Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1870-08-24
CheStnuts.
BIZ HENRY WARD BEEcHER.

fancy that trees have dispositions. AT
any rate they have those qualities which
suggest dispositions to all who are in sympa.
thy with nature, and who look upon facts as
letters of an alphabet, by which one may
spell out the hidden meanings of things
Some trees, like the apple, suggest goodness
and humility. They put on no airs. They
do not exalt themselves. They are patient
of climate, full of beauty in blossom, and in
autumn beautiful in fruit.
The oak, when well grown, has the beauty
of rugged strength, and sometimes is has
grandeur. Certain live-oak trees on Helena
Island, near Beaufort, S. c., with long pend
ant moss, like a Druid's beard, impressed
US on the whole with feeling of the sub
lime in vegetation, which we never expert
enced in the presence of any other tree.
Down on our backs we laid, and gazed up
into their vast tops with a pleasure never
80: -esr.ss~sa. These were the tynes of
beauty. 1t is stately without Stiffness. RI
carries itself up to such height that it's
dropping bOughs do not suggest feebleness,
as the weeping willow does. And yet,
one never has with it the feeling of interest
or personal intercourse. One may sit under
it's branches, but no one ever sat on or among
them. We admire, but do not sympathize.
Still less did any one ever love hickory
tree. They are beautiful, stately, but self
contained. When young, they are dandies !;
when old, aristocrats. Not so the chestnut
tree This darling old fellow is a very grand
father among trees. What great open
bosom it has Its boughs are arranged with
express reference to ease in climbing.
Nature was in a good mood when the
chestnut-tree came forth. 1t is, when well
grown, a stately tree, wide-spreading, and
r - - ~.
nut is a noble tree. But one never sees its
full development except when it has grown
in the open fields. Ii then assumes immense
proportions. Having tendency when cut
down to send up many shoots from the
stump, old trees are often found with four OF
five trunks springing from the same root. In
such cases no other American tree covers so
wide a space of ground. Not even the oak
attains to greater size or longevity. The
Tortworth chestnut, in England, is supposed
to have been standing before the Conquest.
1906. and must be not far from a thousand
years old The longest known tree in Amer
lea, is the L" Rice I" chestnut, on the estate OF
Marshall |. Rice, at Newton Center, Mass.
1t measures twenty-four feet and three tenths
circumference at the base, seventy-six feet in
height, and spreads its limbs ninety-three
feet. 1t is vigorous, and still bears enormous
crops. But this is mere STRIPPING compared
with the famous chestnut-tree of Mount
Etna, whose trunk measured In circumfer-
ence about one hundred and sixty feet, or
some fifty-three feet in diameter, and which
could shelter a hundred horsemen beneath
its branches But this tree, long hollow, is
about giving up the ghost, even if it has not
already done SO, no doubt dying in the
peaceful consciousness of having spent a
virtuous life, and fed thousands of people
/ fxro ~ fnll Of
There is living in vigor at Sancerre, in
France, tree which, at six feet from the
ground measures thirty feet in circumference,
which, if boy is expected to climb it, is
full large enough.
A chestnut tree in full bloom is a fine
sight. 1t blossoms about the lst of July, in
clusters of long, yellowish white flaments,
like tuft of coarse wool rolls. The whole
top of the tree is silvered over. We have
never seen them so finely in blossom as this
year, and we foresee grand harvest for the
boys. Oh, those golden days of October
The thought of them brings back the day of
boyhood, the brilliant foliage of the forest
now putting on its regal garments. The
merry sport of squirrels racing on the ground
if one lies dead-still to watch, or scampering
up the trunks, and leaping from tree to tree
with chirk and bark, if disturbed
1t was great day when, with bag and
musket, the whole family was summoned to
go ga chest-nutting :" There was frolic
enough, and climbing enough, and shaking
enough, and rattling nuts enough, and a sly
kiss or two, but never enough, and lunch
enough, and appetite enough. The silver
brook on the hillside carried down on its
murmuring current, the golden leaves which
the trees. with every puff of wind, sent
down shimmering through the air.
Barefooted all summer long, the prickly
chestnut burs were too sharp for our LITTLE
tough feet, and we were glad to pick our way
cautiously under the trees. Long live the
chestnut tree; and the chestnut woods or
the mountain side Long live the boys anC
girls who frolic under their boughs, and Ions
live the winter nights, with the homeiy fart
of apples and nuts, and no stronger drinl
than cider, and a merry crowd of boys anC
girls, with here and there the specialized olC
folks, all before a roaring hickory fire, in al
old-fashioned fireplace, big as the western
horizon with the sun going down in it, ant
with roguish stick of chestnut wood in it
which opens such fnsilade of snaps an,
cracks as sets the girls to screaming, ant
throws out such mischievous Goals upon tn