Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting: Rochester, N.Y. August 31 and September 1, 1953
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting: Rochester, N.Y. August 31 and September 1, 1953
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
Now, there seems to be a lot of disagreement in regard to the Chinese
chestnut in two or three respects. One is the problem of named varieties
versus seedlings. Another big problem is hardiness, how hardy they are,
these Chinese chestnuts. Where can we grow them and where are they going
to fail? A third question is the ability of the Chinese chestnut to
compete with other vegetation as Dr. Diller has discussed. I think we
ought to settle some of these questions for once and maybe for all, or
at least for this meeting, through a discussion. Nurserymen and others
have emphasized that chestnuts, to be successful in the United States
and hardy, should come from North China, at the Great Wall or beyond.
Others don't agree, claiming that chestnuts in China are grown from the
extreme south to the extreme north and that we ought to do the same in
this country also.
MR. STOKE: I haven't enough knowledge on it to express an opinion. I
planted a good many seeds I got from the Yokahama Nursery Company, and
the nuts were rather inferior as to size. They were healthy and hardy,
but I don't know where they came from. I presume they came from Korea,
but I am not sure. The size and productivity wasn't too high of that
seedling stock I secured there.
DR. CRANE: What do you folks think? Anyone in the audience that has an
idea?
MR. PATAKY: At our fall meeting in the Ohio group we had two bushels of
chestnuts from Sterling Smith. As far as I know the seed is Korean
chestnut, which is obviously a Chinese variety. He had three bushels
last fall and they looked identically like the American chestnut. Mr.
Stoke said the quality wasn't so good in what he had. That might be
true, but I tested a lot of these chestnuts from Sterling Smith, and
compared them with American chestnuts. They were just as good or better
than the American.
MR. CALDWELL: I spent about a year in China travelling pretty well
throughout the country. I believe you will find the better seed sources
in the southern part. China is like Southern Florida or warmer for part
of the year and yet in the other six months it would be colder than it
is right here in Rochester.
They have timber trees, some as big as 50 or 60 feet high and two or
three feet in diameter. In the warmer area you find better seed by far.
What Dr. Diller describes as No. 58602 is not just one tree, but a whole
collection of trees from a certain area where the trees have proven
their resistance not only to cold but to frost injury in the spring or
in the fall, which is even more important than the straight cold
hardiness. Some people have mistaken ideas about the value of seed from
trees in the northern part of China above the Great Wall. This area may
have intense cold in the wintertime, but not in the spring or fall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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