Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

MEMBER: My first experience was with Mr. Snyder at Ames. I saw on the program a nut lecture, so I went. For the past two years I have been attending the short course and heard Mr. Snyder lecture. A year ago this spring I got some scions from Mr. Snyder. Four scions out of 7 grew. It was the first time I had ever done any grafting at all. I used paraffin for grafting.

THE PRESIDENT: You got very good results indeed. This year I made a miserable failure. I believe I only got about 12% to grow. I hope you always have the same good luck.

DR. SMITH: If he wants to keep his record he better not do any more grafting.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: Pretty near everybody this year reports a miserable failure. There must be some reason.

DR. SMITH: It may be the drought.

PROF. DRAKE: I only got three to grow. We had enough rain in the spring.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: My opinion is that last winter was hard on wood. There was an early freeze in the central states. My observation is that the wood was injured through the winter. I think any scion wood was not very good.

PROF. DRAKE: In our part of the country the temperature ran from 24 to 26 below zero.

MR. HERSHEY: If you notice in making the graft little pin points of black on the scions, you can almost bet on a failure.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: Some of the worst looking scions at times grow the best. You put them on and they all grow. Another time you have beautiful scions and they all die.

MR. HARRINGTON: There is injury you can't see with the naked eye. The wood was unripened when our winter set in. We had a very severe winter in our section here. My practice has been to store my scion wood in November.

MR. FREY: The cold weather in January wouldn't affect that. I am inclined to think the scion wood injury was done before winter set in.

MEMBER: When is the best time to gather scion wood? Mr. Harrington says in the fall. I have been getting mine in February. Is it better to cut the wood when entirely dormant, or would it grow better if cut when the sap starts in the spring?

MR. HARRINGTON: I want my scions cut early.

DR. SMITH: How early can you cut them?

MR. HARRINGTON: When the scars from the leaves have dried up thoroughly. I have known them even in December to be still sappy. They didn't grow well that year. I often cut them the last week in November.

MR. HERSHEY: I would advise Dr. Smith not to cut too early in the fall.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: From my papaws I cut scions in the fall.

THE PRESIDENT: From the comments made here this morning I have an opinion that the question certainly needs looking into. We could cut our scions earlier.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: I wouldn't cut them at that time if I didn't have to.

MR. HERSHEY: I think that is a good admission. Another thing, if you paraffin your scions you need cat's paws to hang on to them. Dr. Morris said last year, "Melt your paraffin off with hot water." We tried it, got paraffin all over ourselves and cooked the wood. So then we scraped the paraffin off.

DR. DEMING: Dr. Neilson has said if there are any new members we would like to hear from them. If there are no new members there should be some. Our secretary sits at the table, ready and anxious to receive the dues and names of new members. I have always felt that we never treat new members with sufficient deference. I think we should ask them to talk about their experiences, to tell us what they have done, to tell us what they would like to do, to ask us questions, and that we should make them feel more at home.

THE PRESIDENT: That is very much to the point.

DR. DEMING: Why isn't the chestnut more appreciated in this country? Why aren't the farmers acquainted with the possibilities of growing chestnuts here in the middle west? Yesterday Dr. Zimmerman and I were at Mr. Harrington's and there we saw chestnut trees that would make your heart warm to look at. Why can't the people of the middle west, where the chestnut is not native, be awakened to the great possibilities of growing the chestnut commercially? It is easy to grow. It bears early, and abundantly. What can we do to make it better known? I would like to ask Dr. Zimmerman.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: Chestnut growers say "We can't keep them." Several years ago I got a hundred pounds of chestnuts down in Illinois. I sold them out to friends of mine. In a few weeks those chestnuts were dry enough to use for roller bearings. That is the reason they don't like the chestnut. I think that hurts the chestnut business more than anything else.

MR. HERSHEY: I would like to ask why insist on introducing the chestnut when we have the black walnut? I would just as soon eat bran as a chestnut. Now the black walnut you can keep for two years.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: In the last few years I have been in intimate contact with chestnuts. I don't see why the people here don't take them up. If you don't do it the people on the west coast are going to plant chestnuts and ship them to the eastern market. You people can raise chestnuts. The eastern markets are full of chestnuts from Europe. What we need is chestnuts like the Riehl's. The large European chestnuts are of poor flavor. Take the varieties you can grow around here and send them to the East and you will get 50 cents a pound for them. Authorities tell us the trees will die off. I tell you you will all die off after a while. You aren't going to quit working because you are going to die off. Within three years you will have trees that will bear. You may get from twelve to fifteen crops off of them before they die. So far as the food quality of the chestnut is concerned it is not a balanced diet, mostly sugar, but it is a splendid food. The difficulty is in keeping it soft. But it is not a difficult thing. Cold storage will keep the chestnut in splendid shape for eating purposes. I would plant chestnuts and plant them now. Sooner or later, if they die off, we in the East will be prepared to replace them, but for the present you will have the whole field east of the Rocky Mountains. I do not know of another opportunity as great as the chestnut. I just wish I could take 20 acres of this land with me back to my rocky Pennsylvania farm.

