Dr. MacDaniels: Between ourselves--and this is not an academic question--we get continual inquiries regarding the Chinese chestnuts and what should they plant and where can they get the trees, and so forth. It isn't good enough in most of these cases to write several pages explaining what the whole situation is, the _if's_, _and's_, and _but's_. But I just wonder what the opinion is of the people who know best in this regard. Who has a good orchard of 20-year-old grafted Chinese chestnuts? Where are they? I don't know: I am asking for information. Mr. Chase: Dr. Drain, are those trees you have grafted trees or seedling trees? Dr. Drain (University of Tennessee): They are seedling trees. They have produced a rather nice quality nut, and we have enjoyed propagating seedlings from them. That's really all we know. We haven't grafted any. Mr. Chase: Mac, would you care to comment on this? Mr. McDaniel: I am ashamed to say that at present we have no grafted chestnut trees on my own north Alabama farms. We have about 50 trees that are 8-year-old seedlings from imported (Chinese) nuts, growing next to a commercial peach block, and find the production quite variable on the different trees. I am aiming at top-working most of these with the named varieties, beginning this year. At present I can't answer the question of seedlings vs grafted trees. I have been advising people who are interested in trying them in Tennessee that _for their first planting_ (to test the adaptability of their locations) they can get the seedlings generally quite a bit cheaper than the grafted trees. With the experience we have had over the State and the high mortality of trees, both grafted and seedling--killing of the tops and in some cases the whole tree--the seedling might be best economically _to begin their_ experimenting with. I am _not recommending_ that anyone plant seedlings commercially, but just in a small way for trial. They are well worth a trial anywhere peaches are doing well. When we find a _suitable site_, then is the time to think about using the more expensive grafted trees. Pres. Davidson: I just want to give a little bit of my experience along that line. Way back in 1934 I planted a few seeds that I got from Amelia Riehl. They were nuts of the Riehl hybrids. [Ed. note: Mostly American--European crosses.] She named one Dan Patch and another Gibbons. They are now about 13 years old. Each of them is bearing burs this year. They have borne burs, a few of them, in the past, but no nuts. So far in 1948, the burs that have fallen to the ground, of course, have no nuts, but whether the burs that are still on the trees have nuts I don't know. I want to know whether those trees are normal---whether a hybrid of that kind is likely to be sterile or not. That's another matter that might be discussed. Anyhow, you are taking a chance, no question about that, when you plant seedlings.