The Chestnut
No species of chestnut now available through the usual nursery channels can be recommended at the present time for planting in the northernmost zone except for experimentation along somewhat doubtful lines. The American sweet chestnut appears likely soon to be wiped out by blight. No chestnuts from the Old World, either European, Japanese or Chinese, have yet been found which are entirely hardy and otherwise satisfactory at this latitude. The European chestnut is quite as fatally subject to blight as is the American. The Japanese is mostly of too low degree of palatability to offer much promise, and horticultural varieties of Chinese chestnut are not yet available. Varieties of the Chinese hairy chestnut, Castanea mollissima, apparently of much promise, are now being developed, but trees are unlikely to become available for foundation stock to nurserymen for several years.