  Many years ago, at a time when the American chestnut was still the king of the woods, a farmer set out a small orchard of nut trees on the bank of the Connecticut River flood plain north of Hartford. Now, some 60 years later, one lone Japanese chestnut survives. Dr. Donald F. Jones of the Agricultural Station in New Haven, who recently investigated the tree, believes it is by far the oldest living chestnut in the State. And the most interesting thing about the tree is that it shows no signs of blight, the disease that destroyed all the native chestnuts. Dr. Jones' attention was called to the tree late last fall by a hunter who noticed a deposit of chestnut hulls in the river bank. On investigation, the man discovered the tree and was impressed by its size. This fall the tree was visited in search of nuts. There, rising above the brush and brambles of what is now a tobacco field, stood the chestnut, 30 foot high and 18 inches in diameter. The men were able to rescue only six nuts, their visit being a little late for the main harvest. The nuts were among the largest Dr. Jones has seen. They have been planted at the Experiment Station farm in Mount Carmel. Inquiry in the neighborhood of the chestnut revealed that two or three people knew about the tree and had gathered the nuts that are produced profusely every other year. One of the neighbors recalled that 60 years or more ago, when he was but 12 years old, a man named John P. Jones had set out the nut trees. But the original source of the trees is unknown and it remains a question whether the planter got the trees from a nursery in this country or directly from the Orient. Though the lone survivor is somewhat neglected, with several dead branches that have been left untrimmed, a neighbor was interested enough in its possibilities to plant some of the nuts. This resulted in one six-year-old seedling tree. Unfortunately, this already shows blight and is apparently the result of pollination by some blighted American seedling or sprout in the neighborhood. The nuts collected this fall may also give disappointing results but should transmit to later generations the blight-resistance of this Japanese parent. In addition to planting the nuts, Dr. Jones will take scions from the tree for grafting on young trees at the Station's Mount Carmel farm. Those should produce results more quickly than the seeds. Next summer pollen will be collected from the tree for use in hybridizing some of the young trees already growing here. Dr. Jones has for many years been interested in the development of a useful chestnut for Connecticut conditions. Some of the young trees, crosses between American and Asiatic types, show promise but will take several years of testing to prove their value. The new "find" may be of considerable help in shortening the length of time necessary to get a tree that is blight resistant, of large fruiting habit and of good timber quality. (Note by Editor—This tree has been known to me for probably fifteen years. It was brought to my attention by Mr. Charles Vibert of East Hartford and named by me the "Vibbert," [with two b's to insure the right pronounciation]. The name has been published and I have sent scions to a number of people and grafted trees myself. The tree bears a very large nut, twelve selected ones weighing over a pound. I have gathered a good many quarts of them and exhibited them in Hartford and Litchfield. So far as my observation goes this large size is at least partly due to the fact that there is only one filled nut in a burr, the other two being aborted. This fact, and the fact that the crops are small, I have attributed to the partial inefficiency of self-pollination, there being no evident outside source of pollen. One year I grafted several other varieties into the top of the tree. Most of those grew a year or two but then died. I have believed that this was due to blight. There has been much dead wood in the tree ever since I have known it and I had supposed that this was blight.) |
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