Chapter IX: Section X: Amendments to By-Laws (2)

MR. SHERMAN: Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Chairman: First I'd like to tell you who I am. Some of you have been to my place and know who I am, but last fall Pennsylvania started something new--a little bit different. They put on a survey of the nut trees of Pennsylvania. Two of us were selected for the job, and I would like to introduce Dr. Anthony--stand up so they can see. He and I were the two that were selected to put on the tree crop survey of that State of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania is a big state, and there is lots to see. They not only made it a survey of the nut trees, but any trees that are potential food for wildlife. Well, that made it the acorns and the honeylocust and, well, what have you, How big a job they hung on two fellows! Well, we have done the best we can, and we want to bring you this afternoon just a little of those results.

The Persian Walnut in Pennsylvania and Ohio

L. WALTER SHERMAN, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Tree Crop Survey, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

As members of the Northern Nut Growers Association, most of you are familiar with the early history of the Persian walnut, its introduction into the United States by the early settlers, and how it finally found a home in California. You also know of the more recent introduction into this country of nuts and other material from the Carpathian Mountains by the Rev. Mr. Crath, who was assisted by members of your organization. (1)

These recent Crath introductions are supposed to be much hardier than the former ones, and probably able to establish themselves in northern United States and southern Canada.

When the Pennsylvania legislature authorized a survey of the nut trees of the state, very few people realize the foothold that the Persian walnut already had in Pennsylvania.

Early in this survey, we visited Fayette Etter, who is Pennsylvania's Luther Burbank with nut trees. He is well informed concerning the Persian walnut in his section, and he surprised us by his estimate of several thousand trees in his county of Franklin. The adjoining counties of Adams, York, and Lancaster, along the southern border of the state, have fully as many trees of this species, so it is a very conservative estimate that there are ten thousand of these trees in Pennsylvania. These are located, for the most part, in the southeastern corner of the state below one thousand feet elevation.

Local grown Persian walnuts were found on sale last fall in the farm markets of York, Lancaster, and Harrisburg and at many grocery stores. Wherever we found such local nuts on sale, we asked where and by whom they were grown. Many of them came from Halifax and Linglestown, in Dauphin County; from Lampeter, Lancaster County; and from Seven Valleys, York County.

Farther investigation revealed the facts that in all but one of the centers of production, the trees were seedling trees and that there were from four to 23 trees planted relatively close together. In one instance, a lone tree produced the nuts being sold, and in another case the nuts were from several grafted trees.

The lone tree, which produced three bushels in 1949, was of interest. Investigation revealed that the nearest Persian walnut tree was at least a city block distant. Was this lone tree self pollinating or receiving pollen from a tree this far away? We still are not sure of the answer.

Jacob Houser, of Lampeter, was selling Pomeroy seedling nuts and nuts from three Rush Persian walnuts grafted on black walnut stock. They were growing close enough for cross-pollination.

Driving through the counties of southeastern Pennsylvania, we found many thousand seedling Persian walnut trees as shade trees about the farm homes. Investigations revealed that most of these trees never produced any nuts. Repeatedly we are told that, "my tree never has any nuts, but a certain tree on an adjoining farm always produces," or "I have two trees, one of which bears quite regularly but the other never has borne." They are the same age and both seem to be growing equally well. Some produce only a few handfulls of nuts when they should be producing five to ten bushels, judging by their size.

You as nut growers know the answer, but the general public does not. Even some of you have made the mistake of planting one tree by itself and expecting it to produce. This seldom happens. Mixed plantings of several varieties or several seedlings planted close together is the safe rule to plant by.

I know of one planting of ten grafted trees of one variety of Persian walnuts, now twenty years old, that has never produced any nuts even though they are planted so that cross-pollination would be expected. In 1950 only a few catkins developed. These produced pollen early and were on the ground before the pistilate bloom opened and was receptive. I never saw a nicer pistillate bloom on any Persian walnuts than these trees had, yet not a single nut set. They are in the center of a fifty-five acre black walnut orchard, and when the pistillate bloom was at its peak, the black walnuts surrounding were shedding pollen. Do not try to tell me that native black walnuts will satisfactorily pollinate the Persian walnut. After this demonstration, I know different. Were all the Persian walnut trees of Pennsylvania properly pollinated, the crop of nuts, in my estimation, would be increased a hundredfold over what it is normally. Lack of pollination is probably the greatest factor causing non-production in our Persian walnuts. It is far more important that the fertility factor which is so important in production of the common black walnut. (2)

Fayette Etter and Milo Paden both feel that the Broadview variety is self-pollinating, but even this variety may prove to be benefited by cross pollination.

