en or more hybrid
varieties which are paying very satisfactory dividends on fertile
hillside land which is mainly too steep for cultivation. A number of
these varieties have been taken to northern California where they are
proving highly successful.

In the Willamette Valley of Oregon, two species are represented with
about equal frequency. These are the native chestnut from the eastern
states and that from Japan. Neither has performed in such a way as to be
particularly encouraging. The former has not been productive and the
latter has produced nuts of quality so inferior as to prejudice the
planters against the entire genus. It is a difficult matter, therefore,
to induce prospective planters in that section to consider any species
of chestnut.

In the East, it is well known that the native species does not come into
bearing until 12 or 15 years of age at best, and that to induce
pollination and a set of nuts, it is necessary to inter-plant a number
of varieties together. Had groups of varieties of American or European
origin been planted on the Coast, instead of single trees of the former
or varieties from Asia, it is not improbable that the present attitude
toward the chestnut in the Pacific Northwest would have been quite
different.

The work of the late Dr. Van Fleet, in hybridizing various chestnut
species and in testing out Chinese and Japanese species with a view to
determining their value as nut producers and their resistance to the
bark disease, is familiar to most members of the Northern Nut Growers'
Association. Since the death of Dr. Van Fleet, the work has been taken
over by other hands in the Bureau of Plant Industry; but apparently, all
of the hybrids now growing in the vicinity of Washington, D. C., are
destined to succumb to blight. At present, practically every tree of the
Chinese chestnut _Castanea molissima_, planted by Dr. Van Fleet at Bell
Station, Maryland, where his work was mainly centered, likewise shows
large blight cankers. But despite the gravity of the infections, it does
not appear wholly improbable that many of these trees can be preserved.
However, the wisdom of continuing propagation of the Japanese species is
very doubtful, as the quality of nuts is usually of low order. Chestnut
trees from China are generally light producers; but out of the total of
several hundred at Bell, several this year have borne good crops. The
flavor of the nuts is sometimes sweet, but oftener, otherwise;