3) Characters must be avoided which vary with the treatment of the samples themselves such as color of kernels.
4) It must give a score that will separate samples on small differences.
Considering the problem from these angles and scrutinizing the older schedules, a number of ideas came out. First of all, why include the shells? If shells are discarded a number of problems would be solved, such as the cleaning of the nuts and adjustments for shrivelled and empty nuts. Also, why reduce any of the weights or measures to percentages which only add to the complexity of the score? The actual amount of kernels recovered reflects both the size of nuts and the yield of kernels. Plumpness of the kernels is reflected in the total weight of kernels and does not need to be considered separately.
The important elements in a score were considered to be:
1) The crackability of the nuts of the variety. This is measured by the weight of kernels obtained in the first crack.
2) The yield of the variety. This is measured in the total weight of kernels.
3) The marketability of the product. This can be measured by the number of pieces in the sample. In general, the smaller the number and the larger the size of the pieces the better the marketability.
With this general background in mind, many samples were tested and the results published in the 1945 report[1]. In order to secure the data needed the kernels of the individual nuts in the samples were weighed separately.
NOTE: All samples were cracked with the (John W.) Hershey nut cracker.
Some of the conclusions drawn from these tests were as follows: