Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 6 of 9 · from the scan, no model involved
bushels of nuts, just on that old hedgerow, that could not be used for anything else, and full of stones. Some of the trees in that row last fall had almost half a bushel of nuts on single trees.”
Farmers such as this one employed many "modem” practices such as mechanical threshing, fruit thinning, and silo storage. (The above account was taken from transcripts of the Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Chestnut' Blight Commission, published 1916.)
From this bit of history, we can begin to fathom the values of the American Sweet Chestnut: It was valuable as timber, as wildlife habitat, and as a basis for the people’s economy. It was also the foundation for a healthy forest community of plants and animals. (We tend to overlook the fact that, as humans, we are inextricable elements of the natural communities that we like to watch from a distance.)
All of these things which I have called "values” underwent catastrophic changes when the American Chestnut Tree Bark Disease began its spread "throughout the Appalachian forests. The advance of this disease, and the resultant ecological impact, are fascinating subjects.
Next week we will consider some of the twentieth century events affecting the present status of the American Sweet Chestnut and its associated fungus.
93.5%