. Bixby's scientific calculations on the
properties of the nuts, and this will be published in the report. The
contest this year cannot rank in extent and value with the contest of
1926. One reason for that is that the nut crop last fall seems to have
been everywhere very deficient, and in fact many contestants sent in
nuts from the year before. The second reason is that we didn't get good
advertising. I don't know exactly why we didn't. At first I didn't think
we were going to get any nuts at all. But belated notices in the Fruit
Grower, and especially in the Farm Journal, finally waked up a lot of
contestants. Possibly a third reason why the contest was not as
successful as in 1926 was that there were so many kinds of nuts for
which prizes were offered. I think that is rather confusing. I think we
had better do as in 1926 and offer a prize for a single nut each year,
rather than prizes for all the nuts each year. Take one nut one year
and another nut the next year, and so on, and then begin over again. At
the same time I think we ought to have a standing prize for nuts of each
species, that is for any better than those we already have. We have such
a prize for the hickory, the Bowditch. At different times other members
have offered prizes for other species. I would be glad to offer another
standing prize of $25 for some other nut in addition to Mr. Bowditch's
for the hickory. Three hundred eighty-eight people sent in nuts. That
was many fewer than in 1926. 138 people wrote letters but never sent any
nuts. There were 243 different black walnut specimens this year and 1229
in 1926. We had some very valuable black walnuts. Some fully equal to,
if not better than, those we already have. Very few came from the South.
More came from the northern states. Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan
were well represented. We got 94 different specimens of butternuts. Some
of these were very good. Most of them were from the North, Vermont and
Wisconsin leading. We got 134 specimens of shagbark hickory, 40
shellbarks and 10 others, perhaps hybrids or other species. There was
one California black walnut and only 4 beechnuts, very small indeed. Not
worthy of propagation at all. There were a few odd nuts. Only 40
chestnuts were sent. I think that was because we did not get our
publicity out soon enough. The chestnut crop matures earlier and in many
instances the crops were out of the way. Of these chestnuts, 20 were
Japanese. When you first tas