UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Agricultural Research Administration 
Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and 
Agricultural Engineering 
Beltsville, Maryland 
January 29, 1945 
Mr. Gilbert L. Smith, 
Benton & Smith, Nut Nursery, 
Wassaic, New York. 
Dear Mr. Smith: 
Your letter and the six Carpathian walnuts from hand-pol- 
linated flowers which you sent me on November 12, reached the 
office many weeks ago, but as Dr. Crane wrote you in my behalf, 
Iwas then in the midst of a spell of illness. Altogether I was ab- 
sent from my desk for 6 weeks and so feel much behind with my 
regular work. I regret being so tardy. 
Meanwhile your second letter arrived. It, too, has been de- 
layed in receiving the attention that any letter from you so richly 
deserves. 
In regard to the nuts, to my mind, these are really very good 
nuts. The size is what to my mind is excellent. They are large 
without being too large. A commercial grower on the Pacific 
Coast would probably prefer a smaller nut but as I understand 
your purpose, you wish to produce trees that will best suit the 
eastern home owner. With him, size is important. He and all the 
rest of us like to grow and show our friends fruits and nuts that 
are “big.” These nuts are well filled, showing that they are not 
of over-size. 
The shells are well-sealed, notwithstanding that the nuts have 
been on my desk for nearly three months. The shells are thin and 
the nuts easily crackable in the hands. The kernels are a trifle 
dark and there is perhaps more than an average amount of astrin- 
Pency in the pellicle; “As with others of the species, this is most 
concentrated about the point where the two cotyledons are at- 
tached together and is most easily removable with a knife-blade. 
Your own comments regarding the history of the tree are 
most carefully prepared; also they are very interesting indeed. 
You and your patrons are much to be congratulated on your habit 
of carefully recording all pertinent facts. What Mr. Berne A. 
Pyrke wrote you from north of Crown Point is also interesting. 
It corroberates your own findings very well indeed. It would seem 
that you may have a Persian walnut worthy of the name “Little- 
9) 
page.” If Mr. Littlepage were alive today and aware of the cir- 
cumstances, I am sure he would give you his enthusiastic approval, 
