, Pleas; among filberts and hazels,
Winkler, Jones hybrid, Cosford, Gellatly, Brixnut; among Persian
walnuts, Broadview, one or two Crath varieties, Payne, Breslau; among
hickories, Stratford, Fairbanks, Barnes, Glover, Weschcke. These seem,
so far as the returns show, to have outstanding points of superiority.
In any such survey, injustice is bound to be done to some not fully
reported.

Outside of filberts in the northwest, no northern grown nut can yet be
said to have reached the status of a profitable commercial crop.
(Exception: The narrow pecan belt along the southern terminus of the
Ohio river valley; mostly wild trees.) Dr. A. S. Colby, University of
Illinois says, "The report from the State Statistician at Springfield
indicated a crop of 575,000 pounds of pecans for Illinois in 1943. I
don't know just where they came from." Short crops were reported in
Calhoun and Gallatin, leading nut producing counties. No reports have
been received as to the size of pecan crops in the Kentucky and southern
Indiana portions of the same belt.

The search for better varieties must continue, but it is also altogether
likely that with an orchardist's attention, with cultivation, mulching,
fertilizing, spraying one to three times yearly with Bordeaux and lead
sprays, we might approach the commercial goal more closely with what we
have today. Is anyone treating a bearing nut orchard as well as he would
treat an apple orchard? That's the test.

S. H. Graham of Ithaca, N.Y. says: "The Ohio is commonly regarded as
hard to hull. With a chained tire husker it hulls as well as any." He
rates it for hardiness and a percentage of 90 to 100 for filled nuts,
while Thomas yields only 0 to 90%.

[Illustration: Seasonal Zones Compiled from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Records, Based on the Average Date of the Last Killing Frost
in Spring]

Juglone--The Active Agent in Walnut Toxicity

_By GEORGE A. GRIES, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station_

The problem of walnut toxicity dates back at least to the writings of
Pliny. In his "Natural History," this Roman philosopher stated that "the
shadow of walnut trees is poison to all plants within its compass" and
that it kills whatever it touches.

The first rebuttal to the existence of such a toxicity was forwarded by
Evelyn in the 17th century. This author discussed the high regard in
which walnuts were held in Burgundy as field trees. The roots of these
trees were below