coincides with the blossoming of the female flowers of this Chinese
hybrid. Chestnuts rarely set any nuts that produce mature seed from
their own pollen but depend on cross-pollination. The nut from this
hybrid is also the largest of any that I have grown and to my taste is a
palatable one. It may not rank among the best ones of known varieties
today, but for our climate I would consider it unusually large and good.
Experimentally, I have been able to produce new plants from this tree by
layering young shoots coming from the roots. This generally requires two
years to make a well-rooted plant before they are cut off and
transplanted. This alternative of propagating by grafting or budding is
considered a better method if it can be practiced, as it gives a plant
on its own roots instead of the roots of some unknown seedling stock.

[Illustration: _Hybrid Chestnut; natural size, one of the two survivors
of several dozen trees sent by the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture for
testing this far north. Fair size nut and it resembles the American
Sweet Chestnut. Photo by C. Weschcke._]

Another tree that surprised me when it came into bearing proved to bear
one nut in a burr which led me to believe that it was a chinquapin
hybrid. Later on, the habit of this tree changed somewhat and some of
the burrs had more than one nut. I have found this to be the experience
of others who have observed so-called chinquapin trees of a hybrid
nature. It is my belief that the kind of pollen with which these
blossoms are fertilized directly influences the number of nuts in a burr
and sometimes the size of the nuts, again showing the importance of the
cross-pollinating varieties when setting out an orchard of trees. This
particular chinquapin type chestnut has upright growing habits different
from a tree bearing similar nuts but having a very dwarfed habit. All of
the nuts of the latter after six years of bearing can be picked off this