Dr. Drain (University of Tennessee): They are seedling trees. They have produced a rather nice quality nut, and we have enjoyed propagating seedlings from them. That's really all we know. We haven't grafted any.
Mr. Chase: Mac, would you care to comment on this?
Mr. McDaniel: I am ashamed to say that at present we have no grafted chestnut trees on my own north Alabama farms. We have about 50 trees that are 8-year-old seedlings from imported (Chinese) nuts, growing next to a commercial peach block, and find the production quite variable on the different trees. I am aiming at top-working most of these with the named varieties, beginning this year. At present I can't answer the question of seedlings vs grafted trees. I have been advising people who are interested in trying them in Tennessee that for their first planting (to test the adaptability of their locations) they can get the seedlings generally quite a bit cheaper than the grafted trees. With the experience we have had over the State and the high mortality of trees, both grafted and seedling—killing of the tops and in some cases the whole tree—the seedling might be best economically to begin their experimenting with. I am not recommending that anyone plant seedlings commercially, but just in a small way for trial. They are well worth a trial anywhere peaches are doing well. When we find a suitable site, then is the time to think about using the more expensive grafted trees.
Pres. Davidson: I just want to give a little bit of my experience along that line. Way back in 1934 I planted a few seeds that I got from Amelia Riehl. They were nuts of the Riehl hybrids. [Ed. note: Mostly American—European crosses.] She named one Dan Patch and another Gibbons. They are now about 13 years old. Each of them is bearing burs this year. They have borne burs, a few of them, in the past, but no nuts. So far in 1948, the burs that have fallen to the ground, of course, have no nuts, but whether the burs that are still on the trees have nuts I don't know. I want to know whether those trees are normal—-whether a hybrid of that kind is likely to be sterile or not. That's another matter that might be discussed. Anyhow, you are taking a chance, no question about that, when you plant seedlings.
Mr. Stoke: Mr. Chairman, if you will pardon me for saying one more word, here is a suggestion I will make. Now you can check for yourself. The whole thing hinges on whether we can get permanent grafts on the tree and get the characteristics in the grafted tree that the parent has—in the good selected tree. Now you take the reports sent us by Mr. Hemming; you take the reports of the station at Albany—of individual trees in those plots. You take the worst trees and you will find they are nothing but boarders. You take the best and you will find they are very profitable. You take the average and it will fall somewhere in between.
Now, why keep a lot of boarders that don't pay—free boarders—or why use run-of-mine seedlings, if we can graft successfully—and some people like to dispute that—and produce nothing but the best? And you can check it on any of those tables. [Mr. Hardy's paper.] We have a few tables in our former Reports. You can check it and figure it out for yourself.
Dr. Crane: To clear up this situation I wanted to ask Mr. Hardy a question, and then I wanted to make a statement. In this report from the 1938 and 1940 planting at Albany, Georgia, in the Brown tract in 1947 there were 188 trees that bore crops, but that planting consisted of 274 trees planted in 1938 and 60 trees planted in 1940. Why weren't those 274 trees plus those 60 trees represented in the 100 with the yield records of 1947?
Mr. Hardy: Dr. Crane knows the answer, so I will let him ask the question and answer it, too.
Dr. Crane: In 1936 we planted 1,000 trees of the same Peter Liu selections on the Station farm at Beltsville, Maryland. They were of the same number and letter designations as others that were distributed to cooperators. Out of the thousand trees that we planted on the Station farm some of them came into bearing at four and five years after planting. But the nuts were small in size and were not much good. With one or two exceptions, out of that planting there were none bearing satisfactorily to suit us after ten years. In 1945 we applied the ax, because a Chinese chestnut tree, from an orchard standpoint, if it's not in bearing in ten years after planting is not worth keeping. We haven't got time to wait. So out they came. And in addition to that we have had other trees that have done the same thing.
Now, out of this 274 plus the 60 at Albany, Georgia, we have three trees that we now figure are good enough to be raised to a variety status, plus possibly two or three more. Now, you can figure your percentage of good trees when you plant seeds.