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as entailing too much labor in handling. There may be occasional ex- 

 ceptions to this rule, as in the case of the peanut walnuts. 



Husking. I counted it against a nut if it had much, and especially 

 a powdery, husk adhering. Perhaps I became unduly prejudiced from 

 the many violent attacks of sneezing that I got from inhaling this 

 sternutatory dust. Also it was im})ossible to keep the dust from soil- 

 ing the kernels and making them very unattractive. If husks can be 

 readily removed by machinery then this fault is not one of much con- 

 sequence, from a commercial point of view. 



Thickness of shell, if not at much sacrifice of proportion of kernel, 

 will not be a serious fault when nuts are cracked by machinery. Other 

 things being equal, however, the thinner shell the better. I think that 

 I attached too much importance to thickness of shell in my preliminary 

 examination. 



Cracking qualify. This I considered of paramount importance, or 

 rather of equal importance with the factor of good kernel. We must 

 have a good kernel and we must be able to get it out fairly easily in 

 large pieces. Large, thick-shelled nuts are not necessarily poor crack- 

 ers. Small, thick-shelled nuts usually are. Thin-shelled nuts are not 

 necessarily, but usually are, good crackers. Of course the single ker- 

 nelled nuts, like the Stabler imperfect form, are the best crackers. 

 We have several of this type, or of the peanut type, and everything 

 possible should be done to develop them on account of this very great 

 merit. Many nuts are excellent crackers with a machine that would 

 give no indication of it when cracked by the hammer. In fact the in- 

 troduction of the cracking machine has made it possible to crack the 

 averase run of black walnuts verv satisfactorily, and its use should be 

 encouraged in order to make available the nuts now produced in 

 abundance by native trees. The cracking machine has possibly made 

 less urgent the need for improved varieties. 



Nuts in which the kernel is slightly shrunken, like those with a 

 hard, sweet kernel, are often almost perfect crackers. The very full, 

 oily, tender, rich kernels are sometimes hard to extract even when the 

 shell cracks well, and these kernels often shatter badly, which I 

 jude-ed to be a rather serious defect. Perhaps a little longer curing 

 would make these very desirable kernels less likely to shatter. 



