both at their locality of origin in
New Jersey and since at Arlington farm, to which they were transferred
in the second and third years of growth. Others have been attacked in
greater or less degree, but show great powers of recuperation, sending
up suckers that often fruit well by the third year. The resistant
varieties show great promise as nut producers, coming into bearing when
three or four years old from seed and producing abundant crops of
handsome nuts, of excellent quality, four to six times as large and
heavy as those borne by the chinquapin parent, ripening in early
September before chestnuts of any kind have appeared in the market.
These nuts have thicker shells than other chestnuts, are much less
subject to attacks of the chestnut weevil and preserve their fresh and
inviting appearance longer when gathered. The flavor varies somewhat
according to the particular pollen parent of the different varieties,
but is always agreeable in the fresh state when the nuts are properly
cured. When boiled or roasted they are particularly sweet and pleasant
to the taste.

The trees are quite vigorous in growth, considering their rather dwarf
type, reaching 10 or more feet in height at 6 to 8 years from the
germination of the seeds and with scarcely an exception bear regular and
increasing crops after the third year. Propagation of the most promising
varieties has been effected by grafting and budding on _Castanea
molissima_ seedlings as resistant stocks, but it cannot be said that
these processes, when performed under greenhouse conditions, give ideal
unions. It is hoped to make fairly extensive trials of _C. molissima and
C. crenata_ as stocks for field grafting the coming season.

But the most encouraging feature of these chinquapin-crenata crosses is
the excellence of their seedlings as grown from chance or
self-pollinated nuts. Fifteen direct or second generation seedlings and
one of the third generation have fruited to date. All have retained in
growth and fruitage the characters of their immediate parent and it
almost appears as if the good qualities of these hybrids may be
perpetuated from seeds, thus dispensing in a great measure with
vegetative propagation--always costly and uncertain with nut trees.

Several hundred of these seedlings are under observation and it scarcely
appears too much to hope that they may inherit the disease-resisting
character of their parents as well as other desirable qualities.

Sele