Now Chinese Chestnut seedlings vary greatly in many respects. 
Many importations of seed have been made by the U. S. Government. 
Some lots seem to carry a great mixture of qualities and the trees are 
variable — in speed of growth, size of tree, time of beginning to bear, 
regularity of bearing, amount of nuts, quality of nuts and in ability to 
resist the chestnut blight that has killed our native chestnut in an area of 
a million square miles. Many Chinese Chestnut trees have died of blight 
in this country. 
Many of the early importations seem to have been of the above 
mentioned diverse stock, so much so that one planting of 1000 trees pro- 
duced no good nut producers. Asa result of this bad start the U. S. D. A. 
early went to work breeding different strains of oriental chestnuts with 
the object of getting good, blight resistant, nut bearing varieties. Then 
the luck of importations changed. Seedlings of some importations showed 
greater reliability and the government quit breeding for nuts and has 
been testing seedlings in the search for good trees to become the parents 
of good varieties. You doubtless know that one freak navel orange tree 
became the parent of millions of budded trees, ditto the Delicious Apple. 
| have been working with chestnuts since 1897. As a result of travels 
in China | also have made five large importations of seed. One of my 
importations came from a north China locality where seedling trees have 
grown in a small area generation after generation for a long time. This 
corresponds to straight line breeding in catthe and may explain the 
greater uniformity of these chestnut trees. 
| am pleased to report that | can now sell you the Ching Chow strain 
of Chinese Chestnut seedlings which has »roved to be absolutely blight 
proof — not merely blight resistant, but blight proof. | say they are 
immune because they have lived at least fifteen years in this country 
without any injury from blight, although constantly exposed to it. Many 
Chinese Chestnut trees have died of blight in this country. 
The Ching Chow is also a much more reliable producer of nuts 
than most seedlings and can be safely planted as the basis of profitable 
business. 
CHING CHOW CHINESE CHESTNUT SEEDLINGS 
2-3 feet 3-4 feet 4-5 feet 
Price Per Tree — One Tree $1.60 $1.80 52025 
Three Trees — Packet 4.00 5.00 6.00 
Ten Trees — Packet 10.00 11.50 15.00 
