tesy Southern Agriculturist)]

Chestnut Growing in the Southeast

Max B. Hardy,[2] Leeland Farms, Leesburg, Ga.

+Introduction+

Just about forty years ago the first blight resistant chestnuts were
introduced into the Southeast. This event was to have more far-reaching
effects than could be foreseen at that time, as is illustrated by the
present extensive interest in the growing of these chestnuts as an
orchard crop.

Chestnut blight, a fungus disease of the native American chestnut
(_Castanea dentata_ (Marsh) Borkh), first appeared on Long Island in
1904 and destroyed this magnificent nut and timber tree. A Phytophthora
root disease added its toll so that a bearing tree of this species is a
rarity in the East at the present time. The U. S. Department of
Agriculture began making introductions of two species of chestnut from
the Orient in 1906, both of which were resistant to the blight which was
then destroying the native American chestnut. Of the two species, the
Japanese chestnut (_C. crenata_ Sieb. and Zuce.) and the Chinese
chestnut (_C. mollissima_ Bl.), only the latter proved to have much
merit other than blight resistance and chestnut growing in the eastern
United States in recent years has been confined almost entirely to the
Chinese chestnut.

About twenty-five years ago, after the first introduction from the
Orient of seed nuts of blight resistant chestnut species, the U. S.
Department of Agriculture distributed a few seedling trees to various
interested growers in the Southeast. Some of these trees are still
growing and bearing good crops of nuts and have reached rather large
size. The distribution of trees produced from nuts imported at
subsequent intervals was continued by the U. S. Department of
Agriculture until rather widely scattered planting of several species
under varied soil, climatic, and cultural conditions was attained. As
time passed it became clear that only the Chinese chestnut had promise
as a commercial crop for the production of nuts. As a timber tree none
of the introduced species has as yet shown outstanding merit.

[Footnote 2: Formerly Associate Pomologist, U. S. Pecan Field Station,
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Albany, Georgia.]

+General Observations+

The Chinese chestnut grows well throughout the southern part of the
natural range of the American chestnut and southward to the Gulf Coast,
and possibly even into central Florida. Farther north it apparently
grow