0 51 
the; rural hew-yorkek. 
HYBRID CHESTNUTS. 
A Possible Check to Widespread Disease. 
On June 4, Dr. Walter Van Fleet, physiologist, 
and Mr. J. Franklin- Collins, forest pathologist, of 
the IT. S. Department of Agriculture, and the writer 
visited Dr. Van Fleet's former home at Little Silver, 
X. J., for the purpose of inspecting a number of 
hybrid chestnut trees originated by him and planted 
there some years ago. lie purchased this land over 
20 years ago, upon which he erected a comfortable 
home and otherwise improved the property. Soon 
after establishing himself in his new home he began 
making preparations for his work by 
getting together such material as he 
thought would he useful, and not only 
America was drawn upon for this ma¬ 
terial, but Europe, Asia and Africa 
each furnished a share. Many species 
and varieties of plants and bulbs na¬ 
tives of the countries mentioned above, 
were established on the grounds, all 
of which at one time or another were 
used in his plant-breeding work. Many 
were found useful, while many others 
were of no value from the plant breed¬ 
er's point of view, and were discarded. 
The real work of plant breeding began 
within a year or two after Dr. Van 
Fleet established his home there, and 
was continued up to 1009. During the 
years the work was carried on there, 
probably more really meritorious 
plants of various kinds were originated 
than at any other place in the T'nited 
States. Many of these novelties were 
placed in the hands of nurserymen and seedsmen for 
introduction and distribution, a number of which 
are now well known in nearly every part of the 
civilized world where they will grow and thrive. 
These grounds were the birthplace of the beautiful 
roses, Dr. W. Van Fleet, Silver Moon and many 
others, also of the great scarlet Gladiolus, Princeps, 
pronounced by experts as being the finest red Gladi¬ 
olus ever originated. The stock and right of intro¬ 
duction of this novelty was sold for the highest 
price ever paid for a Gladiolus. It was from there 
the Little Gem Canna, and the splendid orchid- 
fiowering Cannas, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Wyom¬ 
ing, were sent out. It was also the 
home of the Early Sheffield sweet corn, 
the Quarter Century tomato, and the 
Sweet Salad Upright pepper, and a 
long list of other, meritorious things. 
But the chestnut hybrids, none of 
which was ever disseminated, are the 
most interesting and important of all 
the other plants originated there, as 
they present an object lesson that ap¬ 
pears to point to how the chestnut may 
be saved to the nation as a nut tree, if 
not as a timber tree. The significance 
of this statement will l>e at once appar¬ 
ent to all who are familiar with the 
chestnut hark disease, and of the tre¬ 
mendous loss from this disease, conserv¬ 
atively estimated by the forest path¬ 
ologist at $25,000,000 up to 1911. The 
chestnut hark disease was first recog¬ 
nized as a serious and destructive dis¬ 
ease in New York in 1904; up to 
1911, it had spread to 10 States and is 
still rapidly spreading, and if some ef- 
fective means of control is not soon 
found practically all the native and 
European chestnut trees in the coun¬ 
try will ultimately he destroyed. The 
National Government has appropriated 
$80,000 and the State of Pennsylvania 
$240,000 to fight the disease, and other 
States are co-operating. The only plan 
suggested for the control of the dis¬ 
ease at the present time is a strict 
quarantine, which would be almost im¬ 
possible, on account of the wide range 
of territory now affected. 
The only progress ever made in 
chestnut hybridizing was commenced 
without encouragement at Little Silver, in 1S94, 10 
years before the serious nature of the bark disease 
had been recognized, the first trees planted being 
seedlings of Paragon crossed with our native Ameri¬ 
can chestnut. These trees had reached a height of 
2<) 2;> feet in 1908, when nearly all of them became 
infected with the bark disease. In 1911 a few still 
showed a fair resistance, but at our visit on June 
1. 1913, practically all were dead or dying. In 1899 
cods of 1 irginia chinquapin, Castanea pumila, were 
planted, and a selection made of one of the most 
\igorous and precocious individuals three vears 
later for breeding purposes. This mother plant was 
pollinated between 1902 and 1905 with many varie¬ 
ties of native, European and Oriental chestnuts. 
Some of the resulting hybrids were removed to the 
Department of Agriculture farm at Arlington, Va., 
in 1909, the others remaining at Little Silver, where 
they have since grown undisturbed, but without cul¬ 
tivation. During the period intervening between 1902 
and 1905, crosses were also made between native, 
European and Asiatic varieties. Most of these still 
remain at Little Silver. These seedlings, together 
with those bred previous to 1902, and the named 
varieties purchased, for use in the work, form one 
INTERIOR OF A GOOD DAIRY STORE. Fig. 300. 
of the most varied and instructive collections of 
chestnut trees to be found anywhere in America. 
