In our planting we have some trees that will bear this year. Next year they won't bear, but their sister trees will bear. So we have pods every year from some of the trees. Over a period of five years, during which these trees were planted (the oldest trees that we have in 1938, and in 1942) the average production of the Millwood was 58.3 pounds per tree. In 1943 there were no pods produced on the Millwood variety. We had a cold spell in the spring that completely eradicated all of the fruit in that year. In 1944 the average yield--and that is taking the average yield of 10 trees of the oldest ones that were put in--the average yield was 146 pounds of pods per tree.
Mr. Moore: That's just for Millwood. I will give you the Calhoun in a minute.
Then in 1945 the average yield was 39.5 pounds per tree. In 1946 we had an average of 180 pounds per tree. In 1947 we had an average of 12 pounds. Now, note the break there in averages from year to year: 58, none, 146, 39, 180, 12. You get from that that we have almost definitely alternate bearing in those trees.
Now, this other thing is interesting. If you take the five-year average from 1942 through 1946 inclusive, and convert that to 35 trees--this is 10 trees--but when you convert that to an average of 35 trees per acre you get the equivalent of 92 bushels of oats per acre. Now, understand, with this yield of pods we were cutting two and a half tons of hay from the _Lespedeza sericea_ each year. So we were getting our hay crop and our grain crop from the same source.
Now, to give you just briefly what the Calhoun variety did during those years, in 1942 the Calhoun trees--the same age planted under the same conditions on the same soil--averaged 26.4 pounds of pods per tree. In 1943 the Calhoun followed closely with the Millwood; on account of a freeze they didn't produce anything. In 1944 they produced 32.4 pounds of pods per tree. In 1945 they produced 63.8 pounds of pods per tree. In 1946 they produced 22 pounds of pods per tree, and in 1947 they produced 46 pounds of pods per tree.
Now, if you will take the average of those, contrast it with the average for the Millwood, you will find that the Millwood tree over a period of five years produced almost three times as many pods as the Calhoun. The Calhoun variety has a little more carbohydrates, and it always averages a little more sugar per pound than the Millwood, but the additional yield of the Millwood variety makes it very worthwhile.