e them out.

A Member: Do you cultivate the ground?

Mr. Sober: I don't cultivate it, I just pasture it. The land is
fertilized, but not cultivated.

Mr. Reed: That is a photograph of a large chestnut orchard in this
county. It is not many miles from here. I understand that owing to the
blight and to the weevil, that orchard has not been satisfactory, and I
was told two or three days ago that it was being cleared away.

The Chairman: What varieties?

Mr. Reed: Paragon and native stock.

A Member: Was that the old Furness Grove?

Mr. Reed: Yes, sir. That slide shows the congeniality, ordinarily,
between the stock of the native chestnut and the paragon. The next slide
shows a typical instance of malformation between the Japanese and native
chestnut. I understand that this is not unusual at all. The Japanese,
ordinarily, does not make a good union with the American sweet chestnut.
That slide was taken in Indiana. It is a twenty-five acre paragon
orchard owned by Mr. Littlepage and Senator Bourne of Oregon, planted in
the spring of 1910. The next slide shows one of the trees in the orchard
during its first season. Mr. Littlepage had to have them all gone over
and the burs removed. They were so inclined to fruit during the first
season that they would have exhausted themselves if the burs had not
been removed. They made a very promising start, but I understand from
Mr. Littlepage that a number of the trees have since died. Is there
anything you'd like to add to that, Mr. Littlepage?

Mr. Littlepage: I haven't yet quite determined the cause of the trouble.
Last winter I lost perhaps one-third of the trees with a peculiar
condition. The wood under the bark was darkened. I sent some of them to
Washington the year before to see if there was any blight or fungus and
they reported there was none on any of the trees, but this winter
perhaps one-third of the trees died down to the graft. A few, however,
would sprout from the scion, giving me, of course, the grafted top
again. It seemed to indicate, perhaps, a winter killing and yet I would
not undertake to assert that that was the cause, but it was very
serious.

Prof. Smith: Was the land low or high?

Mr. Littlepage: High land along a hillside, very excellent land for
chestnuts.

Mr. Reed: Sandy loam?

Mr. Littlepage: No, it's a hilly clay with a considerable humus and set
in clover.

The Chairman: Which way does it face?

Mr. Littlepage: South.

The Chairman: