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Swarthmore, Pa. 


SEPTEMBER, 1948 


WE SPECIALIZE in four things that are 
especially suited to the gardens, lanes, lawns, and 
orchards of the Southland. These four things are: 
1. the Chinese Chestnut; 2. the Chinese Persim- 
mon; 3. the thin-shelled, easy-cracking, large kern- 
el black walnut; 4. the high bush blueberry. 
1. The Chinese Chestnut. It is the Chinese 
Chestnut that makes the New Era. 
All those who remember the delicious nuts and 
splendid trees of the American chestnut mourn the 
fact that the blight has killed almost every one of 
them. But cheer up, we now have a larger, better 
chestnut, right ready for every land owner on more 
than a million square miles of the United States, 
and they will bear much sooner than the old natives 
ever did. 
The blight that killed the American chestnut 
came to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden with some 
plants from Japan. In 1904 the blight was discov- 
ered on nearby chestnut trees, and spread like 
waves from a pebble in a pond, until it has got to 
the northern, western, and southern limits of our 
magnificent eastern chestnut forests. 
The Department of Agriculture and various pri- 
vate citizens promptly sent to China and got seed 
from trees of strains that had lived with the blight 
for an unknown length of time. 
Trees from these imported nuts were scattered 
far and wide over the United States more than 30 
years ago and now they have proved themselves by 
living, growing, bearing nuts from Massachusetts to 
southeastern Lowa stil Oklahoma, from southern 
Michigan to northern Florida. 
This widespread success shows that a tree lover 
can plant Chinese Chestnuts in at least half our 
states, and we have the trees ready for them to 
plant. 
And you should plant grafted trees! 
You do not plant seedling apple trees or seedling 
peach trees or seedling pear trees, just because the 
fruit that produed the seed was good. You take 

grafted or budded trees, grown from buds or cions 
from the few best trees that have thus far been 
found or bred. In spite of this well established 
horticultural practice, dozens of people are selling 
seedling Chinese Chestnut trees. Some are even 
advertising to sell you trees for a certain sum of 
money without telling you how big the tree is. 
Any seedling tree is uncertain and there is great 
variation among seedling Chinese Chestnut trees as 
to the speed of their growth, the time of their bear- 
ing, the regularity of their bearing, the size of the 
nut, the abundance of the crop, the flavor and other 
qualities of the nut itself. There is no evidence to 
indieate that a seedling orchard can approach in 
productivity an orchard of grafted trees of known 
parentage. Recently the U. government has re- 
leased cions of their best chestnut up to date. It is 
named Nanking, and the record is ee 
The seed was planted in 193 
in 19438 it bore 2.3 tai 
in 1944 it bore 34.4 pounds 
in 1945 it bore 37.8 pounds 
in 1946 it bore 1.0 pounds (due to 
big freeze) 
in 1947 it bore 87.7 pounds 
163.2 pounds in 5 years 
If that tree is given room, air and food, and no 
freezes, it will probably bear somewhere between 
500 and 750 pounds in the next 5 years. A row of 
such trees would almost support a family at the 
present price of these nuts, of 40¢ to 50¢ a pound. 
I have three other varieties of grafted chestnuts, 
the Abundance, the Connecticut Yankee and the 
Zimmerman. These have proved that they are cer- 
tainly runners up for this surprising Nanking va- 
riety. The experimental stage is past. Plant now. 
You need two varieties for pollenation. 
The Chinese Chestnut has a tough glossy leaf, 
very resistant to pests and giving the treé a beauti- 
ful appearance—excellent for your lawn, your lane, 
your poultry yard, your chestnut orchards. It is fun 
to pick up chestnuts. If you yourself have rheuma- 
tism, the children will enjoy gathering the nuts. 
U.S. Department of Agriculture 
New Era Chestnut Nursery 
