Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/570

566 the investigators in this field, Van Fleet, of the United States Department of Agriculture, crossed Asiatic and European forms with the American chestnuts, the latter consisting of Castanea dentata, the forest tree, and C. pumila, a shrubby species growing in the southern states. The last species appears, by-the-way, to be somewhat resistant to the blight. Van Fleet says:

The nuts produced by these chinquapin-Asiatic hybrids are of decididly superior quality, so that, if they continue free from disease, they will solve the problem from the standpoint of the chestnut orchardist. It is doubtful, however, whether they will ever attain the size of forest trees. But it is quite possible that an immune variety for timber purposes may be produced by crossing a form like the Chinese chestnut, C. mollissima, with our native forest tree.

Work of this kind is extremely valuable and, although slow in yielding results, may eventually prove to be the only means of continuing the existence in our land of a greatly esteemed tree.