Dr. MacDaniels: What volume would a cracker have to have to make it interesting? What quantity would have to be produced and offered to a cracker to make it interesting? That is, say I have 50 bushels of Thomas. That isn't any good to you, because your cracking plant--
Mr. McCauley: Why wouldn't it? If I had 50 bushels, that is 2500 pounds, right? All right, Tom could run his plant for two hours and a half, we will say, on 2500 pounds, and in that two hours and a half he would be getting as much kernels as he would otherwise in five hours. That's good business.
Mr. Chase: I'd just like to comment on that 18 per cent kernel you mentioned as the average you'd like to think of. Mr. Zarger has run a study on the sample trees in the Tennessee Valley to measure the kernel content in some 130 trees for about seven years running, and it pans out to about 18 per cent. I thought you'd just like to know.
Mr. McCauley: I didn't want to make a definite statement and then have somebody throw something back in my face. That's why I said I'd like to think.
Mr. Fisher: Since this question has come up and a cracker is here, and that is the question, whether the commercial cracker would be willing to pay a premium price for premium nuts, I wonder if Tom will answer the question, would he pay twice as much?
Mr. Chase: Mr. Acker is another sheller who operates in Morristown, Tennessee, and Broadway, Virginia, who just dropped in on us. I'd like to ask him that same question.
Mr. Chase: Would a considerable quantity of walnuts such as Thomas be worth more to you?
Mr. Acker: We'd be inclined to buy them according to the value we get out of them.
Dr. MacDaniels: What would you do, run sort of a pilot test on them?
Mr. Acker: If I can buy something for a dollar and make money on it, I am willing to try.
Mr. Chase: I made a little unscheduled talk last night in which I said from my information from shellers in Nashville, particularly, that they at this time would not be able to pay any premium price for higher quality nuts simply because they do not have time to examine each bushel, each hundred pounds that comes in and see whether they would pay a special price for better walnuts. Is that the general situation?