BLIGHT-RESISTSNT 
cr; 
ENTAL CHESTNUTS 
In 1912 the T 1 , S. Department of Agriculture established a chestnut 
orchard at Pell, Maryland, in which wer° planted every variety of 
chestnut available. Now cnly the Chinese ard Japanese chestnuts and 
th°ir hybrids, are alive, the ethers all' having been lost by the - ' 
Mxghj 
nuts. 
disease. The remaining trees bear annual crops of large^ Bwfcet 
We have grown chestnuts commercially since 1896, and through the years 
have found them to be a ve-y profitable c pop, Our first importation of 
Chinese chestnut seed was made ’in 1928 and we new have’ a great number of 
this variety 'in bearing* These have never been sprayed c-r pruned and 
we have' never found” one afflicted with 'blight or any ether disease or 
pest. This makes them vs y inexpensive to produce. Howsv^r, we do 
cultivate them part time, alternating each row space with fespedeza 
as a cover crop to maintain humus and to p event corrosion. We have 
had temperatures Id degrees below” sero with no tree injury. They bloom 
in June after danger from spring frosts are past’ ’and BEAR ANNUALLY. 
We have had’ yields c’f 't’hi ty "pounds’ from eight year old' trees* 
We think these trees will thrive in' any locality or’ on any soil that 
will grow corn, ’Planting distant, from thirty to forty vhet.' 
Harvesting th> crop begins about- ’September 15th and they all drop tc 
the' ground by the 15th of October. They shatter cut of the burrs 
and can be picked up ard sacked at a cost not to’ exceed' 2 1/2^ per bib. 
Our average price the last three years' has been' 15^ per lb. FOB. 
Quality Is much bette-” than the imported Italian nuts coming onto the 
ma ket later and not competing on the market with cur crop. Our 
customers come back for’ mo^e ea~h season. 
Oriental chestnut trees, both Japanese and Chinese are of rapid 
growth and begin to bear in the fourth year.' Heavy commercial 
production commences at seven or eight year's, when trees should be 
around twelve feef tall with six’-inch trunk's and a twelve to fourteen 
foot spread. There a variation in seedling trees as to habit of 
growth ard size of nuts, bub all a^e of good quality. If the tree 
hoes net. come up to our requirements we ten-work them with scions from 
our best tearing trees. The nuts are larger than the American Sweet 
and as good or better quality, Chinese Hairy chestnuts (Moilissima) 
are sweeter flavored and prefe red o e • the Japanese (Crenata), The 
latter nut very large. 
We have data on a row o. nineteen Chinese chestnut trees planted in 
1935. 4 They’ are new” lew spreading trees with 6*-inch to 8‘-inch trunks, 
twelve to fourteen feet high and spread sixteen’ tc eighteen feet, 
and as handsome a row of trees as one would ’wish. In 1934 they bore 
a few well filled burrs.’ In 1937 the nineteen 'trees bore a 'crop of 
128 lbs of nuts. In 1937 the nineteen trees bore a crop of 126 lbs’ 
of nuts. ‘In 1956, 160 lbs. of nuts and 1939’ crop was '500 lbs., av¬ 
eraging 26- lbs per tree at six years in the orchard. At ten year's' 
of age these trees should double in size and mere than double in 
production. At’, fifteen ^ea^s the^ should produce a hundred pounds 
o° nuts per t :■ ee and cent.inure to grow and hear increasing crops 
each suace-eding year. 
WHITFORD NURSERY, FARINA, ILL. 
A. !i, Whit ford. Prop. 