DR. COLBY: In Illinois the chestnut is not native and people don't realize that it can be grown. Some of the speakers have mentioned the Riehls. I want to mention the Endicott place. Mr. Endicott tells me that it is increasingly difficult to supply the demand for his chestnuts. He sells his nuts sometimes a year in advance. Developing of cleaning machinery and sorting machinery is going on apace. Mr. Endicott is interested in a sorting machine such as we use for apples. It is true we are going to get the blight out here sooner or later. Meantime we are going to try to anticipate it by securing hybrids which are resistant and of good quality at the same time.

MR. SNYDER: I would like to say a word as to planting chestnuts here in Iowa, and especially here north. What has been said is true of the southern part of the state. We may grow varieties there that it would not do to plant in the northern part of the state. I think I can show you tomorrow if you visit my place that I have had considerable experience in planting chestnuts just as an experiment. The first planting mostly has gone out because of our climatic conditions. We have severe winters. We must be careful what varieties we plant and what stocks they are worked on when we do plant them. A few years ago a nurseryman wrote me he would like to go out of business and he had chestnut seedlings for sale. I bought his seedlings. I lost them all the next winter. Why? Because of their mixed parentage, European and Japanese. They were not hardy, that was all there was to it. If the nurserymen here and farther north will be careful in the selection of the varieties they use, we can grow them. There are two factors, the stocks you graft on and the varieties you want to grow.

MR. FREY: In my old home place there are native chestnuts over 60 years old.

MR. SNYDER: If we had time I could take you to visit a grove of chestnut trees, planted by one of the oldtimers, possibly seventy years ago. I haven't been able to learn where the seed came from, evidently from some northeastern country. That is where I get my seeds. Any trees that I have grown from seedlings are dependable trees.

MR. HERRICK: One point should be carried in mind. While we think of Des Moines as located in central Iowa, as far as temperature is concerned it is really southern Iowa. The weather at Ames, which is 30 miles north of Des Moines, is far more severe. At Des Moines we can raise Grimes Golden apples. At Ames it is almost impossible. I think that the reason more people are not planting more of these good varieties of walnuts and other species is that they cannot get the trees. And then they are very high priced. Mr. Snyder says that it takes a long time to propagate these trees. People don't like to pay $5.00 or $6.00 for a tree and then maybe not have it grow. As I understand, Mr. Snyder is about the only nurseryman in the state that furnishes nut trees, I mean new varieties.

MR. BOYCE: Would it be a good plan to plant black walnuts and grow the seedlings right where you want your orchard?

MR. SNYDER: I think that is a very good plan.

DR. COLBY: An excellent way if you can get a man to do the grafting.

MR. BOYCE: What would be a reasonable price for grafting?

DR. COLBY: Mr. Wilkinson has done considerable of that kind of work.

PROF. DRAKE: I have been more successful in budding.

MR. HERSHEY: We can't in Pennsylvania. In the winter the buds kill off.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Hershey's experience is like mine, about $7.00 a graft. I will say that if I give grafting demonstrations, as I have in Michigan, I always tell my audience a little story. Once upon a time there was a wild west show. An old Indian chief on the outside proclaimed the merits of the show. He always finished by saying, "And now, ladies and gentlemen, if you go into this show I positively will not give you your money back." I generally tell my audience I positively will not guarantee anything. If none of the scions grow they can't come back and say, "I told you so."

DR. DEMING: I would like to have our president talk about methods of making the transplanting of nursery grafted trees safer for the purchaser. Dr. Neilson has had a good deal of experience in setting out nursery stock.

THE PRESIDENT: Quite naturally in the progress of time we gain some knowledge by experience. Sometimes that experience is very costly. We remember it more clearly. During the past year I made a few observations on transplanting nut trees. Some of you who were at Ontario in 1928 and New York last year, heard me speak of doing it by means of paraffin coating which has been successful in quite a wide area of this country and in Canada. The difficulty was that during very hot weather the wax melted and ran down and did some injury on the south side of the tree. I did notice that if you inclined the tree to the southwest just a little there was very little injury, whereas if they leaned to the northeast there was injury. I would suggest this, that if you are planting on southern slopes and happen to be in localities where there are very high temperatures, you use 1-3 beeswax and 2-3 paraffin. Beeswax has been proven to be quite safe over wounds and trees in general. This treatment has been used over a very wide area, in 18 states and 5 Canadian Provinces. We have information at hand on 130,000 roses, 15,000 pecans, 2,000 apples. We have had very few complaints from the people who have used this treatment. Because of that, I firmly believe that the principle of applying a protective coating to the upper part of the tree and branches is correct. I have made another observation in protecting roots against devitalizing. Certain kinds of trees, hickory, walnut, are very susceptible to injury to the roots. I tried paraffin on the cut roots and got very good healing. I found that wherever I packed moist peat around the roots there was very good response. Last spring I took about 100 seedling black walnuts and put half in good loamy soil, the other half in moist peat. I got very good results from those packed in peat. In the loam in 7 weeks not one scion had grown. I took those pots and took out the dirt. I later planted them in a cold frame in peat and practically every one of those walnut trees grew. I believe that the peat had some beneficial effect.

