uld make
beechnuts worth several times as much as corn.

In Europe a valuable oil used as a drug and for salads is expressed from
beechnuts. Possibly individual trees could be found somewhere in
Michigan which produce nuts large enough, good enough, and in quantity
enough to justify their recognition and propagation as named varieties.

No matter whether distinct varieties appear or not, the beech is well
worthy of planting in many places about both the farm and the city lot.

BUTTERNUT

A member of the walnut family known also as "long walnut" and as "white
walnut" is the true butternut. It has a smaller range of adaptability
than does the black walnut but is found considerably farther north. On
the Atlantic coast, its native range extends into Nova Scotia. In parts
of New York State and New England, it is one of the most common species.
It is well known in Michigan where, to many people it is the favorite of
all nuts. The tree is less durable and long-lived than is the black
walnut. It is less well suited for use in the landscape and its timber
value is probably the least of any native walnut.

Within very recent years one or two promising varieties have been
introduced by the nurserymen. The first and only one now available is
the Aiken from New Hampshire. The nut cracks well and the kernels are of
pleasant flavor, but as a variety it has not been tested long enough to
determine its adaptability to conditions in other states nor the extent
to which budded trees will be productive.

CHESTNUT

Perhaps the greatest, of all tree tragedies is represented by the
chestnut. Once a dominant species in many parts of the East, it is now
merely a wreck of its former self. In whole states along the Atlantic
Seaboard, it has been wiped out by a fungus disease introduced from
Japan some 25 years ago. Pennsylvania allows no chestnut trees to be
shipped outside its limits for fear of further spreading this disease.
So far as known chestnut trees from west of the Wabash River are free
from infection. From Illinois, there have recently been introduced
several varieties of chestnut supposedly of pure American parentage
which are quite the equal in size of the European sorts but which have
the sweet flavor of true American strains. In protected places in the
southern part of the Lower Peninsula these chestnuts should be well
worthy of trial. They are, indeed, splendid chestnuts. The principal
varieties are the Rochester, Prog