nuts, but blight sooner or later destroys those
sprouts.

Chinkapins are found in many counties of Virginia, especially on shale
or sandy loam soils. Blight affects chinkapins to a considerable extent;
but because of their bushy type of growth, new shoots arise to replace
blighted shoots, thus perpetuating the plants so that they have not died
out. Chinkapins are gathered by children for eating and for sale along
the roadside, but at present they have little total economic value.

+The Asiatic Chestnuts+

Since the native American chestnuts passed out of existence, there has
been a gradually accumulating interest in the Asiatic species,
especially Chinese chestnuts, which appear superior, in blight
resistance and nut quality to the Japanese species. The growing of these
Chinese chestnuts is such a new enterprise that its problems are not
fully solved nor its opportunities fully explored.

The earlier plantings of seedling Chinese chestnut trees were made by
cooperating growers and nurserymen. They were interested in a forest
type chestnut that might replace the dead native trees. A few of these
plantings were made under semi-forest conditions, on cut-over timber
land or on dry ridges. The first lesson that was learned was that the
Chinese chestnut is an orchard type tree requiring rather fertile soil
and ample moisture. It would not compete favorably with most native
forest trees, but rather was a slow growing, shallow rooted type of
tree. Under these unfavorable growing conditions the trees tended to be
small and to sprout from the bases of the trunks. The weakest seedlings
died.

In other cases the trees were planted in yards, back lots, along the
sides of ravines, or in other locations where the soil was fertile and
moist. Under these favorable conditions most seedlings have grown and
produced crops of nuts, especially when the trees were pruned and
competing weeds and brush were mowed. Very few of these first seedlings
of the Chinese chestnuts showed much promise although a few of them were
fairly satisfactory.

Several old Japanese chestnut trees have been observed. One of these is
estimated to be 50 years of age with a trunk diameter of 18 inches and a
height of about 50 feet. It is growing in a very fertile spot and heavy
crops in the past have broken its limbs. Chinkapins growing nearby
appeared to have supplied pollen. Recently the nearest chinkapins were
cleared away and hence at present the nuts fail