The Chinese chestnut, Castanea mollissima, now dominates interest among well-informed chestnut planters of the eastern United States almost to the exclusion of other species. Since its introduction in 1906, it has had but one important competitor, the Japanese chestnut, C. crenata. Among the world's most important producers of tree chestnuts, only these two species are effectively resistant to blight. However, the Japanese chestnut lacks the palatability to which Americans are accustomed and for all practical purposes it has been rejected in this country. Many small plantings still survive; but this species serves better for shade and ornamentation than for food production. Description of the Chinese Chestnut The nut of this species is usually of good size, roundish in form, not pointed at the apex, and with the basal scar smaller than the lower end of the nut. A certain amount of gray down is on the surface. This down may be confined to a small area about the apex or it may cover much of the upper end of the nut, and it may be thick, thin, or scant. The nut may have good cleaning quality, meaning that the kernel and its pellicle are easily separated. Cleaning quality may be good from the time the nut falls from the tree or it may become so only after curing for a time. Once it develops it may remain good as long as the kernel is usable or it may last for a short while only. In texture and in palatability, the kernel of the Chinese chestnut is not excelled by any other true chestnut. Individual nuts are sometimes sweet from the first but the great majority become so only after being cured for a week or 10 days. Very few nuts of the pure species fail to be sweet when fully cured. In the open the Chinese chestnut tree attains much the same size and general proportions as does the apple but it may become somewhat larger, more upright and considerably taller. Young seedlings vary greatly in form and are often ungainly and unsymmetrical; but others are all that could be desired with respect to symmetry. Early lack of symmetry tends to become less objectionable as the tree grows older and is seldom conspicuous after the first decade or so. In fruitfulness, many of the seedling trees of bearing age are definitely disappointing. Also in many cases the nuts are small. To judge the species by the past fruiting performance of a majority of its representatives in this country would leave little justification for commercial hope. However, there are a good many individual trees about the country whose performance record is excellent and a large number of these are under careful observation as potential varieties.