of Corylus avellana. 535 trees from this cross,
made by Mr. Reed, are now growing in a fruiting plantation at the
Station, and several hundred more from other crosses are in the nursery
row. With this wealth of material coming along, it is reasonable to
assume that the day is not far distant when satisfactory varieties will
be available for northern planting.

Developing a Walnut Grove as a Side Line Job as a Bee Keeper

L. K. HOSTETTER

_Lancaster, Pennsylvania_

In discussing this topic I shall give you some of my doings in my bee
business and nut growing.

About 30 years ago, I started out in the bee business with three
colonies of bees. This number increased gradually until I had 170
colonies. During these 80 years I would sometimes have a bumper crop of
honey and then again sometimes a total failure. This past summer
happened to be one of those off years. It is, however, the income from
this bee business that started me off in the growing of a grove of 800
black walnut trees, also a few shellbarks, pecans, heartnuts, English
walnuts, hicans, hardshell almonds and filberts.

In the spring of 1926, I had a nurseryman graft 6 small black walnut
trees to the Thomas and Stabler varieties with 5 catches, 4 Thomas and 1
Stabler. In the spring of 1927, I bought the homestead farm and planted
2 Thomas, 2 Stabler, and 2 Ohio black walnuts, 2 shellbarks, 2 hardshell
almonds and 6 filberts. This spring I also planted about a bushel of
seedling black walnuts and, as it happened we had an exceptionally wet
summer, these seedlings made a wonderful growth.

In the spring of 1928 I transplanted about 15 acres to these seedlings.
In 1929 I planted another 20 acres, and in 1930 another 10 acres. Some
of these trees were planted 60 feet each way and some 30 feet apart.

Some of these trees were grafted the same year they were planted but
most of them were grafted two years later. At this time I had little
experience in grafting and, naturally, my 2 acres in getting catches
were accordingly. When I started out I thought it would be cheaper to
plant seedlings and graft them, as explained above. I have gotten along
fairly well in getting my grove started but I found it to be far more
work than I expected it would be and I would not do it that way again.
Because of some failures each year I still have many trees that have not
yet been successfully grafted. I am not in a great hurry to get my grove
on a paying basis as I a