MR. FREY: From the time the nut tree is dug until it is planted the nursery should pack it so it will keep moist. The purchaser should not let the wind or sun strike it. I had some trees sent from Texas to Oklahoma. The fellow who did the work heeled them in improperly. Every tree died. Keeping the roots moist is half the problem.

THE PRESIDENT: Very important indeed. Mr. Gellatly shipped heartnut trees to Augusta. These trees were packed in moss and paraffined. They arrived in excellent condition. The trip took six weeks and they travelled 3,000 miles.

DR. SMITH: What season?

THE PRESIDENT: About the first of April, and arrived about the middle of May.

DR. DEMING: Could you make an artificial ball in which the roots of a plant could be packed? Say peat moss, which is light, and send that to the customer and tell him to plant it just as it is.

THE PRESIDENT: I think possibly that can be done. The Wedge Nursery of Albert Lea, Minnesota, have a method of packing roses in sphagnum moss. They soak this material very thoroughly, embed the roots in it, and outside this material they apply some water-proof covering.

AFTERNOON SESSION, SEPTEMBER 17TH, 1930

THE PRESIDENT: At our last meeting in New York, Dr. Deming suggested that it might be well worth while to make a study of the Japanese walnut. His suggestion appealed to me, for I have been interested in the occurrence and distribution of this species. I have not had an opportunity to travel very widely on this continent, so I have had to depend partly on the observation of other people. I sent out a questionnaire to members of our association and horticultural experiment stations throughout the United States and got a good response.

SOME NOTES ON THE JAPANESE WALNUT IN NORTH AMERICA

_Dr. J. A. Neilson, Michigan_

The Japanese walnut, Juglans sieboldiana, and its varietal form cordiformis, were said to have been introduced into America from Japan about 1870 by a nurseryman at San Jose, California. From this and other subsequent introductions a considerable number have been grown and distributed in the United States and Canada.

A recent inquiry by the writer brought forth some interesting data relative to the occurrence and distribution of this species in North America. This inquiry shows that it has been widely distributed and is reported in the following states: Arkansas, Arizona, Alabama, Connecticut, California, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Minnesota, Maryland, Maine, Mississippi, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. No reports were received from South Carolina, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, North and South Dakota, Idaho, Georgia, Colorado, Kansas, Texas, and Wyoming, and negative reports were received from Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

In none of these states is the Japanese walnut abundant in the same degree as other kinds of nut trees, but in some states it was reported more frequently than in others. It occurs more abundantly in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Delaware than in other states.

In Canada it has been reported from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia. In Ontario it is found occasionally from Windsor to the Quebec boundary and from Lake Erie to North Bay. There are several fine large trees in southern Ontario, some of which are worthy of propagation. Many of the trees in Ontario and other eastern provinces grew from nuts distributed by the writer several years ago. For five years in succession the writer bought the crop from a large heartnut tree near Jordan Station, Ontario, and distributed the nuts all over Canada to those who were interested. More than twelve thousand nuts were thus distributed and I know from observation and reports that seedling trees are now growing from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I am going to tax your credulity to the utmost and tell you that one of my correspondents reports heartnut trees growing in the Peace River area of northern Alberta. I have no recent report from my friend but I know that the trees came through two winters in that far northland.

Possibly in the days to come a superior seedling or a hybrid may be found in these numerous seedlings which will be worth propagating. Some of these trees have already borne nuts and many have made very good growth.

The Japanese walnut has also been reported from New Zealand and several states in Australia, England, France, Germany and other European countries.

_Climatic Adaptation_

From the foregoing it can be seen that this species of walnut has been widely distributed and is now growing in countries with a wide temperature range. Reports are on hand which show that the trees have endured temperatures of 40 below zero F. to 110° above zero. From this it need not be assumed that all Japanese walnut trees will stand great extremes of heat and cold, for experience shows that they will not. It does show, however, that some individuals at least have marked hardiness to cold and heat and have endured temperatures much greater than the English walnut. The best results in growth and fruitfulness have been obtained in those regions of moderate rainfall where the apple and sweet cherry grow successfully.

_Soil Requirements_

The Japanese walnut seems to thrive on many soil types ranging from a heavy clay to a light sand, but does best on what is popularly known as a well drained fertile sandy loam with a friable clay subsoil. It will not do well on strongly acid soils and those who have planted trees on such soils should apply lime in liberal quantities. Poorly drained soils or very light soils deficient in humus are also not suitable.

