The Carpathian Persian walnut that we pollinated this spring with Wright heartnuts [no other walnuts were shedding at the time] matured a nice, large, rather pointed, heavy nut. It also matured another nut higher on the tree than we could reach with the catkins, but I'm sure it's a blank. It is still more pointed than the well-filled nut. The good nut is stored for planting.
Rush hazel that set fruit last year with the help of a bouquet of native [West Tennessee] catkins set only 5 nuts this year "on its own." These I have also stored to plant.
I didn't have enough stocks to utilize all the pollen-sterile Japanese chestnut buds you sent me [in early September]. I put in most of them, even in some cases several to the stock to see what percentage of takes we would get with the twin T. [See 1946 Report of N. N. G. A., pp. 87-88, for a description of the Twin T budding method.—Ed.]
Here are the percentage takes for chestnut propagation this year. Of course I don't know how many of these buds will later drop off.
| 1. Pollen-sterile Japanese on Japanese stock. Late summer buds | 100% |
| 2. Austin Japanese on Japanese Stock. Late summer buds | 86% |
| 3. Hobson Chinese on Chinese. Late summer buds | 75% |
| 4. Zimmerman Chinese on Chinese. Late summer buds | 50% |
| 5. Colossal hybrid on Japanese stock. Spring grafts | 60% |
I had a nice crop of Chinese chestnuts on my young Hobson and Zimmerman trees. The 1947 nuts were exceptionally large. One 3-year seedling bore 1 bur with 3 nuts fully as large. Connecticut Yankee bore for the first time, 3 nuts to a bur, but very small, scarcely ½" in diameter. (You will notice I budded none of this variety!) (Perhaps mislabeled seedling.—Ed.)
I have about 100 nuts from isolated trees that were hand pollinated, as follows: Austin x Hobson, Austin x Zimmerman, Hobson x Austin and Hobson x Zimmerman.
I have altogether 3 quarts of select nuts stored in the refrigerator. So far they are keeping nicely. (I dusted them with Fermate, hope it doesn't affect germination.)