The result of our examination of these trees 
showed that our native chestnut and its hybrids with 
all European and Oriental species appear to be ex¬ 
tremely susceptible to the disease, not one escaping 
infection and many being entirely destroyed. The 
European species, C. vesca. is considerably less af¬ 
fected. but practically all the varieties of European 
blood and their hybrids show traces of injury, and, 
some individuals are considerably injured. The 
Virginia chinquapin hybrids are susceptible to the 
disease to a still less extent, not over 20 per cent 
HYBRID JAPAN CHESTNUT. Fig. 301. 
Bearing eight pounds of nuts at three years from seed. Highly resistant to bark disease 
being injured and. many individuals, especially those 
with Oriental blood, show no infection whatever, an 
exception being the Rush chinquapin, supposed to 
he a natural cross between C. pumila and C. Ameri¬ 
cana. Two specimens are growing vigorously with 
no evidence of the disease. The Oriental chestnuts 
and their hybrids, seem to be by far the most re¬ 
sistant. as only a small per cent showed injury. The 
great majority remain entirely unharmed at the date 
of our visit, although they have been continually ex¬ 
posed to the disease for six years, being surrounded 
with dead and dying trees. 
EARLY BEARING.—Cross-pollination of selected 
home-grown varieties of the Japan chestnut in 1903 
yielded seeds producing fruiting trees in 1906. The 
first ripened of the 1906 nuts, immediately planted, 
produced trees fruiting profusely in 1909. The earli¬ 
est of the 1909 nuts, planted the same season at 
Chico, Cal., produced trees bearing in September. 
1911, in some cases 32 well-filled burs each, 22 
months from planting of seed. Some of the nuts 
planted in Virginia in October, 1911, have produced 
trees bearing apparently fruitful burs at this writ¬ 
ing, so that it appears that the propensity to fruit 
within two or three years from seed germination is 
well fixed in this strain. Fig. 361 
shows one of the California grown 
trees in September, 1912, three years 
from seed, bearing eight pounds of ex¬ 
cellent large nuts. The appearance 
and quality of the nuts vary little from 
generation to generation, and as far 
as tested the natural resistance of the 
Asiatic parents to the dreaded new 
bark disease continues. It thus ap¬ 
pears that chestnut trees of this strain, 
producing nuts of fine cooking quality 
and coming into bearing in two or 
three years from planting of seed, may 
he as readily and quickly grown as 
strawberry or peach seedlings, and the 
superior types can be perpetuated by 
grafting on resistant Asiatic seedling 
stock of the usual type. 
The crossing of the Virginia chin¬ 
quapin with Japanese and Chinese 
chestnuts, primarily to develop dis¬ 
ease resisting chinquapins, has re¬ 
sulted in many large-fruited hybrids that give nuts 
larger than the best native chestnuts of as good or 
better quality and bear in three or four years from 
planting of seed. The trees are highly suitable for 
ornamental planting as well as nut bearing, and are 
at least as resistant t<> the bark disease as the Kief- 
fer pear is to the blight. These characteristics are 
perpetuated in the seedlings of these hybrids, and 
will without doubt be extensively grown in the 
future. _ ii. 
NEW VARIETIES OF WHEAT. 
Several readers have asked us about the Kharkov 
wheat, advertised this year as yield¬ 
ing 50 and 60 bushels per acre. Most 
of our people are able by this time to 
make a fair analysis of . the guff put 
forward by the advertisers of novel¬ 
ties. yet sometimes this guff is put in 
such a plausible shape that it appeals 
even to people supposed to be very 
hard headed. In these days when we 
are told to raise two blades of grass 
where one grew before, it is a plaus¬ 
ible thing to tell a man that by buying 
some new variety of grain he can raise 
two bushels where he got less than 
one with some standard old variety. 
The Kharkov is one of the hard red 
Winter wheats, largely grown in Kan¬ 
sas. Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa. 
In more recent years it has been grown 
in the States west of the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains. The Kharkov is not easily dis¬ 
tinguished from Turkey, which is the 
best known member of this group of 
hard red Winter wheats. It is. how¬ 
ever. probably a little more resistant 
to the cold, but no one would recom¬ 
mend the wheat for the Eastern States, 
as superior to the varieties so long 
under culture. While the Kharkov is 
without question a good Winter wheat 
for Iowa, there is nothing in its re¬ 
corded yields which would warrant the 
statement that it will give 50 to 60 
bushels to the acre. The advertisers 
are sharp enough not to claim exactly 
that it does this, but they try to make 
it appear to the careless reader that 
the wheat is pretty sure to do it. The 
wheat was tried carefully at the Iowa 
Experiment Station, with other varieties of this 
group through a series of years. In these experi¬ 
ments, and of course under high culture, the Khar¬ 
kov gave an average of about 33 bushels per acre, 
ranking a little less than Turkey. It is not likely 
tliat the wheat under ordinary conditions of culture 
would give any such yield as this on large areas, 
and probably this is a fair illustration of the way 
these large advertising stories will pan out when 
sifted down to the facts. Average conditions will not 
give the results obtained by garden culture, nor can 
the farmer afford extra labor needed to attain them. 
