The first package of nuts
arrived on September 25th and for the next six weeks few further sample
lots were received. During the latter part of November and up to the
date of close of the contest, December 15, the entries were mailed to
the judges in quantity. This period coincided with inclement weather
when outdoor farm work could not be carried on.

The growing season had been abnormal due to a lack of precipitation and
it is believed that the nuts were not as large nor as well filled as
could be expected in a normal season. Defoliation through caterpillar
attack had been severe, especially in the northern third of the state,
and this condition may also have affected the normal development. The
kernels of many lots were shrunken and since these included some nuts
which would otherwise be given a high score, the method of judging by
points, partly mathematically determined, was used as a guide only,
rather than an exact means of choosing prize winners. Shell structure,
together with the shape and relative size of kernel cavity, was the
determining factor in choosing the prize winners. No differential for
kernel color was made, for it was recognized that this was dependent in
part upon the method used in harvesting and in handling the nuts. The
varieties that were poorly sealed were discarded.

All of the prize winners, on the basis of the merits of the nuts, are
considered worthy of propagation for home or experimental orchard
planting. The locations of the parent trees give a sufficiently general
coverage for the entire state for the selection of a variety to
propagate for almost all climatic and soil conditions in any part of the
state. This, in itself, is considered the advantage and the
justification of a contest confined to a single state or a limited
region. Also, when residents of a state, through a contest, discover
promising seedlings within their own state, it is believed that there is
created in the sponsors more incentive to compile continuous data about
the new kinds than would exist when the prize winners are chosen from
regions quite removed. That so many examples were submitted was the
result of excellent publicity by the Ohio Farmer.

The first prize was ten dollars, the second five dollars, the third
three dollars and the remaining seven prizes were subscriptions to the
Ohio Farmer of from five years to one year in length.

The prize winners were as follows:

First--Mrs. Willard Brown, Rock B