lackwalnut as well as being hardier than the black
walnut or the hickory. It ripens so early that the nuts always have
plenty of time to mature while the richly flavored kernels are rarely
shrunken and never astringent. Despite these good qualities, a search
through the publications of the Northern Nut Growers' Association for
the past thirty years proves that comparatively little interest has been
manifested in it. It would seem quite in order to inquire into the
reasons for this neglect. Five of them come to mind: 1. Too early
blooming. 2. Difficulty of propagation. 3. Curculios. 4. Melanconis
disease. 5. Lack of sufficiently good varieties.

The butternut too often blooms so early that its blossoms are caught by
frost. The filbert has the same fault and so, to a less extent, has the
Persian walnut. Late blooming varieties of each have already been
selected. It does not seem too much to hope that late blooming varieties
of butternut may also be found. I know of one butternut that has had
good crops every year but one for the last ten years but have never
visited it at the right time to observe its blooming habit. President
Weschcke reports that butternuts on black walnut stocks have their
blooming retarded for a few days.

Many experienced nut tree propagators have little success in grafting
the butternut. But Mr. Harry Burgart of Michigan, has found that nursery
trees may be successfully grafted if the operation is performed at a
point three or four feet from the ground, while the late Dr. G. A.
Zimmerman of Pennsylvania, found that very early grafting gave him the
best results. He reported that his best catch was from grafts set March
tenth. Some moderately successful propagators do not pay careful
attention to outside temperatures when they cut their scions. In
contrast to this let us see what Mr. J. F. Jones thought about it. He
was undoubtedly the most successful nut tree propagator in the East and
he was always as generous in sharing his hard earned knowledge as he was
skillful in its application in his own commercial nursery. Note this
from his paper in the 1920 annual report. "In the case of trees that
bleed freely when cut, we must guard against taking scions after hard
freezing weather and before the tree has fully recuperated. This
semi-sappy conditions following low temperatures that freeze the wood
seems to be a provision of nature to restore the sap lost by
evaporation. We always try to avoid taking sci