A PENNSYLVANIA CHESTNUT ORCHARD. 
THE STORY OF A NEW INDUSTRY. 
The Profit in Dodging an Insect. 
.General interest in chestnut culture in this country 
may be said to Have or¬ 
iginated with the dis¬ 
semination of the Para¬ 
gon variety, about 15 
years ago, by H. M. 
Engle & Sons, Marietta, 
Pa. Paragon undoubtedly 
is a seedling of the 
long-cultivated European 
chestnut, but shows traces 
of an admixture with our 
native species. Taken al¬ 
together it maintains its 
'claims of being for the 
Middle States at least, 
the most useful commer¬ 
cial variety. Mr. Engle’s 
novel plan of grafting 
wild sprouts on natural 
chestnut lands with his 
new variety, rather than 
propagating and planting 
it in usual orchard 
methods, attracted wide 
attention, and induced the 
starting of several rather 
extensive projects for the 
transformation of waste 
cut-over chestnut tracts to 
commercial nut orchards. 
Some of these undertak¬ 
ings have fallen by the 
wayside, as might have 
been expected, and are 
neglected, but others have 
been worked out with a 
sincere desire to carry 
the novel experiment to 
successful conclusion. The 
oldest of these natural 
top-worked chestnut or¬ 
chards have now come 
partly into bearing, and 
an idea of their future 
possibilities may be gained. 
THE REIST OR¬ 
CHARDS.—Mr. John G. 
Reist, a successful fruit 
grower of Mount Joy, Pa., 
early became infected with 
the Paragon chestnut fever 
germ, and was convinced 
by frequent inspection of 
Mr. Engle’s work that 
Paragon nuts could 
profitably be grown on a 
large scale by utilizing 
the “sprout lands,” so 
abundant in the “chestnut 
belt," as the wooded hilly 
southern portion of Lan¬ 
caster County is often 
termed. A local associa¬ 
tion was formed under 
the name of the Paragon 
Nut and Fruit Co., and 
purchase made in 1894 of 
a tract of 400 acres of newly lumbered upland sit¬ 
uated not far from the east bank of the Susque¬ 
hanna River, 16 miles south of Lancaster. The first 
cost of the land did not exceed $6 per acre, but the 
cleaning which was very thoroughly done by grub> 
bmg out all laurel and other brush, and many of 
the hardwood stumps other than chestnut, consider¬ 
ably increased the outlay. Grafting began the fol¬ 
lowing year on the more forward sprouts, and has 
been since continued each Spring, putting in about 
150 to the acre, with the intention of spacing the 
trees as far as circumstances permit to 70 or less to 
the acre. The grafting has all been done by local 
experts by piecework, using generally the ordinary 
splits nic|hpd, and fully 90 per cent has been suc¬ 
cessful. I he scions are cut as late as possible before 
the buds swell, and stored in sawdust near ice until 
used. Grafting commences when the leaf buds on 
the sprouts show the first green, and continues until 
well into full leaf. T he cleft method has •been occa¬ 
sionally used on the larger 
stocks, but the splice-graft 
on slender sprouts, less 
than three feet from the 
ground, makes a good 
union, and in due time a 
strong trunk for the 
future tree. Two and 
rarely three strong sprouts 
are grafted to each stump, 
to be thinned eventually to 
one. The thinning and 
selection of sprouts and 
the cutting of brush make 
up in addition to prun¬ 
ing, the greater part of the 
labor of upkeep after 
grafting of the orchard 
until bearing begins,which 
may be as early as the 
second year on vigorous 
young trees. An addi¬ 
tional tract of 400 acres 
of similar sprout land, 
west of the Susquehanna, 
and some 12 miles distant 
was purchased about five 
years ago and similar 
operations have been car¬ 
ried on in every particu¬ 
lar. Something over 120,- 
000 grafts have been put 
in the 800 acres, making 
up the two nut orchards 
of the Paragon Nut and 
Fruit Co., of which Mr. 
Reist is president and a 
most excellent stand of 
trees has been secured, 
varying from 40 to 100 
trees to the acre, to be 
further reduced when they 
begin to crowd. 
HOW A PARAGON 
ORCHARD LOOKS.— 
One’s preconceived idea of 
a sprout-grafted nut or¬ 
chard is likely to be that 
of a scrubby plot of wood" 
land with here and there a 
successfully grafted tree. 
The actual impression, 
however, when viewing 
the rolling acres of the 
older Reist orchard, is that 
of a tolerably well cared 
for and symmetrical fruit 
orchard. Paragon forms 
a low, round-topped tree, 
quite comparable on dis¬ 
tant view to extremely 
luxuriant peach trees. 
Fig. 67, from a photo¬ 
graph taken several sea¬ 
sons ago, shows a port : on 
of this orchard, and gives 
an idea of the hilly and 
rocky nature of the land. The soil is clay loam well 
filled vvjth mica schist and bowlders, with occasional 
outcrop of rock. It is perfectly adapted to the chest¬ 
nut, ami the natural, stand of stumps is so good that 
sprouts may be had \n almost any square rod of either 
SPROUT-GRAFTED PARAGON CHESTNUT TREES. ELEVEN YEARS OLD. Fig. 66. 
SPROUT-GRAFTED PARAGON CHESTNUT ORCHARD. FIVE YEARS OLD. Fig. 67. 
