cultural Experiment Station, Morgantown, West Virginia,
gives construction details of a suitable bottom-heated cold frame.
However, with chestnuts, natural shade was not used and half of the
sunlight was excluded. An article in the October issue of _The National
Horticultural Magazine_--"Rooting Chestnuts from Cuttings"--outlines
procedure and results through 1952.

In this paper I will present a resume of our experiences and
observations. Our facilities were limited so that the number of cuttings
set in each case was very small. Percentages of failure or success
should be taken as indicative only.

In the propagation experiments, preliminary observations were made by
placing softwood cuttings in a bottom-heated cold frame at intervals
during the growing season. The soil medium was two thirds washed sand
and one third peat moss. Daily watering was by a hand hose. The
root-inducing substance was indole-butyric acid crystals in a talc based
mixture, one to one hundred. The results were completely negative.

The next season a small cold room was constructed in which conditions
thought to be desirable could be maintained. Air temperature was kept at
approximately 65 deg. F., fog nozzles were operated continuously except for
an occasional airing of the cold room, and about 200 foot candles of
white fluorescent light were delivered upon the rooting surface. The
rooting medium was white, washed, building sand placed over one half
inch of sphagnum moss. The moss, in turn, had been laid in a rooting
bench with a hardware cloth bottom exposed to the air. The interior air
circulation was maintained by an electric fan operating day and night.
The soil temperature was held at 70 deg. F.

Cuttings were taken at intervals throughout the season and their basal
sections soaked in a water-based solution of indole-butyric acid
crystals at concentrations varying around 60 parts per million. During a
70-day period roots were formed on cuttings taken in June, July, and
August. Among the successful cases the poorest result was 66-2/3%, and
the best was 100%.

The young plants were fed nutrient solution and later transplanted to a
light, sandy soil within a bottom-heated cold frame. Some roots were
dead at the time of transplanting, burned, perhaps, by the nutrient
solution. The soil temperature within the cold frame was maintained at
70 deg. F. until late in the fall, and then the plants were hardened by
reducing the water content of the