Mr. Mitchel thought it was a worthless butternut. I told Mr. Mitchel that I thought it was well worth saving and I hope that one of these days we shall succeed in propagating it.
The President:
Mr. Stokes, in Virginia, has located some black walnuts that will be excellent. Mr. Hershey's name and work have been mentioned. He writes me that the territory of the Tennessee Valley is a wonderful lay-out and he is putting on a contest for different kinds of nuts. He may have some desirable nuts to present later on.
Mr. Slate:
If Mr. Reed is not planning to discuss those Jones hybrids in his paper I wish he, or someone else who is acquainted with them, would make some remarks to be placed on record.
Mr. Reed:
We think that the two most promising of the Jones hybrids are numbers 92 and 200. Those were Mr. Jones' own numbers. About three years ago we began making an intensive study of them. Ninety-two seemed to bear better and be a little more promising than 200, and so it was named first. It was named Buchanan in honor of the only president of the United States who came from Pennsylvania. Last year number 200 showed up so favorably that it seemed well to name that one also, so just about a year ago the name of Bixby was suggested and it met with universal approval. That, I think, is all that I have to say about the hybrids. We are watching them very closely.
From here east we had a very severe winter last year. Apple orchards very, very old were killed all through the east and with them thousands and thousands of English walnut trees. In Washington we have practically no crop of filberts and our English walnuts were affected generally.
We have yet to find a single hybrid between black walnut and English walnut which appears to be promising. There is a record, but I think we should have brought to our attention from time to time what was known as the James River hybrid. It was an enormous black walnut tree that grew on the James River near Jamestown. It was visited in 1928 by Mr. Karl Greene and Mr. Hershey. Mr. Greene said that the tree measured thirteen feet in circumference. You don't often see trees as large as that in any part of the country. That is in a part of the country where the English walnut has not done well. The tree must have been somewhere around 200 years old when it died. It was probably grown from a hybrid between an English walnut and a black walnut. Our American colonists brought the English walnut with them about the same time they brought our first apples and peaches and plums and everything else. This tree throws some light on the question as to when the first English walnut first came to this country.
A week ago yesterday I was riding along a country road down in Maryland. I saw a row of trees. One tree in the middle of that row was as big as any other three there. I slowed up and looked at them more closely. The large tree was a hybrid and the others were not.