hey
fill well and whether they sprout at planting?

MR. LITTLEPAGE: With us out in Maryland it isn't a question of producing
the chinquapin; we cut the bushes down every year by the thousands; we
have nothing at all against it, but we have found that the weevil has
been absolutely unsurmountable with us. It is the only discouraging
thing about it in this part of the country. Around Washington the
chinquapin is a weed tree, and if you gather a peck of chinquapins you
will find that the whole peck, in two weeks, have turned to weevils.
Perhaps Dr. Morris can tell us what to do about that, and put us on the
road to success.

THE PRESIDENT: I should like to ask Dr. Morris two questions, first, as
to the possibility of utilizing the western tree chinquapins as stocks
for the larger eastern chinquapins with nuts of chestnut size. Is there
a possibility thus of getting a larger tree?

The second question is akin to that--utilization of the western tree as
a stock for a hybrid chinquapin which might have arboreal possibilities
and enough chinquapin qualities to be blight-resistant.

DR. STABLER: I am very much interested in Dr. Morris' proposition to
produce dwarf chestnut trees by grafting on chinquapin stocks. Now, the
difficulty I would expect to encounter is the same as when pecans are
grafted on hickory, and when sweet cherries are grafted on Mahaleb,
namely, that the root is not sufficiently vigorous to support the top.
The fact that his grafts grew so tremendously when put on the chinquapin
roots would look as though that might occur.

THE PRESIDENT: The audience seems to have run out of questions.

DR. MORRIS: All right, sir. First, how are we to grow chinquapins? Plant
as soon as the nuts have fallen. Put them in a cage. I have wire cages
that are about eight inches high, and about two feet wide and three feet
long. I plant all the nuts there. They have wire mesh tops to keep out
the rodents; that is the important thing. All nuts, I find, are best
planted under conditions which simulate the normal conditions. Our nut
trees are not as yet domesticated. They haven't learned bad habits, and
they depend upon peculiarly favorable conditions of moisture, warmth and
light. You plant a nut two inches below the surface, but nature doesn't
do anything like that. Consequently, that nut is surprised, doesn't know
what to do, and stays down there looking for something to happen. But if
you put that nut so it is about half bur