_Tree and Nut Characteristics_

The Japanese walnut has several characteristics which make it desirable as an ornamental and as a nut-bearing tree. It grows rapidly, has large numerous luxuriant leaves which give it a tropical effect, and usually has a symmetrical outline. It bears early, sometimes in the second year from the graft, yields heavily and is often reported to yield regularly.

A heartnut tree owned by Mr. Sylvestor Kratz of Jordan Station, Ontario, produced nearly seven bushels of husked nuts one season and Mr. J. W. Hershey reports a yield of ten bushels of heartnuts from a tree near Olney, Pennsylvania. He also reports a cash return of $50.00 from one tree grown by Mr. Killen of Felton, Delaware. These were heartnuts and sold for 50 to 75 cents a pound. Mr. J. V. Gellatly, Westbank, B. C., obtained a yield of ten bushels of unhusked nuts from a heartnut tree of medium size. The yields from the common type, J. sieboldiana, have also been heavy, but since no figures are available no definite statements can be made.

In the Japanese walnut as in other species of nuts there is marked variation in nut characteristics, such as size, thickness of shell, cracking quality, extraction quality and flavor of kernel. Heartnuts have been found ranging from 1/2 in. to 1-3/4 in. in length. The largest heartnut I have ever seen came from Gellatly Brothers of Westbank, B. C. This nut was 1-3/4 in. long by 1-1/4 in. wide and was fully 1 in. thick. I also located a fine Sieboldiana type which is said to be the largest found up to date. (See specimens in jars).

Some of these good kinds possess excellent cracking and extraction quality. Mr. John Hershey of Downingtown, Pa., reports several good easy-cracking strains not yet introduced and Mr. Gellatly has one called O. K. that can easily be cracked with a hand nut cracker. I have also found one that I believe is a hybrid and which has excellent cracking and extraction quality. These specimens came from a seedling heartnut grown by Mr. Claude Mitchell, Scotland, Ontario. The nuts are longer than any heartnut found so far. The kernels in many cases fall out whole or in halves. This strain received the O. K. of Prof. Reed and Dr. Deming and as you know when a nut gets by either of those gentlemen it has to possess some merit. The good result produced by nature without any assistance from man suggests the possibility of getting even better results from parents of superior characters. I believe the Japanese walnut offers interesting possibilities in breeding with the butternut and possibly the black and English walnut. Definite plant breeding work should be done with these species as well as with all other species of nuts.

The Japanese walnuts generally grow fast but usually do not attain a large size. In most cases the trees rarely grow more than 35 feet tall with a spread of 30 to 50 feet, but occasionally specimens attain much larger size. The writer saw a heartnut tree on Mr. Kratz's farm near Jordan Station, Ontario, which had a trunk diameter of 2 ft., a height of 35 ft., and a spread of 64 ft. Near St. Thomas, Ontario, there is a large sieboldiana tree which is 75 ft. across the top and is about 45 ft. tall. Mr. Ricks reports a huge tree near Olney, Pennsylvania, that is 80 ft. across the top and 60 ft. tall and Dr. Deming reports a tree with a spread of 100 ft.

_Varieties_

Through the efforts of the Northern Nut Growers Association members several good varieties have been found and propagated. These varieties have been widely distributed but have not been extensively planted. The results are variable as might be expected, but generally the reports are satisfactory. In the eastern states the following varieties seem to do reasonably well: Faust, Bates, Ritchie and Stranger. In British Columbia, Messrs. J. U. and David Gellatly have located several very good strains such as Gellatly, O. K., Calendar, Walters and Rosefield. These newer varieties from the West have several good characters and are worthy of a wider trial in the East.

_Diseases and Insect Pests_

In common with most other forms of plant life the trees are susceptible to some insects and diseases.

Reports of injury by the walnut weevil, Conotrachelus juglandis, and also by codling moth larvae have been received. In some cases the foliage is attacked by rust fungi and some injury is also done by leaf spot. Prof. Reed reports witches broom attacking some trees in the South and one case of this disease was observed by the writer in Ontario on a Siebold-butternut hybrid. Notwithstanding these defects it is believed that the Japanese walnut is less attacked by disease and insects than most other species of nut trees.

_Opinion of Observers_

The opinion of a group of people on the merits or defects of a tree species or project is worthy of consideration. In order to get an expression of opinion as to the merits of the Japanese walnut the following question was asked: Do you consider the better strains of Japanese walnut worthy of more extended planting? The answers to this inquiry were numerous and varied. The great majority were in favor of increased plantings but a few were somewhat dubious. Nearly every one agreed that the species possessed marked beauty and was worthy of more extended planting as an ornamental. Some gave preference to the nuts over the black and English but the majority thought the quality was not quite up to the standard of these two species. Some observers reported favorably on the heartnut for culinary purposes and as an ingredient of ice cream and candy. With these latter comments I have had personal experience and can heartily agree.

