66 



I would like to ask a question. What form does this blight take, 

 and is it deadly ? In other words, will it kill the bush ? Is it good 

 to cut out the affected parts ? 



Doctor Morris : You find a depression of the bark over a 

 small area, gradually increasing, and around the part that is de- 

 pressed you will find a little swelling of the healthy part that is try- 

 ing to grow over the blight area. This also contains the roots, if you 

 can call them that, of the blight. You can recognize it everywhere 

 on the hazel by the distinctly depressed area of bark, which should 

 be cut out before it gets to be the size ol a quarter. 



In other cases the blight will encircle a small branch and cause 

 a swelling instead of depression that looks very much like the swol- 

 len area around the depressed bark. There may be depression in the 

 branch parts but the swelling blocks that so you can see only the 

 swelling. These braches may be very easily removed, with as much 

 ease as a boy would steal the nuts, so there is nothing to be feared on 

 that score. If the blight is left uncared for it will kill some of the 

 plants and it will not kill others. It will injure some also without 

 killing them, so that we have to consider the question of what we 

 call relative immunity. In the case quoted by Mr. Bixby we have a 

 case of relative immunity of a hazel which has grown to be twenty- 

 five feet high and bearing crops in the midst of the blight area on 

 Long Island, while others have disappeared from the vicinity. 



Mr. Bixby : I would say in connection with that hazel that Dr. 

 Deming and I visited in Bethel that I took a blighted branch away 

 with me and it was such an excellent example of a blighted area that 

 I had a photograph made and it was printed in the Nut Journal. 



The President : This discussion on the blight of the filbert is 

 of intense interest to me. It is a considerable relief to us to hear 

 these encouraging statements, because during our experiments, cov- 

 ering the past decade, the bugbear of all of our deliberations has 

 been the possibility of blight wiping us out, it having been suggested 

 at the time we imported plants that we would never get anywhere 

 with them. I think we have little cause to feel very much worried 

 on the subject of the blight. 



It now gives me real pleasure to introduce to you our friend, 

 Mr. Pomeroy. 



Mr. Pomeroy : Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen : Josephus 

 says that he has set down various things according to his opinion and 

 if anybody holds to another opinion he will not object. That's my 

 position in regard to nut growing. I will tell you a few things that 

 I believe and if you hold another opinion you are entitled to keep it. 



Professor John Craig once referred to a thing that surprised me 

 very much. We Americans believe we are a very energetic, smart 

 people not to be fooled much in a trade. Well, he had statistics 

 which showed that after we have shipped millions of dollars worth 

 of wheat and cotton and various other products to Europe we 

 receive our pay in the form of great quantities of nuts which we 



