f the soil. I think that is the fastest and easiest
way of grafting chestnuts. I do my grafting sitting down.

MEMBER: That's on the potted stock.

MR. BERNATH: That's right.

MEMBER: After you have produced all these grafts, what are you going to
do with them?

MR. BERNATH: Sell them.

MR. STOKE: I tried to contact some nurseries. They are selling your
seedlings, little chestnut trees for $1.75 and they want to give you 75c
or a dollar for grafted ones.

MR. O'ROURKE: Mr. McDaniel has received a letter from Mr. Hirschi from
Oklahoma City and there is one paragraph that I think the membership
will be interested in. [Letter from Mr. Hirschi is partly reproduced
here.]

Oklahoma City, Okla.
Aug. 23, 1951
Mr. J. C. McDaniel,
Urbana, Ill.
My Dear Mac;

... In my work with chestnuts I believe I have had an experience
that will be interesting to the membership. As you well know I am a
strong believer in selected named varieties. I do not regard
seedling chestnuts any more valuable than seedling peaches or
apples. The--Nursery, a member of our association, have been
customers of mine for a long time. Last year I persuaded them to
catalog seedling chestnuts at about half the price of Nanking,
Meiling, Kuling, and Abundance. I was anxious to learn the attitude
of the public, where they had an opportunity to buy and plant
selected grafted varieties, when heretofore only seedlings were
available. To my utter amazement the seedlings did not sell at all,
but the thousand trees of selected varieties were sold out long
before the season was over. I could not supply more, neither could
I get them elsewhere. So far as I know Max Hardy and I are the only
ones grafting chestnuts in quantities.

It is amazing the volume of business that catalog nurseries do. For
instance the above firm does a million dollars gross business
annually, and many others do a big business. All would be glad to
catalog grafted chestnuts, and the chestnut movement would grow by
leaps and bounds. True, they would have to be sold to them at
wholesale prices, but they want small sizes, parcel post sizes
preferred, which can be produced the second year from seed. Plant
the seed in March, the next March graft them, and by