_Summary_

From the evidence furnished by correspondents and from personal observation the good qualities of the Japanese walnut may be summed up as follows:

Rapid growth, marked beauty of form and foliage, early bearing, productiveness, and more than average hardiness to winter cold. The nuts from superior trees are easier to crack than the butternut, hickory and black walnut, but not so easy as the pecan and Persian walnut. These superior varieties yield nuts with a mild flavor which appeals to the taste of many people, but others think the flavor is not quite pronounced enough.

This species crosses readily with the butternut and offers interesting possibilities for the plant breeder.

The trees appear to be somewhat less susceptible to insects and diseases than other walnuts, but this may not always hold good.

The defects of the Japanese walnut most frequently mentioned are lack of flavor and pollination deficiencies. Some trees produce staminate flowers too early for proper pollination and thus do not yield a crop unless another good pollinator grows nearby.

Susceptibility to sun-scald and to San Jose scale are some other weaknesses. Many of the trees commonly grown are undesirable because of small size of nuts, poor cracking quality and too mild a flavor.

A careful consideration of the good and bad characters of Japanese walnuts suggests the following program before the culture of this species can be placed on a sound basis.

1. A systematic and thorough search of the United States and Canada for productive trees yielding nuts of large size, of good cracking and extraction quality and pleasing flavor.

2. The propagation and wide dissemination of these superior strains to members of the Northern Nut Growers Association and particularly to experiment stations where there seems to be a striking lack of information on this and other species of nuts.

3. Systematic improvement by means of hybridization with the butternut and other suitable species.

A program such as this would yield information of great value and would probably establish the culture of this species on a sounder basis than it now is. Until this has been done the logical course to follow is to plant the best varieties in limited numbers in areas where the black walnut thrives and even in areas too cold for the black walnut.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: I have been connected with experiment stations and colleges for the past number of years but I was quite surprised to find such a general lack of knowledge of nut trees, and especially of this species. The members of the experiment stations who are here do not need to feel badly. My remarks wouldn't apply to them.

MEMBER: Any varieties of this that bloom late?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Mr. Gellatly of West Bank, British Columbia, has a variety that blooms rather late. J. U. Gellatly and his brother David have the best collection of Japanese walnuts in Canada, of heartnuts especially.

Professor Reed was to give us a paper on harvesting and marketing. We have just heard that his paper will be here tomorrow. The next paper is by Mr. F. O. Harrington.

THIRTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE IN THE CARE OF SCIONWOOD

_F. O. Harrington, Williamsburg, Iowa_

Prof. Colby wrote me some months ago asking if I would not write a paper for this meeting on "Fifty Years' Experience in Nut Growing." I answered that I had not been particularly interested in nut culture until within a few years, and that I believed I could be of more use to our members by telling them something of the care of scionwood.

I am going to tell you of my method used for thirty years constantly with only slight changes from the beginning. Any man who has had any experience knows that it is important that scionwood should be carefully kept, that it should not be kept in air so dry that the bark would shrivel to any appreciable extent, or, on the other hand, a still worse condition, where it is so damp that the bark will loosen and the buds start.

It is difficult enough in nut tree grafting to obtain reasonably fair success with the scions in perfect condition, where used in late spring, and it is something of a heart breaking proposition to try it with poor scionwood. To the nurseryman, with his winter grafting of fruit trees, the keeping of the scionwood long enough for his purpose in the cold of the winter season is no problem at all. It can be stacked in a pile in any cool cellar (not too wet) and covered over with leaves and blankets, or what not, and it is all O. K. for that period. It is a far different matter to hold small amounts of wood absolutely dormant through the changing conditions from winter to summer, and perhaps as greatly changed conditions of moisture through several months. And how shall this best be accomplished?

Ice house conditions are not, I think, generally very satisfactory. The right cold storage facilities might be satisfactory, but not readily accessible to most of us. I used to use boxes in the cellar, with careful packing with forest leaves and somewhat careful attention to moisture conditions, with penalties for lax attention always enforced.

I know one nurseryman who, beside the regular nursery fruit tree grafting scion wood, kept many scions of nut trees. He had a deep outdoor cellar, or cave, which was always cool and not too dry. In this, in large boxes of sawdust, he kept his scions for spring use. Just how much attention as regards moisture conditions he had to give this I do not know, but through his knowledge and experience with it I think his scions were usually in good condition.

Now I will quote to you on the care of scions from J. F. Jones' paper on "The Propagation of Nut Trees" in the 1927 Report of the Annual Meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association, page 104:

"It is not in the selection of scions that the beginner usually
fails to make his grafting a success, but in handling the scions.
Scions for grafting need not to be put in cold storage. In fact
cold storage at the usual temperatures seems to be injurious to
scions. Cool storage, that is temperature maintained below the
freezing point, is O. K., but in my experience this is not
necessary. We store them in a cellar with a ground floor. This is
damp and cool and the cases the scions are stored in are without
bottoms and set on the damp cellar floor. The cases are lined with
tar paper or light roofing, both the sides and the lid. The latter
is hinged for ease of getting out scions as needed. No packing is
used around the scions and they draw enough moisture from the damp
ground below to hold them plump and in good condition. Good scions
stored in this way can be kept for weeks, or even months if need
be, in excellent condition. Nut scions for grafting are soon
spoiled if packed too damp, even if kept at temperatures
considerably below that required to cause the sap to flow in trees
outside."

