truly,

W. H. BRITTAIN
Vice-Principal,
Macdonald College of McGill University

Macdonald College, Quebec, Canada

Note: I believe that perhaps the things mentioned in his second
paragraph should be followed up.--H.L.S.

Pecans Produce Poorly in Middle Atlantic States

November 13, 1950

Dr. Lewis E. Theiss
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

Dear Dr. Theiss:

Speaking of pecans, we have harvested the first crop this year here on
the station, from trees planted in 1932, of the varieties Indiana,
Greenriver, Busseron and Major. Even though these nuts were not
harvested until November 9 they are poorly filled. It seems that we just
cannot mature them here in an average season. Our trees have not grown
satisfactorily and although they may bloom, the nuts normally fail to
mature.

Our summers are not long enough and the day and night temperatures are
not high enough uniformly to satisfactorily produce pecans even in this
area.

Very truly yours,

H. L. CRANE
Principal Horticulturist,
Division of Fruit and Vegetable
Crops and Diseases

U. S. Plant Industry Station.
Beltsville, Maryland

~Editor's Note:~ Dr Crane's experience is exactly similar to my own. The
pecans in the grounds at my country home were well loaded with nuts this
year, 1950. I doubt if a single nut was half filled.--L. E. T.

Nut Tree Diseases in Europe and Turkey

November 17, 1950

Dr. Lewis E. Theiss
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

Dear Dr. Theiss:

I have only recently returned from three and one-half months spent in
Europe, primarily on chestnut problems, as a consultant for the Economic
Cooperation Administration. The trip was made at the request and expense
of European interests, except while I was up in the Scandinavian
countries and at the 7th International Botanical Congress. I gave a
paper at the Congress, entitled "The world-wide spread of forest
diseases," in which chestnut blight received limited attention.

In Italy, chestnut blight, ~Endothia parasitica~, was first reported at
Genoa in 1938, although it started there much earlier. It is now widely
distributed here and there as far south as the Naples area. No confirmed
infections have been reported from Sicily, Sardinia, or French Corsica,
though inspection work has been very, very limited. In all the places
where I saw it, the disease was increasing rapidly, with numerous
recently-blighted trees. It is expected that t