74 



very fine opportunity in the trees tliat are growing in Japan. It is 

 very well known that most of the Japanese flora thrives when it comes 

 here. The Kiefer pear is one in point. Look at the way it resists 

 the bliglit. It has a tough leaf. The reason Japanese trees are so 

 vigorous here is because they have been exposed to a climate very much 

 like our own. In Japan there are a great many Persian walnut trees. 

 Certainly the mountains of Japan are very promising places to search 

 for Persian walnut trees that will withstand our fungus in the sum- 

 mer and also freezing weather. 



The next thing we want to get resistance from is the frost. The 

 great weakness of the Persian walnut is early spring growtli. There 

 are freaks among the Persian walnuts that stay dormant very late in 

 the spring. In the Grenoble district of France I once saw a tree 

 which, at a short distance, looked as though it were dead on the 19th 

 day of June. At that very time people were out estimating the crops 

 on neighboring orchards. This dead looking tree was a perfectly 

 healthy, live tree, just beginning to show the first sign of spring 

 growth. There was a tree that had slept a month and a half after the 

 other trees had started. Such trees are fairly common in some of the 

 walnut districts of Europe. I saw in Switzerland this year, while 

 riding through, Persian walnut trees just showing buds and others 

 almost in full leaf. I point these things out in order to show the pos- 

 sibilities of introducing breeding stocks, if any one should be seriously 

 considering the question of improving the Persian walnuts to meet our 

 needs here in the eastern United States. 



Another point is the location I found for the culture of Persian 

 walnuts. The most conspicuous plantings I have seen outside of 

 France have been in upland valleys. I am not familiar with the com- 

 mercial locations in China and Japai^i, therefore I will not discuss 

 those countries. 



\ 



In going across Asia Minor it was most striking that near the top 

 of the Taurus Mountains were hundreds of the most gorgeous Persian 

 walnut trees, standing along the roads and in the wheat fields for a 

 distance of perhaps 20 or 30 miles. Below in the Sicilian plain near 

 Tarsus they were scarce. Out on the plain of Asia Minor more were to 

 be seen. Then as the train drops into another valley en route to the 

 lower levels near the Sea of ISIarmora, there was a place where for 



