CHESTNUTS.
Famous old chestnut trees, supposed to be near two thousand years old, and most picturesque in their decrepitude, are venerated in different sec tions of southern Europe. They divide honors with the ruins of temples built with hands. Far more attractive, to my mind, are the sturdy trees of middle age, burdened in October with the fruit, that falls out of the prickly, opening burs, much as our own chestnuts do in late fall. They are much bigger fruit than ours, but not so sweet and rich in flavor. These chestnuts are starchy, and nutritious, furnishing a staple food comparable to the potato, though sometimes made into sweets.
The American nut is not usually cooked, but eaten raw when mature, which is about Christmas time. The shells are thin and tough, but the meats are rich in flavor and very sweet. Roasting cracks the shell and makes the nuts mealy.
The timber of chestnut trees is especially valu able for railroad ties, as the wood does not readily decay in contact with the soil. So the lumber business was vitally concerned when, a few years ago, the chestnut trees in the neighborhood of New York City mysteriously died. The swollen twigs of the smitten trees were studded with yellow pellets, or crumbs — the fruiting bodies of the fungous disease that had developed unseen under the bark. Out of these pellets the "blight" dis charged the spores that were carried away, by wind, and possibly by birds, to spread the infec tion to healthy trees. The baffling thing is the
fact that no spray of Bordeaux mixture, or other fungicide, can be applied to this deadly blight, for it works in the dark — in the tree's vital part, the cambium, that lies hidden by the outer bark.
Much money has been spent in the effort to conquer this disease and to check its onward prog ress. The problem is understood, but its solution has not yet been reached, and the outlook for the future of chestnut forests is most discouraging.
Chestnut trees introduced from Japan promise us a home-grown nut equal to the best European varieties. These oriental chestnuts are large and fine in flavor when cooked. The trees are hand some, and they bear at a very early age. These traits in a hardy species assure its popularity over a large territory.
Chinquapins are small chestnuts, the fruit of a dwarf species, that grows on barren, broken ground from the Middle States south and west. The husk contains a single nut, which is sweet and rich, but rarely seen in markets, because the gathering is slow and difficult work. But pigs enjoy themselves in the woods when the chin quapins are opening their spiny little burs.