Again I quote from Dr. W. C. Deming (1925 Report, page 48), "Top Working Hickory Trees for the Beginner":

"Scions packed away for any length of time are apt to go wrong,
either by drying too much, by being too moist and starting to grow,
or by heating, molding or rotting. A simple way to keep them is to
dig a hole about three feet deep in the ground outdoors in a dry
and sheltered place where water can never reach them, as under the
back porch. Have the scions in convenient lengths of one to two
feet. Wrap them in a bundle, or bundles, in a light tar paper,
which helps to prevent mold. Leave the ends open for ventilation.
Lay the bundles in the bottom of the hole and cover the top of the
hole with an old carpet, or several newspapers. This description
gives a general idea of the conditions under which scions should be
kept. A man may vary it according to his own conditions, bearing in
mind the principles. It is of vital importance to the success of
grafting that the scions should be in good condition. The usual
mistakes are in keeping them too wet and too much wrapped up. They
should be examined frequently to see that they are keeping well."

I have brought to your attention what have been considered the very best methods of keeping scionwood dormant and in best possible condition, and all agree that this is of vital importance for successful grafting. I will now call your attention to a better method than any of these, equally simple and inexpensive, and so much better in its action that scions may be kept by it two and three years in about the same condition as when severed from the parent tree; and to prove this statement I have here with me for your examination scionwood of several kinds of nut and fruit trees that have been kept in the Harrington graft box one year and two years. At the present time I have no older wood in my graft box, for the simple reason that in the summer of 1928 the cover of the box, which had been in several years, rotted so that the top caved in, leaving it open to too much air, thus in time spoiling what wood was in it; and before putting in new wood in November I had to dig out the old box and replace with a new one. For wood will rot in time in the ground. I have had, at different times in the past, scionwood in my box three years old, much of it seemingly still good. I have not used any of it for grafting at three years, but I have with good success the second year old from cutting. I started experimentally with this method and box thirty years ago and there has not been a year since in which I have not used it, so you may readily understand that it is not an untried theory I am giving you. A much valued member of our society, J. F. Jones of Lancaster, Pa., now deceased, wrote me at one time, "You undoubtedly have the best method of keeping scionwood known at the present day," and Prof. Close, head of the Pomology Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., made the same statement to me.

My own box is located in an evergreen grove on dry land, but a shady position to the north of a building might answer fairly well. Until the last eight years my box was for a long period, under and between two large butternut trees growing out in the open, except at the northward. In my opinion it is highly desirable to cut and store all scionwood before severe temperatures of the winter occur, preferably between Thanksgiving and Christmas because very severe freezing is liable to produce some little injury to the cambium layer, at least in some years, and if that injury be even very slight it will usually spell failure when used.

The graft box, as I am using it, is about thirty inches long by eighteen inches deep and fifteen inches wide. It has a solid cover but has a six inch square hand hole through on top in front, covered by a loose board lying flat and about ten inches square and butting back against a cross bar nailed across the box two inches back of the doorway opening. No bottom in the box but it has three cross bars nailed across inside to hold all scionwood up two inches from the earth floor. Any scion that touches the earth floor will either begin to grow or begin to rot. The box is entirely buried two to three inches under the ground except over the trap door. The spot must be perfectly drained. Over the box a space about six feet wide by seven feet long is insulated from temperature changes with straw packing to height, in center, of three feet and protected from rain by a wood roof of boards, shingles, or prepared roofing resembling, a little, the old wedge tent. To get into the box burrow in under by pulling out the straw in front, but not too large a tunnel, and far enough back to get at the trap door cover where it can be slipped off and scions put in, the door replaced and all the straw crowded back into place. Thereafter it is easy to slip the straw out and back to get at the box. In any case the packing is always carefully replaced, as the insulation of the earth near the box is of first importance.

_Graft Box Air Conditions_

The small amount of moisture coming into the box from sides and earth bottom, in ordinary conditions, seems to be very exactly balanced by the very small amount of dry air that finds ingress to the box from outside through the straw packing and the trap door, although after very long wet spells, at whatever season of the year, it has been my practice to bring all the scions out into the open air and allow both the scions and the interior of box to dry out for as long as seems needful. The reverse condition, that of too little moisture, I have never had to take notice of. Occasionally a little white mold in box and on scions may require a little open air treatment. No other condition seems to require any special care. I do not know how much larger a box than I have used would give equal satisfaction, for I have not demonstrated that feature, but obviously there must be at some point a limiting factor between the desired casualty of moisture and its opposite in the box. I am inclined to think that a box of double that capacity could safely be used, but advise that, where large amounts of scionwood are needed, more than one box be used until a test has been made with less valuable wood to find the size limit.

