I hope that the foregoing brief discussion has conveyed to you the potential value that lies in the piles of shells accumulating at the cracking plants, and that these accumulations can be converted from expensive wastes to profitable products. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: One of the laboratories of the Bureau of Agricultural and Industrial Chemistry, Agricultural Research Administration, United States Department of Agriculture.] The Propagation of the Hickories (Panel Discussion led by F. L. O'Rourke, East Lansing, Mich.) MR. O'ROURKE: I hope that we can have a rather stimulating session on hickory propagation this morning. Last year we had a session which was supposed to take in propagation of all nut tree species. However, we never got away from Chinese chestnuts. It was Chinese chestnuts from the start to the finish. The Program Committee this time thought that we should limit it to one group, and they chose the hickories. I have compiled a review of all the literature pertaining to the hickories and passed it out yesterday afternoon. I hope that some of you have had a chance to read it and will have some questions to ask us this morning. In order to really have some help, I am going to call upon Mr. Louis Gerardi of Illinois, Mr. Ferguson of Iowa, Mr. Max Hardy of Georgia, Mr. Ward of Indiana, and Mr. Wilkinson also of Indiana and Mr. Bernath of Poughkeepsie, New York. The subject matter of the panel will be limited to the propagation of hickories, which includes the pecan. Who has some questions that they'd like to bring up? MR. SALZER: Which varieties will grow on fairly wet soil? MR. O'ROURKE: That is a question pertaining to culture, rather than propagation, but we can still allow it. Which varieties--I presume you mean species, is that correct?--will grow on fairly wet soil? I think Mr. Ward has a little bit of black soil in that good, old state of Indiana. MR. SALZER: I mean soil that doesn't dry well in the spring. I have one spot that's too wet for chestnuts. MR. WARD: I wouldn't put any hickory nuts on it. You are going to find it is going to be very difficult for if the soil is the least bit heavy or wet, the hickory nut does not do well at all. In the Wabash bottoms there is a lot of this black soil that is overflowed every year, and some of the finest hickory nuts and some of the finest pecans that you can find in the country are there. Sometimes I have seen water marks on those hickory trees several feet from the ground in the spring of the year and sometimes in the summer, yet they come through with a good crop of nuts. Underneath it is a strata of gravel so that the soil drains out in a hurry. MR. SALZER: This has subsoil drainage.