ill be a
small crop of the round and plump smooth green balls.

The Crath #1 is not perfectly hardy as it freezes back an inch or two in
the cold winters. Two years ago the warm wet fall left it unprepared for
the sudden onslaught of winter and several whole branches died and the
trunk split open, the split sounding like a rifle shot one cold, crisp
evening. I happened to be standing by it at the time.

The Myers black walnuts are splendid trees and just about hardy. They
bore a few nuts and second and third year from planting, which sapped
their vitality. They then bore nothing for about three years, which
happened to be unfavorable years for walnuts anyway, and began to bear
again this year with a moderate crop. It looks like the plum curculio,
my arch insect enemy, is trying the nuts for size. I saved some Cochrane
pollen and went to work on the Myers, with you know what results.
However three of the nutlets stayed on the tree; so that I may have
effected a cross between Myers and Cochrane.

Thomas has acted peculiarly for me. It went thru the devastating
winters of 1950 and 1951 in fine shape, then froze back last winter when
the temperatures never went below 5 degrees below zero. The very dry
fall should have ripened all branches to perfection. My mule, Zombie,
took a liking to the branches and leaves of this tree, so it is now
trimmed up like an umbrella. The small nut crop must have also gone down
Zombie's gullet. He is more destructive to walnut and plum than the
curculio. (Tie him up. Ed.) Thomas does not seem to have a great future
up here.

Now Cochrane is different. If that little tree has as many nuts on it as
it had catkins this year, I'm going to have to move the corn out of the
crib and put the walnuts in there. It is not a fast growing tree, but
this may be the fault of the spot it is in, judging by the color of the
leaves. I never got around to fertilizing it.

Now that I told you about the Cochrane, I'll have to tell you about the
"Wayne" black walnut. It is eight years old, stands about eight feet
high and is hardy. My Black Walnut seedlings stand from six inches to
six feet high. They go back to six inches every other year when I cut
them down to graft them. Nobody in the nut tree field can call me a
grafter. I'll make him prove it!

The hickory, butternut, bitternut, and chestnut are step children and
fend for themselves on less desirable soil. All are small. The
regia-hindsii hybrids are sm