I must here observe, which 

 perhaps I ought to have done before, that the Chesnut does 

 not like wet land. The better the ground, doubtless, the 

 faster the growth 5 but Chesnuts will thrive very well in 

 poor dry land. 



200. The seed of the American Chesnut is not much 

 more than a fourth part of the size of the Spanish Chesnut, 

 but it is sweeter in flavour. The timber is ecpially good, 

 and the American is much the best for underwood, being 

 of faster growth, and in its nature so much taller, and so 

 much less prone to be stouter at the butt in proportion to 

 the summit. To collect and send the seeds from America 

 is somewhat expensive ) but the superiority of the plant 

 over the Spanish Chesnut is more than a sufficient induce- 

 ment to planters to encounter this expense. 



201. As to the sowing of the seeds, the management of 

 them in the seed-bed, the removal of them into the nursery, 

 and the final transplantion to the spot where they are to 

 stand, the directions just given with regard to the Spanish 

 Chesnut, all strictly apply; but I think tlmt four feet dis- 

 tances, in the planting of underwoods with these, would be 

 quite sufficient. They grow more erect than the others ; 

 they do not require so much room they are apt to throw 

 out a less number of, and smaller, side shoots; therefore a 

 greater number of stems might stand upon the same space 

 of ground. The age at which a Chesnut Coppice ought to 

 be cut, must, of course, depend upon the growth, and the 

 growth upon the nature of the soil; but I am clearly of 

 opinion, that the American Chesnut would require a year 



