The year just closing has been full of disasters both on land and sea, though I do not wish it to be understood that I am inclined to be a pessimist on account of these occurrences. I wish to speak of a disaster which overtook the walnut industry in the northern states. Early in the year we had an arctic cold wave which put the thermometer from 23 to 33 degrees below zero. This cold wave apparently did no injury to the walnut trees at the time but late in the spring it was discovered that the wood cells were ruptured though the buds and bark were uninjured. In cutting the scions in early April the bark and buds seemed in good condition for grafting; but as the time approached to do the work it was readily seen, by its changed color, that the wood was injured, some scions of course more than others. Those that were only slightly discolored were used in grafting. But as time passed the unhappy result came to light that out of about 2,000 nursery trees grafted only one graft grew. After climbing an 80 foot walnut tree to get our scions, and paying a good price for them besides, this was rather discouraging. This cold wave, which was unprecedented for the time, had wrought other injuries to the nut industry. That was especially to the young trees that were transplanted the fall previous and last spring. The transplanting with a frost injury already was too great a strain on the feeble life of the trees. The consequence was that some of them died outright, and others made only a feeble growth. But where low and severe pruning was practised good results followed and such trees as were established on the original root system escaped the frost injury entirely. The young nursery trees with dormant buds were not affected in the least but made a strong growth of from three to seven feet this last summer. The intense cold wave was such that some old and young seedling Persian walnut trees were killed outright, and not only the Persian walnut but in a few instances the American black was very much injured; likewise the Norway maple, magnolia, California privet and roses. Also the peach both in tree and fruit. Now in conclusion let me say, what is the lesson to be learned? First, as to the propagation of the Persian walnut, great care should be taken that only trees that are hardy should be propagated from, as well as having good bearing qualities with a first class nut. Second, after a freeze such as we had last winter, a special effort should be made to save the newly planted tree by close and severe pruning. As, for example, I had a very fine two year old Hall Persian walnut which was referred to me as dead. I cut the tree off about 4 inches above where it was budded on the black walnut stock. It was not long after that signs of new life appeared and eventually it made a very fine, handsome tree. Nature does indeed some wonderful tricks in this respect by which we can learn valuable lessons; and chief of these is close pruning.