xciting gamble, I think it is
fairly well demonstrated that the percentage of success can be turned in
favor of the planter by intelligent selection.

But where can the best seed be found? The answer is as plain as the nose
on your face. The best possible source is in existing plantations of
named, proven varieties. As a farmer, I should not use a cross-roads
maverick when I can use a registered Jersey, Hereford or Angus. As a
planter of black walnuts, or any other nuts, either for timber or wood,
I should not pick up my seed haphazardly from cross-roads trees. Every
nut produced by planters of orchards of the best named varieties should
be in active demand by state and national agencies for their own
plantings, and the seedlings from them should be available for the
widest distribution to the public. This urgent demand for better seed
will make existing plantations of proved varieties more profitable and
will fill our forests and farms with far better trees.

Nut Trees in Wildlife Conservation

By Floyd B. Chapman Ohio Division of Conservation & Natural Resources

Attesting to our great faith in the value of the nut trees for wildlife
conservation and restoration, the Ohio Division of Conservation and
Natural Resources has distributed free of charge, to cooperating
landowners: 132,000 American hazelnut, 1000 European and American hazel
hybrids, 1000 pecans, 1000 butternut, over one thousand shagbark
hickory, 1500 Asiatic chestnut, 2000 black walnut trees, and more than
50 bushels of black walnut nuts for seed spotting. This program has only
been in operation since 1942, and I think a great deal has been
accomplished in spite of the war and difficulties in growing and
shipping of nursery stock. This record would not be so impressive had we
not been able to take advantage of a vast amount of surplus stock made
available when the U. S. Soil Conservation Service closed out a large
nursery in this region.

To show how dependent are certain wildlife species on an adequate supply
of nut mast, I need only mention one group, the squirrels. Much
information concerning the abundance of squirrels in the original
forests is on record. It is also well known that nuts of several kinds
were always plentiful: native chestnuts, walnuts, butternuts, hazelnuts,
hickorynuts, and beechnuts. The supply was so large that an occasional
crop failure was unimportant; much of the production from the preceding
year was still available