EAe  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1473 
•  •  " 
Chestnut  Growing  in  Illinois:  Three  Good 
New  Nuts 
We  begau  investigating  and  experi¬ 
menting  with  nuts  about  25  years  ago, 
procuring  samples  of  nuts  from  all  over 
the  country,  wherever  I  heard  of  any  that 
promised  to  be  valuable.  When  the  sam¬ 
ples  appeared  worthy  I  procured  trees 
or  scions  for  testing. 
Of  chestnut  I  procured  the  best  of¬ 
fered  in  the  East,  mostly  Japans,  which 
were  found  of  poor  quality  and  have 
been  discarded.  Among  those  procured 
was  one  from  Rochester,  claimed  to  be 
a  seedling  grown  from  a  native  of  ex¬ 
ceptional  size  and  quality.  When  this 
came  into  bearing  it  was  so  large  that 
I  doubted  its  being  a  native,  but  Mr. 
Yan  Deman  thought,  it  had  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  being  a  native,  and  when  its 
seedlings  came  into  bearing,  so  many  of 
them  Teverted  to  the  ordinary  American 
type  that  I  concluded  it  was  a  native,  or 
at  least  had  a  good  part  of  native  blood 
in  its  composition.  It  proved  so  good 
a  nut  that  I  named  it  Rochester,  after 
the  place  it  was  procured  from,  and  in¬ 
troduced  St.  Of  the  seedlings  grown 
from  it  two  appear  to  be  better  than  the 
parent  and  have  been  named  and  will 
be  introduced.  No.  10,  named  Progress, 
ripens  earlier  than  the  parent,  is  a  large 
good  nut  and  the  nuts  drop  out  of  the 
hull  readily  at  ripening  time-  No.  20, 
named  Fuller,  after  A.  S.  Fuller,  an 
early  advocate  of  nut  culture  in  this 
country*  ripens  later  than  Progress  but 
earlier  than  Rochester,  is  of  large  size 
and  one  of  the  best  in  quality. 
Boone  was  originated  by  the  late  Goo. 
W.  Endicott  of  Villa  Ridge,  Ill.  He  de¬ 
sired  to  produce  a  nut  having  the  size 
and  early  bearing  habit  of  the  Japan 
and  the  quality  of  the  American.  lie 
therefore  crossed  the  American  on  the 
Japan  Giant.  The  nuts  produced  in  this 
manner  he  planted  in  rich  garden  soil, 
and  in  18  months  after  planting  one  of 
the  seedlings  thus  produced  bore  11  nuts 
and  has  borne  every  year  since,  increas¬ 
ing  from  year  to  year  until  in  101H  it 
produced  110  pounds.  Since  that  time 
I  have  not  obtained  record  of  its  prortuc- 
tion,  but  it  is  doubtless  still  increasing 
and  will  for  many  years.  It  is  a  good 
grower  and  early  bearer,  good  quality 
and  color,  one  of  the  best  varieties  we 
have.  It  has  hut  one  fault,  in  that  it  is 
very  hard  to  propagate,  I  now  think 
Boone,  Fuller  and  Progress  are  the  most 
desirable  varieties  of  chestnut  that  I 
know  of. 
Paragon  is  the  best  of  the  oltl«*r  va¬ 
rieties,  but  has  the  faults  of  overbearing, 
often  causing  the  death  of  the  tree,  and 
the  nuts  do  not  leave  the  burr  readily 
and  have  to  be  dug  out  or  thrashed.  A 
chestnut  should  drop  out  of  the  burr  as 
soon  as  ripe. 
For  some  years  T  have  been  convinced 
that  Chestnut  growing  was  a  most  prom¬ 
ising  horticultural  proposition,  more  so 
than  any  fruit,  especially  where  the 
chestnut  is  not  native,  as  there  one 
would  not  have  to  contend  with  the  in¬ 
sects  and  diseases  to  which  it  is  subject 
to  in  its  native  habitat.  In  the  many 
years  that  I  have  grown  the  chestnut  I 
have  not  seen  to  exceed  a  dozen  nuts 
that  had  a  worm  in  them ;  they  probably 
were  such  as  breed  on  the  oak,  and 
acorns  being  scarce  tried  the  chestnut. 
At  all  events  they  have  not  multiplied 
on  the  chestnut.  As  to  the  chestnut 
blight  that  is  devastntine  the  Eastern 
chestnut  trees,  I  do  not  thiuk  we  need  to 
fear  it.  The  chestnut  not  growing  wild 
and  plantations  being  far  apart  there  is 
no  bridge  for  the  disease.  Of  course  I 
take  it  for  granted  that  planters  will 
not  commit  the  blunder  of  buying  trees 
grown  in  regions  where  the  blight  is  pre¬ 
valent.  There  is  no  need  of  so  doing, 
as  we  have  the  seed  grown  here  and  va¬ 
rieties  that  are  as  good  as  or  better  than 
what  are  being  grown  in  the  blight-in¬ 
fected  area.  . 
