I think the American wild chestnut is back. Our trees died of a blight around 1904 to 1940, but researchers are now breeding blight resistant trees and planting them in their native range. Nelson Co. va. has several orchards now planted and looking great. Lose of the American chestnut was one of the most devastating timber losses in the world.
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the american wild chestnut
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I've been hearing about that, it's great news.
Your post brings back sweet memories. I attended forth grade in the small town of Hamilton, MI, in 1942, and there was a huge chestnut tree in the schoolyard which produced great quantities of chestnuts. The nuts grow three in a prickly burr, and those burrs hanging on the tree make excellent targets for boy throwing rocks, sticks and whatever, trying to knock them down. Every recess and lunch period in the fall was a free for all, and I can still hear all the screeching and yelling, loud and clear.
Spence
Your post brings back sweet memories. I attended forth grade in the small town of Hamilton, MI, in 1942, and there was a huge chestnut tree in the schoolyard which produced great quantities of chestnuts. The nuts grow three in a prickly burr, and those burrs hanging on the tree make excellent targets for boy throwing rocks, sticks and whatever, trying to knock them down. Every recess and lunch period in the fall was a free for all, and I can still hear all the screeching and yelling, loud and clear.
Spence
zimmerstutzen
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As I recall, it is only about 3/4 American chestnut. But close enough to be happy about. I understand that here in Pennsylvania, the original forest was mostly evergreens with hemlock being predominant. , as settlers cut the forests, hardwoods took their place, especially chestnuts. the huge groves of chestnuts are long gone and now the forests seems to be a crazy assortment of Oak and maple. with a few pockets of evergreens. We are losing so many varieties of trees. Elms, Ash by the emerald ash borer, now Black walnuts are being killed by some canker disease.
Interesting story about the 80 year old American Chestnut found growing in Adair County, Kentucky:
Adair Co. Chestnut
I spent a considerable portion of my youth hunting in that area and it wasn't uncommon to come across the large, rotting stumps of the once-great trees out in the forest. My dad owned a farm in nearby Marion County that had a number of ancient trees on it (long since cut, I'm sure) of various species, and there were numerous chestnut stumps approaching six feet in diameter still there in the late 1970's.
Adair Co. Chestnut
I spent a considerable portion of my youth hunting in that area and it wasn't uncommon to come across the large, rotting stumps of the once-great trees out in the forest. My dad owned a farm in nearby Marion County that had a number of ancient trees on it (long since cut, I'm sure) of various species, and there were numerous chestnut stumps approaching six feet in diameter still there in the late 1970's.
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I planted some this spring....The deer ate them all... :shake:
zimmerstutzen
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there is a big chestnut here on the farm, but it is some foreign job. About two feet in diameter chest high. Ice storm broke out most top branches about ten years ago and I thought it was a goner. But it seems to be coming back. There had been one of those giant stumps down in the hollow. When i bought this pace 26 yrs ago, the stump was badly rotted and four and a half in diameter. Washed away during a storm a few years ago. The chestnut foundation has a nursery somewhere nearby. Maybe 5 miles. Was told you could be there sitting in it and unless somebody told you, you would not know it. I know some outdoors folks got excited about chestnut trees for sale at Walmart. Hanson Chestnuts I believe they called them.
