ted them they tasted like potato but later
developed a large amount of sweetness. There were 20 American chestnuts.
Dr. Zimmerman would call them small because his standards for the
American chestnut are larger than my New England ideas. When the
chestnuts first came in they were quite green. In a few days they
hardened. If I dried them a little and then put them in boxes they began
to mold and soon would be a mass of mold. It always seemed to begin at
the butt end and would gradually spread over the whole nut and then get
inside and spoil it. I washed some in boric acid, others in
formaldehyde, and that hardened them. Then I tried packing them in
pulverized sugar and in salt. That extracted all the water so that in a
few hours you could pour out half a glass of water. I packed them in
peat moss and sand and treated them in various ways, and finally packed
them in fresh hardwood sawdust. In this they kept in good condition.

DR. SMITH: Did you try sphagnum moss?

DR. DEMING: No. Another writer says an excellent thing is
ground limestone.

THE PRESIDENT: Did you get any Japanese walnuts?

DR. DEMING: We got only three, of no merit.

MEMBER: The value of the nut tree is going to be determined by
its vigor and its bearing qualities. If it doesn't produce any nuts it
isn't going to be any good. Mr. Bixby and Dr. Deming have allowed
nothing for the bearing qualities.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: I am wondering whether it might be possible in
some way to get these different factors together and judge the nuts from
all angles.

DR. DEMING: That, I think, is absolutely necessary. That is, to
combine these two scales of judging, the tree characteristics and those
of the nuts. Ultimately we have got to allow a large factor for
adaptation and productiveness.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: A nut may crack well at one time and not so well
later on. The moisture of the nuts is a factor.

DR. DEMING: I don't agree with Dr. Smith that we should not use
the mechanical cracker.

DR. SMITH: We also want the hammer. We must crack them in the
most favorable way.

DR. DEMING: I think the hammer is of very little value. I think
we should crack them all with a mechanical cracker. If you crack with a
mechanical cracker, the two plungers come together by compression, which
crushes the ends in and makes the sides burst out, thereby releasing the
kernel.

MR. HERSHEY: With the mechanical cracker the shells burst away
from the kernel.

MR. FREY: My experien