ENTHUSIASTIC NUT GROWING 



141 



tage in the food that grows on them hut 

 that they are heauiful and useful as 

 shade trees. If his contention is correct 

 we wonder why we should ever have 

 any other shade trees around the home 

 or on the roadside when the nut trees 

 afford shade and in addition supply a 

 bountiful store of nutritious food. 



Mr. C. A. Reed, the Government ex- 

 pert, showed a number of slides on the 

 screen, illustrating valuable nut trees 

 and nut orchards in different parts of 

 America. There seemed to be a con- 

 sensus of opinion permeating the meet- 

 ing to the effect that nut trees, combin- 

 ing the Greek ideal of utility and 

 beaut}-, would eventually supplant the 

 kinds of trees in New England which 

 are planted for beauty alone, and in- 

 cidentally bring larger incomes than 

 those received from Connecticut agri- 

 cultural interests at the present time. 



One of the most important of the 

 trees that were visited was the famous 

 English walnut at Milbank, Greenwich 

 This is indeed a giant tree, just fifty 

 years old, and of such special interest 

 that we hope later to publish a photo- 

 graph and further details of it. The re- 

 markable feature of this Milbank tree 

 is the superior quality of the nuts, most 

 of the English walnuts which are raised 

 in New York and New England rating 

 in second or third class quality with 

 dealers. 



A giant black walnut on the Gregory 

 place on the Danbury Road in the 

 northern part of Norwalk was said tc 

 be the largest in the state of Connecti- 

 cut. Even more interesting was the 

 Siebold Japanese walnut on the premis- 

 es of Mr. A. Carmi Betts of Norwalk. 

 The remarkable fact is that this Japan- 

 ese walnut with small nuts is surround- 

 ed by a numerous progeny that at an 

 early age bear large nuts that resemble 

 the common butternut- The suppo- 

 sition is that the parent tree has been 

 cross-pollinated by butternuts growing 

 in the vicinity, and that the progeny 

 following a law of heredity, have shown 

 the butternut parentage more distinctly 

 than that of the Japanese walnut. 



At Dr. William C- Deming's home in 

 Georgetown native black walnuts, but- 

 ternuts and hickories have been graft- 

 ed over to superior varieties of walnuts 

 and hickories, much as ordinary apple 



and pear stocks are grafted to superior 

 varieties of those fruits. 



Much money is required for the new 

 and important nut propaganda for the 

 purpose of developing experimental 

 orchards in different parts of the coun- 



MR. F. A. BARTLETT AND THE GIANT BLACK 

 WALNUT ON THE GREGORY PLACE ON THE 

 DANBURY ROAD. 



try. for the purpose of bringing out the 

 literature of the subject, and for put- 

 ting the available data already known 

 in the best form for public service. For 

 that reason the Convention chose 

 Stamford for a meeting place this year. 

 In Stamford there are a number of men 

 of means interested in general horticul- 

 ture, who would be expected to attend 

 the meeting as visitors. Ordinarily the 

 Association looks for about two hun- 

 dred local visitors, and a lively address 

 of welcome by the mayor of the town 

 in which the Association meets. There 

 is something peculiar about Connecti- 

 cut psychology. Instead of having two 

 hundred local visitors representing the 

 wealth and public interest of the com- 

 munity, there were only about 

 half a dozen who attended the 

 meeting, although there was a full at- 

 tendance of members from different 



