d get out a report and
discuss the standards for evaluation. That is the reason for this paper,
which I will read. It will take only about ten minutes.

How About the Butternut?

DR. L. H. MacDANIELS, Ithaca, New York

The purpose in presenting this paper is to summarize what is known about
the butternut in the light of my own experience, and to find out from
you in discussion what additional facts are available and what some of
the problems in the culture of butternuts may be. A good summary by S.
H. Graham is to be found in the 34th Annual report of the Northern Nut
Growers Association, and short reports appear elsewhere. In general,
however, judging from the proceedings of this Association, the butternut
has not received much attention through the years. The lack of interest
in the butternut indicates unsatisfactory experience with this nut on
the part of those who have tried to grow and use it. An analysis of its
good and bad characteristics is in order.

Of all the species of nuts with which the Association is concerned, the
butternut is the most hardy and the most likely to succeed on poor soil.
In general, the trees are easy to transplant, are early bearing,
sometimes within two years from the graft, and are easy to grow. The
flavor of the butternut is very distinctive and palatable, and usually
much more flavorful than similar nuts derived from the Japanese
butternut and the heartnut. Some people consider the butternut flavor
the best of all nuts.

On the other hand, the butternut has a reputation for being short lived
because of susceptibility to various diseases. The seedling trees which
are usually sold are slow in bearing. The common wild nuts are hard to
crack with a hammer, and the better named varieties are not well known
or widely grown. The trees also have a reputation for being difficult to
propagate. Of these faults, probably the difficulty of propagation and
cracking are the most important in restricting its use.

Botanically the butternut (_Juglans cinerea_) belongs to a group of
species within the genus Juglans that bears its fruit in long clusters
or racemes, as contrasted with the walnut group which bears nuts singly
or in clusters of two or three. The butternuts also have the fruit and
leaves covered with sticky hairs instead of being smooth. The group is
further characterized by having a cushion of hairs above the leaf scars
and pointed terminal buds on the twigs. Other species wi