Wright and Walters heartnuts seem well adapted here, and are doing equally well for me on Japanese, butternut, and black rootstocks. These are the only two I have old enough to bear, and they are bearing their first few nuts each this season. I would like to add here, that the wild nut crop in general in my section, is very light, and these nut trees that I mention as bearing this season, are the more to be noticed for their crops in this year of bad nut crops. I am trying "buartnuts" and butternuts, which are growing satisfactorily, but not large enough for a crop.
This is wonderful natural chestnut territory. All of the many Chinese seedlings I have, and the few grafted ones, are growing nicely, and quite a number have burs on them when only about belt high to an average man. I am anxious to get graftwood of superior individuals as they come out, for propagation here in my own planting. I believe this to be a good home for any good chestnut. No blight is showing to date in either my seedlings or grafted ones.
I live on rather deep, fertile upland, and am quite hopeful of good results from many of the Northern pecan varieties that I am trying. The oldest trees I have are only five years old, on small seedling stocks and hardly old enough to yield a crop for at least another five years. Major, Greenriver, Busseron, and Fisher are my oldest, and are making rapid growth. Stuart, of the Southern group, is bearing quite well for my friend, Lewis Edmunds, a few miles southwest of me, and he says it matures its nuts well before frost, but insects cause a goodly part of the crop to fall prematurely.
I have quite a collection of the better known grafted shagbarks on my woodland. These are mostly on wild shagbark stocks. They are all growing well, but I have had no nuts from them as yet. Grainger is the fastest grower of the lot.
To make my nut tree project complete, I have quite a long row of filberts and hazels, set hedge row fashion, which include quite a list of varieties. Those that bear quite regular and heavy crops include four "Jones Hybrids," Winkler hazel, two un-named hazels, and Barcelona filbert.
I have persimmons, too, both American and Chinese named varieties. My
Chinese are young and not bearing yet, but doing well. Kansas and
Josephine are my choice of the natives.
I am trying Millwood and Shessler honeylocusts for the first time this year. They are beautiful grafts, and I am looking forward to the pleasure and profit of adding them to my hill cow pasture in a year or two.
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President Davidson: Thank you, very much, Dr. Rohrbacher. We have 15 minutes before the next order comes on the program. Suppose you take a recess right now.
(A recess was taken.)