Mr. J. C. McDaniel,
Urbana, Ill.
My Dear Mac;
... In my work with chestnuts I believe I have had an experience that will be interesting to the membership. As you well know I am a strong believer in selected named varieties. I do not regard seedling chestnuts any more valuable than seedling peaches or apples. The—Nursery, a member of our association, have been customers of mine for a long time. Last year I persuaded them to catalog seedling chestnuts at about half the price of Nanking, Meiling, Kuling, and Abundance. I was anxious to learn the attitude of the public, where they had an opportunity to buy and plant selected grafted varieties, when heretofore only seedlings were available. To my utter amazement the seedlings did not sell at all, but the thousand trees of selected varieties were sold out long before the season was over. I could not supply more, neither could I get them elsewhere. So far as I know Max Hardy and I are the only ones grafting chestnuts in quantities.
It is amazing the volume of business that catalog nurseries do. For instance the above firm does a million dollars gross business annually, and many others do a big business. All would be glad to catalog grafted chestnuts, and the chestnut movement would grow by leaps and bounds. True, they would have to be sold to them at wholesale prices, but they want small sizes, parcel post sizes preferred, which can be produced the second year from seed. Plant the seed in March, the next March graft them, and by fall the grafts will range from three to seven feet as shown by the enclosed photos.
I had the same experience with the above firm with Carpathians, sold them 500, which were sold out long before the season ended and I could not get them any more. They have ordered 2500 for this coming season. Unfortunately we had a poor take on grafts this spring due to cutting scion wood after a November freeze, which killed all other English walnuts. Carpathian wood was not hurt except where used for scions. Where left on the trees they forced out as usual and are producing a good crop of nuts.
I must close. I know you will have a wonderful meeting and I wish I could be with you. I will be with you in spirit, and in the meantime will be doing all I can to promote interest in nut growing.—Very truly yours, A. G. Hirschi.
MR. GERARDI: I don't yet have the greenhouse. I depend on field grafting. I produce my own seedlings. I just use seed from those three best trees. They run pretty uniform as far as growth is concerned. I bark graft in the field, when the buds begin to swell nicely and from there on. You can get a growth like that. [Indicating four to 5 feet.]
MEMBER: He has the same thing. Just as soon as the buds swelled. Sometimes I do go to the trouble if I am covering more ground, to cut them off as soon as they start to swell. A chestnut will peel again in four days. I start in after about four days and set these grafts and I use this bark graft. I have a sample of the method here. This is the plain bark graft which is efficient and fast for the production of chestnuts in quantity. I have to get into bigger production. I am trying to make speed and I am using this method. To start, the first week of April, when the buds start. If I get it done, it's the first week or the second of April.
MR. GERARDI: Four days on chestnuts. In my personal opinion after a few years observation I don't believe it is absolutely essential to cut back. Sometimes weather conditions will be a big factor. Sometimes the temperature is around forty and remains that way four or five days. The weather has taken the place of your cut back. That doesn't always happen, but weather conditions sometimes favor this.
MEMBER: What percent of failures do you expect on a hundred?