HYBRIDS 123 



mortal by endowing an educational institution in 

 Paris. A large endowment for nut propagation in 

 connection with one of our universities would find 

 on hand men already equipped with knowledge ready 

 for going ahead rapidly with research work and 

 practical application of their knowledge upon the 

 subject. 



The first course in nut culture in this country was 

 established by Professor John Craig at Cornell some 

 years ago. A number of students eagerly entered 

 this promising field for life work. University funds, 

 however, were not on hand for the development of 

 the course and it was at once perceived that special 

 endowment of large dimensions would be required. 



We are now on the verge of a great development 

 in hybridization, or crossing choice kinds of nut 

 trees, and in determining upon which stocks the dif- 

 ferent kinds of selected nut trees may be grown to 

 best advantage. Hybrids between varieties of nut 

 trees occur frequently in Nature, but hybrids between 

 species, on the other hand, occur but rarely. A 

 number of these accidental hybrids have been dis- 

 covered, however, and some of them are now being 

 propagated. For the most part they do not repre- 

 sent the best quality of the best parent, but it is a 

 noticeable fact that the bitterness of kinds with bit- 

 ter pellicle appears to be a recessive character and 

 disappears usually from hybrids between species in 

 which one parent has a bitter nut. Unfortunately, 

 the finer extractives which give quality to the nut 

 of the better parent are prone to disappear also. This 



