CRACKING QUALITY: This characteristic is perhaps the one which seems to most people the most difficult to measure, but, while it was some time before methods of measuring it did occur to anyone, its measurement is effected very easily. In cracking nuts a part of the kernel will usually drop right out, some times it is a large part, occasionally all, and sometimes it is but a small portion. A perfect cracker is one where the entire kernel drops out after cracking. This would have 100% cracking quality. When 4/5 of the kernel drops out after cracking and the remaining 1/5 can be extracted only by recracking or by picking out, the nut is said to have 80% cracking quality. In other words, the cracking quality is the ratio of the weight of the kernel which drops out after cracking to the entire kernel. The operations of determining cracking quality in practice are first, selecting five average nuts; second, cracking them and weighing the part of the kernels which drop out after cracking; third, extracting the balance of the kernels and getting the weight of all the kernels; fourth, dividing the weight of the part of the kernels which drop out after cracking by the total weight of the kernels, and the result is the cracking quality. After an examination of the figures of a large number of nuts, the table below was made up from which the number of points to be awarded for any given cracking quality is readily obtained. Taking the Lutz black walnut as an example again we find that the weight of the kernels which dropped out after cracking was 24 grams while the total weight of kernels was 32.5 grams which gives a cracking quality of 73.8% which would be awarded 13 points for cracking quality. BLACK WALNUTS--CRACKING QUALITY Percentage of kernel that drops out after cracking. Highest, Alley[4], 100%; Lowest, Butler, 22.9%. Cracking Quality. Points. 100% 20 96% and all higher percentages under 100% 19 92% and all higher percentages under 96% 18 88% and all higher percentages under 92% 17 84% and all higher percentages under 88% 16 80% and all higher percentages under 84% 15 76% and all higher percentages under 80% 14 72% and all higher percentages under 76% 13 68% and all higher percentages under 72% 12 64% and all higher percentages under 68% 11 60% and all higher percentages under 64% 10 56% and all higher percentages under 60% 9 52% and all higher percentages under 56% 8 48% and all higher percentages under 52% 7 44% and all higher percentages under 48% 6 40% and all higher percentages under 44% 5 36% and all higher percentages under 40% 4 32% and all higher percentages under 36% 3 28% and all higher percentages under 32% 2 24% and all higher percentages under 28% 1 20% and all higher percentages under 24% 0