symbols: XXXX for best; XXX, very good; XX, good; X, average. O, poor;
OO, failure. In tabulating final summaries, the committee valued the
XXXX symbol at 100%; XXX, 75%; XX, 50%; X, 25%; O, O%; OO, minus 20%.
Twenty percent was arbitrarily deducted from any 100% rating, and 10%
from any lesser rating, in case no other reports on the same tree were
received from other reporters.

Qualities upon which ratings were made were hardiness, average yield
(rating), yield in pounds per tree or acre, age of oldest trees, age at
first crop, percentage filled nuts, husking quality, cracking quality,
size of nuts, weight of kernels, quality of kernel.

Naturally, not all reporters were able to evaluate all of these
qualities, so many spaces were left blank. For instance, hardiness could
be rated for a very young tree, but not yield. In any future survey, we
should advocate including a rating on early maturity of nuts, since this
is a quality essential in trees planted farthest north.

_Black Walnuts._ Six names of well-known varieties were printed upon our
sheets and, of course, most of the reports are centered around these
trees. Twenty-four varieties were voluntarily written in and reported on
by correspondents. No doubt some of these varieties will in time replace
some of the older ones. Reports on them are now too scattered and too
much uncorroborated to enable us to do them justice here. For the
present we shall have to content ourselves with those which have
sufficient evidence.

Of the printed list, Thomas takes first place with rating of 80.1%,
which is a cumulative percentage of all percentages earned on the most
desirable black walnut qualities. The method of obtaining this Thomas
overall percentage is as follows: Add all the Thomas percentages in the
paragraph below. Their average will be found to be 78%. Reports from
Canada and the southern area bring this average up to 80.1%, as stated.
Stambaugh is second with a rating of 72%. Rohwer rates 76%; Ohio, 57%;
Stabler, 49%, and Ten Eycke, 45%. The last three seem to stand in
jeopardy of replacement by other varieties.

Breaking these percentages down according to their qualities, the trees
in the northern U. S. area were rated as follows, using the valuations
noted in the second paragraph at this section entitled _Rating of
Varieties_: In hardiness Thomas rates 80; Stambaugh, 70; Rohwer, 75;
Ohio, 70; Stabler, 60; Ten Eycke, 65. In yield, Thomas rates 61%;
Stambaugh,