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tion. I have the Nanking now, ready 
for you to plant. 
They do bear. For example consider 
the record of the parent tree of the 
Nanking. Seed planted in 1936, bore 
2.3 pounds in 1943; 34.4 pounds in 1944; 
37.8 pounds in 1945; 1. pound in 1946 
(big freeze); 87.7 pounds in 1947— 
total, 163.2 pounds in five years. 
High Quality 
These Chinese Chestnuts are good— 
don’t confuse them with the flavorless 
Japanese, with which the country was 
flooded the last years of the last cen- 
tury and the first two decades of this. 
The very conservative Mr. C. A. Reed, 
of the U. S. Department of Agriculture 
has said, “The best of the Chinese 
Chestnuts are without peers from 
known chestnuts from any part of the 
world.” 
How Soon Will They Bear 
Not only do they bear, but they bear 
young. I hesitate to say just how 
young for two reasons. First, it de- 
pends so much on the treatment of 
the tree. The second reason is that 
I like to tell the truth, and the nursery 
catalog is a temptation to the imagina- 
tion that some cannot resist and as a 
result there are many preposterous 
claims being made. I have other out- 
lets for my imagination, see “Who's 
Who in America.” 
Here are passages from unsolicited 
letters: 
March 18, 1945. 
From Stoneham, Mass.: 
“,.. 2 few nuts (about 30) from 
the trees you sold me in 1942. They 
went through the winter of 1943 
o. k.; temperatures were between 20 
and 30 degrees below in Boston area. 
Varieties were Connecticut Yankee 
and seedlings.” 
September 18, 1946. 
From Washington, D. C.: 
“In the fall of 1945 I purchased 
twelve Chinese chestnut trees from 
your ‘nursery **  *. To" my “utter 
amazement, these trees now bear 
little. chestnuts. Needless to say, I 
am delighted. Many thanks for the 
excellent stock that you sent. 
These are exceptional cases. 
The chances are about 20 to one in 
your favor that you will get chestnuts 
the second or third season after plant- 
ing our grafted trees, or possibly sooner 
if you plant as follows: Plant one or 
more of each of two varieties near to 
each other (about 30 or 35 feet). Keep 
grass and weeds away from the trees 
until September 1 for two seasons. Fer- 
tilize as our booklet directs and you 
are in for a two-party or three-party 
race depending on whether it is you 
-and boys, or you, boys and squirrels. 
The Northern Limit of the Chinese 
Chestnut 
Just how far north will the Chinese 
Chestnuts thrive? Will they thrive at 
your place? I wish I could answer these 
questions with exact and mathematical 
accuracy, but I cannot, so I give you 
all the facts I now have and leave the 
matter for you to work out. 
_ After twenty years of experience I 
have never, so far as I know, lost a 
single Chestnut tree from winterkill- 
ing on my Blue Ridge Mountain slope 
in the Philadelphia climate. Chinese 
Chestnut trees have thriven and borne 
for years in Connecticut, some in Mas- 
sachusetts, a few in southern Vermont. 
At the same time we get occasional re- 
ports of complete winterkilling in those 
same areas and latitudes. Why this 
difference? There are three main rea- 
sons. 
One is: Does your land happen to 
be in a frost pocket? Few persons real- 
ize the profound climatic difference 
that may exist between your house and 
the meadow that lies a short distance 
below it and happens to have poor air 
drainage. The figures on page 6 show 
an almost unbelievable difference of 
temperature on a cold night. Indeed, 
the range was more than 12° F. in 50 
feet difference in elevation—the dif- 
ference in temperature between 33° 
(which did not freeze) and 21°, which 
if kept on long enough would have 
made ice thick enough to skate upon. 
I know two innocent looking fields near 
Washington, D. C. They are in a 
warmer climate than my Blue Ridge 
Mountain, but on one of them Chest- 
nuts (which live perfectly for me) win- 
terkill from time to time because it is 
a frost pocket, and on the other field, 
a short distance away, they do not win- 
terkill, because it does not happen to 
be a frost pocket. 
The frost pocket trees will get much 
lower temperatures on still nights in 
while the tree on the overlooking hill 
midwinter. Trees in a frost pocket will 
have new growth frozen in late spring 
escapes. 
