The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-22
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, ID. C.

Washington. D. c., Oct. 22.-Have
you noticed how scarce chestnuts are
this year, just when we need them
to help out the meager food supply?
Trees that yielded bushels of fine
chestnuts last year are now either
dead or dying, their leaves brown and
shriveled, their trunks devoid of sap.
You can walk for miles thru the
I woods of some sections and never see
a chestnut burr.
Neither can you buy chestnuts with
anything like the ease you could a
few years ago. The sizzling roasting
pans with which fruit stands formerly
did flourishing business now rarely
roast anything but popcorn, and per
sons DESTROYS of celebrating Hal
lowe'en according to its ancient ira
ditionS are having as much difficulty
in procuring chestnuts for the event
as patriotic little boys have in obtain
ing firecrackers with which to cele-
brate the Fourth. For, alas, the
American chestnut tree = dear to
poets humorists and epicures of this
cOuntry-is afflicted with a blight
that is rapidly forcing it out of exist
ence.
Chesmuts Getting Scarce.
The department of agriculture gives
US just two more years in which to
view our last chestnut tree. After that
the species will be gone. A few years
ago, our chestnut forests were worth
over fifty million dollars; now, they
are worth hardly half a million And,
incredible as it may seem, there is
nothing which we can do about it. 1t
is not one of those innumeTable
calamities that will end with the war.
So far, scientists have been able to
discover nothing with which to COM
bat this immigrant scourge, which
crept into the country from China
barely five wears ago
Before that, the spreading chestnut
tree was known and greatly respected
in all parts of the eastern United
States. Young ladies who were IA
NOUS for their homemade candy used
to sally forth in the fall and bring
back baskets laden with chestnuts
which they had picked up in the
neighboring woods. Farmers wives
in the attic to be used off and on dur
| ing the winter in preparing various
| savory nut dishes. Moreover, the
farmers used to make their fence posts
out of chestnut timber; the railroad
companies made chestnut ties, and iR-
dustry depended on the chestnut tree
for a large part of its tannin.
| Every Part Available
| Thus the chestnut tree is valuable
! from the trunk up. Every part of it
/ can be utilized So, if you have any
| live chestnut trees on your place
this fall, make the best of them. Don't
| let a single chestnut go to waste, and
| if a tree appears to be dying, cut it
/ down. Another season, the timber may
| be rotten.
| Also. if you come across any chest
nuts in the woods, take them with you
if they don't belong to somebody
! else, for it may be your last chance
! In this connection. however, hear a
brief sermon from the department of
agriculture concerning taking chest
nuts which do belong to somebody
| else. In the department are many
pracaical griculturists-that is, gem
| tlemen who own their own farms
| Some of them own chestnut trees
! Others own special cherished species
| of fruit trees, over which they hare
| worked with the sweat of their brows
Now the complaint of these gentle
men is that their trees are never safe
! from the kleptomaniacaI tendencies of
! the hiking and honking public whose
course happens to lie along their
| farms. People who would never
| think of stealing property from your
| house or barn will not hesitate to strip
your trees of fruit and nuts, tearing
and mutilating their branches III the
bargain said a genealogical expert
the other day. That is why farmers
never plant orchards along the road
| side any more: why, in fact they no
| longer make any effort to improve the
! appearance of a road.
/ Fruit Trees for Shade.
1t is also the reason, interrupted
| another plant expert, why it is i'm
! possible for this country to make USE
! of a very efficient method of raising
public revenue which is carried on
with great success in Germany. In
| many of the large cities of Germany
the streets and parks are planted with
fruit trees, which belong to the gov
| eminent. They are not only very de-
| sirable from the decorative stand
| point, but add a large sum to the in
| come of the government which har-
| vests and sells the fruit every year.
| German cherry trees of this sort are
particularly famous.
But" declared the gentlemen of
| the department of agriculture in
! unison, ''it would never do here. The
people would strip the trees bare as a
] matter of course"
To return to the chestnut trees and
the tragedy that is rapidly engulfin3
it, the department of agriculture has
very recently made some experiments
| which seem to establish some hope for
| chestnuts, if not for the chestnut tree.
/ Inasmuch as the blight which is de-
/ stroying the chestnut tree crept into
this country from China, the scient-
! lists of the department of agriculture
| made inveSti cations in that country.
| They found that in both China and
Japan there were chestnut treeS-Of Il
different species from ours-that were
! immune to this blight. One of them
is short bush with large nuts not as
sweet or as tender as American chest =
nuts, and the other is a tall hardwood
tree whose nuts are not edible at all.
DIR. Van Fleet. one of the experts
of the bureau of plant industry, then
began to make some interesting eX-
! periments. He crossed the bushy
I Chinese chestnut with the American
chinquapin, and got a nut very much
like our own disappearing chestnut.
This appeared to solve the question so
far as nuts were concerned, but the
new tree did not make up for the loss
in timber. So the chinquapin was also
crossed with the other variety, and the
result was a tree with all the timber
value of the American chestnut.
An Experiment in Crossing