DR. ZIMMERMAN: I discovered by accident that black walnuts and hickories could be kept very nicely in the dry state until spring; then put water on them and they will sprout very nicely. But my chestnuts get moldy that way.
MR. BIXBY: We cover the nuts with at least a sprinkle of earth, may be four or five inches.
THE SECRETARY: Mr. Jones would keep them with practically no dirt but with sand and leaves.
MR. JONES: I would use a little sand over them, two parts of sand to one part of nuts. We put in six inches of nuts and alternating layers of sand.
DR. BROOKS: I know of a man who puts a layer of chestnuts and one of moss and says that in the spring the nuts are in splendid condition.
MR. BIXBY: I have had the nuts sprout very much better when they were stratified as soon as gathered.
MR. O'CONNOR: I bought about 5 bushels of black walnuts, paying 75 cents a bushel for them. I simply dumped them out on the ground, not bothering about the shucks at all, and covered them over with dirt. I paid no more attention to them until spring. Then I put the nuts in trenches with dirt about 5 inches over the top. The mice did not bother them, and I think they did well that way.
THE PRESIDENT: Did the frost affect them?
MR. O'CONNOR: No, not at all.
THE PRESIDENT: I have a black walnut tree at home that started to grow in a neighbor's cellar. It had grown a foot and a half and was rather white in color. I cut off the top and planted it out in the open. Today the tree is still growing and is all right.