ery good nut to eat
and crack, but it's not for crops. As this gentleman says, the Thomas.
We all know the Thomas. There is one point about the Thomas, you have
got to keep it within just the northern limits of the peach belt where
the peach will grow. There are years that come around when the Thomas
will not mature. The frost will come on. It has a very thick outer
shell, the hull, and the hull comes off the nut itself quite clean. And
then we hear people talking about the Ohio. Now, what about it? Well,
it's a monster nut when you look at it on the tree, but knock the thick
hull off of it, the strong, sturdy hull, and there's only a little nut
in it. Yet you have something that cracks well enough. The nuts I would
condemn right away are the Ohio and Stabler. No doubt about it.
Now the Cresco, very, very rich! That tree will actually kill itself,
just overbearing. You know a tree can kill itself. Some people kill
themselves having 24 or 30 children, but that's about what that tree
will do.
Then we have the nut that years ago I saw, the Snyder, and I said to Mr.
Snyder, "Look, it's a sure nut." He said, "Never saw it." He looked at
it, examined it, and it's a marvelous nut. I think I have the backing of
our friend, Mr. Gilbert Smith. I think he'd back me in saying that that
is one of the best nuts in the world, even with the Thomas.
But we don't quite want to reduce--comb down the list of varieties like
the apple grower has. When you go to Boston and ask a peddler or hawker
about "apples," he won't know what you are talking about. Apples?--they
wonder what the word is. It is "McIntosh." They will go around the
street shouting, "McIntosh, McIntosh." You won't hear the word "apple"
in Boston, it's "McIntosh."
Now, let's get down to nuts, and let us know our nuts.
MR. CALDWELL: (New York State College of Forestry.) I suppose this is my
first time at a meeting of this sort, and probably I should observe with
a critical mind. But when you speak about a committee to pass upon
varieties, immediately I start wondering exactly what you mean by a
variety, and then I start wondering what your approach is in picking
that so-called variety.
First of all, a "variety" that you use is not really a variety. It is
just a vegetation of one particular tree that you happened upon. You
decided by chance it was a tree you wanted to use and then passed it
around to your friends and decided you want it.
DR. CRANE: I want to corre
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