The 1953 nut production (Table I) compared well with last year's. The total yields were as good as, or better than, the 1952 crop and the average weight per nut was not significantly lower than in 1952. Apparently the late summer and fall drought had no effect on nut yields and average weights. Obviously we have the warm winter and abundant early rains to thank for this situation. Table I. Natural Yield of Nuts (open pollinations) From Sample Trees. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total yield Av. weight per Approximate Age in Species Location in lbs. nut in grams no. of nuts years 1952 1953 1952 1953 per lb.[A] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 _C.crenta_ 13-2 27.5 43.3 14.5 14.0 32 27 _C.mollissima_ 1-3 22.2 20.8 10.6 10.5 43 27 _C.mollissima_ 1-9 28.2 26.2 9.9 9.7 46 27 _C.mollissima_ 1-15 6.8[B] 20.6 12.9 11.7 39 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A. based on the 1953 weights B. a considerable part of crop lost before it was collected Fig 1. gives a fair idea of the extremes in size of the Japanese chestnut. Since the smaller size is probably close to that of the wild chestnut in Japan, the figure illustrates what has been done by the centuries of selection and cultivation that the chestnut has undergone in Japan. [Illustration: Fig 1. Nuts of _C. crenata_, Japanese chestnut, showing approximately the limits of size in the species. Left: from a tree on Long Island, N. Y, owned by Mr. John Vertichio. Right: from one of our forest type Japanese trees given to us by the Office of Forest Pathology in 1930 and now growing at the Sleeping Giant Plantation, Hamden, Conn. The tree is probably representative of the wild type of nuts in Japan--a little larger than the native American chestnut. However, it is probable that smaller nuts of the Japanese species exist. About 1/2 natural size. Photo by B. W. McFarland, Conn. Agric. Expt. Sta., Nov. 27, 1953.] Anent the large nuts in the photograph, which weigh about an ounce apiece or about 28 g. (compare figures in table I), Mr. Ferguson, Instructor at the Long Island Agricultural and Technical Institute, through whom we received the nuts, states that "the nuts of the seedlings from the tree do not average better than half the size of those of the parent tree." This illustrates the fact, now well known, that the chestnut tree is self sterile. Nuts are always (with exceptions) a result of fertilization of the flowers with the pollen from _another_ tree.