Chinese Chestnuts (Castanea molissima) actual size. 
F orty-One Years Ago I planted my first nut trees in Loudoun County, Vir¬ 
ginia, in the Blue Ridge country, in a climate colder than that of Philadel¬ 
phia. Those first trees soon died, but I now know the reason why. You can profit 
by experience. 
I am having great fun with nut trees, and gathering many varieties of nuts each 
autumn. But I sell only a few varieties—the best. 
On the Blue Ridge Mountain, not far from the historic town of Harpers Ferry, 
at elevations of 800 to 1300 feet, where the temperature often goes below zero, I 
ripened in one season : 
1. Six varieties of Northern Pecans 
2. Seven varieties of Hybrid Hickories 
3. Three varieties of Grafted Shagbarks 
4. Five varieties of Grafted Black Walnuts 
5. About thirty varieties of Blight Resistant Chestnuts. 
The most surprising thing was the number of grafted Pecans and Hickories 
that ripened nuts in the nursery row—many 8-10 ft. Busseron Pecans and some 
Buttericks, Burlingtons and several other varieties. 
I have been experimenting with northern Pecans for more than twenty years. 
They are as hardy as hickories and bear delicious nuts. You can crack the nuts 
in your hand. They are also beautiful trees and will make your place a landmark. 
They will thrive and ripen nuts wherever dent corn grows. It is an established 
fact and also in accord with general horticultural theory that the flavor of 
Northern Pecans is better than that of those grown in the South. 
My first Chestnut orchard died with the blight but I have hundreds of blight 
resistant Chinese Chestnut trees coming and they are early bearers. 
The grafted American Black Walnuts are so promising that I have a field 
of them. 
The Hybrid Hickories are the real astonishment. Some of them bear earlier 
than apples. Some of them grow as fast as maples, two to three feet in a year, and 
are more beautiful trees than maples. One of these hybrids, the McCallister, 
bears larger nuts than any Southern Pecan. 
As a result of my forty-one years of experiments I have a few proved varieties 
for sale. 
