has been the principal food used in
the fattening, or possibly the sustaining food, of the native razor-back
hog.

Our native beech produces the small triangular nuts which have been
sought by the boys and girls of centuries and are as popular today as of
hundreds of years ago. The beech will grow to immense size and may live
sometimes for centuries. A beautiful bright smooth foliage makes it very
desirable as a park tree and it does not lose its charm in winter. On an
extensive lawn it makes a very desirable tree but in close proximity to
the house the one objection there may be is that the dead foliage seems
to cling to the twigs sometimes the entire winter. This objection is
more pronounced, however, in the younger trees than in the older ones.

Our native black walnut is a magnificent tree which can compare
favorably with the finest oak in size, in shape, in picturesqueness and
above all, in its huge nuts, which are both wholesome and delicious.
Were it not for the great value of its wood for making gun stocks and
for cabinet work we would today have hundreds of these trees growing,
where now but few can be found; yet there are individual specimens with
spread of over 150 feet and as magnificent and majestic as the finest
oak.

Our native chestnut; let us not think of it in memory only, though the
pride of our forests seems to have left us after the scourge of the
chestnut blight. Unless the history of all scourges has been upset we
will find some tree somewhere sometime that is blight resistant and then
from this tree we will produce and propagate the chestnut back to its
own. At least, as far as an ornamental and useful nut-producing tree is
concerned. Should we find no tree in all this huge area which is
disease-resistant we have at least one hope in the chestnut brought from
China, where for probable centuries this disease has been present, but
unable to destroy its host, the chestnut. Already in this country there
are thousands of these seedlings growing which are apparently
disease-resistant. The tree itself compares very favorably with our
native tree. We will yet grow our favorite chestnuts and our children
will yet enjoy them as we have done in the days of our youth.

We must not forget the chinkapin, the little brother of the chestnut,
but a better fighter of its enemies, for this latter tree is almost
resistant to the blight and will bloom and bear nuts while only a little
tree, and the nuts are sweet