are
thousands of acres of chestnut trees--a great forage crop. In a few
districts is[**typo ] looks like a forested country, on account of the
heavy chestnut tree groves. The tenant who takes a farm has certain
restrictions placed upon him in the removal and use of the crop. He is
not allowed to remove the chestnuts in France. The tenant who takes the
farm, signs a contract that he will not sell the chestnuts but will feed
them to the pigs so the soil may not be exhausted. They gather them
carefully and use them in a number of ways. They make the main bread
supply of the people. I have eaten chestnut cake. It is not bad. They
treat it exactly as we do corn cake. When they can afford something
better, they do so.

At harvest time the chestnuts are put in drying houses, a fire is built
under them and after they are thoroughly dried they will keep
indefinitely. We find them on the market as dried chestnuts; and I have
seen people eating them raw in June of the year after. Chestnut meal is
a standard article of consumption and the price is regulated by the
price of cornmeal.

I have seen considerable areas planted out regularly in rows of young
trees, and alongside of that older ones. They plant on perfectly fine,
level ground hundreds of acres of chestnut groves and we find these
groves anywhere from twenty-five to one hundred years old. They are very
valuable property for the reason that when old there are many cords of
wood to the acre, and chestnut wood is valuable.

They have a disease over there called inky root consequently new
plantings have largely ceased, though there are some going on. A great
reason for planting is that timber means an increase in the value of
land. A man who has an old chestnut orchard has land that is worth two
hundred dollars an acre for wood alone and the temptation is very strong
to sell off the timber and get the money, which process is going on
faster than the setting of new orchards. These orchards are on high
class agricultural land.

It is quite different in Corsica; the country there is very broken and
rough. Some of the hills range up to 6,000 feet, and for a belt of 2,000
feet the chestnut forests are continuous and villages numerous. This
island supports a dense population. The principal industry consists of
gathering the chestnuts, and for a few weeks the people are very busy
putting them away for the year's supply and sending them to market. I
stopped at the home of the may