* * * * *

DR. SMITH: You speak of airing the scions. How long do you do that?

MR. HARRINGTON: It depends on the conditions that require the airing. For instance a thaw in the winter, or a rainy spell. Again in the summer a long rainy spell. In these cases I open up the box, maybe leave it a couple of hours.

DR. SMITH: That kills the mold, two hours' exposure? You never sterilize the inside in any way?

MR. HARRINGTON: I never have. It might be a good idea. The mold doesn't seem to affect the scions.

EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS IN SEARCHING FOR BEST SEEDLING NUT TREES

_J. F. Wilkinson, Indiana_

Searching for the best seedling began long before the coming of the white man to America, by Indians and animals and the birds which store nuts for their winter food. This search has always been continued through the nut growing territory by the crows, squirrels and other birds and animals.

Go to a pecan grove early in the fall when pecans are ripening and there is no better evidence that a tree is an early ripener and produces a thin shelled nut than to see a bunch of crows feeding from it.

The children living near a pecan grove in early fall will go where crows and birds are feeding to gather nuts that are dropped by them, and later, when all trees have ripened their nuts, these children have their favorite trees to gather from. I have seen the little ones around Enterprise, of before school age, that would have a preference and could select from a basket of pecans the ones from their favorite tree. It is surprising how good their judgment is.

The hunter also watches this in the early hunting season, going to the earlier ripening hickory and walnut trees, for it is there he will find the squirrels feeding.

My own experience in gathering pecans dates back to my first school days, for there were scores of pecans trees near the school building, and as soon as I was large enough to climb a tree I spent many days each fall gathering nuts and soon had a fair knowledge of all trees for a radius of several miles around.

The first trees of the now named varieties, the Indiana and Busseron, were located and brought to notice by the late Mason J. Niblack.

In the summer of 1910 my life-long friend, Mr. T. P. Littlepage, while on a vacation, was camping on the Ohio river near my home and was then very much interested in superior seedling nut trees. It was at that time, in a talk with him, that I became interested in the propagation of nut trees.

At this time he took me with him to locate the "Warrick" tree which stands on Pigeon Creek in Warrick County, Indiana. The next day he, R. L. McCoy and myself went to the Greenriver grove where the Major and Greenriver trees were located. These are now being propagated and are considered outstanding varieties. Also a trip was made to Posey County, Indiana, where the Hoosier tree was located. This variety was soon dropped.

From that time on R. L. McCoy and myself kept up a constant search until he left Indiana in 1918. Since then I have done a lot of work along this line myself.

This work is carried on by arranging with nut buyers and gatherers in the nut growing localities to be on the watch for any unusually good nut and to send in a sample, with the name of the owner of the tree, or the party gathering the nuts, so the tree may be located later. Hundreds of samples have been received, the most of which were eliminated on examination of the nut itself. In the case of any that seem promising a trip is made to the tree for further information. Each fall I receive word of trees producing a superior quality nut and in most cases from the description given, whether it be by letter or a personal talk with the informer, one would believe that a really worthy tree had been found. But generally on investigation it proves to be only just above a good average tree.

A variety to be worthy of propagation must pass a rigid test. First, the nut must be of desirable size, thin shell, plump kernel, good flavor and good cracking quality, and last but not least the tree must be a good and regular bearer.

Accurate records on the bearing of these trees are very hard to obtain as they often grow in isolated places and their product is known to all in that neighborhood, and at least a part of the crop is often taken by some one who makes no report on the amount, so the best information to be had on this is often incorrect. When a promising tree is located the surest way is to visit it each fall for several years just before gathering time and see the crop on the tree.

In almost every instance the size of a nut is exaggerated by the owner or informer unintentionally. They are honest but their imagination gets the better of their judgment. Then their knowledge is often limited to their own trees and those of their neighbors, and the nut they prize may be the best they know of, but when compared with nuts from a greater territory is found to be of only fair size.

The usual way one will describe the size of a pecan is to say it is as large as his thumb and about two thirds the length of his forefinger, and so thin shelled that two of them can easily be cracked in the hand with only a light pressure.

I usually carry some sample nuts of the named varieties on these trips for comparison and it is seldom that the owner or informer of a tree believes any of these to be larger than those produced by his favorite tree until a comparison is made, and then he will often declare they are not as large this season as usual.

