Page:Tree Crops (1953).pdf/327

 family. In Europe, the chestnut has taken the Mediterranean shores and the beech those of the Baltic. In America, the chestnut has taken the Appalachian upland and the beech those of northern New England and southern Canada.

The beechtree, like spruce and pine, runs down the Appalachians with the cold climate of its high elevation.

The abundant nuts of the beechtree have helped to make the hog what he is. Beechnuts have long been important in Europe as food for the wild boar of the forest and for the semiwild hog of Europe. The oil from beechnuts is used as a substitute for butter. The residue makes a good food element for animals.

As encouragement for those who might consider making a beechtree capable of producing a modern commercial crop, I cite the following:

The search of Dr. Robert T. Morris and of Willard G. Bixby for beechnuts large enough to merit experimental propagation has resulted in the discovery of specimens (varieties) of the American beech varying much in size. This fact is promising for the plant breeder.

There are a dozen species or more of the beech. This also is, a promising fact for the plant breeder. Along with these two facts, we should keep in mind what has happened to the Persian walnut (p. 207) as a result of being propagated by man.

The beechtree can be grafted. This fact has given us the ornamental purple beeches. In the future it may give us wide expanses of grafted beechtrees stretching over the unplowable stone lands of New England and furnishing forage for beechnut bacon, dessert nuts for the table, and oil material for the kitchen