Northern Nut Growers Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty-First Annual Meeting | Page 5

took up correspondence with the parties who were bringing
it to the fair and they agreed to give me such information as I wanted
about it, so I drove up there. When I got there I found they didn't own
the tree. They had been stealing the nuts, putting them on exhibit and
getting the premiums. They wouldn't take me to the tree because they
didn't own it. They did tell me who owned it and I went to see him. I
told him the circumstances. He just got red-headed at once. The idea of
someone stealing the nuts and getting the premiums! We got right into
it. The up-shot of it was I got some scions and some nuts. Just a lick of
the hammer and two halves drop out, don't have to pick them out, just
roll out. It is an excellent nut. It was a rather young tree and very
fruitful. Very good quality with a little thicker shell than other varieties.
We have another one, the Ward. This is another 50% cracker, very
excellent flavor. While it appears to be a small nut, after you have
cracked it the meats look almost as large it has such a very thin shell.
As you might say almost all meat.
DR. DEMING: What do you mean by 50% cracker?
MR. SNYDER: The shells and the meats when separated and weighed
just balance each other.
I have looked up another one. At present I haven't any authority for
naming this variety. I am just calling it Independence because of the
community in which it is found. I will take this up with the parties that
own the tree and get authority for naming it if they will consent. This is
just a temporary name for a very excellent variety. It is owned by a
party named Geisel. They have a well-known nut that has been taking
premiums in our midwest. This is another in the same grove that is just
as good as the Geisel. It is a very good nut, very fine flavor, good
cracker and more than ordinary size.
We have another one that stands in sight of my home, that is called
DeWees. This is a large tree that possibly is somewhat over a hundred
years old, and its common crop is about five bushels of hulled nuts. It is
a free cracker, excellent quality and very prominent in the locality in

which the tree stands.
There is another one that appeared in the midwest exhibition here in
Cedar Rapids a few years ago, called the Lynch. It was brought out by
the Boys and Girls Club and received a good deal of publicity at that
time on that account. It is a thin-shelled nut and very good cracker but
not of the highest eating quality. I hunted up the tree and got some
scions from it and distributed them. I didn't use any of them myself,
didn't think it good enough, the eating quality not good enough to suit
me. It is an excellent variety however.
DR. SMITH: Something like the Ben Davis?
MR. SNYDER: Yes.
DR. COLBY: The Ben Davis makes the profit though, Dr. Smith.
MR. SNYDER: We have found another one that came out at the Cedar
Rapids exposition. I am calling it the Cline. I have no authority to call it
that. The tree stands here in Cedar Rapids. I haven't had time to see it
since two years ago when it was brought to my attention. If I am any
judge of quality this is the finest hickory nut I have ever found. Its
eating quality is just ahead of anything I know of in the hickory line,
and it's of fair size, a little above medium and a good cracker and a long
keeper. I have frequently tested them. I only got a handful to start with.
I have tested these time after time to see how long it was going to keep.
The last time I tested it was this last spring and it was in excellent
condition. There are a good many of our hickory nuts that turn rancid in
six months. But a nut that keeps two years, and I don't know but what
they are good yet, is going to be a very big item in hickory nut culture.
DR. DRAKE: Have you kept these eighteen months in good order?
MR. SNYDER: Yes.
MR. HERSHEY: Would soil conditions have anything to do with it?
MR. SNYDER: Possibly but I don't think so. The Fairbanks, for

instance, from different soils; I can see no difference in their keeping.
MR. HERSHEY: I know that is true of grapes that are grown in
different sections.
MR. SNYDER: I can see no difference in the Fairbanks. In a few
weeks' time