Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/165

THE CHESTNUT So far as I know, the only successful orchards of improved chestnuts in America at this time are a few small ones in the Middle West not yet visited by the blight. That of the late E. A. Riehl, Godfrey, Illinois, is worthy of special mention. He turned the steep Mississippi bluffs to good account with an orchard of grafted chestnut and walnut trees that has proved productive and profitable. 119 THE FUTURE VARIETIES OF CHESTNUTS FOR AMERICA 18 This chestnut blight which is so deadly to the American ¹8 and European chestnuts has been found to be a native to China. Chinese chestnuts have been exposed to this blight for centuries and have, therefore, developed immunity or high re- sistance. The Japanese nuts are also more resistant than the American, and it is possible, even probable, that some Japa- nese trees producing nuts of good quality and much larger than the native American nut have survived the blight in Maryland and that from these a chestnut orchard industry can be built up in the eastern United States. The restoration of our chest- nut forests and orchards, therefore, seems to be a problem capable of solution along known lines. In case they are not already surviving in our midst we may introduce blight-proof trees from the blight region into our own blight-ridden territories. The Federal Government has done this with diligence, and they have introduced and dis- tributed several thousand trees of the Chinese varieties. Some of these have died with blight and some have not. I know one which has given two small crops and seems to be perfectly healthy, after ten years' exposure to the blight at Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. The nuts are like the Amer- ican nuts in size and quality, but very few in quantity on this particular tree. 18 A few groups of natives have resisted the blight, but their seedlings have succumbed. However, this is a promising lead for the tree breeder. The survivors might be valuable to hybridize with some more resistant strain.