This brings to mind many incidents which are very clear in my memory, one especially, when Mr. McCoy and myself had heard of the Kentucky pecan tree which is opposite Grandview, Ind. We went to Grandview to get first hand information on this tree from one who had gathered the nuts from it and while talking to the party he was trying to tell us how large the nut was. I first took a Busseron pecan from my pocket and he said it was much larger than that. I then resorted to some large southern ones none of which he thought were as large as his favorite. At last I produced a McAllister. After some hesitation he admitted it was larger than the Kentucky. At this Mr. McCoy gave a hearty laugh and told him his imagination had the better of his judgment. Almost every one who owns any number of nut trees has one that is better than the rest, and naturally he prizes this one highly and wishes it propagated. I have traveled many hundreds of miles going to trees on reports of others, only to be disappointed. Where the tree is found to be promising and no bearing record is obtainable, then an annual trip for several years is necessary to determine the bearing record. These trips require time, expense and labor for very often a part of the trip has to be made on foot.

Several years ago Claude Luckado, a professional pecan gatherer of Rockport, spent several weeks one fall in a large pecan grove on the Wabash river and brought back several samples of very promising pecans, one especially that I considered very worthy of further consideration. I reported this one to Mr. C. A. Reed, and a year or two later, when on a trip through this section in the fall, he suggested a trip to this tree. I arranged with Mr. Luckado to go with us to show us this tree, which is about seventy miles from Rockport. We left there on the first traction car for Mt. Vernon, Ind. From there we went in a Ford touring car without any top and only one rear fender and drove over nine miles of the worst roads I ever motored over to the Wabash river where we hired a motor driven mussel boat to take us four miles down the river. The remaining three miles we made on foot, reaching this grove about ten a. m., and searched until late in the afternoon without locating the tree. This day and trip I am sure Mr. C. A. Reed well remembers.

Two years later when roads and weather were more favorable, Mr. Luckado and myself left Rockport one morning at four a. m. and drove all the way to the grove, arriving there early in the morning and searching until late in the afternoon and again without results. But when one takes into consideration that this tree is standing somewhere near the center of an unbroken forest of hundreds of acres in which it has been estimated there are near 20,000 bearing-size pecan trees, it is some task to locate a certain tree, though the search for this tree will be made again.

It is very often that two or more trips are necessary to locate a tree and about nine times out of ten when the tree is found it is not considered worthy of propagation. Many amusing incidents and not a few hardships are remembered in these past experiences. During the past three years I have made four trips into southwestern Missouri and southeast Kansas where there are thousands of native pecan trees growing. Some trees in this section have been brought to notice which seem promising. I now have several promising new varieties under test and observation.

The search for new and better varieties must be kept up, for no doubt there are yet unknown as good and possibly better trees than we have yet located.

* * * * *

DR. ZIMMERMAN: Have you ever known anything about the Marmaton, owned by J. E. Tipke at Rockwell, Missouri?

MR. WILKINSON: I have a sample of it.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: Mr. Tipke sent that to me. He told me it wasn't as good as others but he said it never missed a crop.

THE PRESIDENT: For the benefit of those who have not been down to Mr. Wilkinson's I would like to say you will find it very worth while to go there. In 1925 Mr. Wilkinson invited me to go with him through southern Indiana, to see some of the large pecan trees he had there. When I got there I really had to take two looks to see the top of some of those trees. I found one tree that I would have to make three spans, in this manner, to get around. One tree is said to be 125 feet tall and 16-1/2 feet around. After visiting that section and seeing the very many interesting trees I concluded that Mr. Wilkinson really hadn't told all that was to be told. Mr. Wilkinson is a very modest person. When he tells you a certain thing you can make up your mind he is not exaggerating in the least.

MR. WILKINSON: Many times in determining the crop we have to climb the tree. For instance, the Major is 65 feet to the first limb. It is very often necessary to climb the tree to make an estimate of the crop.

THE PRESIDENT: Wasn't there one tree there with a spread of 125 feet?

MR. WILKINSON: This was in Greenview. That was the largest pecan tree known in Indiana, 70 feet to the first limb, just a straight column. The spread of the top was 140 to 150 feet. The wind blew the tree down.

MR. HERSHEY: That tree according to Mr. Wilkinson never missed a crop. While I was there they took me to a tree that had 600 pounds one year. It was on a cheap piece of land that was bought for $425.00. The year we were there it produced 250 pounds, a light crop. Another lady told us of a family that bought a piece of land that had about 50 pecans scattered over it. That kept them in ample supply of money and they didn't have to do much more to make a living.

THE PRESIDENT: The next is a report by Dr. J. H. Kellogg. Mr. Kellogg is not able to be with us and Dr. Colby will now read it.

MORE NUTS--LESS MEAT

_Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Michigan_

The oft reiterated appeals to the American public to "Eat more meat to save the livestock industry" and exploitation of a so-called "all-meat diet experiment" by Stefansson and Anderson, justify the presentation of the special claims of other foodstuffs, so that those who desire to regulate their eating in accordance with their bodily needs, rather than to meet the exigencies of business, even to aid a declining industry, may have a fair opportunity to judge comparative merits and draw sound conclusions based upon scientific facts, rather than misleading statements or the biased dictates of custom.