waste of Nature in order to get one seed
to grow, the chance for a hybridized hickory nut to grow under normal
conditions, is so small that we should have relatively few crossed
trees growing wild in Nature, though we do find quite a good many of
them.

Professor Smith: If I am not taking up too much time, I would like to
put some more questions to you.

The Chairman: That's what we are here for.

Professor Smith: Have you ever tried the plan of serving collations to
squirrels? Why wouldn't it pay to give them portions of wheat and corn?
Second, what percentage of the oak pollen kept in cold storage a month
was alive? Third, what is the range of time that the hybridizer has to
make the pollinization? Must we go on the dot or have we two days or
four days or a week, in the case of hickories and walnuts?

The Chairman: I think possibly as these are three direct questions, I
might answer them now. No, I think it would be better to have all
questions bearing on this subject brought out and then I will answer all
together. So if you will kindly ask all the questions, I will then
endeavor to answer them.

Mr. Corsan: The squirrels bothered me last year. I've got forty acres of
land for experimental purposes only and I started planting and the
little beggars would dig down exactly where I planted the nuts, so I
went into town and got a rat trap with a double section so I could catch
them alive; and I caught so many by feeding them cheap pignuts, the
sweet pignuts from Michigan, that I brought them in and my boys sold
them for twenty-five cents apiece. Since then we have never been
bothered with red squirrels. For the white footed mice I laid down large
doors over some hay or long grass and they gathered underneath and then
I lifted the doors up every day and with a stick I smashed hundreds of
them. I have posted a notice to leave the skunk and mink alone; I don't
want anybody on the place shooting them.

The Chairman: I will first answer Professor Smith's questions. This
matter of serving collations for squirrels had best be done as
collations are served at political meetings--with a trap attached. You
don't know how many squirrels there are in the vicinity or how many
white footed mice. You will be surprised at the numbers of the little
rascals, and not only that, but the field mice, the common field mouse
and pine mouse run in mole holes under the ground and can smell a nut a
long way off. They are extremely destruct