Mr. Merrick purchased the property on which the hybrid is located, in 1921. A few years prior to this, the previous owner had planted six Persian walnut trees obtained from a nursery in northern Ohio. These young trees bore their first crop of nuts during Mr. Merrick's first year of ownership. It is known that the nursery owners were also proprietors of a commercial Persian walnut orchard located in the vicinity of Niagara Falls. With this combination of date and orchard location, it seems not illogical to presume that the six nursery trees were of the Pomeroy strain. From Mr. Merrick's description of the nuts produced by these trees, they appear to have been two each of three different grafted varieties. In the early nineteen-thirties, Mr. Merrick planted several nuts from the Persian trees and raised a number of seedlings. One of these seedlings, transplanted to its present location, is the subject of this discussion and is presumed to be a cross between one of the six Persians and a native black walnut. During the late nineteen-thirties, all of the trees, Persians and seedlings, with the single exception of the existing hybrid, were killed by an unusually hard winter. The Merrick hybrid walnut, now about 20 years of age, is an extremely vigorous and healthy tree. Its height is between 55 and 60 feet and its spread nearly as great. Trunk diameter is at present about 12 inches at breast height. The location of the tree is very favorable, being near the crest of a high ridge and with protection from the northwest by the house. A chicken yard is near and the kitchen drain empties close by to supply moisture. In nearly all aspects excepting the nut itself, the tree favors its pistillate parent. This is evidenced by the general shape of the tree, by the texture and color of the bark of limbs and twigs, and by the shape and color of the leaves, the buds, the flowers, and the nut hull. Hybridity is indicated by the (usually) eleven leaflets to the leaf stem, by the nut, and in the disintegration of the hull which, after falling, quickly changes into a most disagreeable, dark-brownish, semi-liquidlike mess. The nut itself is much more like a Persian walnut in appearance than a black walnut. The shell surface is slightly rougher and somewhat darker than most Persian nuts. The suture of the Persian parent is prominent. Black walnut parentage is exhibited by the thick shell, the interior configuration and in the flavor of the small kernel. Nut size varies somewhat with diameters ranging from 1 to 1-1/4 inches and lengths ranging from 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inches.