Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/164

 118 FACTS ABOUT CROP TREES shapes,¹0 some probably two inches or possibly two and one- quarter inches in their largest dimensions; these nuts were sold in Philadelphia markets. I suspect, although I cannot now prove it, that some of those nuts were better than the Paragon (I am sure that some were three or four times as heavy). The Paragon variety became the favorite of a young and promising American industry in the '90's of the last cen- tury. This Paragon favorite, originating in eastern Pennsyl- vania, was considered to be a cross between a European and a native American nut. It was very vigorous. I have seen grafts make six feet the first year. It was not uncommon for the grafts to yield good nuts the second year. Not unnaturally there was quite a boom for orchards of grafted chestnuts in the '90's. For example, Mr. John G. Reist of Mt. Joy, Penn- sylvania, together with some associates, had eight hundred acres of hill land near the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, stump-grafted to Paragons.¹ 11 12 Then came the chestnut blight. It came with an importa- tion of some oriental plants. It spread concentrically from Brooklyn, where it first broke out ¹2 in 1904. In a few years all these commercial orchards were gone. Every tree is dead on my twenty-five acres save one little Japanese tree which sprang up from the seed of a Japanese variety. 10 This rich collection of trees seems to have escaped the attention of professional horticulturists. I saw them only with the indiscriminating eyes of a schoolboy, but I am sure that they were of many sizes and shapes and mostly of European origin. Some, however, seemed to be natives of small size that ripened nearly a month before other natives in the same locality. 11 In the year 1908 before this orchard was mature and after the blight had begun to kill trees it produced thirteen hundred bushels, which netted five and one-half cents per pound. The late C. K. Sober, of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, had three hundred or four hundred acres on a nearby moun- tain ridge. I had twenty-five acres on the Blue Ridge Mountains of Vir- ginia about fifteen miles southwest of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. These are only a few of the plantings. 13 Persons desiring to know the history and exact status of this calamity at any particular time can probably get information from the U. S. Depart- ment of Agriculture. It is now (1928) sweeping onward through the south- ern Appalachians, spreading by birds, winds, and possibly by commerce. It may kill every chestnut tree in North America that is not immune.