se. We
have our state fair at Springfield next week and as I speak to the boys
and girls attending the state fair school I hope to interest them to
tell me of any trees in their neighborhoods of particular value.

Some of the agricultural leaders in the various counties, that is the
farm advisers, are awake to the value of the nut industry and we have a
number of these men co-operating with us. From Gallatin County, in the
Wabash and Ohio river bottoms, around $100,000 worth of native pecans
are sold in some seasons. In the southern counties and over north of St.
Louis in the western part of Illinois there are also native pecan groves
which are quite profitable. We hope to find valuable northern pecans,
adaptable to our conditions. We, of course, know that the English walnut
is very difficult to grow in Illinois and we are not recommending it as
a commercial proposition. We believe that the black walnut, all things
considered, has the most promise and we hope to have something worth
while in a few years as propagating material. The Thomas, Stabler, and
Miller are especially to be recommended for Illinois at this time.

We hope soon to have a complete collection of hardy nut trees on our
experimental trial grounds. Here we shall study not only the varietal
characteristics but try out new methods of propagating, pruning,
fertilizing, etc. There is very likely some connection between winter
injury and hardening up of the wood in autumn and we hope to learn
something about that problem through the use of various cover crops, for
example. We have at the station a complete experimental cold storage
plant in operation where we may be able to learn more about the effects
of extremes of temperature on the roots and trunks of certain species.

In such new but important work we must make haste slowly. We have some
things to unlearn and many things to learn. We hope to be able in a few
years to make a worthwhile contribution to such an interesting and
important subject as nut growing in the middle west.

I shall be glad to have you ask me any questions which occur to you.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: DO you happen to know Mr. Spencer?

PROF. COLBY: No, I wrote Mr. Spencer but I did not get any reply from
him. I hope to visit him this fall.

MR. REED: DO you know anything about the top-working of black walnuts
from Missouri at the university?

PROF. COLBY: No, I do not know about them.

MR. GR