DR. ZIMMERMAN: Chestnut growers say "We can't keep them." Several years ago I got a hundred pounds of chestnuts down in Illinois. I sold them out to friends of mine. In a few weeks those chestnuts were dry enough to use for roller bearings. That is the reason they don't like the chestnut. I think that hurts the chestnut business more than anything else. MR. HERSHEY: I would like to ask why insist on introducing the chestnut when we have the black walnut? I would just as soon eat bran as a chestnut. Now the black walnut you can keep for two years. DR. ZIMMERMAN: In the last few years I have been in intimate contact with chestnuts. I don't see why the people here don't take them up. If you don't do it the people on the west coast are going to plant chestnuts and ship them to the eastern market. You people can raise chestnuts. The eastern markets are full of chestnuts from Europe. What we need is chestnuts like the Riehl's. The large European chestnuts are of poor flavor. Take the varieties you can grow around here and send them to the East and you will get 50 cents a pound for them. Authorities tell us the trees will die off. I tell you you will all die off after a while. You aren't going to quit working because you are going to die off. Within three years you will have trees that will bear. You may get from twelve to fifteen crops off of them before they die. So far as the food quality of the chestnut is concerned it is not a balanced diet, mostly sugar, but it is a splendid food. The difficulty is in keeping it soft. But it is not a difficult thing. Cold storage will keep the chestnut in splendid shape for eating purposes. I would plant chestnuts and plant them now. Sooner or later, if they die off, we in the East will be prepared to replace them, but for the present you will have the whole field east of the Rocky Mountains. I do not know of another opportunity as great as the chestnut. I just wish I could take 20 acres of this land with me back to my rocky Pennsylvania farm. DR. COLBY: In Illinois the chestnut is not native and people don't realize that it can be grown. Some of the speakers have mentioned the Riehls. I want to mention the Endicott place. Mr. Endicott tells me that it is increasingly difficult to supply the demand for his chestnuts. He sells his nuts sometimes a year in advance. Developing of cleaning machinery and sorting machinery is going on apace. Mr. Endicott is interested in a sorting machine such as we use for apples. It is true we are going to get the blight out here sooner or later. Meantime we are going to try to anticipate it by securing hybrids which are resistant and of good quality at the same time.