ve frost pockets on cool protected sites,
on deep, fertile soils having a covering of leaf litter and humus in the
top soil, a soil that is permeable to both roots and water, and that has
a good water-holding capacity. The plant association, above mentioned as
indicating ideal sites for Asiatic chestnuts for best timber
development, occur in rich soils of slight hollows in moist hilly woods
and on the mountains in cove sites.

Improved Methods of Storing Chestnuts

By H. L. Crane and J. W. McKay Plant Industry Station, Beltsville,
Maryland

Trees of the Chinese chestnut, Castanea mollissima, are quite resistant
to the chestnut bark or blight disease. The heavy bearing of the trees
together with the good quality of the nuts produced has stimulated
planting of trees to replace those of the American species largely
killed by that disease. Although a few horticultural varieties of
Chinese chestnuts have been introduced and propagated, the great
majority of the bearing trees are seedlings. In seedling plantings
seldom do two trees produce nuts of the same size, color, and shape. All
of these nuts when properly harvested, treated, and stored are sweet and
edible and nourishing as food either raw, boiled, roasted, or combined
with other foods in poultry dressing, salads, or pancakes. Then too,
there is a big demand for Chinese chestnuts as seed for the purpose of
growing seedling trees to be planted in orchards or to be used as
rootstocks in propagating horticultural varieties. In either case, it is
often desirable to store the nuts for several months before using them.

Chestnuts are not like the oily nuts, such as pecans, walnuts, almonds,
filberts, or peanuts, that must be dried to a moisture content of 5 to 8
per cent to store well. Chestnuts are starchy nuts, containing about 50%
moisture when first harvested, and on drying they become very hard. In
experiments conducted at the U. S. Horticultural Field Station,
Meridian, Miss., it was found that the loss in weight of chestnuts
ranged from 16.2 to 30.5% when stored for 4 months in open containers at
32 deg.F., and 80% relative humidity. In an experiment in which chestnuts
were stored 4-1/2 months at 32 deg.F., they lost 18.8% in weight when stored
in burlap sacks, 3.7% when stored in waxed paper cartons with
tight-fitting lids, and 2.0% when stored in friction-top cans.
Furthermore, chestnuts on drying lose their viability and become
worthless. Chestnuts lose