Besides breeding, we are able also to use some of the mutations or bud sports to improve our nuts as well as fruits. Although our progress in improving nuts may not yet be as spectacular as cross-breeding with apples, bud selection has already modified the list of our commercial varieties. One of the first requisites in bud selection is so thorough a knowledge of the variety that any departure from the type will be detected. Then it will be necessary to start propagation to determine whether the variation was caused by some environmental factor, or is really a sport which can be perpetuated by vegetative propagation. You may wonder if many of our nut growers know nut varieties well enough to detect any but the most obvious sports. Nut improvement through bud selection within the variety lies ahead of us. Among fruit growers the search seems to have been for fruits of different or more pleasing color. As nut growers we are more likely to be interested in nut sports having better size, kernel, cracking qualities, etc. Trees that are able to ripen their nuts in short or cool seasons are especially desirable in some of our more northern states. My attention was especially called to the importance of bud selection several years ago while buying my winter's supply of apples. I was examining the splendid crop of Jonathan apples in a neighbor's large commercial orchard. On most of the Jonathan trees the apples were large and well colored and the crop was heavy. However, a few trees bore apples of inferior size and color. Upon questioning the fruit grower as to the difference in the performance of the two types of Jonathan apple trees, he explained that the better apples came from trees supplied by a nurseryman who was very particular in selecting a good bud strain. The other trees were just the ordinary strain of Jonathan. It was while working in a commercial orchard of the grafted varieties of black walnuts that I noticed one especially promising Thomas tree. During the few years that I have observed this tree, its nuts have been of splendid size and very uniform. The kernels from the nuts from this tree were somewhat better than those from most of the other trees. I now have some grafts growing from this promising tree. There appears to be much promise for nut improvement by cross-breeding to regroup desired qualities. Although many of us enjoy the nut contests that are conducted from time to time, it appears that our nut improvement program might move along faster if more attention were given to nut breeding and searching out desirable bud sports. Discussion after G. J. Korn's paper. Corsan: "Farmers should be encouraged to plant nut trees along boundary lines. Enormous amounts of fertilizer there." J. R. Smith: "One tree in ten thousand seedlings is worth while."