etter
flavor. Furthermore they will drop out of the husks so that it is not
necessary to pick up an unopened burr and heat it or pound it to get the
nuts out. He has now between one and two thousand chestnut trees. Most
of his chestnut trees however are seedling trees which do not bear
nearly as well as his best trees. The greater part of his trees are in
land that has never been cultivated. Many of his trees are not yet in
bearing. Some of his trees however are now 25 to 28 feet spread and
bearing heavily. He is certain that the yield of his orchard could be
greatly increased by top working the poor bearers and that he is doing.
Still he told me be obtained not less than 35c per pound for any of the
crop and for some as high as 40c and 50c wholesale. In 1920 he produced
over 4000 pounds.

In this connection a short history of the Boone tree will be of
interest. In the spring of 1895 Mr. Endicott fertilized blossoms of
Parry's Japan Giant chestnut with pollen of a native American chestnut
and planted the nuts. This cross was made with difficulty for the
American and Japan chestnuts do not bloom at the same time and it was
several years after he had made up his mind to make the cross before he
was able to do it. In the fall of 1897 one of the trees produced six
burrs filled with nuts and was named the Boone. Since then it has borne
as follows: 1898, 1 lb.; 1899, 3 lbs.; 1900, 5 lbs.; 1901, 6
lbs.; 1902, 8 lbs.; 1903, 12 lbs.; 1904, 17 lbs.; 1905, 25 lbs.; 1906,
31 lbs.; 1907, 43 lbs.; 1908, 50 lbs.; 1909, 56 lbs.; 1910, 5 lbs.
(small crop due to hard freeze in April); 1911, 80 lbs.; 1912, 76 lbs.;
1913, 140 lbs.; 1920, 153 lbs. I am not informed as to the crops in 1914
to 1919 inclusive. Two other trees of the same parentage planted at the
same time bore 128 lbs. and 168 lbs. respectively in 1920. If we
consider that chestnut trees are set 40 feet apart each way, which means
27 trees to the acre, and estimated the crop at a fraction of that borne
by the Boone tree we shall still have figures sufficient to show the
wonderful possibilities of the chestnut in those sections outside of the
native chestnut area of the country where it will succeed.

Mr. Riehl also has black Walnuts. He procured a Thomas black walnut from
Joseph W. Thomas & Son, King of Prussia, Pa., fifteen or sixteen years
ago. From that original Thomas tree he has top worked a lot of seedling
black walnut trees and he has I should think between one and two