Science: Chestnut Replacement

The man who boasts about gathering chestnuts as a barefoot boy is usually owning up to getting on in years. Nearly all U.S. chestnut trees were destroyed by a fast-spreading fungus disease which started in New York City before 1910. Since then there have been many attempts to find or breed blight-resistant chestnuts. Most of the new or introduced trees were unsuited to the climate, or they required too much care, or they produced poor nuts or low-grade timber. None had all the qualities of the old trees.

Last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture had good news for barefoot boys and for the lumber industry. It reported that a Chinese chestnut, Castanea mollissima, is doing well in many parts of the U.S. The trees in an experimental plot near Roanoke, Va. are now 14 years old, and appear to have all the desirable qualities. Besides resisting blight, they produce good nuts and good straight trunks for timber. Best of all, they come true to seed, and are actually seeding themselves beyond the experimental plot, just like native trees. The only part of the chestnut belt where they have not done well is New England.

The new chestnut has been sold by commercial nurseries for some time in small quantities, but the Department of Agriculture is not interested in lawn or even orchard chestnuts. What it wants is a tree that will establish itself under forest conditions. If Castanea mollissima does so on a large scale, a side benefit may be an upsurge of wild turkeys, which once lived largely on chestnuts, and were greatly reduced in numbers when the blight killed the trees.