21 



stands about eighty or eighty-five miles from where I live. We drove 

 over there and found Mr. Rohwer to be a wealthy farmer, owning sev- 

 eral hundred acres of that richest, Grundy County soil. The nut from 

 * which this walnut tree was grown was selected at random and planted 

 by Mr. Rohwer's son nineteen or twenty years ago. ]\Ir. Rohwer says 

 he thinks the nut was planted nineteen years ago and he is certain that 

 it was not more than twenty years. We drove into the barnyard, right 

 up alongside of the tree. I got out and looked it over and I said, 

 "That tree is a beauty. It is the prettiest and most perfect walnut tree 

 I have ever seen." Forty feet in height and forty feet spread of toji. 

 A full, tliick head of Well placed branches, which gives it a great 

 capacity for the production of nuts. Its largest crojj consisted of eight 

 measured bushels of hulled nuts of such size and quality as were the 

 samples sent to our contest, and Mr. Rohwer stated that fully another 

 bushel must have been carried away by numerous individuals and the 

 squirrels. 



I don't know why (I have not yet obtained definite information on 

 this point) but the largest cro]) the Stambaugh has produced is three 

 bushels and the tree is fully double the age of the Rohwer. Now un- 

 less there is some reasonable excuse for this shy bearing, such as being 

 crowded by other timber or poor soil conditions, I would be inclined 

 to place the Rohwer far in the lead of the Stambaugh as a commercial 

 jiroposition. 



The Rohwer began bearing when it had obtained a height of about 

 ten feet, or at about the age of four or five years. Considering its 

 present height, it has made an average growth of two feet a year. I 

 believe that, so far as lowans are concerned, we have struck a bonanza 

 in the Rohwer walnut. It has originated and thrived under our trying 

 northwestern conditions. It originated fully three hundred and fifty 

 miles further north than the Stambaugh and I don't know, but I think 

 we shall place it at the head of the list for northwestern planting. 



I regard the Thomas as none too hardy at my place, to say nothing 

 of carrying it further north, and the Stabler I think we shall drop, 

 except to have a few for cross-breeding purposes. 



Now right here, before I forget it, I want to ask a question and wish 

 someone, who feels able to do so, would answer it at this time. Is the 

 pollen of the black walnut invisible to the naked eye? Is it so elusive 



