94 



ing the species because the}' did not bloom at exactly the same time^ 

 He was, liowever. successful in securing five hybrid seeds, raising 

 three trees from them, naming them the Blair, the Boone and the Riehl. 

 Naturally there were differences in tlie characteristics of these trees 

 though they were all vigorous and produced nuts of commercial value. 

 The Blair and Riehl began to bear at four and five years respectively, 

 while the Boone bore its first crop at seventeen months of age. The 

 Boone is the most valuable since it matui*es fruit of good quality about 

 two days earlier than tlie Blair and two weeks before the Riehl. It 

 also retains the burr and drops the nuts free at the beginning of the 

 season so that about half the nuts can be picked up before the 

 burrs fall. 



Mr. Endicott was so pleased with the results of the cross that 

 he raised over 175 seedlings from the Boone tree. From these sec- 

 ond generition hybrids he secured trees very uneven in g-rowth and 

 size with a great range in time of coming into bearing. The nuts 

 differed widely in size, quality, and season of ripening. The char- 

 acter of the burr showed all gradations between the extremes of 

 thickness, length, rigidity of spines, etc. These striking variations 

 in the second generation trees show that many hereditary factors 

 had been segregated and recombined and offer a most interesting^ 

 opportunity for scientific study. I have visited the orchard several 

 times. 



Mr. Endicott died in 1914 but his son Robert has since cared for 

 the trees which have brought him considerable revenue. He tells 

 me that he secures about 160 pounds of nuts per year from each of 

 the three originil trees. At an average price of thirty-five cents a 

 pound wholesale the crop from each tree is worth $56.05 per year. 

 Since the chestnut blooms late it is pretty certain to escape spring 

 frosts. The Blair, for example, has had a crop failure once only- 

 since beginning to bear. 



(Displays photographs of the Japanese and American chestnuts 

 and the Boone tree). 



Mr. Endicott is top working some of the worthless second gen- 

 eration trees with wood from the Boone tree. 



(Displays photographs showing method of grafting). 



I have had the good fortune to visit Mr. Riehl several times and 

 have secured many representative nuts from his collection. While 

 he has grown a large number of nut species and varieties he believes 



