PA TACF will be celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the PA Farm Show January 9th – 16th with a special display of historic images from the Paragon Chestnut Orchard. Some of the images were published in the Summer 2015 issue of Chestnut — The New Journal of The American Chestnut Foundation. In the article titled, “The Paragon Chestnut: Pedigree and History,” author William Lord tells the story of chestnut cultivation in Pennsylvania and the important place that the Paragon nut played before being wiped out by the blight. To illustrate his telling Mr. Lord uses images from the PA Department of Agriculture Bulletin No 123 – “Chestnut Culture in Pennsylvania”, written by Prof. Nelson Davis from Bucknell University for the PA Department of Agriculture in 1904, which highlights the Paragon Orchard.
We will be displaying a copies of these publications along with the original lantern slides at our table during a specified times at the Farm Show. This limited schedule will be posted here after the New Year.
Many thanks to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for the loan of these artifacts to the PA Chapter for this display.