rop. This has not
been quite as large as last year as I have harvested only a little over
1,554 pounds (I say a little over for it is hard to get all the nuts) of
weighed nuts. This includes some that were beginning to spoil. I include
these since it is sometimes due to my failure to gather promptly and I
think can be fairly included in production records. I might state here
in fairness to last year's report of a yield of 1,722 pounds of nuts
that I recorded 1,557 as being sold which leaves a difference of 165
pounds, which were either discarded as spoiling or were unaccounted for.
This gives me a loss of approximately 10% for last year.

Although my total production was lower than last year I had one tree (ML
No. 2) which produced 150 pounds of weighed nuts and a few pounds more
(maybe 2 or 3) which were not included. This tree has been a consistent
heavy bearer for several years but I had not checked its yield
separately before. Since it is so early it was easy to keep the nuts
separate (as I was keeping these to sell for seed nuts). In about 2
weeks time it had produced about 130 pounds so I made a special effort
to check the remainder since I was astonished at so large a yield. When
most of the nuts had fallen I had the above figure, to my surprise.

The tree in size is not my largest but about average being 12-1/2" in
diameter 3' above the ground with a limb spread of 30' and a height of
24'. It has a very symmetrical shape with enough rigidity in the limbs
to hold them off the ground so the tree does not appear very large.

I just had to laugh when I got a letter yesterday from Mr. Ralph D.
Gardner, whom I had written previously about the yield of this tree and
sent 2 pounds of nuts from it, asking me if the tree produced two crops
in one year. He said Mr. James Hobson had told him that he gets two
crops from his tree each year. Mr. Gardner had a good reason to ask this
question since knowing about the Hobson chestnut, but I reckon he might
have thought about what I would have thought under similar
circumstances, i.e., surely a tree so young (13-1/2 years from setting)
couldn't produce that many nuts at one time, so must have two ripening
periods to contain the fruit. I will have to say that all these were
produced in one crop. Most of these ripened in just a little over two
weeks. I might say that I do have one tree (ML No. 1) which has on a few
occasions bloomed the second time and had burs which remained green