92 



spreading more than 63 feet. This tree was said to be the largest 

 seen by anyone present, and this probably means that it is the largest 

 in eastern North America. Seedlings of this tree were planted on 

 Mr. Housberger's farm nearby and these trees have made a wonderful 

 l^rowth. At 16 years of age the trees were over 45 feet tall and had 

 a trunk diameter of 15 inches. The nuts of some of these trees seem 

 to be a combination of the heartnut and the butternut, thus indicating 

 hybrid origin. The wonderful growth of these trees indicates the 

 great possibilities of plant breeding; with tree crops. 



From this point the journey was continued to Point Weller, the 

 mouth of the Welland Ship Canal. Time did not permit of an in- 

 spection of the tree planting work being done by the W. S. C. and 

 hence it may not be out of place to state that there are more than 

 5500 acres of land along the right of way to be planted to trees. This 

 will involve the planting of several million trees, some of which will 

 be nut trees. As a matter of fact, a movement is under way to es- 

 tablish a nut arboretum in this area and a good start has been made 

 in this direction. More than 29,000 seedling nut trees are now grow- 

 ing in the nursery blocks and some grafted trees have been promised 

 by interested parties. 



From Point Weller the party went to Mr. Peter McDermid's farm 

 about half way between Point Weller and St. Catharines. At this farm 

 there is a fine thrifty English walnut which is a third generation tree, 

 i. e., it is a seedling of a seedling which in turn grew from nuts borne 

 on a tree brought out from Germany more than 100 years ago. The 

 tree on Mr. McDermid's place bears good crops of very large nuts of 

 fine quality and is rated as one of the best found in Ontario so far. 

 Scions of this fine seedling have given better results in grafting than 

 scions of other seedlings or varieties used in Ontario by the writer. 



From Mr. McDermid's place the party went to St. Catharines 

 where this pleasant tour ended after travelling more than 160 miles 

 by coach and car during the two days on which field trips were held. 



