ough which the blight might gain
entrance, or it may be due to the resistance in the species--I cannot
say about that. I had an opportunity this fall to see the Rush
chinquapin. I examined these trees--there are two of them--and I think
there is no question but that they are hybrids between the chinquapin
and the American chestnut. One of these trees was diseased, the other
had no disease upon it.

The Japanese chestnuts have been known for a long time to be highly
resistant to the inroads of this disease. Some may be immune, if we use
the word immune in a very loose sense. It has been regarded as of rather
coarse quality and some varieties as entirely unfit for human food. This
is true of many of the Japanese chestnuts, but I have recently seen some
which, so far as I could tell, were nearly as sweet as the American
chestnut and Paragon chestnut which I tested at the same time and which
were growing side by side. I could detect very little difference between
them. The Japanese nuts were very large, considerably larger than the
Paragon. Whether these will retain their sweetness in drying I cannot
say. These Japanese chestnuts are seedlings, and are known as the
Delaware, the Felton, the Kent and the Henlopen. Like all of the
Japanese chestnuts they are highly resistant to the blight.

I wish to call your attention to a few of the standard Japanese
varieties upon which I have made observations. These were all grafted
trees, that is the Japanese variety was grafted on American stock. The
McFarland is a rather well-known variety. Of five trees which I have had
under observation, all of them became diseased below the graft but none
above the graft, showing the resistance of the Japanese scion on
American stock. I think this is given out as a Burbank variety. The Hale
is another one which has the same record exactly. On the Coe I have seen
two cases of the disease on the Japanese part and several cases where
the trees are diseased below the graft. The Alpha, one of the Parry
varieties holds about the same record as the Coe--two cases of disease
on the Japanese part and several below the graft. The Parry Giant has
been considered one of the largest nuts; in four trees observed there
was one case of the disease on the Japanese part and two below the
graft. The Superb had the disease below the graft but not above; the
Reliance just the same way. Then along with these plots were one variety
of European, the Scott, which was qui