It is also worthy of note, that No. 19 is spaced 30 feet from No. 18 and No. 16 is the same distance from No. 18, while all the other trees are spaced 16 feet apart. An acre of trees like No's. 16, 18 and 19, spaced 30 feet apart, would average 96 pounds per tree or 4200 pounds per acre, a really tremendous crop.
We had one disappointment this year, in that our method of controlling the weevil was not completely effective. To our chagrin we found that, while we were diligently picking the nuts up each day, some of the larvae were escaping through the cotton bags to reinfest the ground. Next year, we will use metal containers and we are sure that will stop them. We will fumigate if necessary. We do not particularly fear the weevil as we are sure that spraying, and fumigation will clean them up; after that proper harvesting should control them. We have heard that the U. S. D. A. has found the use of DDT to be effective. In another county a raiser of hybrid corn seed dusted his corn with DDT by plane, to kill the Japanese beetle, for $3.00 per acre. Surely that method would be adaptable to chestnut orchards to control the weevil.
At the present time we are using our entire crop for seed purposes and this year we sowed 40 to 50 thousand nuts. We carefully grade the seed, not only discarding any infested nuts, but all moldy, split or undersized nuts, so that we get trees grown only from the choicest. By doing this we feel that although the trees are seedling raised, they come from parent trees that are bearing well, and from which all extraneous pollen is excluded so that the customer has a good chance of getting a tree that will bear well.
The seed is sown in the fall, because it keeps better that way and germinates better too, although we have some trouble from a mole-mice combination. The seeds are sown in shallow trenches 6 inches apart and 2 inches deep and back—filled either with sawdust or light soil. On top is mounded a further 4 to 6 inches of soil which is removed in the spring. This reduces damage from freezing and thawing.
We do not doubt for a moment that the Chinese chestnut is here to stay as an important food crop for the United States.
Walnut Notes
G. H. Corsan, Islington, Ontario
I find the Ohio, Ten Eyck, Stabler, Allen and Wiard black walnuts inferior and unsuitable. The Stabler has only a small crop every five years. Very excellent varieties, I find, come from Thomas seedlings.
The black walnut makes an excellent stock for the Persian walnut in low and slightly damp ground. I bud the Persian on the black during August.
The Japanese heartnut and the butternut x heartnut hybrid can be grafted on black walnut. The Persian walnut when grafted on the black decidedly outgrows the latter. The reverse is the case when Japanese heartnut, Japanese butternut, or hybrids of either are grafted on the black.