DR. SMITH:  It was an exceedingly great pleasure to me to listen to that address by the Dean of the New York State College of Forestry.  I want to assure you that his address marks an epoch.  He tells us that the State of New York is going to experiment in nut growing, give place, time and money; and this is what I have been long waiting for.  I shall defer my discussion until this evening, when I use the screen and lantern.

I rejoice exceedingly that the State of New York is not alone in the march of progress; the State of Pennsylvania is also in line and comes next on the program.  Professor Fagan has been making a survey of Pennsylvania with particular reference to ascertaining what it has in nut trees.  He will now give us a report.

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PROFESSOR FAGAN:  The President has caught me rather unprepared.  I did not expect to talk at this time.  I had our walnut survey tabulated in regard to county locations, so that you could see the results of our work in the state this past summer.  This report is in my grip so I will talk only from memory.

The necessity for this work in Pennsylvania has been increasing right along.  The State Experiment Station has been receiving letters nearly every week from parties wanting information in regard to the Persian walnut.  The calls for information have been increasing more and more each year for the past three years.

Our people ask questions about the right kind of soils for the nuts—­what varieties are best suited for Pennsylvania—­how to topwork their standing black walnut—­and, in fact, almost any question.

The Experiment Station does not have a nut plantation and it was thought best to study the growing Persian walnut trees throughout the state.

A publicity campaign was started through the agricultural press and our daily and weekly newspapers.  In this way we have been able to learn the location of some 1,800 to 2,000 bearing trees in Pennsylvania.  I tried to visit the trees this summer but time would not permit.

Trees are reported in twenty-five different counties.  Erie County reported, likely, the two largest plantings.  Here we have two seedling groves, at least one is a seedling grove.  The seedling grove is fourteen years old and contains 250 trees.  They are seedling Pomeroy trees and this year show their first real crop of nuts.

Since they are seedlings we naturally find all types and variations among the trees.  We see a difference in their foliage, habit of growth, shape and size of nuts.  The trees show no effects of ever having been winter-killed.  The trees have always been farmed so the owner, Mr. E. A. Silkirk of North East, Pa., has been able to receive returns from his land.  Grapes and berries have been grown between the trees as intercrops.  The trees are planted on the corners of a 50-foot square and cover about fourteen acres.

In four different counties of the mountain section of the state, bearing trees are to be found.  From these trees we hope to find something at least fairly good but above that something hardy.  Some of these trees have been winter-killed to a more or less degree, but so have the common peach trees in the same sections.