Dr. Smith: You speak of airing the scions. How long do you do that?
Mr. Harrington: It depends on the conditions that require the airing. For instance a thaw in the winter, or a rainy spell. Again in the summer a long rainy spell. In these cases I open up the box, maybe leave it a couple of hours.
Dr. Smith: That kills the mold, two hours' exposure? You never sterilize the inside in any way?
Mr. Harrington: I never have. It might be a good idea. The mold doesn't seem to affect the scions.
EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS IN SEARCHING FOR BEST SEEDLING NUT TREES
J. F. Wilkinson, Indiana
Searching for the best seedling began long before the coming of the white man to America, by Indians and animals and the birds which store nuts for their winter food. This search has always been continued through the nut growing territory by the crows, squirrels and other birds and animals.
Go to a pecan grove early in the fall when pecans are ripening and there is no better evidence that a tree is an early ripener and produces a thin shelled nut than to see a bunch of crows feeding from it.
The children living near a pecan grove in early fall will go where crows and birds are feeding to gather nuts that are dropped by them, and later, when all trees have ripened their nuts, these children have their favorite trees to gather from. I have seen the little ones around Enterprise, of before school age, that would have a preference and could select from a basket of pecans the ones from their favorite tree. It is surprising how good their judgment is.