slave. When I spoke to
him about this Yeheb nut he said, "Yes, I have eaten it. It is a
wonderful nut. Some day I will get you some of it." When the shipment
came there were two tons of nuts and I was a little surprised to say the
least. They were brought on camel back over the deserts. During the war
they took eight or nine months to get to Washington and when they
arrived they were all dead. Notwithstanding many attempts this nut is
not grown in the United States but we will have it. It is very
thin-shelled, the kernels come out whole and have a very sweet, delicate
flavor.

You have just come from Dr. Van Fleet's chestnuts. You know that this is
the Chinese chestnut (_Castanea mollissima_) which Meyer found in China.
Dr. Van Fleet would probably tell you this is not the way to prune them
if you want to increase the chances of these Chinese chestnuts
withstanding the bark disease. You are probably familiar with the fact
that Meyer discovered over in China on this species the original
chestnut bark disease which has destroyed our chestnuts in this country.
He found that this variety was highly resistant but not entirely immune
to the disease. Dr. Galloway, who is handling the propagation and
distribution of these Chinese chestnuts, for our office, wishes to have
it understood that in the distribution of these which we will make in
the spring we desire to have them sent out in blocks; we would rather
not distribute these Chinese chestnuts in single specimens but would be
very glad to consider offers from people who have a quarter or a half of
an acre that they want to plant. We want to get some idea of the
behavior of this species as an orchard crop.

This illustrates the way, as I understand it, that Dr. Van Fleet thinks
the trees should be treated, on the left; the way they should not be
treated on the right. They seem to be much more susceptible to the
disease when pruned up in this neat orchard fashion.

One of Meyer's photographs taken at Fanshan, northeast of Pekin, where
he found the chestnut bark disease. This is the way the trees appeared.
This gives you some idea of the size of Chinese chestnuts which he got.
Those back on the hills are all Chinese chestnuts on rather poor soil as
he explains in his description of the photographs.

This is an orchard of Chinese chestnuts as planted by the Chinese on the
richer soils of the low lands which show larger trees. Even when full
sized they do not compare with ou