76 



On suitable soils it attains a height of eighty or ninety feet and 

 a diameter of four feet. The nuts are much appreciated by old and 

 young, but on account of the slow rate of growth and the irregularity 

 of bearing very little has been done to plant this tree. 



The Almond (Prunus amygdalus) . 



Almonds have been tried to a limited extent in the warmer parts 

 of Canada but only with indifferent success except on Vancouver 

 Island. It is possible that a satisfactory strain will eventually be 

 found that will extend the range of this desirable nut-bearing tree. 



Introduction of New Species 



In addition to the efforts to gather data regarding nut trees I 

 decided to introduce some good exotic species for trial with the hope 

 that some of these might prove hardy enough for our climatic con- 

 ditions. I thought that northeastern Asia would be the most prom- 

 ising region from which to obtain nuts for planting. Therefore, I 

 wrote to the Mission Boards of the Methodist, Presbyterian and 

 Anglican Churches and obtained the names of their missionaries in 

 those fields. I then wrote to several of these missionaries and out- 

 lined my programme and asked them to send me samples of the best 

 nuts growing in their respective sections. Here again I received 

 great encouragement and assistance. Several packages of fine chest- 

 nuts and walnuts were received from China and Japan. Some of 

 these nuts were planted at the College and the remainder were dis- 

 tributed throughout the province to interested parties. Owing to the 

 length of the period between the gathering of the nuts and their 

 arrival at Guelph many had lost their germinating power, conse- 

 quently I only succeeded in getting ten walnuts to grow and failed 

 entirely with the chestnuts. However, we may succeed in germin- 

 ating a few more walnuts after a winter's frost. 



I am aware that we might not get as good nuts from these 

 plantings as the parents were, but it is also possible to get a real good 

 tree which would be hardy enough for our climatic conditions. 

 Should we succeed in this endeavor it would be a desirable acquisi- 

 tion and a great improvement on our native black walnut. 



Improvement of Native Trees 



Attempts were made to improve ordinary black walnut trees by 

 grafting. Scions of the Persian walnut and the Japanese walnut 

 were obtained and grafted onto some of the seedling black walnuts 

 planted by myself years ago. I regret to state that in this phase of 

 the work I was greatly disappointed. Not one scion grew but the 

 stock trees grew amazingly after being cut back and would have 

 been fine for budding this summer if I had been able to get the buds 

 at the proper time. 



