e and July, about the middle of
August a long drought of nearly 10 weeks duration commenced. The
conditions were similar to those in 1952, except that in that year the
drought began later, in October. However, the large amount of water in
the soil from the spring rains prevented serious consequences, just as
in 1952 the heavy rainfall in August and the normal one in September
mitigated any serious results from the later drought of that year.

[3] Weather records are taken from the monthly reports of the municipal
airport at New Haven, Conn., and are compared with the New York City
records for the same period, kept by the U. S. Weather Bureau at 17
Battery Place, New York City.

Hybrids of 1953

As in former years we continued the formation of hybrids of the
combination CxJxA[4] which has to date given the most resistant
individuals and the best timber form. 277 hybrid nuts of this
combination were obtained by crossing JA with C, and C with JA. JAxJ
crossed with C yielded 25 nuts. CJA crossed with pollen from the Roxbury
Americans gave 20 nuts. The Chinese-American hybrids are also promising
both in form and in blight resistance. By crossing these with American
pollen from Thomaston, Conn., and from Clinton Corners, N. Y., we
secured 48 nuts. CA crossed with a good native American in Thomaston,
Conn., resulted in 30 nuts, and the same combination using an American
in Newfoundland, N. J., produced 9 nuts. The total number of nuts
derived from all crosses was 504, a much smaller figure than that for
the two preceding years. The reason for this is that considerable time
was consumed in experiments designed to determine the length of the
receptive period in the pistils.

[4] C = Chinese, J = Japanese, A = American chestnut.

The 1953 nut production (Table I) compared well with last year's. The
total yields were as good as, or better than, the 1952 crop and the
average weight per nut was not significantly lower than in 1952.
Apparently the late summer and fall drought had no effect on nut yields
and average weights. Obviously we have the warm winter and abundant
early rains to thank for this situation.

Table I. Natural Yield of Nuts (open pollinations) From Sample Trees.

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Total yield Av. weight per Approximate
Age in Species Location in lbs. nut in grams no. of nuts
years