omment? Last year in our part of the country,
which is a little bit west of the orchard we are talking about, we had
almost zero weather in November before the leaves were off of the trees,
and I felt that that took all the buds off our trees. We didn't have any
nuts even on varieties that would bear every year. There are hardly any.
And I think that cold freeze in the fall before the buds really got
ready for it did a lot of damage.

DR. MACDANIEL: I believe that was a factor in the light walnut crop in
that area last year, though some trees did bear.

DR. MCKAY: Of course, I think many of us fail to realize that a tree is
a thing that's confined to one spot, and when it fills the ground with
feeding roots and mines the soil of all nutrients near it, it's stymied,
so to speak, until we give it some more food. Isn't that right, Dr.
Crane.

DR. CRANE: That's right.

DR. MCKAY: And trees, when they reach out as far as they can and can't
get any more food and no more leaves are allowed to fall on the ground,
nature doesn't add any nutrients anymore, naturally, those trees are in
a bad way and will continue to be until fertilizer is applied in some
way.

A MEMBER: I'd like to trim my Persian walnuts so I can walk under the
lowest limb. Does that have an adverse effect upon the bearing of the
tree?

MR. BERNATH: I don't think that's good, to trim them too high. I think
the lower the tree the better it handles all along. Take the fruit
growers, they aim to have the trees as low as possible to make picking
and spraying easy. If you prune a tree, especially the Persian walnut,
too much, it will have a bad effect on the tree.

DR. McKAY: What about the effect on bearing?

MR. BERNATH: You won't have fruit for several years until the tree
recovers what it has lost in foliage.

MR. KINTZEL: I have followed the orchards in California, and I have
noticed they follow the practice of leaving the lower branches on the
trees, and I have noticed that the lower branches have a lot of nuts on
them, also. The branches are hanging down on the ground.

MR. KERR: In France and Germany, they are crazy to get wood, and so they
cut off all the low limbs. I have a Persian walnut that is beside the
walk, and they cut off the low limbs because they hit the sidewalk. This
year I got a tremendous crop.

MR. SILVIS: I think this man has a tree that he wants to walk under.
Under these circumstances he can cut off the low limbs. I agree wit