October 24, 2002 - Memories of an old chestnutOctober 24, 2002 • The Suffolk Times
n
Memories
Back in 1977, when the world was in
turmoil and oil prices were skyrocket-
ing, we put in a wood stove; actually it
was a cook stove, with one side an
oven and the other the firebox. Each
year we use this wood stove and it has
served us well,
FOCUS but it has to be
fed. Don't get me
ON wrong, when the
hIATU RE real chill of mid-
winter comes and
by Paul the winter winds
Stoutenbulgh blow, we switch
to our oil burner
for the last two months of the winter
se
But back to the feeding of our wood
stove. The drop in temperature that
came in from Canada at the beginning
of last week spurred me to start cut-
ting up some of the old fence rails that
I had piled up when I put in new fenc -
ing,around our pasture last year. Most
of the rails were made of soft bass-
wood, nothing like the legendary old
chestnut split rails. I happened to have
just a few of those weathered old rails
that I had picked up somewhere just .
for old times' sake. They were still
good, a bit weathered but not a bit of
rot in them. That was one of the great
characteristics of the American chest-
nut. It could resist decay and therefor(
tnu
Years ago
when we
were camping
in the Smoky
Mountains
we often
spotted
chestnut
relics of the
past. Dead for
S® years or ,
more, the
wood has
resisted
decay, one
of the chief
characteristics
of the noble
American
chestnut.
Times /Review
photo by
Paul Stoutenburgh
was used oror tine poles, railroad
ties, fence posts and rails; anything
that had to go into the ground where
decay would cripple most wood.
The American chestnut once grew
from Maine south to Alabama. It was
one of the predominant trees of the
eastern forests and one of the trees
that helped build this country. Its
wood was used for everything from
beams in barns to furniture and fence
posts and more. Besides the excellent
wood of the American chestnut, the
nuts were of economic importance.
People would collect them by the
bushel. At the first frost the husks of
the chestnuts would open and the
shiny brown nuts would a tot the
ground. This was .a cash crop for the
people of Appalachia, where the
chestnuts seemed to thrive more than
in any.other area.
In researching the American chest-
nut, I came across a photograph of a
chestnut tree 10 feet in diameter. It
was said that one tree when sawed
into lumber would fill a boxcar. Today
the mighty chestnut is but a memory.
In the early 1900s, on the grounds of
the New York Zoological Gardens, a
blight was detected by a forester. In 1C
years the blight would wipe out all the
American chestnuts that grew in our
great forests. It was a disease that was
accidentally introduced from Asia,
probably in some horticultural planti-
ngs that were brought in. The loss of
the chestnut that was such a valuable
resource spurred the government and
private institutions to come up with a i
solution to try to save the trees, but
nothing could be found.
Yet, today, with modern technology
and genetics, there is still hope. Old
chestnut sprouts that come from
stumps still can be found in isolated
parts of our community. I know of one
of these in Manorville. Some of these
shoots will bear chestnuts but none
will grow into large trees, for as soon
as they reach the height of about 20
feet, the disease takes over and they
ie back. Using these shoots from old
stumps and some modern technology,
here's hope that someday we'll be
able to create a blight- resistant chest-
nut. Hopefully in years to come, we'll
nce again see this valuable resource
restored in our woodlands.
I hated to cut up this old chestnut
rail that somehow had survived, so I
put it aside. It looked its age, wrinkled
with its long open ribs and weathered
yet inside it was as strong as ever. It
gave me good reason to believe that
here was a wood that almost seemed
impervious to rot or decay and yet it
fell to a foreign invader that had
wiped out an entire population of
these magnificent trees. Now, what am
I going,to do with this sagging old
chestnut fence rail? It should be in a
museum — it must be 80 or 90 years
old — and yet I hate to get rid of it.
So it will lie in the woodpile for some
future use. I just couldn't bear to cut ii
up for firewood.
Some people think that chestnut
trees are still around because if you're
in New York during the holiday sea -
son there are street vendors there sell
ing roasted chestnuts. I must admit I
have tried them and they are tasty.
However, they come from European
chestnut trees, not our American
chestnut, but they do give you some
idea of how important the chestnut
itself was to some communities years
ago. Every schoolboy would have had
his special tree that produced the best
nuts and he'd gather them up to be
stored in the attic where it was dry
and cool. All winter long "chestnuts
by the open fire" would be a treat for
all.
Another tree that has met disaster
brought by a foreign invader is the
American elm. I wonder how many of
you remember the elms that lined
Main Street in Southold. , I remember
the ones in front of Southold High
School, for during the '38 hurricane
we watched from the school windows
as they slowly and deliberately lost
their grip on the earth and came
down. The elm tree was probably the
most impressive and most abundant
landscape tree in the country. Its char-
acteristic umbrella shape is well
remembered.
My favorite elm was out on
Gardiners Island on the way to
Tobaccolot. It stood all by itself in its
typical regal form and shape. Its lower
crotch held a huge osprey nest that
was added to year after year by the.
same returning ospreys. This was back
in the '40s,10 years after the,Dutch
elm disease started to raise havoc with
these most majestic trees.
Today they are almost all gone.
There are a few stragglers but they
will only last as long as they stay
healthy and in some cases are treated
against this deadly fungus that eventu-
ally kills the tree. This insidious fungus
is believed to have originated in Asia
and today has spread through all of
North America, including Canada.
There are some handsome elms that
have survived. Any of you who have
traveled through East Hampton know
these giant trees (believed to have
been planted in 1841) that hang over
the highway as you enter the village.
They have been able to beat the dis-
ease only because the town gives them
special care and sprays to eliminate
the real culprit, the elm bark beetle.
The problem comes when the elm
bark beetle flies from an infected tree
to another tree and carries the fungus
with it, and therefore affects tree after
tree.
We have a few elms here on the
North Fork, a few on the South Fork
and hopefully as time goes on more
and more trees will be able to resist
the dreaded Dutch elm disease. It's
scary to find other trees are being
affected in one form or another by
alien diseases. The latest native trees
to be affected are the hemlocks and