The Berkshire hills roll through here and at this point we find ourselves at approximately the northern limits of the deciduous hardwood forest belt.
Here the American chestnut is native formerly growing in great abundance until stricken a mortal blow by the invincible chestnut blight.
Just a few hundred feet north of here on a hilltop, I started in 1945, a different kind of nut tree plantation.
Placing main emphasis on the chestnut, a start was made on the cultivation of the thousands of sprouts and seedlings on my 43 acre coppice forest.
A cluster of ~Castanea dentata~ seedlings that appeared promising was selected. The following practices proved fairly successful in keeping a few trees healthy, and bringing one into bearing in 1950. For the interest of fellow members working along a similar line, I enumerate the following practices.
1. Clean and thorough tree surgery, cutting out blight cankers immediately upon discovery.
2. Removal of all very blight susceptible nearby sprouts and the burning of all infected branches and material.
3. Artificial watering during drought periods.
4. Application of superphosphate, muriate of potash and trace elements. Es-Min-El was used in our case. Our soil tests high in nitrogen.
5. Removal of all overstory trees and other interfering growth.