but it would not give the best promise of a crop of valuable timber. It should not be necessary to suggest that browsing animals should not be allowed access to such grounds. Their presence would be fatal to any successful forestry operations. Fire of course would be disas trous. The method just described is simply a slight improvement of the natural plan by which we so often see old, abandoned fields covered with a fresh forest growth. It has, however, this advantage that the growth is more likely to be prompt, dense and desirable. It is to be understood that the chief use of such a forest is to serve as a protection to more desirable trees, which may be introduced by methods already well understood.

There is another class of land, which, though no longer remunerative under ordinary agriculture, is still better than that we have just described, and which it may be desirable to cover as speedily as possible with a forest growth. The preparation of the soil here may be more thorough. And while the same broadcast methods of sowing may still be resorted to, it is by no means certain that they should be. Having some choice in the matter, it may be wise to secure a more orderly arrangement of the trees, not only because greater protection against wash is thus obtained, but because a better quality and a larger quantity of timber is secured. Indeed, it may be a question for the landowner to decide whether he will sow the whole surface by seed, or whether he will raise his seedlings in a nursery and then transplant them in the soil he desires to reforest. Such soil also admits of a larger list of seed which may be sown with fair promise of success: Elm, two or three species of ash and red maple may be added to the list already named for covering the ground speedily. And as the season's growth is more likely to be vigorous, the sowing may be longer delayed, or done, indeed, when the seeds ripen-from June to October. It may be suggested that in company with these seeds there can also be a light sowing of such leguminous plants as will not only give protection to the tender trees, but will at the same time rapidly add nitrogen to the soil; i. e., field peas, and, certainly for the southern half of Pennsylvania, crimson clover. It should be stated that the locust tree is a nitrogen gatherer, and therefore adds to the fertility of the soil.

The other alternative to sowing is by placing the seeds in rows. This is probably on the whole better adapted to the weightier seedsthe nuts and acorns for example.

The methods to be employed for each kind of seed have been fully discussed in the report of this department for 1895. It will, therefore, be unnecessary to repeat them here.

If trees are raised in a nursery and transplanted the task is much less formidable than supposed. Three men, or two men and a boy, can plant by means of a "dibble" from three to four thousand such

young trees in a day. The same instrument may be used in planting cuttings, or such seeds as require a considerable covering of earth. To recapitulate, the two sovereign remedies against "wash” on a farm are, first, a dense, well-matted sward, which should be kept in good condition by frequent top dressing, or if this fails, a prompt restoration of land rendered unproductive to a forest condition.

A WALNUT FREAK.

In the winter of 1895, my attention was called by Mr. William H. Groninger, clerk to the commissioners of Juniata county, to a remarkable fruit produced by a walnut tree near Pleasant View postoffice, in the county above named. The statement made in connection with the tree was that it was a walnut tree which produced hickory nuts.

Mr. Groninger handed me the fruit for inspection. Naturally enough I was cautious about expressing an opinion concerning so remarkable a production as the one held in my hand. It was appar ently a black walnut, which retained its outer hull, or husk, in a wrinkled or weathered condition. I noticed that its free or upper end showed signs of splitting into valves, after the manner of the ordinary hickory nut. The other end, on which the point of attachment to the branch was still visible, had the texture, color and odot of the walnut, and of that only. The nut itself was unmistakably a walnut.

On April 16th, 1896, Mr. M. S. Esh was kind enough to take me to see the tree. It stands within a few minutes' walk of the railroad station known as Warble, on top of a low ridge, or hill, and within half a mile of the mountains on the southern side of the Tuscarora valley. The tree was about forty feet high. The trunk was two feet seven inches in diameter at four feet from the ground. The illustra tion will show that it had in earlier days received severe injury. On the one side, toward the west, was a scar much more than foot wide above, tapering down several feet to a point. It seemed as though one of the largest limbs had been torn off there by a storm. On the side toward the south, apparently an earlier and more extensive injury had overtaken the tree. The illustration will show that it extends in one limb from above where the primary branches arise to the ground, and that it involves the entire heart of the trunk. The general belief is in the neighborhood that it is the sult

of a stroke of lightning. This I am not inclined to doubt. The tree is old and seems to grow but little. The statement of Mr. W. D. Beale, a middle-aged man, who grew up (I am informed) on the farm, was that the tree seemed to have changed but little in appearance or size as long as he can remember it. At the time of my visit (April, 1895) the ground was abundantly strewn with the weathered fruit of the previous season. This fruit was probably half of the usual normal character, and presented no apparent difference from the ordinary black walnut, either in its outer husk, or in the nut and kernel. The other half of the fruit which lay on the ground presented in a more or less marked degree on its outer husk the split character of the hickory nut. The valves sometimes were barely indicated at the tip. At others they were clearly marked to the middle of the fruit or even lower still, but never quite to the base. The nut itself in every instance was a genuine walnut.

On leaving this freak my first thought was that it must be a hybrid. This, however, cannot be the case, because the tree bears fruit of no constant character. Part is normal and the remainder is of the character indicated. There remains now to be stated that, which to my mind, is the most singular fact of all in connection with the history of the tree; i. e., its fruit not only varies on the tree in the same year, but one year's product appears to be no certain sign of the character of the fruit on the following year. For example, the fruit of 1895 was, as has been stated, about evenly divided between the normal character and the sport. The fruit of the season of 1896 was almost, if not quite, wholly normal. At least I failed to find any pronounced instances of the sport in the fruit when I visited the tree in October of this year. There was at the time an abundant crop of fruit lying on the ground, and the only indication I was able to observe of any departure from the normal state were two fruits which bore faint longitudinal ridges toward their apex.

So far as I am aware, no demonstrable solution of this singular biological problem is to be had. Still there are certain facts which point to a possible explanation.

It is clear that a tree so maimed as this one cannot be regarded as in a healthy condition. Leaving out of sight the fact that it is practically a mere shell, there remains also the still more important fact that one-half of that shell is destroyed, and that if the limbs above receive full nourishment it must be through a much diminished surface of cambium and young wood. That nutrition is seriously impaired might probably be inferred from the remark of Mr. Beale, that he has known the tree all his life, and that it has changed but little, if any, during that time. Its growth is, therefore, exceedingly slow. There is another fact to be considered as pointing toward though not proving the explanation about to be offered; i. e., the season of 1895