Definition of "chesnut"

This I know by my own experience, having compared the produce of two pieces of land of equal area and quality, one sowed with wheat, and the other planted with chesnut trees.

1761, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind, page 195

An owl cried among the silent Spanish chesnuts on the slope outside.

1908, Perceval Landon, Thurnley Abbey