Very many interesting bits of information have been included in the survey reports; so many that the committee has regretfully omitted some that hardly seemed properly to belong with the material of a survey, which after all must have some limits. One such item is from J. C. McDaniel, of Haines City, Fla., and has a special interest for members of this Association. He says:

"Perhaps you will be interested in data on one of America's largest Chinese chestnut trees, even if it does grow in Florida, at Monticello. It stands adjacent to a lot in which the late J. F. Jones had a nursery for a short time in the early years of this century, and apparently was planted at that time, around forty years ago. The trunk is now more than 25 inches in diameter below where it divides 6 feet above the ground. From this level, the tree branches profusely and has a symmetrical, rounded crown. It is healthy, not having a sign of the bark disease, although a native chinkapin 100 feet away is badly infested. It has abundant bloom and sets heavy crops of burrs but, lacking another variety for pollination, the number of nuts matured is small. Nuts are about average size for the species, of typical sweet flavor, and separate readily from the pellicle. Many of them become infested, before ripening, with a fungus which rots the kernel, apparently the same one which infests chestnuts and chinkapins at Savannah and Albany, Georgia. Mr. Paul Goldberg, of Monticello, the present owner, states that the tree has been bearing annually during the twenty years his family has owned it."

This nut-rot among the oriental chestnuts is one of the diseases that have become troublesome elsewhere. It is being studied and efforts are being made to combat it. Thus far, so far as we know, no effective cure has been found. A report upon present progress would be worth while.

Oscar E. Swan, Jr., Tulsa, Okla., reports an enviable situation. He says: "My nut trees are growing on a farm where more than 30 years of cultivation have failed to kill the native pecan sprouts. They come up year after year from the top roots. Since acquiring the place in 1936, I have allowed the pecan sprouts and the few native walnuts to grow unchecked except where necessary to cut them out to avoid crowding. The growth of these sprouts is quite vigorous, and they are ideal for top-working. I have top-worked a few trees every spring and now have about 300 grafted trees all the way from 6 to 30 feet tall. Many are too close together for full grown trees and I plan to thin them. My problems, so far, are the mechanical ones of top-working. I have settled upon a modification of the Biederman bark graft, which gives very good results. After the grafts are well established, the trees get very little attention except for cutting out the crowding trees. They are literally growing 'wild', yet the growth has been better than transplanted trees would have made with the best of care, because the root systems are well established in a situation which suits them.

"This system of neglect probably explains why I have failed with some species and varieties such as the butternut and some of the hickories. Occasionally I am pleasantly surprised, as in the case of some seedling Carpathian walnuts which, grafted upon some established black walnut sprouts, came through the severe 1943 drouth in fine shape without benefit of mulch, cultivation, fertilizer, or watering. The same applies to the Helmick hybrid. (A two year old tree, a hybrid walnut, grafted and growing well on black walnut stock, and which Mr. Swan says will bloom next year.) I have pampered my Chinese chestnut trees with cultivation, mulch and manure, as they are located in poorer, drier soil. They were badly hit by the drouth. Some died in spite of the attention.

"As to varieties, I am far enough south to grow all the standard southern pecan varieties, although several do not have a long enough season to mature their nuts. I am trying the northern varieties and, so far, am well pleased with their growth as compared with the southern kinds. It will be a few years before I can report on the size and quality of their nuts."

J. C. McDaniel again: "Source and variety of seed in Chinese chestnuts have a great influence on the performance of seedlings. Numerous seedlings from the original Hobson tree began fruiting in their second season of growth, and half of the ones I have are fruiting during their fourth season. On the other hand, I have a tree from imported seed which grew nine seasons before setting and ripening its first burr. The above data refer to my planting near Hartselle, Morgan County, Ala., and that vicinity. I have several black walnut trees under observation, native trees, on which data are not yet complete enough for evaluation."

