parently open an entirely new field in horticulture, and no one can
prophesy the result of selection of trees which present intensification
of desirable characteristics of a single parent through several
successive generations.

THE POSSIBILITIES OF NUT CULTURE IN UTAH

LEON D. BATCHELOR, UTAH

I suppose the majority of you have very little or no idea of
agricultural conditions in Utah. Perhaps some think it is a desert. When
I went to Utah, three or four years ago, the first thing that struck my
mind forcibly in traveling around through the state was the absolute
lack of any nuts. Being born and brought up in Massachusetts, I
naturally noticed this, as one of the pleasures of my boyhood days
consisted in gathering chestnuts, hickory nuts, hazelnuts and
beechnuts. We found them all around the fence corners and pastures and
in the woods, and I missed this in Utah, and it occurred to me
immediately to look up the cause of the lack of nuts in the state and I
found no good reason except that nature has not seen fit to plant nuts
there. There is no reason in climatic or soil conditions which will make
it impossible to grow many of the hardier nuts, and even, in the
southern part of the state, to grow almonds and the tenderest walnuts.
Climatic conditions are not unlike some of the best fruit sections in
New York. Peaches and apples are grown successfully and as soon as you
get down to the central and southern part of the state, many of the
hardier European grapes are grown. In the extreme southern part you can
grow any of the European grapes grown in California, so nothing in the
way of climatic conditions exists which would prevent the development of
nut growing in this state. The soil conditions vary widely, all the way
from the sandy loams to the deep soils and gravels, and it is possible
to find thousands of acres of deep, rich loam soil. Some of it is five
to twenty-five feet deep. Of course the rainfall in that semi-arid
region is insufficient for nuts but that can be supplemented by
irrigation water, so that is practically no disadvantage. Since I have
been there I have tried to interest some of the fruit growers in the
planting of a few different varieties of the hardier nuts, and I have
distributed among them some of the walnuts and this year I am bringing
in some of the old shagbark hickory nuts from Massachusetts, and I am
going to distribute them among my friends and acquaintances there to be
used to r