ay that there is room for much improvement sounds all right, but who
is going to effect it? Nut trees are not the easiest things in the world
to grow. They require a long time to come into bearing, and it is almost
out of the question for a person of middle age to undertake a breeding
project with a crop like the black walnut or northern hickory and expect
to get anywhere. Even if an Experiment Station undertakes a problem of
this kind, there is the likelihood that it may be dropped before much
will have been accomplished, for the person who starts it may go
somewhere else or be compelled to divert his attention to something
else, while the person who succeeds him has no interest in the project.
That has happened time and time again with investigations of many kinds,
but it has been particularly true of breeding projects.

If we are ever to make any real progress in the breeding of nuts, one of
the first things we need to know is the value of the different materials
with which we have to work and the varieties that are used as parents.
The Stabler, Thomas and Ohio are relatively superior black walnuts, but
we do not know which is the best of these for breeding for size or vigor
of tree or productivity or quality of nut or any other quality. We
haven't the slightest idea. Yet before really scientific plant breeding
work can be initiated, there is need of information as to which of these
can be depended on for transmitting to its offspring certain specific
qualities. Through experiment and experience we have learned some of
these things with regard to some of the other fruit and ornamental
crops. For instance, we know that the J. H. Hale is not only a wonderful
variety in itself, but that it has the ability to produce superior
progeny. Certain other varieties lack this ability. So, doubtless, it is
with nuts. How are we to obtain this information? If your Association
could get two or three growers, say here in Michigan, to inbreed the
Stabler walnut and grow the resulting seedlings--perhaps a thousand in
number--to fruiting age and someone somewhere else to do the same with
the Thomas and with the Ohio and other varieties, it would not be long
before a body of information would be collected that would furnish a
definite basis for the scientific breeding of nuts. Incidentally, the
chances are that some of this first group of seedlings would be superior
and I believe that the chances are better than 50-50 that the resulting