MR. WILKINSON: I don't like to comment on it. My opinion is it's due to the undergrowth under the trees. Keeping the circulation of the air to the roots of the trees has an effect on its non-bearing. Up until they quit cultivating and pasturing the orchard, it bore, but after they quit, production stopped. There is a two- or three-year growth of grass and weeds, a mat on the ground, and I think it's a lack of air to the roots of the trees. DR. MCKAY: Mr. Wilkinson, I heard the question raised as to whether the orchard had ever produced heavily or not. Can you answer that? MR. WILKINSON: Yes, it certainly did for several years. As long as it was cared for, it was a heavy producer. DR. MCKAY: How long ago was that, could you say? MR. WILKINSON: That's been eight years and farther back. Nothing has been done for it in the past eight years. MR. BEST: May I make a comment? Last year in our part of the country, which is a little bit west of the orchard we are talking about, we had almost zero weather in November before the leaves were off of the trees, and I felt that that took all the buds off our trees. We didn't have any nuts even on varieties that would bear every year. There are hardly any. And I think that cold freeze in the fall before the buds really got ready for it did a lot of damage. DR. MACDANIEL: I believe that was a factor in the light walnut crop in that area last year, though some trees did bear. DR. MCKAY: Of course, I think many of us fail to realize that a tree is a thing that's confined to one spot, and when it fills the ground with feeding roots and mines the soil of all nutrients near it, it's stymied, so to speak, until we give it some more food. Isn't that right, Dr. Crane. DR. CRANE: That's right. DR. MCKAY: And trees, when they reach out as far as they can and can't get any more food and no more leaves are allowed to fall on the ground, nature doesn't add any nutrients anymore, naturally, those trees are in a bad way and will continue to be until fertilizer is applied in some way. A MEMBER: I'd like to trim my Persian walnuts so I can walk under the lowest limb. Does that have an adverse effect upon the bearing of the tree? MR. BERNATH: I don't think that's good, to trim them too high. I think the lower the tree the better it handles all along. Take the fruit growers, they aim to have the trees as low as possible to make picking and spraying easy. If you prune a tree, especially the Persian walnut, too much, it will have a bad effect on the tree. DR. McKAY: What about the effect on bearing? MR. BERNATH: You won't have fruit for several years until the tree recovers what it has lost in foliage. MR. KINTZEL: I have followed the orchards in California, and I have noticed they follow the practice of leaving the lower branches on the trees, and I have noticed that the lower branches have a lot of nuts on them, also. The branches are hanging down on the ground.