here for 12 and 14 years,
with perfect unions. But we do receive a number of reports of trees
dying from blight and various other and sundry other causes and when we
examine them quite frequently these have died back to where the trees
had been grafted.

Rev. Taylor: I could enlarge on that question just a little bit to tie
in with what Mr. O'Rourke said. If the nurserymen are going to propagate
seedling trees for the trade for some time yet, where should they be
advised to obtain their seed to get the best possible seedling trees?

Mr. Gravatt: In a lot of our regional distributions we sent out
mixtures. In other places we would send out related seedlings, as "MY,"
"MZ," or "MAX," to different individuals. We have advised all
nurseryman, all of our cooperators, to eliminate the Japanese; eliminate
the hybrids. It gets down to pure Chinese. We have also advised again
and again to take out the more worthless trees and propagate seed from
the beat. But there are a lot of hybrid seeds with mixed parentage going
into nursery trees.

Mr. McDaniel: How many people are going to take out trees now when they
can sell the seeds for at least 50 cents or maybe even $2.00 a pound?

Mr. Gravatt: That's it. However, you take any of those Chinese trees
over there at the Eastern Shore Nurseries, for example--nuts from all 19
of them have been sent over here, and they are all good eating. I have
been over a lot of the seedlings of Hemming's trees. Mr. Hemming has
several hundred at his own place. I have been over other orchard
plantings. There is lot of variability among those seedlings. They are
not as uniform as the parent tree, for some reason. Why, I don't know.

Mr. Chase: Mr. Howell, as a nurseryman, has propagated the Chinese
chestnut tree. Would you care to make a few comments? Mr. Howell has
Howell's Nursery in Knoxville and at Sweetwater, Tennessee, and I
believe has some of Mr. Gravatt's early seedling trees and has produced
a great quantity of seedlings.

Mr. Bruce Howell: A good many years ago we got from the Department five
trees, and they grew and have all borne good nuts, and all chestnuts we
have propagated since have been grown from seed from those five trees,
and most of them are pretty good. One is a small nut, and among more
recent seedlings we have got two of them that don't bear at all, or
haven't so far. Now, we have got a bunch of them where they were set
several years ago in nursery rows. At each end of ea