Mr. Stoke: That man wants good color, good flavor, kernels easy to pick out, and of good size. That goes with the retail buyer. If the commercial buyer gets 30 per cent kernels from good nuts compared with 15 per cent from run-of-mine nuts, he doubtless will be willing to pay a considerable premium for the better nuts if he can get them. But unless the good nuts are in considerable quantity they go right in with the others and no more will be paid for them. That's my point of view. I don't want to express my particular opinion, because I have no particular opinion. But you might consider both, the commercial nut, and the home nut.
I think we might vote and determine what action, to take tonight as to setting up a standard, or if you want to set up a double standard.
Mr. Weber: Mr. Mullins does get a better price for a larger kernel. He separates them and treats them differently than the general run of small pieces. It's been my observation that the cracking machines do a remarkably good job with the ordinary run of seedling nuts. Kenneth Dick gets the kernels out in rather large pieces, and from what we saw up at Mullins' place he gets the same thing. He sifts out the larger pieces and gets a better price for them. So the preference is for the larger pieces. It's like buying hamburger; you prefer your hamburger ground up out of larger pieces rather than odds and ends that the butcher has around the shop and grinds it up and hands it to you.
Mr. Stoke: But isn't it true that he sells the kernels in two separate classes?
Mr. Weber: But the preference still seems to be, after we see them, for the larger pieces. They have better kernels; otherwise, they would break up in small pieces.
Mr. Korn: I believe that as long as there are very few commercial orchards, we should approach it from the angle of the people who have just a few pet nut trees around their yards, because I don't think the commercial orchards of the improved grafted black walnuts are going to be large enough to color the picture very much for a few years to come. As long as they haven't been too profitable, I think it is going to be some time before we have to worry much about commercial orchards. Therefore, we are interested in getting a superior product in kernel; it has to be large, has to be of good color and good flavor. It seems to me that would be one of the first things to consider. Then, if orchards get more plentiful and profitable, we can take up the other angle.
Mr. Chase: Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a few remarks on this business of commercial cracking and large pieces that I hear mentioned by my good friend, Mr. Weber. I had hoped to have the two largest shellers in the country present at these meetings, but was unable to get them here. In this area the commercial walnut cracking industry is related directly to the type of machinery necessary to recover the kernels. For example, the two or three cracking plants in Nashville handle an estimated ten million pounds of nuts each year and turn out roughly 1.2 million pounds of kernels. These kernels go directly to confectionary syrup and ice cream plants. Therefore, they are not interested in size of pieces. In fact, if they are too large, the commercial users have to chop them up. So what we are doing here, ladies and gentlemen, is confusing what we want to do in the way of judging nuts, it appears to me. There is little reason to assume that the Thomas, if they could get 10 million pounds of Thomas, would be more valuable to the commercial crackers. But that doesn't necessarily interfere with our judging system that we are trying to design to tell which nut is the best to grow.
I specifically asked these buyers of millions of pounds of nuts: "If I came in with some Thomas nuts would I get some more money for them?" Their reply was, "No, sir. We pay a flat rate per hundred pounds of nuts. We know that some of them are going to be excellent; we know some of them are going to be poor, but we intend to get from 12 to 15 per cent kernel recovery out of them."
In 1940 we brought quantities of improved varieties to the cracking plant in Knoxville and ran them through Mr. Smalley's machine. He was amazed. He didn't believe it; didn't believe his eyes. They came out in large pieces. But under present conditions they'd be chopped up. None of these kernels moving out of Nashville vicinity go to retail trade, except a few that go to confectionary stores in 25-pound boxes and are sold a pound at a time for cooking purposes, not for eating out of the hand.
People like Mr. Korn and Mr. Hirschi, who are interested in selling kernels at a much higher price than the commercial crackers, have to have large pieces, attractive kernels, properly cared for, properly colored, and of mild flavor. Is it this group we are trying to assist by this judging system or the commercial cracker?