The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-01-14
cHEsTNurs FOR PROFIT.
One Of the Most Promising of All Nuts FOE
Orchard Culture.

SuituAos
The chestnut-the good, sweet. reliable
American chestnut-may safely be con.
sidered the most promising of all nuts
suitable for orchard culture. All we
will have to do is to plant seed for stock
in orchard rows, then look up some OF
the largest and finest varieties, known
to be good bearers, and graft them upon
the seedlings. This would give us a
valuable orchard after awhile, and per-
haps as profitable, as if we planted
Numbo, Paragon, or any other.
Mr.. A. s. Fuller, in a recent contribu.
ton to the New York Tribune, calls at
tention to the dwarf Chinquapin chest
nut, as variety for the fruit garden
and for the children's pleasure. Whether
it could be depended upon as a source
of revenue or not, certainly it will
prove to be an object of interest, and
well worthy of a place on the lawn or
in the garden.
The Chinquapin chestnut (Castanea
pumila) gives little promise of ever
yielding varieties of large size, says Mr..
Fuller, still it deserves to be better
known in cultivation. The nuts are
small, globular or slightly oblong, and
produce singly, or only one in each bur,
but the burs are borne on long fruit
stalks, sometimes dozen on each; con-
sequently the increase in number
makes up in part for diminutive size.
The nuts are sweet and tender, even
more delicate than our common chest
nut.
The Chinquapin is most abundant in
the South, although found sparingly on
the sandy ridges of Pennsylvania and
Southern Ohio. In the more northern
localities, as well as in the richer soils
of the South, this species grows thirty
or forty feet high, while on the poor,
sandy soils of the South it is mere
bush, often not more than three or four
feet high, even when it is old and the
plants are matured.
Taken as whole, this species appears
to be more variable than our common
sweet chestnut, and this lends to it its
greatest value in cultivation. BY select
ing the very dwarf varieties we may
cultivate them in rows as we do goose.
berries or currants; or they may be
planted among ordinary low-growing
shrubs about the lawn and garden, and
where the children can have the fun OF
picking chestnuts from the tree without
climbing or waiting for nuts to fall.
Several years ago l raised a number
of Chinquapins from the nuts; some
came into bearing when only three
years old, and all when not more than
four or five. The variation in form,
color and size of leaf and habit OF
growth seems to be almost endless, fol-
no two are alike. One has leaves nearly
as large as the European chestnut, and
on another they are small, slightly
oblong, and green on both sides, instead
of hoary tomentose underneath, as usual
in this species.
In productiveness there is as great q
difference as in other characteristics
but all are curious and interesting. The
nuts from which these seedlings were
raised came from the South, but have
proved perfectly hardy in Northern New
Jersey.
Give the children few Chinquapir
bushes or trees, if for nothing more
than to add to their pleasure, years
hence, when thinking of youthful days
and agreeable surroundings-Pop
Gardening