Mr. J. C. Moore: I'd just like to say I have tried putting salt in the water, to boil the nuts with salt, and then I have tried shelling them and sprinkling salt, and I find that salt does not add anything to the flavor. Tasting the nuts raw, I, too, get the impression salt is what I want, but I haven't been able to add it satisfactorily. I don't say that it cannot be done.
Dr. MacDaniels: Mr. Chairman, in view of the whole situation of chestnut incompatibility of stock with scion, what would be the position that we in the Northern Nut Growers Association can take in advising people what kind of chestnuts they should plant? Should they be encouraged to try to get grafted trees? What should be our position?
Mr. Chase: Mr. Stoke, would you care to comment on that?
Mr. Stoke: You are asking me to stick out my neck, and it seems as if I have always done that. The Chinese chestnut is in the Johnny Appleseed stage, in my opinion, and we are investigating to find out the best varieties, that is, the best specimen, best performance, best quality, best in blight resistance, growth, and other qualities and when we winnow out all we have and arrive at the best, we are going to find—now, this is just my personal opinion—I will say that for myself I'd rather have one acre of the best selections we have budded or grafted—asexually propagated, than five acres of seedling trees as a financial good bet, because I say that one acre of our very best produce virtually as many nuts as five acres of seedlings. I have trees from seed I imported through the Yokahama Nursery Company, and I think it came from Korea. The nuts run very small, and compared with those I am sure the others will pay much better, and I think it would be profitable to pay three or four or five times as much for your trees if you get good trees of good, known varieties and grafted or budded.
Don't misunderstand me. We shouldn't ask the American public to wait until those can be furnished, because they won't wait, and they shouldn't. But I say as a commercial proposition, to plant trees commercially, I would exercise caution and I would encourage my customers to exercise caution unless they are willing to follow up and do their own top working later on, and a Chinese chestnut doesn't top work as readily as a black walnut.
Mr. Chase: I don't believe that's quite the answer he wanted. The comment that I think Dr. MacDaniels is after is what position should the Northern Nut Growers Association take in regard to planting seedlings or planting grafted stock. Is that the point?
Dr. MacDaniels: Yes, it seems to be seedlings against grafted stock.
Mr. Stoke: May I answer? I don't think the Northern Nut Growers Association should take any position. They should present the facts and let the buyer decide. I don't think we need to go on record, and I don't think we should. There is too much diversity of opinion.
Dr. MacDaniels: Between ourselves—and this is not an academic question—we get continual inquiries regarding the Chinese chestnuts and what should they plant and where can they get the trees, and so forth. It isn't good enough in most of these cases to write several pages explaining what the whole situation is, the if's, and's, and but's. But I just wonder what the opinion is of the people who know best in this regard. Who has a good orchard of 20-year-old grafted Chinese chestnuts? Where are they? I don't know: I am asking for information.
Mr. Chase: Dr. Drain, are those trees you have grafted trees or seedling trees?