m getting a lot of fun playing with the
developing of it and I don't believe there will be so very much
difference in the size of these trees 25 years from now. I would say,
however, that for the man who wants to get a nut grove developed as soon
as possible, he should buy his trees from the expert nut tree
nurseryman.

My entire grove is now seeded to blue grass for a permanent pasture.
About 25 acres is pastured by 160 head of sheep and the balance is cut
for hay to feed the sheep in the winter time. My reason for seeding to
blue grass is to prevent erosion. Possibly if I should keep my trees
cultivated during the summer they would make a better growth. But then
my sheep will make quite a bit of manure and I spread much of this
manure under the trees every winter and, as it is, my trees are making a
very good growth every year.

I now have a grove of about 800 black walnut trees. These are mostly of
the Thomas, also quite a few Ohio and Stabler and a few Ten Eycks. The
Stablers, Ohios, and Ten Eycks seem to fill the shell so full of meats
with me that they are hard to remove in large pieces. I think I shall
regraft most of these to the Thomas and some of the later varieties.

About 600 of my trees are now 7 years old from seed. These trees had
about 1/2 bushel of hulled walnuts last summer and I expect to have
about 2 bushels this summer. Last summer I also had about a peck of hard
shell almonds from my two trees that were planted in 1927. In 1931 my 6
filberts had about 1/2 peck of nuts. These trees are now big enough to
have at least a bushel or two of nuts if the catkins had not frozen this
past winter.

Dr. Zimmerman: Mr. Hostetter, I would like to suggest, from the fact
that we know so little about pollinization of nut trees, that you do not
be in too big a hurry to cut out your odd varieties. Instead why not do
this, let them come into bearing and then each year cut the variety out
and note if there is any change in the bearing of the Thomas, of which
you say your orchard is mostly made up? Should you happen to note a lack
of pollinization or bearing in the Thomas the year after a certain
variety is cut out, you can then start checking and may find that
variety the best pollinator for the Thomas. I certainly would not be in
too big a hurry to eliminate all my test varieties if I were you.

The President: Last year Prof. Reed gave us a very valuable paper on
pollinization.

Dr. Zimmerman: I have a Taylor h