that subject, there is another I wish to take up. That is, the
great number of complaints about winter-killing of the English walnut.
Wherever we have been able to trace that down, as we frequently have, we
find that the English walnut suffers more from winter-killing right
around Washington, D. C., and in Pennsylvania, than up in Rochester; and
we also have complaints of winter-killing as far south as Georgia. A
common cause is the variation of moisture. After a dry spring and early
summer soaking rains come in August and September, and the trees,
brought suddenly into growth at the close of the season, when they
should be drying out, the walnut tree in particular, show
winter-killing. So I think one of the main troubles with the English
walnut in the Eastern United States is the winter-killing. Even in
Georgia we may have this trouble with the pecan, young trees two and
three years old, and I have photographed them.

As to false stimulation, in the woods, where these trees grow native and
under the conditions to which they are necessarily adapted, they are
mulched and crowded when young by their competitors. In cultivation we
do not get the crowding and the mulching that makes steady growth and
proper ripening. So you should, by some process, growing corn, cover
crops, or other trees, keep your delicate nut trees a little crowded
and, if possible, mulched while young; and then later, cut out the
undesirable things and let the trees have room.

I am not fully prepared to speak about the nut work of the Bureau of
Plant Industry, because that should be handled by the chief of the
bureau. I have charge only of the diseases of fruits and nuts. We have
had $8,200 allotted to the project and will have $2,000 more this year,
making $10,200. Originally that was $3,000 for nut diseases all over the
United States. We started to work mainly on the southern pecan diseases,
and partly on the bacteriosis of the walnuts of the United States. But
the Southern Pecan Growers' Association got some additional money for
the bureau, $5,000 of which was given to the fruit disease
investigations, and was tied up with the other $3,000. But the wording
of the bill said, "All for pecan diseases." So we transferred more to
the project and made it $8,200 for the nut diseases. That means we have
done very little work for the nut diseases except on Southern pecans,
and I have been warned that one must not stress southern pecans with the
Northern Nu