It is a pleasure to meet here under such favorable auspices and to be
received with these hospitable words by Dr. Gourley. In recent years,
Ohio has gone far in nut growing under his leadership and that of his
staff. Pennsylvania also has done a great deal to put nut growing on its
feet. My own state, West Virginia, is also making good headway.
In the early 1900's I got the 'bee', but I lost two or three of my first
few trees. In 1917 I imported some chestnuts from Japan for planting and
tried out various schemes in nut growing. In my opinion, chestnuts are
the most important nuts for human food that grow in the temperate zone.
It is interesting to observe how chestnuts follow true to seed in many
respects. I have been advised that all of the chestnuts grown in China
are from selected seed.
Every foot of steep mountain land in some sections of Italy is said to
be completely covered with chestnut trees. In my state, the weevil is
the scourge of chestnuts; I had hoped that after the chestnut blight
destroyed our native chestnuts, the Chinese and Japanese chestnuts would
be free from that pest. Where it came from I do not know, unless it came
from the chinkapin. West Virginia has chinkapins and these, being blight
resistant, apparently have kept up the supply of weevils. Occasionally,
shortly before the chestnuts begin to ripen, a few decay from some type
of rot.
I took a census of my chestnut trees recently and found 80 trees of
bearing age. Some of the largest are 22 to 24 feet in height, with a
trunk diameter of 5 inches or more. None have been pruned but have
maintained their normal branch formation and grow low. The timber tree
must be yet to come. I have read interesting statements to the effect
that in parts of China and Burma, there are chestnut trees of timber
shape and size. Chestnut trees are likely to become of extreme
importance in our future economy. The nuts fill a very significant place
in our dietary needs. We should continue to plant chestnut trees and
take care of them. I have also from 350 to 400 younger trees that are
coming on, and I want to plant additional chestnut trees every year. The
black walnut and hickory nut are very important, but the chestnut crop
is the corn crop of the nuts.