I  have  probably  the  largest  plantation 
of  chestnut  in  the  State,  ranging  from 
one  year  to  over  50  from  date  of  plant¬ 
ing.  The  younger  plantings  are  now 
coming  into  bearing,  and  are  finding 
ready  sale  at  from  IS  to  20  cents  per 
pound.  It  is  my  belief  that  the  price 
will  advance  when  the  trade  learns  that 
our  nuts  have  the  quality  and  are  abso¬ 
lutely  free  from  weevil.  e.  a.  uieul. 
The  Scuppernong  Grape 
Will  you  give  description  and  use  of 
the  Scuppernong  grape?  Would  it  do 
well  in  Southern  California? 
Valley  Forge,  I’a.  i„  m.  av. 
The  Scuppernong  grape  is  described  by 
medium  size,  moderately  compact,  hav¬ 
ing  one  to  15  but  generally  two  to  six 
berries  to  the  cluster.  The  berries  are 
large,  averaging  three-fourths  of  an 
inch  in  diameter,  and  when  fully  ripe 
clusters.  The  flesh  is  generally  pale 
green,  very  juicy,  tender,  soft,  fine¬ 
grained,  musky,  sweet  and  of  good  qual¬ 
ity.  The  flavor  deteriorates  rapidly  after 
picking.  The  variety  is  suited  for  home 
No.  1,  Boone;  No.  2,  Rochester  Seedling  No.  20;  No.  3,  Rochester  Seedling  No.  10;  No.  4,  Rochester 
liusmann  as  follows:  The  vine  is  a  vig-  bronze  or  reddish  brown  in  color,  ripen-  use  and  wine-making.  This  grape  has 
orous,  rank  grower  with  long,  slender,  ing  the  middle  of  August  in  Florida  and  not  been  tested  in  California,  so  nothing 
yellowish  brown,  smooth  canes.  The  the  middle  of  September  in  North  Caro-  can  be  said  as  to  its  adaptability  for  that 
flowers  open  about  May  27  in  North  linn.  The  berries  often  ripen  unevenly*,  section.  Its  natural  habitat  is  South* 
Carolina.  The  cluster  is  round,  small  to  and  when  fully  ripe  fall  readily  from  the  eastern  United  States.  F.  E.  G. 
To  light  your  house  and  barns 
To  cook  your  meals 
RURALISMS 
UNION  CARBIDE  “Drums,”  painted  gray  with 
blue  bands,  are  now  familiar  sights  in  every 
town  and  hamlet  in  this  country. 
Literally  tens  of  thousands 
bide  are  shipped  from  district 
users  every  day. 
The  country  home  owners  (mostly  farmers) 
who  buy  and  store  and  uce  all  these  blue 
and  gray  drums  of  Carbide,  now  number 
over  300,000. 
This  great  army  of  Carbide  users  have 
found  the  task  of  filling  a  Carbide  plant  from 
one  cf  these  drums  to  be  a  simple  chore. 
They  have  found  that  the  plant,  once  filled, 
supplies  for  many  weeks  without  attention,  bril¬ 
liant  li~ht  for  general  use,  all  over  the  place  and 
— gas  for  the  cooking  range  in  the  kitchen. 
One  and  all,  they  are  absolutely  automatic. 
They  have  no  delicate  parts  to  get  out  of 
order  or  call  for  renewal. 
They  are  strong  and  simple  in  construc¬ 
tion  and  under  ordinary  conditions  last  as 
long  as  a  good  building. 
You  can  easily  investigate  the  advantages 
of  a  Country  Home  Carbide  Plant  for  your 
of  these  little  drums  of  Car- 
warehouses  to  country  home 
own  special  requirements  —  when  you  do, 
it  will  be  easy  for  you  to  understand  why 
( Carbide  lighting  and  cooking  plants 
now  outsell  all  others . 
Write  us  today  and  we  will  mail  you, 
gratis,  illustrated  booklets  covering  the  use 
of  Union  Carbide  in  one  of  these  indispensable 
light  and  fuel  plants. 
We  do  not  make  any  of  the  numerous 
types  of  Carbide  plants  now  on  the  market. 
Our  business  is  exclusively  confined  to 
the  sale  and  distribution  of  the  UNION 
CARBIDE  which  all  of  these  plants  use. 
For  this  reason,  our  advertising  literature 
and  our  advice  in  the  matter  will  be  of 
material  assistance  to  you. 
Just  address  your  letter  to 
Union  Carbide  Sales  Co  .Country  Home  Dept.42 
42nd  Street  Bldg.,  New  York  City,  N.  Y.  Peoples  Gas  Bldg.,  Chicago,  III. 
Kohl  Building,  San  Francisco,  Cal.  2 