The Persian walnut has developed in Pennsylvania and Ohio in a rather interesting pattern. Trees planted fifty to a hundred and fifty years ago managed to live and produce nuts. From these trees, seedlings were grown and planted by neighbors and friends. These trees and their seedlings in turn have now grown to producing age. Some few that produce good crops of nuts you hear about, but the vast majority are just non-producing shade trees. Until you look for them you little realize how numerous they are.

At Linglestown, Dauphin County, however, we find a striking exception to this. Here all the trees are productive. The question there is not why don't my trees produce, but is quite spirited as to who harvests the largest crop and best nuts.

About seventy-five years ago Alfred Kleopfer planted some Persian walnuts of unknown origin, but probably from Germany. He grew three trees which were planted, one beside the village blacksmith shop, one across the street, and the third at a neighbor's. One tree lived for only a short time. The blacksmith shop has been replaced by a modern dwelling but the walnut tree was saved and has grown to be a tree 6' 6" in circumference and probably 60 feet high. The one across the street is of nearly equal size but the top has been damaged by storm and the tree is not as tall.

These two trees were able to cross-pollinate and one tree was especially productive. Miles Bolton recognized its value and began growing seedling trees and distributing them to his neighbors. Some of them were quite skeptical and even refused to take them as a gift and plant them. However, he got the village pretty well planted to Persian walnut trees, so that today there are 145 nice trees within the village, and two small orchards on farms nearby.

Standing in the village square, one can see at least six Persian walnut trees higher than the house tops. Pollination is not a problem, and all trees are good producers. Young trees are in demand for planting, and seedling trees, coming up in the flower beds, compost piles, fence corners, and other places where squirrels have hidden nuts, are carefully transplanted to permanent locations.

The story of the development of the Persian walnut at Linglestown, with minor variations of course, can be repeated many times in southeastern Pennsylvania. In Linglestown, the development has been concentrated within a village, whereas in most places it has been spread over a farming community, with less opportunity for cross-pollination. The result has been a very high percentage of barren trees. However, Persian walnut seedling trees have taken over and are making good in this milder climate area of Pennsylvania.

About the same can be said of northern Ohio, though the development is probably 50 years behind that in Pennsylvania. The climate there apparently is not so well suited to the Persian walnut, and fewer trees have been able to thrive. A few, however, are growing nicely and their seedlings are rapidly spreading. The Jacobs tree at Elmore, Ohio, produced 300 pounds of nuts in 1947, at 30 years of age, and many nuts from this tree are being planted. The Ohio Nut Growers are propagating vegetatively from the outstanding trees and rapid development is taking place. Named varieties are thus being developed from superior trees, and future success will be based on these named varieties rather than on seedlings.

During the last few years, some of the seedlings developed from the Crath Carpathian importations are coming into bearing in parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and wherever I have seen them they look very promising indeed. The Crath Carpathians are doing well at Mt. Jackson, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, along with Broadview, for Riley Paden and Howard Butler. A. W. Robinson, of Pittsburgh, has five trees of Crath seedlings, two of which are in bearing. All these trees seem to be perfectly hardy. The nuts of course vary, but all are good.

Riley Paden, at Mt. Jackson, is grafting Broadview on black walnut stock, and for him this variety is doing well. He has about forty trees of it from two to fifteen years of age. His prize fifteen-year-old tree produced one bushel of nuts in 1949. A sample of these nuts is on the table for your inspection. Paden says he can grow Broadview anywhere peaches will do well. Fayette Etter at Lemasters, Franklin County, considers Broadview too bitter flavored for him. He thinks Burtner, which is a local seedling, superior for his section to all other varieties that he has tested.

With an estimated ten thousand Persian walnut seedlings growing in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania nut growers are faced with a big task to sort out the best and get them tested in different sections of the state. We should find the best half dozen varieties for each section.

The Persian walnut is established in Pennsylvania and in northern Ohio. There are not just a few scattered trees having a hard time to survive but there are many thousands of them, growing vigorously, some producing big crops of fine nuts, others not producing any. They are ready now for the intelligent development you can give to them. Nature has gone about as far as she will without your assistance. The job now is up to you nut growers.

REFERENCES

(1) Northern Nut Growers Annual Report Vol. Page
Persian walnuts
history of in Penna. Rush 5 93
history of in Cal. Reed, C. A. 6 51
introduction of Carpathian. Crath 27 103
distribution of Carpathian. Rahmlow 27 112
survey in Penna. Fagan 6 23
(2) Persian walnut protandrous. Craig 2 106

Discussion

MR. FRYE: How about butternuts for pollenization?

MR. SHERMAN: I don't know. I have one hybrid, and that's a sample downstairs that I think is an English walnut crossed with a butternut. The nut looks like a butternut; the tree looks like an English walnut, but it has the butternut bark. They will occasionally pollinate, I think, but don't depend on them.

