ly good take on all types of grafts
used. In 1948 I planted two hundred seedlings bought from Max Hardy,
grown from seed from the Experiment Station orchard. I believe the
production record of this orchard has been given to this convention at
previous meetings. You will recall that the off-type trees were rogued,
leaving the parent trees of Nanking, Kuling and Meiling and others of
good bearing habits. In 1951 four trees out of this lot, were
outstanding in precocity. The earliest started dropping nuts the
fifteenth of August and bore 7-1/4 pounds. The next matured September
5th and produced 8-1/2 pounds. The third tree is unusual. I noticed it
the 4th of October. The ground was covered with nuts, but only an
occasional bur. All of the burs were wide open and still on the tree.
The crop weighed 6-1/2 pounds. The fourth tree I found on the 5th of
October with all of its nuts on the ground, the tree retaining the burs.
The yield of this tree was 4-1/2 pounds. Mind you, this was the fourth
summer after planting. These trees have repeated this year with another
good heavy crop. The other trees in this block bore from none to one or
two pounds of nuts in 1951. This year less than ten trees in the block
are not bearing. Next spring these ten will be growing new tops, because
their present tops are not satisfactory. I noticed that one tree in this
block bloomed long after the rest this spring, several weeks in fact. It
might have possibilities in northern areas because of its late blooming.

Of the eleven hundred trees planted in 1950, one bore nuts in 1951. I
didn't know it until this spring, when I was pruning the trees in this
block, and found nuts on the ground under this tree. It is bearing a
good crop this year for its size and age. There are a number of these
trees bearing this year. Dr. Crane in a hurried inspection of these
trees this summer thought those trees bearing were offspring of a
certain tree in the Philema orchard.

I do not give my chestnut trees special care. They are fertilized and
cultivated the same as young peach orchards. We try to bring in a peach
orchard the third summer, with enough fruit to make it worth spraying. I
see no reason to wait seven or eight years to get a chestnut orchard
into bearing. If you will keep down competition from weeds, cultivate
frequently, and give the tree plenty of nitrogen you will be surprised
at the growth it will make. I set the trees twenty-four feet each way,
with