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Substitute for Chestnut Tree
May Be Found in the Sweet Acorn

An Experiment Is Being Conducted by a Chicagoan, to
Transplant Saplings of Grafts from Majorca

Palma, Majorca
Special Correspondence
Botanists and foresters the
world ober are watching with
interest the experiment now
being conducted by a wealthy Chica-
goan to transplant from these islands
of the Mediterranean, saplings or
grafts of the sweet acorn as a sub-
stitute for the American chestnut
tree, rapidly becomeing extinct be
-cause of the blight.
It is impossible to estimate the
commercial loss to the American
lumber industry and edible nut trade
as a result of the blights' record dur-
ing the past 25 years, but it may
mount into millions of dollars. Any-
one successfully combating it will be
hailed as a public benefactor. The
sweet acorn tree is immune from
the past and its fruit closely resem-
bles that of the American chestnut.
"Sleepers"
How to save the American chest-
nut trees has been for years, and is
now the concern of every forester
who realizes the monetary value in-
volved as well as the sentimental
side of the decimating process,
which, so far, has not been stayed.
For it was chestnut ties or "sleep-
ers" that bore the rails of that first
train across the Union Pacific Rail-
road, uniting the Atlantic seaboard
with California, in 1856. In those
days no wooden fence was believed
to have either stability or charcter
without chestnut posts. And, usually,
the laundry that fluttered in the sun-
shine and the breezes, did so on a
chothesline which swung a lifeboat
from its davits- of chestnut.
Many lands were visited and re-
searches made by the Chicagoan
and the experts who accompanied
him before this "earthly paradise"
(as Chopin described Majorca in
1838) was found to contain a good
substitute. Native Mallorquins eat
acorns as freely as a Richmond (Va.)
pickaninny does goobers (peanuts);
indeed, peanuts are common in
Palma though acorns seem to have
the preference. The latter are not
acrid and bitter as is the fruit of the
spinnate, white or live oak of North
America, but are as sweet and tooth-
some as the old-fashioned America
chestnut and are still more delicious
when roasted or boiled. Fed in their
raw state to live stock, they are said
to have a high food value. The trees
yield acorns prolifically, and tests
made some time ago proved them to
be absolutely "blight resistant."
Grafting
The possibility of grafting healthy
American chestnut scions upon them
it said to be in contemplation.
Whether the Chicago millionare will
import thousands of sweet acorn
saplings and, after planting them
in the United States, graft or bud
them with scions or buds from sur-
viving American chestnut trees is
problematical.
The United States Department of
Agriculture, it is understood, will
lend its co-operation in whatever
method may be employed to reaf-
forest large American areas swept
by chestnut blight. The specific
method of handling the problem has
not been made public here, but it
suffices to say that, before the Chi-
cagoan's departure, he sought and
found the services of the best-known
authority on arboreal subjects in Ma-
jorica, a monk living in seclusion less
than an hour's ride from this city.
The hillsides of this far away
little isle which may supply America
with a proxy for one of its most
loved and disappearing trees, have
other sturdy growths which might
well be transported overseas, namely,
the Algarroba (locust) bean and
stone pine. The algarroba beans
are excellent fodder where hay is
scarce and the stone pines literally
grow out of the rocks.