must be grown under the same conditions. The over-all value of a
variety can only be determined from samples of well filled nuts. In any
case the more samples tested the better.

The following suggestions are made as to procedure:

1. In taking a random sample no selection as to size, uniformity, or any
other quality should be made. Suggested procedure would be to scoop up
about 25 nuts in a berry basket or with the hands from the main supply
and reduce the sample to 25 without conscious selection. What we in the
Northern Nut Growers' Association want is a measure of the merit of the
crop of the tree or variety in question and not the value of a highly
selected sample.

2. It is not practical to bring samples to a uniform moisture content
before cracking is done. The following precautions, however, may be
followed: (a) Take care to see that nuts are reasonably well cleaned and
free from fragments of husk. Scrubbing or beating the nuts together in a
sack will usually remove most of the loose material. Of course the best
practice is to wash the nuts immediately after shucking. (b) Cure
samples until they are dry enough not to lose more weight preferably in
an unheated room. This takes at least a month or 6 weeks. (c) Avoid
storing the samples in a heated room where they will become so dry that
the shells will check or crack. If this occurs the normal cracking
fracture of the shell is destroyed and a satisfactory test cannot be
made. (d) Nuts that have become so dry that the kernels shatter may be
moistened by soaking about 2 hours in cold or lukewarm water then
holding them in a moist condition for 18-24 hours, followed by drying
for 10-12 hours before cracking. Nuts that are to be soaked should be
weighed before soaking and the dry weight used in figuring percentages.
The kernels of soaked nuts should be dried for 24 hours before weighing,
preferably under the same conditions in which the samples were stored
before weighing.

3. Care and skill on the part of the operator are of the greatest
importance, particularly in the thoroughness of cracking. The most
important variable in the score is the per cent kernel recovered at
first cracking. The score is reduced by undercracking the nut so as to
leave the quarters bound or by overcracking to the point of smashing the
kernels. If the nuts have a long point so that the rims of the anvils do
not contact the shoulders of the nut, poor cracking will result. At the
present t