crop was borne than they
were in the other years. This was interesting information but I could
not help realizing the difficulty of carrying in one's mind, from one
year to the next, the merits of hickory nuts, and felt that, unless the
matter could be proven, I had not as yet done very much to solve the
problem at hand. Mr. Clark, however, gave me practically all the nuts of
the 1919 crop which he had and I returned feeling that this trip had not
done much to solve the problem as to why the tests on the 1918 nuts and
1919 nuts should be so different. Very careful examination was made of
the few Clark hickory nuts remaining in my possession of the 1918 crop
and they were compared with those of the 1919 crop. Slight differences
in shape were noted and finally one nut was found seemingly just like
the nuts that won the prize in 1918. When this nut was tested it gave
substantially the same results as those tested in 1918. Another like it
was afterward found where the result was repeated. This proved
definitely that the trouble was not with the methods, and that, in off
years, with the Clark hickory at least, some few nuts were borne that
would test out as well as those borne in good years. The results of the
tests on these good nuts borne in 1919 were substituted for those on the
inferior nuts previously tested for in contests it is always the
intention of those sending in nuts to send in the best.

It will be noted that the number of points finally awarded the Clark
hickory for example this year is less than awarded last year. This
difference is due to the method of scoring. In a matter as new as
methods for measuring nut characteristics, the constants which have to
be determined by experience must change somewhat at first. The method
used this year in testing nuts sent in to the contest was to judge them
on the basis used in 1918, redetermine the constants that required it,
and work out the results again. An example will help to make this
clear.

Take the matter of proportion of kernel, the highest award for which was
15 points in 1918 and also in 1919. Up to the time the 1918 contest was
decided the hickory with the largest proportion of kernel was the Beam,
Nut No. 3, of the 1918 contest with over 50% of kernel and the lowest
was the Brown mockernut of the 1918 contest with 18% of kernel. On the
basis of the difference between the highest and lowest the number of
points to be awarded each was worked out. On this basis