d out flat, so nuts will
not be thicker than 2 or 3 inches. These bags are thoroughly wet with
water once or twice daily, depending on the weather, until I can carry
them to cold storage and store at 30 deg.F., or they are marketed fresh,
advising buyer of the perishable nature of these nuts. Last year my nuts
kept excellently in cold storage, and after remaining there about six
weeks had dried sufficiently to keep much better after taking out than
when they were fresh.

Nuts for planting purposes can be kept in excellent condition for
several weeks by spreading them thinly between layers of damp sphagnum
moss and storing in a cool place. This cannot be allowed to get very wet
or sprouting will begin. While holding the nuts out of cold storage I
attempt to keep sufficient moisture available so the nuts are not
allowed to dry much, and yet have plenty of ventilation to keep them
from heating or souring. Until I began using this method, a large
percentage of my nuts began spoiling soon after gathering, which caused
me much discouragement, as I did not want to offer such a product for
sale. Since then my losses still run around 12%, but this could be
reduced still further by more prompt gathering and by the elimination of
several trees which retain nuts in the burs to a large extent.

I have been able to dispose of my nuts quite easily in near-by Columbus,
Ga. and for the last few years have had quite a demand for nuts to use
in planting.

My orchard as a whole has been very healthy, showing no blight signs
that I can detect, although there is little chance of exposure to blight
in my section. One tree is slowly dying, which may be due to cold
injury, as it comes into leaf early and also ripens very early. So far I
have noticed no damage from chestnut weevils. As my trees are seedlings,
there is quite a bit of variation in size of nuts and production of
individual trees.

+Undesirable Traits in Seedling Trees+

I might mention some undesirable traits which I notice in my trees.
First, I would place retention of nuts in the burs as the worst trouble.
This is quite bad in five or six of my trees. Next, nuts too dry and
loose in the hull at time of falling, which is present in four or five
trees, some of which retain nuts in the burs and some which do not. The
dry textured nuts seem to spoil more easily than plump well filled ones.
Some trees produce too small nuts but the trees which produce extra
large nuts do not u