If any man deserves a bright N. N. G. A. medal, it is A. L. Young, of Brooks, Alberta. Lowest temperature expected in winter, 45° below; lowest known, 62° below. Highest expected in summer, 101°. Frequent drouths? Yes. Hot, dry winds? Yes. Native nuts found plentifully? None. Sparingly? None. Yet Mr. Young plants nut trees. It is men like that who have made Canada what it is. It takes more than mere weather to stop them. The never-say-die spirit of pioneers speaks throughout his report:

"Black walnuts, butternuts, some oaks, hazels and American chestnuts (Ohio buckeyes) all came through last winter well. However, late frosts reduced the nut crop. Of these species, filberts are not getting anywhere. Winkler, I believe, will eventually make a go of it. Heartnuts got a rough deal last winter, and European buckeye chestnuts were hurt a little by late spring frosts. Some Manchurian walnuts also got a setback with spring frosts, and some did not. Carpathian walnuts killed back quite a lot, so did most of my hybrid walnuts. Hybrid hazels seem perfectly hardy. Pecans, beechnuts and sweet chestnuts almost passed out of the picture last winter. Giant hickory from Ontario seems hardy but particular about the kind of soil and conditions. When irrigated, too much water will kill them. And this is true also of walnut and butternut seedlings. I have no acreage of nut trees. I grow seedlings and plant them wherever I find a place protected from the stock and within reach of moisture from the irrigation ditch, as this is a desert, cactus country.

"I always have a stock of seedling trees on hand, and whenever visitors show any interest, I give or send them fruit or nut trees and a few perennial flowers. So there are sure to be a few nut trees, some day, growing successfully throughout Alberta.

"There is more benefit from this northern seed, especially as I am using a commercial pollen with the hope of getting a hardy white walnut with possibly a coarse bark like the black to ward off sun-scald in this climate. They are on their way. I don't know when we'll be eating these imaginary nuts. However, it is not so long ago that fruit growing on the cattle range was a dream. I grew the first pears in Alberta, so far as we know. Now we are insulted if there is not a crop of fruit every year. I have many seedlings of standard apples, unnamed, that are really choice fruit, and, of course, a few named varieties that are doing fairly well. Minnesota has done great work in apple and plum breeding for the north. We are enjoying some of them right here.

"I am sorry that I have no data on husking, cracking, etc. Really even the hardiest, best trees bear nuts that, while of fair size, do not have fleshy kernels, and some have three sections instead of two. Butternuts are very sweet with fair size kernels. I was surprised, after a long hard winter, to find the Ginkgo trees still alive and gaining growth. Credit some or all this result to J. U. Gellatly and Paul Crath for supplying me with seed, seedlings, and pollen to carry on with. I am greatly obliged to them and also to George Corsan of Echo Valley, Islington, who has a wealth of nut interest.

"We have had a mighty dry year here, so, between irrigating and tending the largest herd of Ayrshire cattle in the prairie provinces, I have been busy. The town of Brooks is probably the only town in Canada on straight Ayrshire milk; and the change in Brooks from a box-car on a siding years ago to the Brooks of today, with its hundreds of healthy children now on the streets, is the marvel of a man's lifetime."

George H. Corsan, Echo Valley, Islington, Ont.: "Last winter, 1942-43, was by far the coldest ever recorded. No damage to filberts. A few inches of twigs were hurt on certain English walnuts. The Stranger heartnut, a tender variety, passed through unscathed. Persimmons and pawpaws passed without a bud killed. These are perfectly hardy varieties. Jujubes passed O. K., but that may be due to the very deep snows."

Dr. Oliver D. Diller, Associate Forester, Ohio Experiment Sta., Wooster, Ohio: "You will be glad to know that the experiment station has set aside some land for improved varieties of nut trees. If you find some promising walnuts which might be tested in this part of the state, we should be glad to have you keep us in mind." This is indeed welcome news and will be appreciated by all growers in this area.

J. G. Duis, Shattuc, Ill.: "A chicken yard is one of the best places to grow nut trees."

J. U. Gellatly: "I do not believe in selling nuts for seed purposes except on a very large scale."

J. C. McDaniel: "A neighbor lost some 5 year old Chinese chestnut trees following a summer drouth on silty loam soil, rather shallow to hard-pan. It is my observation that deeper, sandier soils (not too extremely sandy) are best for chestnuts in the coastal plain and other regions subject to summer drouths. In the mountains where summer rainfall is more uniform, they thrive also in clay soils."

