uster hang from the
terminal of each twig. The leaves sun-burn easily. In spite of this we
had a heavy crop of well-filled nuts. Of the several varieties I have,
Stranger is the most prolific. Fodemaier, and Walters bloom late enough
to escape our late spring freezes, are larger nuts, and should prove to
be the best eventually.

Butternuts

Butternuts grow native in Missouri and Arkansas. Our section is most too
hot and dry for them. However, I have a few grafts of Buckley and
Weschecke bearing nicely, grafted on native black walnuts.

Hickories

The wooded hills and river bottoms contain several kind of hickories. I
have several pecan trees grafted to the Pleas and McCallister hybrids,
but they are light producers in Oklahoma. I have 80 acres of river
bottom hickory nuts in southwest Missouri that bear abundantly.

Oriental Persimmons

Persimmons grow native here. The Early Golden, an American variety, is
very productive and ripens in September long before frost. Of the
Orientals I have Tamopan, Eureka, Fuyu, Data Maru, Tanenashi. Most all
bear heavily, in fact usually overbear. They stand our dry weather
better than does the native persimmon. The very large fruit usually in
colors of yellow and red attract much attention from visitors who think
they are oranges. The persimmon belongs to the ebony family. The fruit
contains as high as 40% sugar and in the Orient is a national dish. We
propagate them by grafting our native stock.

Pawpaw

The Pawpaw is native in Missouri and Arkansas and in the eastern part of
Oklahoma. It is a beautiful tree and very productive. We shade the small
trees here until they get started, after which they do quite well. The
fruit is a favorite with many.

Chestnuts

I think the greatest tragedy that ever befell American horticulture was
the chestnut blight. Not so long ago every hill and mountain-side east
of the Mississippi River, from near the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian
border was covered with native chestnut trees producing millions of
pounds of food for man and beast. Today all has been devastated by this
terrible blight and nothing remains save leafless trunks, like
tombstones, in memory of a grand food tree.

In 1889, Tom and Mary Jones left their Kentucky mountain home to
establish a new one in Oklahoma. As with all pioneers they brought seeds
of many species with them, including chestnuts. I now own the farm they
homesteaded. On it today there is an Americ