foolish to cut down nice elms and maples
like that and put nut trees in their place." It did look so then for a
while. Now I have some handsome pecans and Persian walnuts and Japanese
walnuts, and this year I get my first dividends from a tree five years
old. Of course we have taken care to preserve their symmetry, but I
think our nut trees come pretty close to being our best shade tree. I
will challenge anybody to find a handsomer tree than a well-grown pecan.
It is a very stalwart tree with its branches of waving foliage, which is
the characteristic of an ideal shade tree, and yet, in addition to that,
it produces in the fall magnificent nuts. So the proposition of home
planting is one that pays quick dividends on attention given. I think I
have convinced my neighbors that it is a good deal better to raise
handsome nut trees than poplars. My neighbor planted Carolina poplars at
the same time. He was out there the other morning raking up the leaves
and that is all he will have to do until Christmas time.

THE DISEASES OF NUT TREES.

S. M. MCMURREN, WASHINGTON, D. C.

MR. PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS: It is a source of great regret with
me that I cannot report to you some new and horrible disease attacking
nut trees. This makes a more interesting talk.

Last year in Washington I talked to you briefly about the Persian walnut
blight which we had definitely established as occurring in the East.
Last March the National Nut Growers' Association got very busy and so
amended the agricultural appropriation bill that all the funds for
national nut investigation were spent for pecan investigation, so it
left us up in the air for work in the north. We have, however, been able
to continue our observations with the Persian walnut blight and there is
only one further point to be emphasized and brought out at this time.
Those of you who have informed yourselves on this matter know that the
serious period of infection on the Pacific Coast is in the spring. It is
a blossom blight. During the past two years the period of infection in
the East has been in the late summer and it has not been serious on that
account. It is well known that in certain dry springs on the Pacific
Coast this blight does not occur and those years the growers are assured
of good crops. I think that this investigation, and the bulletin which
will soon be forthcoming, will not act as a discouragement for those who
want to plant Persian walnuts. I think it shoul