Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-12-02
CHESTNUT CULTURE.
PAPER READ BEFORE THE GLOUCESTER
COUNTY FARMERS INSTITUTE, NOV. 10.
1897, BY cHAs. PARRY, OF PARRY,
BURLINGTON COUNTY, N. J.

PAPER READ BEFORE THE GLOUCESTER
COUNTY FARMERS INSTITUTE, NOV. 10,
1897, BY CHAs. PARRY, OF PARRY,
BURLINGTON COUNTY, N. j.
There is annually imported into the
United STATES from southern Europe
many thousands POUNDS OF cnestnuts.
over one and a nall mullons OF dollars
are pad every year Dy LniS country
lor imported nuts, ot winch a consider
able portion are cheStnuts. Every
pound OF these chestnutS could be
grown and should be grown at home.
1nere are some imported articles, sucn
as tea and SILK, Tor instance, that had
better be grown abroad. Although we
nave soil and climate well adapted to
the prooucIlon or these staples, yet the
labor cost is so great in these articles
tnat 1t is good economy to avail our
serves OF the cheap labor OF other coun-
tries and produce them abroad, employ
ing our own labor in a field that VIII
re turn many times what it would in
tea or SILK.
Tn1s does not apply to the produc-
ton of chestnuIs. mere are very few
farm products mat will yield so large
return for the capital and labor em-
pIoyed as chestnurs. And we should
iloI only supply our own markets, but
should export enough to supply I'm
gland, Germany ana Northern Europe.
why is it that farmers are SO SLOW 10
avail themselves OF the possibilities of
this crop? 1t must be because they 90
not like to make money easily. Iihey
will spend time, labor and money grow
ing melons that must be picked and
marke ted every day. and sometimes
twice day, to prevent spelling, and
then If they are not sold promptly Will
Snnli w a If
has been grown at great expense is
liable to be swept away by millions of
lice, or if there is a full crop it is liable
to sell at a price that brings the far
mer in debt. A crop of this Kind, say,
farmers delight in. And yet they es-
pecially avoid chestnuts, crop that
has none OF these disadvantages, and
will pay many times better. A crop
which, when once planted, is there for
ever; certainly for many generations,
which will annually yield an immense
revenue without cultivation, without
manure, almost without care, being in
this respect like Government bond,
from which you annually clip coupons,
leaving the principal untouched to go
on producing revenue Indefinitely.
Suppose farmers could secure a con-
tract from a grain merchant to take
all the corn they could grow every year
at $3 per bushel. They would tumble
over each other to secure the contract
and would put their whole farms in
corn. Yet they must plant and culti-
vate corn every year, and this, too, at
the busiest time of the year. While
chestnuts will yield as many bushels
per acre as corn and sell for more, they
are planted once in a lifetime and the
improved varieties will hardly sell as
low as S3 per bushel for a generation to
come. In addition, chestnuts may be
grown on ground so hilly and broken
that it would hardly grow corn at ALL
Another advantage of this crop is,
that the only work required on it, the
gathering, and marketing of the nuts
come at a time of year, September and
early October, when most other farm
work is not so pressing. They are not
perishable like melons. If not gathered
to-day, tomorrow or next week will do.
Neither must they be sold as soon as
in storage for weeks, or shipped thou
sands of miles to better market.
Again at this time of year when the re-
ceipts of the farm are apt to be light,
cheStnutS make a welcome addition to
the market returns.
Many farmers are not yet ready to
plant their level fields in chestnut trees;
yet on most farms there are rayineS
and hiIlsides well adapted to chestnut
culture, and on every farm there are
lanes, headlands and roadSideS which,
if set in chestnuts, would pay as well
or better than the best cultivated land
on the farm. What an amount of food
would be produced if all the maple and
other shade trees along our road sides
were bearing chestnuts' The chestnut
furnishes ample shade and at the same
time yields a valuable food. AT the
present prices of chestnuts they are
more of a luxury than food, and yet
the time is coming when they will be
used as a standard food and the de-
mand will be unlimited.
OF all tree products of our country
the pecan, walnut and chestnut are
the only ones suitable to replace wheat
and other grains as food. OF these the
pecan and walnut are too oily to make
good flour, so that the chestnut alone is
capable of yielding flour that can
make a fair substitute for the cereal
grains.
This flour is largely used in Southern
Europe for making bread, cakes and
pies. The nut is also largely boiled
whole and eaten as vegetables. 1t is
too high priced to be used in this man
ner in this country. But as it will yield
as many bushels per acre as either
wheat or corn it must eventually take
its place as a staple food product, and
the time will come when all our noun
tain slopes and steep hillsides will be
covered with productive groves of
chestnuts like those of Italy. This will
be many years in the future, and until
that time there will be abundant oppor-
tunity for progressive farmers to liter
ally coin money out of this industry.
In planting che estnuts care must be
taken to put them upon congenial soil
or failure is apt to result. The chestnut
does best upon an open soil, with q
deep, porous, well-drained sub-soil. A
heavy, sticky clay soil with an imper-
vious wet sub-soil will not answer.
Hillsides and sloping ground where the
water drains quickly away suit this
tree well. The question Of varieties is
also of vital Importance. A grove of
Seeding chestnuts is of no more value
than an orchard of seeding apple tree
Perhaps one out of a hundred may be
of value, while ninety-nine will be of
little account. Besides a grove of seed
lings will be ten to fifteen years coming
into profit, while grated trees COM
mence to bear the second year from the
graft. Again, it is important to have
all the trees ripening at one time close
together, So as to save time in gather
ing. Also, it is best to have most of
your trees of early varieties, so as to
market them while the price is high.
None of these objects can be attained
with Seeding trees. Again, seedlings
vary as much in productiveness as in
any other point, so that while some
might yield we'll the vast majority
would probably be worthless for profit,
so that it would be time and money
lost to grow any but grated trees of
the best varieties. There are three
groups of chestnuts in cultivation-the
American, the Spanish and the Japan
ese. The American strain, while sweeter
than the others, has yielded few, if any,
profitable market varieties It's small
size, poor color and fuzzy appearance
make it sell for low prices in the mar
ket. There are some seedlings that
promise to be improvements in this re-
spect. But at present commercial
groves are composed almost entirely of
Spanish and Japanese varieties. OF
these the earliest to ripen is the Japan
ese. They are also the largest. The
skin of the Japanese varieties has a
much more bitter taste than either the
Spanish or American varieties. This
bitterness. however, largely disappears
in cooking and in drying. There are
also some varieties of the japanese
strain that are claimed to be equal in
quality to the American. And in the
future we may expect to get see dlings
from the Japan strain crossed with