Mr. Mullins: Those nuts I talked about, Mac, that ran up that high percentage were from over in Clark County around Winchester. And I have quite a few of them that I pick-up that are even larger in size than some of these Thomas nuts that are lying in here, out of that particular locality. They are very big.
Mr. McCauley: You will find that that is true. Your percentage varies over the country. I like to think that the wild seedling black walnut has a possibility of about 18 pounds in a hundred. I may be wrong.
Dr. MacDaniels: Is that loss in the cracking procedure; I mean, that the things don't crack out?
Mr. McCauley:. The loss is in the cracking, but on an 18 pounds possibility we would probably get between 14 and 15 per cent with this new method of cracking and processing.
Dr. MacDaniels: Now, if you had a nut that would run hand-cracked 24 per cent, you lose 2 in your cracking procedure, and you recover 22. Would you pay twice as much for nuts of that quality as you would for common grade?
Mr. McCauley: Yes, I think that I would. If I had assurance that I was going to get 22 per cent kernels I would be very pleased to pay double. It would pay me, if I were shelling, to pay twice as much for that variety for the simple reason that I only have one cost of picking. Now, the average cost of picking black walnuts kernels is about 11-1/2 cents a pound. At least, that's the best I have ever been able to do with them. And if you sold me a walnut that would give me twice as many kernels with one cracking and one picking, I'd make money and I could pay you twice as much money for that nut.
Dr. MacDaniels: What volume would a cracker have to have to make it interesting? What quantity would have to be produced and offered to a cracker to make it interesting? That is, say I have 50 bushels of Thomas. That isn't any good to you, because your cracking plant—
Mr. McCauley: Why wouldn't it? If I had 50 bushels, that is 2500 pounds, right? All right, Tom could run his plant for two hours and a half, we will say, on 2500 pounds, and in that two hours and a half he would be getting as much kernels as he would otherwise in five hours. That's good business.
Mr. Chase: I'd just like to comment on that 18 per cent kernel you mentioned as the average you'd like to think of. Mr. Zarger has run a study on the sample trees in the Tennessee Valley to measure the kernel content in some 130 trees for about seven years running, and it pans out to about 18 per cent. I thought you'd just like to know.
Mr. McCauley: I didn't want to make a definite statement and then have somebody throw something back in my face. That's why I said I'd like to think.