THE CHRISTMAS SONG & THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT TREE

One of my all time favorite Christmas Songs !

Thanks to Curt Davis for the information !!
See if you can grown an American Chestnut in your area.
Plant a tree, for our future.


The Christmas Song
Mel Torme (c) 1946

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yule-tide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like Eskimos.

Everybody knows a turkey
and some mistletoe
Help to make the season bright
Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow
Will find it hard to sleep tonight.

They know that Santa's on his way
He's loaded lots of toys
and goodies on his sleigh
And every mother's child is gonna spy
To see if reindeer
really know how to fly.

And so I'm offering this simple phrase
To kids from one to ninety-two
Although it's been said
many times, many ways
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas
to you.



^^

The American Chestnut Tree
By Curt Davis

The American Chestnut tree was the most valuable and the most useable tree that ever grew in the Eastern United states. Its trunks grew straight and tall towering stately above all other trees. It was a great loss to the area and the nation when a virus began killing the chestnut trees near the beginning of the twentieth century.

I can remember well that all of them were gone by 1927 on the Wells Creek farms in Eastern Kentucky where I was born in 1910. My father owned two other farms nearby. I can remember that the boundaries lines of each and most cross fencing of all three farms were done with chestnut rails. Only the fence in front of our home and the family garden were not rail fencing.

During my early childhood the fencing around the yard and garden was done with chestnut pales and called paling fencing. The pales were set perpendicular on the round with an inch to one and half inches between the pales to keep chickens, turkeys, geese and other animals from eating the seeds or later destroying the
plants inside the garden.

I remember that I was about seven years old when the yard fence was changed to an ornamental wire fencing designed for yards. It was ordered from Montgomery Ward & Co. It was stapled to 6"x6" squared chestnut posts. I thought it looked so much better and as a child I could more easily see the neighbors coming to and from Dad's Country Store. Later a woven wire fence replaced the paling fence around the garden. It was five feet tall using Chestnut posts because of their long lasting and smooth
uniform size.

Today in the first year of the third millennium I am daily using my tool shed that was built of chestnut boards a foot wide and more than two inches thick. I was told by an elderly former resident of the farm in the 1940's, that the tool shed at that time was more than a century old.

When I was a teenager I have helped to split chestnut rails for fence repairs when needed due to fallen trees across the fence or damage from a forest fire. I have used a fro in splitting roof shingles for a barn or house roof repair and made hundreds of tobacco sticks.

In 1898 my father built a party telephone line five miles long from his store on Wells Creek into Sandy Hook the County Seat of Elliott County, Kentucky that he might better keep informed about the markets on bartered items. He specified in the construction of the line that all poles be chestnut that were seven
to eight inches in diameter at the butt and twenty-four feet long. He knew that there would not be more than one inch decrease in the diameter in twenty-four linear feet because they grew straight and tall. He also knew that the poles would be uniform and long lasting.

During the days when all homes were heated by open fireplaces the chestnut wood was a favorite kindling for getting the fires started and the chestnut fore-sticks gave enough light to see throughout the room without lighting the old kerosene wick-lamp. Oak, maple or hickories were best for the back-log but they needed the chestnut to get the back-log burning.

Tending the fire properly required patience, continued attention, skill and work. It gave the master of the house a feeling of control of his responsibilities to properly care for his family. In return the fire-place offered the gathering place for the family to meet nightly and report on their experiences of the day,
share their memories of the past, discuss their thoughts and dreams of tomorrows while they enjoyed it's warmth, dreamy drowsy music and the every changing colors of flames dancing shadows on the walls. The chestnut was a favorite for the cook-stove because of its easy kindling and quick heat.

The chestnut trees bloomed in June and July. There was never a crop failure due to a late frost. The nuts ripened in October and early November in Eastern Kentucky. The nut was a reddish brown wrapped inside a yellowish tan prickly bur. When ripened enough it dropped from the tall trees and most burs burst open
when they hit the ground emitting the ripened nut. If they did not burst open a tap with a stick would open them. Behind our home was a small mountain. Half way up on the side of the mountain was a grove of more than sixty chestnut trees that the people of the community called "Dave's Chestnut Grove".

We usually gathered two or three bushels or three forty-pound lard cans full each fall. We used the lard cans in order to keep mice or any other pilfering animals from helping themselves. Our large family enjoyed them on those long winter nights. The community always helped themselves. The nuts were very tasty raw. On cold winter nights we would sometimes sit around the fireside and eat them. Occasionally we
may roast some. Every one liked them, raw or roasted.
The Chinese chestnut does not taste like the semi-sweet tasteful American chestnut. The Chinese ones taste more like raw lima beans or un-roasted peanuts.

I find in my father's 1898 and 1899 ledgers where chestnuts used in bartering at the Country Stores were traded at twelve to fifteen cents per gallon for baking powder at five cents a pound; Salt at two cents a pound; Soda five cents a pound and sugar at four cents a pound.

It pleases me to read that there is hope of bringing the great American Chestnut tree back to life. Back to it's home in the Eastern United States. Back to adorn the hills of Eastern Kentucky and spread the horn of plenty at it's base. They estimate that it may take a century or more to bring them back in numbers as I knew them during my youth. If and when they return, the trees will majestically stand
straight and tall towering over all other trees in the forest and making their many contributions to the area and their native country.




~Gj
it's not easy being green...