Of all the nuts that I have experimented with I have found the chestnut to come into profitable bearing sooner and more profitably than any other."
DR. MORRIS: Some of the state vice-presidents have spoken of native chestnuts of good kinds. One obstacle, however, in the distribution of good chestnuts, has been the state laws which prevent us from sending chestnuts from one state to the other. I would like to ask Mr. Reed if it would be possible to make some arrangement at Washington whereby scions might be sent under government inspection to the West and to other parts of the country where blight does not exist. On my property at Stamford I had several thousand choice chestnut trees. The blight appeared and I cut out 5,000 trees that were from fifty years to more than a hundred years old. Among them there was one sweet American chestnut superior to the others. It had a very large, high-quality nut, and very beautiful appearance, having two distinct shades of chestnut color. The tree was the first to go down with the blight but I have kept it going ever since by grafting on other chestnut stock. I would like mighty well to have that chestnut grow in other parts of the country. It would be an addition to our nut supply.
Furthermore I have among a large number of hybrids, two of very high quality between the American sweet chestnut and the chinkapin. I gave these to Mr. Jones. He found, however, that he had no market for them because of the fear of blight. I would like to present scions of this to anybody outside the chestnut area where chestnuts are being grown, provided I can do this under government methods. We should find a way to do this.
THE SECRETARY: And not by boot-legging.
MR. REED: As Prof. Collins is more likely to be informed in regard to quarantine laws than I am he is the proper one to answer that question. I may say, however, that the federal department is unlikely to interfere in any way with the carrying out of state quarantine laws. Prof. Collins is now in the room. Dr. Morris, will you kindly re-state the question to him?
DR. MORRIS: In brief, I have some very superior chestnuts. They will be valuable for horticultural purposes in other parts, or in non-blight regions, of the country. I have kept them going by care and attention. I would be very glad to send those out of Connecticut, provided that the way may be found, by sending them through Washington to other states. It would be necessary, however, to have the scions treated in such a way as to make sure that the endothia spores had been destroyed.
THE PRESIDENT: I suggest that Prof. Collins give the matter some thought, and when he gives his paper he will be able to inform us about that. We will now ask Mr. Reed for a report as to promising seedlings.
MR. REED: There are quite a number of new things which might be mentioned. One is a group of Chinese walnuts now in their second or third year in the nursery of Mr. Jones, at Lancaster. In this lot there are many beautiful young trees grown from nuts obtained for Mr. Jones by Mr. P. W. Wang, of Shanghai. They are from North China, the territory which I visited more than two years ago and from which I also obtained considerable seed. Of the latter we have now several hundred seedlings ready for distribution. Personally I would like them to be distributed among members of this association. Mr. Jones has 300 or 400 of the Wang trees which he proposes to sell as seedlings. Others will be used as stocks for grafting varieties of regia.
Dr. Morris has already referred to the Chinese chestnuts. Mr. Dorsett, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, has recently arrived in China for a two-years' trip. He will doubtless send many chestnuts.
Another particularly interesting group of nut trees is a lot of hazel-filbert hybrids produced by Mr. Jones. These are between the Rush and the Barcelona, or other European varieties. He now has plants three to five years of age in bearing. They average as high as a man's head. Practically all are in bearing with attractive clusters of nuts, and some are fruiting heavily. The Rush variety, as most members know, is a native hazel of unusually prolific habits of bearing. The nuts are of fair size and quality.