Of 28 Asiatic chestnuts, forest-tree chinkapins, and hybrids grown in 21 climatic test plots in the eastern United States under forest conditions, only certain Chinese and hybrid chestnuts show promise of becoming satisfactory timber-type trees. The best Chinese chestnut discovered thus far is P.I. 58602—a seed importation made by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in 1924, from Nanking, China. Foresters, as well as farm woodland owners, interested in growing Asiatic chestnuts as timber trees, should accept only planting stock that, through performance under forest conditions, is known to develop into straight, single-stemmed trees.
PRESIDENT BEST: I think that Dr. Crane has his panel ready.
DR. CRANE: Mr. President, before I start, I have a few slides here to illustrate a couple of points before we call the panel to the rostrum. (Several slides were shown illustrating sunscald injury to the Southwest side of high headed Chinese chestnut tree trunks.)
DR. CRANE: On this panel, I want to get representatives from the various states. Mr. Wilson, from Georgia. Mr. Stoke from Virginia. Mr. Silvis from Ohio. Mr. Allaman from Pennsylvania. There is another good man down there who grows a lot of chestnuts, by the name of Gibbs.
Now, there seems to be a lot of disagreement in regard to the Chinese chestnut in two or three respects. One is the problem of named varieties versus seedlings. Another big problem is hardiness, how hardy they are, these Chinese chestnuts. Where can we grow them and where are they going to fail? A third question is the ability of the Chinese chestnut to compete with other vegetation as Dr. Diller has discussed. I think we ought to settle some of these questions for once and maybe for all, or at least for this meeting, through a discussion. Nurserymen and others have emphasized that chestnuts, to be successful in the United States and hardy, should come from North China, at the Great Wall or beyond. Others don't agree, claiming that chestnuts in China are grown from the extreme south to the extreme north and that we ought to do the same in this country also.
MR. STOKE: I haven't enough knowledge on it to express an opinion. I planted a good many seeds I got from the Yokahama Nursery Company, and the nuts were rather inferior as to size. They were healthy and hardy, but I don't know where they came from. I presume they came from Korea, but I am not sure. The size and productivity wasn't too high of that seedling stock I secured there.
DR. CRANE: What do you folks think? Anyone in the audience that has an idea?
MR. PATAKY: At our fall meeting in the Ohio group we had two bushels of chestnuts from Sterling Smith. As far as I know the seed is Korean chestnut, which is obviously a Chinese variety. He had three bushels last fall and they looked identically like the American chestnut. Mr. Stoke said the quality wasn't so good in what he had. That might be true, but I tested a lot of these chestnuts from Sterling Smith, and compared them with American chestnuts. They were just as good or better than the American.
MR. CALDWELL: I spent about a year in China travelling pretty well throughout the country. I believe you will find the better seed sources in the southern part. China is like Southern Florida or warmer for part of the year and yet in the other six months it would be colder than it is right here in Rochester.
They have timber trees, some as big as 50 or 60 feet high and two or three feet in diameter. In the warmer area you find better seed by far. What Dr. Diller describes as No. 58602 is not just one tree, but a whole collection of trees from a certain area where the trees have proven their resistance not only to cold but to frost injury in the spring or in the fall, which is even more important than the straight cold hardiness. Some people have mistaken ideas about the value of seed from trees in the northern part of China above the Great Wall. This area may have intense cold in the wintertime, but not in the spring or fall.