Dr. Morris: It is a pity that people who do the most advertising have to. Certain firms are not allowed to advertise in nut journals at all. I think the public ought to be made aware of that fact. It is a pity too, because the ones who spend the largest amount of money in advertising are the ones of whom we ask the most questions.
In regard to Prof. Chittenden's paper, it is a very important matter to impress upon children and others who are setting out trees the idea that a tree is not able to care for itself as a rule. It is quite the exception for a tree set out by itself to thrive and enter into competition with other trees and bushes and shade, in the early years, and insects later. I suppose the number of ordinary trees including maples that make their way to a successful old age would not represent one in many hundred thousands that make a start in the sprouting seed. That fact ought to be impressed on every school child who is setting out a tree—he really should adopt that tree and make that its own child. And if you can inculcate the maternal and the paternal instinct along with the setting out of from one to six children of these other children, you will then get trees on your roadsides and your waste lands, and without a great amount of difficulty. But you have got to go back to first principles there and realize that very few trees are able to succeed after they have been set out unless they receive a great deal of care subsequently. Those of us who give a great deal of attention to trees, who pretend to care for our trees, will lose a percentage so large that I would hardly dare state what it probably is. Among the hundreds and thousands of trees I have set out, all from reputable nurserymen or raised by myself; I doubt if 25% are alive today, and I have pretty good success too. This is not to discourage anyone; it is to encourage people, and they are to be encouraged by knowing the facts; and when all the final facts are known about the values of trees that are given proper attention, then people will be willing to give them that degree of attention. Not until then are we to have success in filling our waste lands with nut trees.
Prof. Chittenden brought up one point of a great deal of consequence. In any locality plant the species which belong to that locality. The species which, by natural selection and adaptation have fitted themselves to the environment are, as a rule, the trees which will do best in that locality. That is a principle I think which ought to be thoroughly well fixed in mind. One may experiment with any number of trees from a distance, but the trees which naturally have adapted themselves to a locality, the species which have done that are the species upon which we can expend our efforts to the best advantage.
In the matter of chestnut blight, we assume that the chestnut blight will act like measles blight, scarlet fever blight, or any other epidemic. In other words, it is due to a microbe, it is due to a peculiar microbic group, a peculiar family group which happened to start out in northern China on its invasion and got to this country where it found trees which were not resistant. The American and European trees are not resistant. Wherever it has gone from northern China, from the place where blight, the tree host and enemy grew up side by side, and represented the survival of the fittest; wherever it has gone away from the place where we have the survival of the fittest, at any rate as a result of struggle, there it has found susceptible individuals that it has destroyed. When a blight of any sort sets out, chestnut blight, measles, scarlet fever—any blight you please, you are talking natural history, you are taking biology, about an animal or a plant, about a microbe, a living thing. All of these living things run out of their vital energy in time. Each microbe runs out of its energy just as a breed of horses or of strawberries runs out of its energy. All varieties, varietal types, run out of their natural energy, so that it is simply a question of length of time before this family microbe or family group of this microbe will lose its energy. We do not know how many years that will be. It may be a great many years, and by that time, our chestnuts may practically have disappeared. We can find here and there a tree which resists better than others do, and we may find some with enough resistance to be worthy of propagation as of that resistant kind. We know that several species resist the blight very well. I found four species that resist the blight very well among six kinds I have tried out on my place. But some chestnuts bear so early and heavily that we may afford to set them out, even in the presence of blight, trimming them back and looking after them carefully: For instance, a number of Sober Paragon chestnuts that I planted all died but one that is near the house. It bears so heavily that it is well worth while, and it simply means that one must give a great deal of attention to it. Some people can afford even to set out the Paragon because of its high bearing power. I have a number of hybrids which resist the blight very well. The cross between the American chestnut and the Japanese, or between the common American chestnut and the chinquapins showed the resistance very largely of the resistant parent. But curiously enough, the ones which look most like the American chestnut also carry that parent's weakness in regard to blight, so that all of my hybrids between the American chestnut and the resistant kinds which look like the American chestnut and act like it also catch the same microbe for the most part. But one of the hybrids does not. No. 2 which I have given Mr. Jones, is very much like the American chestnut. It grows vigorously, acts like it, and looks like it, and it has not blighted up to the ninth year of age, beginning to bear about the fourth year. Most of those that are like the chinquapin or like the Chinese chestnut resist blight very well.
About Japanese walnuts. If Prof. Chittenden has a large number of Japanese walnuts about the state, he may very well select one or two of the very best and advise the owners to top work the others with the one or two which happen to be particularly good. Most of the Japanese walnuts are small. Most of them are Siebold type instead of the heart nut variety, but a few very large ones will be found here and there and of high quality, and they graft almost as easily as peaches.
In regard to Persian walnuts. If there are a few trees here and there about the state, we need not fear the question of introducing others because it is too far north. If you simply have one tree that is a good one, that is enough, because you can graft over all sorts of black walnuts, Japanese walnut and Persian walnut stocks with the one or two trees which are known to be good in Michigan. One good tree in the state which is bearing good nuts of desirable qualities is enough. Graft all of your other walnuts back from it. And in setting out the native black walnuts, chestnuts and the hickories of different species, it is important always to distinguish in regard to intention—whether they are to be for forest purposes or for nut purposes. That is not always clear in the minds of a number of people whom I have seen setting out groves of these trees. They talk about getting timber and nuts. You can not get both profitably. I think people ought to be impressed with the fact that if they are setting out apple trees for timber they would set them five or six feet apart. If they are setting them out for apples, they would set them sixty feet apart. Precisely the same thing is true of nut trees. (Applause).
Mr. Jones: I would like to ask Dr. Morris how he protects grafts the first year. Grafts growing the first year are very tender, put in late, and they will often winter kill in the tree that is perfectly hardy otherwise.
Dr. Morris: Mr. Jones is quite right about that, and that is a matter requiring more experience than I have at the present time. What I have done in the way of protection fairly well is this: For instance, if I graft Persian walnut on black walnut and it makes a late start and then in September has a very sappy growth, or in October has a sappy growth of three or four or five feet (they grow tremendously fast, like weeds) if the bark at the base of the graft is brown or has two or three buds that are brown or partially ripened, I cut off four or five of the first leaves and let them harden. Then in the fall I cut off all but those four or five buds and put wax over the end. That is the way I avoid the winter killing of the sappy growth. As soon as the part nearest the grafted place begins to turn brown, looks like hardening up and two or three buds are pretty hard, I cut off four or five of those leaves right there and let the buds ripen, and those buds will ripen very well. I will sacrifice five or six buds for the sake of saving three or four buds. The next year they grow all right. That is not a nice way, but when you see you are going to lose a thing on account of sappiness, that will sometimes work.
Mr. Jones: I generally wrap the base of the limb in burlap.
Dr. Morris: If the sappy tip dies, it poisons the rest. There are poisonous enzymes that poison the rest of it.