The disastrous ice storm of the 9th and 10th of January caused slight damage to some of the Chinese trees. Their numerous, more or less horizontal branches and characteristically brittle wood make them prone to damage of this sort; nevertheless, only a few branches were lost. After a comparatively warm February, the warmest since 1925, March brought us more rain than for any March in the 81 years records have been kept[3]—a total of 10.78 inches. This was all to the good, as later events proved. Because of the preceding warm February the ground was for the most part unfrozen, so that, instead of running off, the water was largely absorbed in the soil, and thus added to the water table. The precipitation of April was again heavy—5.6 inches—the normal per month for this area being about 3-1/2 inches. After an unusually good growing season in May, June and July, about the middle of August a long drought of nearly 10 weeks duration commenced. The conditions were similar to those in 1952, except that in that year the drought began later, in October. However, the large amount of water in the soil from the spring rains prevented serious consequences, just as in 1952 the heavy rainfall in August and the normal one in September mitigated any serious results from the later drought of that year.
[3] Weather records are taken from the monthly reports of the municipal airport at New Haven, Conn., and are compared with the New York City records for the same period, kept by the U. S. Weather Bureau at 17 Battery Place, New York City.
Hybrids of 1953
As in former years we continued the formation of hybrids of the combination C×J×A[4] which has to date given the most resistant individuals and the best timber form. 277 hybrid nuts of this combination were obtained by crossing JA with C, and C with JA. JA×J crossed with C yielded 25 nuts. CJA crossed with pollen from the Roxbury Americans gave 20 nuts. The Chinese-American hybrids are also promising both in form and in blight resistance. By crossing these with American pollen from Thomaston, Conn., and from Clinton Corners, N. Y., we secured 48 nuts. CA crossed with a good native American in Thomaston, Conn., resulted in 30 nuts, and the same combination using an American in Newfoundland, N. J., produced 9 nuts. The total number of nuts derived from all crosses was 504, a much smaller figure than that for the two preceding years. The reason for this is that considerable time was consumed in experiments designed to determine the length of the receptive period in the pistils.
[4] C = Chinese, J = Japanese, A = American chestnut.
The 1953 nut production (Table I) compared well with last year's. The total yields were as good as, or better than, the 1952 crop and the average weight per nut was not significantly lower than in 1952. Apparently the late summer and fall drought had no effect on nut yields and average weights. Obviously we have the warm winter and abundant early rains to thank for this situation.
Table I. Natural Yield of Nuts (open pollinations) From Sample Trees.
——————————————————————————————————————
Total yield Av. weight per Approximate
Age in Species Location in lbs. nut in grams no. of nuts
years 1952 1953 1952 1953 per lb.[A]
——————————————————————————————————————
23 C.crenta 13-2 27.5 43.3 14.5 14.0 32
27 C.mollissima 1-3 22.2 20.8 10.6 10.5 43
27 C.mollissima 1-9 28.2 26.2 9.9 9.7 46
27 C.mollissima 1-15 6.8[B] 20.6 12.9 11.7 39
——————————————————————————————————————
A. based on the 1953 weights
B. a considerable part of crop lost before it was collected
Fig 1. gives a fair idea of the extremes in size of the Japanese chestnut. Since the smaller size is probably close to that of the wild chestnut in Japan, the figure illustrates what has been done by the centuries of selection and cultivation that the chestnut has undergone in Japan.
[Illustration: Fig 1. Nuts of C. crenata, Japanese chestnut, showing approximately the limits of size in the species. Left: from a tree on Long Island, N. Y, owned by Mr. John Vertichio. Right: from one of our forest type Japanese trees given to us by the Office of Forest Pathology in 1930 and now growing at the Sleeping Giant Plantation, Hamden, Conn. The tree is probably representative of the wild type of nuts in Japan—a little larger than the native American chestnut. However, it is probable that smaller nuts of the Japanese species exist. About 1/2 natural size. Photo by B. W. McFarland, Conn. Agric. Expt. Sta., Nov. 27, 1953.]