G. H. Corsan: "Best success in grafting (hickories) has been in juicy, wet springs. Heartnuts must not be budded until late August (in Islington, Ontario). Heartnuts must not be pruned."

A. L. Young, Alberta: "There is a demand for young walnuts for pickling." (Does anyone know the details—when to pick, how to pickle?) (Note by Ed. Several recipes and methods in Am. Nut Journal now out of print but indexed by Ed. Copies of this index in his hands and those of Mr. C. A. Reed at Washington. Also recipes in 33rd Ann. Report p. 95).

Sterling A. Smith, Vermillon, O.: "With me, summer budding is the most successful means of propagating black walnuts."

J. Russell Smith: "Chinese chestnuts will blight some if under-nourished." Which includes the wrong kinds of soil, if uncorrected.

"Does anyone know for sure how to get pawpaw seed to germinate?" Several have asked this question. The chairman has had the same trouble, so can not answer. (Note by Ed. See "Nut Puttering in an Offyear" in this report.)

So far as the correspondence shows, no state or federal department buys seed on a large scale (with the exception, now, of chestnut seed) from trees of the better named varieties with which to grow seedlings for distribution by state nurseries for forest planting. All nut seed seems to be gathered haphazardly.

W. G. Tatum, Lebanon, Ky.: "A nut tree with plenty of root, top cut back one third, promptly set, roots protected, stem wrapped, 4 inches, mulch applied, set either spring or fall, grows for me 99% of the time. Failures are not worth mentioning if the above conditions are met."

Carl Weschcke, St. Paul, has a dozen or so extra hardy Persian walnuts by selection from some 12,000 seedlings. Also is introducing the hardy "Hazelbert," result of crosses between wild varieties and filberts.

"Dip wire screen guards in red lead and they will be good for twenty years."

Thomas and Stambaugh, among the black walnuts, are, with justice, entrenched leaders, but it will be well to watch Patterson, Mintle, Elmer Myers, Eureka, Creitz, Todd, and other promising new ones less well known. Thomas is more prolific in the south (generally) than in the north, which indicates that its bloom may possibly be out nearly enough to suffer in the north from late frosts.

Among chestnuts, the weight of evidence favors Hobson, Carr and Reliable, though J. Russell Smith says he has something he likes better than the first two.

Among pecans, Major, Greenriver, Pleas; among filberts and hazels, Winkler, Jones hybrid, Cosford, Gellatly, Brixnut; among Persian walnuts, Broadview, one or two Crath varieties, Payne, Breslau; among hickories, Stratford, Fairbanks, Barnes, Glover, Weschcke. These seem, so far as the returns show, to have outstanding points of superiority. In any such survey, injustice is bound to be done to some not fully reported.

Outside of filberts in the northwest, no northern grown nut can yet be said to have reached the status of a profitable commercial crop. (Exception: The narrow pecan belt along the southern terminus of the Ohio river valley; mostly wild trees.) Dr. A. S. Colby, University of Illinois says, "The report from the State Statistician at Springfield indicated a crop of 575,000 pounds of pecans for Illinois in 1943. I don't know just where they came from." Short crops were reported in Calhoun and Gallatin, leading nut producing counties. No reports have been received as to the size of pecan crops in the Kentucky and southern Indiana portions of the same belt.

The search for better varieties must continue, but it is also altogether likely that with an orchardist's attention, with cultivation, mulching, fertilizing, spraying one to three times yearly with Bordeaux and lead sprays, we might approach the commercial goal more closely with what we have today. Is anyone treating a bearing nut orchard as well as he would treat an apple orchard? That's the test.

S. H. Graham of Ithaca, N. Y. says: "The Ohio is commonly regarded as hard to hull. With a chained tire husker it hulls as well as any." He rates it for hardiness and a percentage of 90 to 100 for filled nuts, while Thomas yields only 0 to 90%.