l of the pecan.

Mr. Chisholm, who was connected with the Consulate in Athens and who
spoke Greek very well, took me out and showed me what these pistache
trees looked like and when I found this miscellaneous lot of grafted
pistache trees I made an arrangement to purchase the whole collection
and send it to this country. I had great difficulty in getting the
American Consul in Piraeus to help me ship them. I could not wait
indefinitely and it took a good while to have them dug and packed. I
asked him if he would send them and he said he was very busy. I told him
this was a matter which concerned the people of the United States and if
he did not have time to do it I would telegraph to the Secretary of
Agriculture and tell him that the Consul in Athens was too busy to ship
these plants. Finally he consented to ship them and this was the first
shipment of grafted pistache trees to arrive in America. They were badly
grafted, badly packed and badly prepared and I think only one of this
whole collection survived and is now growing in the Gallespie grounds at
Montecito, California.

Mr. Kearney ought to be here tonight and Mr. Swingle and Dr. Rixford.
These three men have given more attention to the pistache than I have.
Mr. Kearney was studying the date palm industry of Southern Tunis and in
connection with it he made a study of the pistache industry of the
desert region of the coast of Tunis. This picture represents an Arab
standing beside an old pistache tree that probably is forty or fifty
years of age. It represents the pistache in its winter dress. They are
deciduous trees. They plant one male tree to about twenty females. We
have had a great real of difficulty in propagating these pistache trees.
We have five different species of stock on which to grow them, and we
ought to learn all the best varieties in the world. But unfortunately
some of the best varieties in Sicily are infested with a moth which lays
its eggs in the twigs just below the leaf scar and it is impossible for
the entomologist to detect these eggs without destroying the buds. That
apparently trivial circumstance has made it impossible for us to get
these cuttings in from Sicily without sending a trained horticulturist
there for them. We never have had the money to send a man there who
could do it, a man who had had the necessary experience. As a
consequence we have not as big a collection of these pistache varieties
as we ought to have.

These men in