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we have a tremendous field opened up and one which might yield 

 particularly to the ladies. It is very pretty work, it is nice work. It 

 includes idealism, speculation, the idea of developing new trees, or 

 trees that one has never seen before. After many failures in hybrid- 

 izing I find now that by following rules it is simplified very much. 

 Almost any one who is persistent enough may learn eventually to 

 hybridize very easily. 



The question of labeling trees and of keeping track of different 

 specimens was one that gave me many disappointments. I would 

 lose the labels, lose the records, so I was not able to tell truthfully 

 about trees when visitors came to ask me about them. I know in 

 one lot where I had a lot of hybrid trees, each one marked with a 

 stake and number, the cow of a neighbor got over the fence into the 

 field and the boy who came after that refractory cow found that to 

 pull up those stakes gave him very convenient objects for throwing 

 at the cow, and my labels were all hybridized. 



This sort of thing was the kind of disappointments that I had 

 in early experiences in growing nut trees. It is very essential, how- 

 ever, to keep good records and I find now that the best way is to use 

 a galvanized iron rod with a metallic tag stamped with a machine 

 and fastened on in such a way that it will not be injured by any sort 

 of use. These galvanized rods, galvanized spring wire, are very dur- 

 able if one is careful about placing them on the trees. That experi- 

 ence in keeping the labels was one which was very disappointing at 

 first, but the question has now been finally settled. 



The number of animals and birds that like a good thing is per- 

 fectly surprising, and in trying to raise my seedling nuts I have had 

 great difficulty and have had to take up a new department of natural 

 history in order to study the habits of rodents and of the birds. 

 The crows have been, perhaps, the worst enemy, after the field mice, 

 of the seedling nuts that were planted out in the field. But the 

 crows may be kept away if we put up bean poles with a simple cotton 

 string stretched between them at a distance of twenty-five or thirty 

 feet. One of my friends who took my advice said that it didn't 

 work, that he had not only put up the string but had fastened a 

 piece of tin onto the string. That is just where he made a failure. 

 The crows sized up the situation immediately. They sat on the 

 fence and looked it over and made up their minds that those things 

 Vv^ere not meant for them, and then they went in and destroyed his 

 grain. But a simple string between the poles will keep the crows 

 guessing, and that alone will suffice to keep them out of the grain, 

 nuts, or anything else. 



These are a few rambling remarks which come to my mind, but 

 still they belong to the experiences that we have in getting things 

 under way in our experimental work. As to the outlook, there is no 

 doubt whatsoever but that any man who is interested in the subject, 

 who loves trees and loves plants, can manage all the problems. We 

 shall eventually have horticulturists and amateur gardeners who will 



