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a chestnut with soft burrs would never be eaten by humans, at least not if it 
were grown in new england.  Squirrels would get every chestnut.  I don't even 
know how squirrels survive, they are so stupid to start harvesting pecans 
long before the meat really fills.  

In the south, pecan orchards are kept way away from other woods so the 
squirrels would have to cover a lot of open ground to get to the pecans.  

There's reasons sometimes things have to be the way they are - all the time I 
see grass here and there come up albino - a shell-less oyster might be handy 
because it wouldn't require shucking but the oyster wouldn't do well without 
a 
shell .   You gotta have the meanest burrs on chestnuts.
Charlie Paradise, Massachusetts