bility to the soil and climatic
conditions, or to some other locality of approximately similar
conditions.

In order of importance, the species of native nut-bearing trees known to
be suited to some portion of the area under discussion, the following
list is probably not incorrect: The American chestnut (_Castanea
dentata_); the shagbark (_Hicoria ovata_); the American black walnut
(_Juglans nigra_); the butternut (_Juglans cinerea_); the pecan
(_Hicoria pecan_); the shellbark (_Hicoria laciniosa_); and the hazels
(_Corylus americana_; _Corylus rostrata_). The American beechnut (_Fagus
atropunicea_, Sudworth) naturally belongs to this list, but as it is
probably not under cultivation as a nut tree at any place in the United
States, it will not be discussed at this time.

The principal foreign species which have been tried in the
Northeastern States are: The European and Japanese chestnuts
(_Castanea sativa_ and _C. japonica)_; the Persian (English) walnut
(_Juglans regia_); the Japanese walnuts (_J. Sieboldiana; J.
cordiformis_ and _J. mandshurica_); the European hazels (_Corylus
avellana_ and _C. tubulosa_).

THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT (_Castanea dentata_, Marsh).

Representatives of the American species of chestnut are found native to
a large area. The species seems to avoid extremes of temperature, cold,
alkaline or acid soils, and an excess of moisture. It is apparently at
its best in the sandy and coarse gravelly soils of the uplands from
lower New England to the southern extremity of the Piedmont Plateau in
the East and from the extreme southern part of eastern Michigan to
northern Mississippi on the West.

Although the quality of the American chestnut is unapproached by most of
the foreign species, comparatively little attention has been paid to its
development, while considerable effort has been directed toward the
introduction and cultivation of the large European and Asiatic species.
Comparatively few varieties of the American species have been
originated, and of these none have been widely disseminated. The one
variety, which, because of its size, productiveness, and quality, has
been extensively propagated and widely planted, is the Paragon. This
variety originated at Germantown, Pa., and was introduced about 1888. It
is believed to have originated from a seed grown from a nut obtained
from a European seedling, then in one of the gardens of Philadelphia.
This variety has been propagated very extensively b