rs should not assume that
the presence of a healthy tree is proof of sufficient hardiness to
warrant extensive plantings, neither should they over-look the fact that
an occasional satisfactory crop may be but slim evidence of commercial
possibilities. It requires years of trial before a species or variety
can fully establish its hardiness. Yet, on the other hand, to wait to
find a kind of nut a hundred per cent hardy under all conditions, would
be not to plant at all. No varieties of any species are immune to winter
injury over any great portion of the United States. The planting of nut
trees in the northern part of the country is certain to go forward, but
for the present, east of the Rockies, large orchards of nut trees of any
species or variety must be regarded as fields promising for
experimentation rather than of sound commercial investment.

A common error in the minds of the American people is the assumption
that to be a success, a thing must be performed upon a large scale. To
develop a nut industry, it is imagined that there must be great orchards
of hundreds of acres. It is not realized that a great proportion of the
walnuts, almonds, filberts, and chestnuts annually imported from Europe,
are from roadside, hillside and door-yard trees which could as well have
been grown in this country on what is now idle land in thickly populated
agricultural districts. No one need expect to attain great wealth from
the products of door-yard or waste land trees but the by-product which
could readily be salvaged from nut trees, would likely be very
acceptable when interest and taxes or other bills come due.

WALNUT GRAFTING INVESTIGATIONS

_T. J. Talbert, Professor of Horticulture, University of Missouri,
College of Agriculture_

These investigations are to determine the best varieties of the improved
black walnut for Missouri. Valuable information is also being procured
in reference to the topworking or cleft grafting of the native seedling
black walnut to the improved sorts.

Since practically every Missouri farm contains some waste land upon
which the native walnut and other nut trees may be growing, it is
believed that it is possible to topwork these seedling sorts to improved
kinds which will not only supply a larger quantity of thinner shelled,
more highly flavored nuts for home use, but a surplus for the market.
There is a growing demand for the seedling black walnut.

At the present time Missouri leads a