idow lady
probably 65 years old, living there with her daughter. And among other
things, she said, "Mr. Magill, I understand that you are supposed to
know something about nuts. See that tree standing right out there?" She
says, "I will give you a $20 bill if you will tell me how to make that
nut tree bear annual crops."

Well, I was a little bit surprised. I listened, and I got to asking her
questions. Some member of the family had gone to Chicago years ago, and
she knew about all the black walnut packing firms in Kentucky. This
relative had worked in the market, and had indicated she could get a
dollar a pound for all the nut meats she would pick out and send to this
relative in Chicago. And that nut tree meant about 30 to 35 dollars a
year when it had a crop but only bore every other year.

Well, that drove home just a little more to me than ever before the
question of why certain nut trees bore and others didn't bear. To that
lady there it meant $30 the year it bore and no income from that tree on
the year it didn't bear. And she stood there beside the home and pointed
out other trees that bore regularly. And she said, "Why do they bear
regular crops and this good tree that makes so many fine, big kernels
bears every other year?" That's a challenge I am throwing out to this
audience today to all the members on this panel.

I am hoping that Pappy Ward or Friend Chase will answer that question
completely. The thing I have in mind, is that in a group like we have
here today, as many nuts as we have got here, if we think about this
question and talk to the folks back home, I believe in a year or two we
can have worked out and have printed in the records of the report some
pretty reasonable answers as to why nut trees don't bear, or why they
bear heavy crops on certain years and are off certain years.

Mr. Ward, I know you have observed this over a period of years. What, in
your opinion, is the one factor that is more responsible for this
alternate bearing of black walnuts?

Why Black Walnuts Fail to Bear Satisfactory Crops

W. B. WARD, _Department of Horticulture, Purdue University, Lafayette,
Ind._

When man or nature, and sometimes both, change the natural habits of a
tree, most anything can happen. There are years when the black walnut
sets very few fruits either on the seedling trees or trees of named
varieties. Some few trees have alternate years of production, while
other trees bear annually and som