MR. CORSAN: I'll tell you how you can tell. That butternut-English walnut cross is the most powerful tree I ever came across, especially for good wood. I got a tremendous one.

MR. STOKE: I produced, I think, 22 seedling trees from the Lancaster Persian walnut. About five per cent are hybrids. There was one strong-growing black × Persian hybrid that I am sure of. There are three or four very dwarfish trees that undoubtedly were crossed with the heartnut. They were all dwarf. I haven't been able to get one to bear. I have had one grafted five or six years on a black walnut, but that was the heartnut and not the butternut.

MR. SHERMAN: That study of the hybrid is another story and really doesn't belong in this discussion at all.

MR. CORSAN: Here is a point on that. When they are only that high (indicating)--if they are only babies, I can tell them. You know, occasionally. Look at the leaflets on the compound leaf, and if there are over seven, they are hybrids, and if they are extra vigorous growing, they are hybrids, because they occasionally pollenize.

MR. SHERMAN: Those are all characteristics of the hybrids, but here is what I want to bring out now, and Dr. Anthony is going to stress it on his chestnuts a little bit later: You people have a wealth of material to select from. Nature has gone about so far, and I am just a believer enough in what the Bible says, that God made the heavens and the earth and put man here to tend and keep it, and made him master of everything above the earth and every creeping thing on the earth and everything beneath the earth, and it is up to you fellows to direct intelligently this mass of material you have to direct. You have got nuts growing where they are hardy, you have got big nuts, you have got little nuts, you have got everything under the sun you can think of. What more do you want for a nice job ahead? It's up to you fellows to do. It's going to be not a one-year job, not a two-year job, not a five-year job; you will be at this, and your children and your grandchildren.

MR. CORSAN: Make you live long.

MR. SHERMAN: Maybe you will live long enough, but it's a century's job, and not the job for one man's lifetime.

(Loud applause.)

DR. MacDANIELS: Thank you, Mr. Sherman. Any questions?

MR. CHASE: Yes, sir. I want to ask Mr. Sherman, should I be thinking about receiving 10,000 entries in this contest?

MR. SHERMAN: No, because there aren't 10,000 trees producing. Out of that 10,000 maybe there are a thousand of them producing. The nine thousand others are nothing but shade trees, and never produce any nuts. You don't hear of them, but if you travel through York, Lancaster, and Adams Counties down there and look for Persian walnuts, you will find them on--I was going to say 50 per cent of the farm homes. You can see them along the road everywhere.

My wife travels with me a good deal of the time. She will say, "Why don't you stop and look at that Persian walnut? There are some over there. Why don't you stop there?"

A MEMBER: Don't they bloom a month later than most of the others?

MR. CORSAN: Did you find a good French variety?

MR. SHERMAN: But those French varieties--I can't take you to a good French variety in Southeastern Pennsylvania that has been producing the nuts. They produce the nuts, but folks won't even pick them up.

A MEMBER: They are good for pollen.

MR. SHERMAN: If you want a good pollenizer go to Fayette Etter and get his Burtner. It's a very late pollen producer. This year I took some buds from his Burtner and put them in the top of those ten trees in that 55-acre black walnut orchard to see if I can't do something. Maybe it won't stick--maybe I hadn't better tell you.

MR. CORSAN: Mr. Chairman, there is one point raised by the last speaker that's not understood; that the young black walnut trees, when they first blossom, they come out with a mass of male blossoms. Then the English walnut, when it comes out, it sometimes comes out with a mass of pistillate flowers which people might not know are the female flowers. They make the nuts, but there is not even one catkin. I have seen that time and again.

Those trees in Russia would be dependent upon larger trees to pollinate them. But here you have young trees, and you have to wait till they get a certain growth, and then they produce their catkins.

DR. MacDANIELS: Thank you, Mr. Corsan.

The next paper, by Mr. J. F. Wilkinson of Rockport, Indiana, "Observations and Experiences with the Persian Walnut in Southern Indiana." Mr. Wilkinson.

(Paper not available for this Report.)

DR. MacDANIELS: We have a choice of doing several different things. There are several other papers we have here, the authors of which are not present. Then the other possibility would be to go on and have some papers that require the use of the lantern, as long as we have this all fixed up.

Perhaps the thing to do is to have Dr. Anthony's paper on chestnuts, using the lantern, and then have these other papers on the Persian walnut summarized after that. Does that seem to be a reasonable thing to do?

(Chorus of yeses.)

DR. MacDANIELS: We will go ahead on that basis, then. Dr. Anthony has the talk on chestnuts.

(This talk, withdrawn for revision, may appear in next Report.)

MR. CORSAN: Dr. Anthony, I knew Captain Sober very well, and he showed me quite a group--a double handful--of Korean sweet chestnuts. They were a little thicker than the native Pennsylvania chestnut, they are rounder and a little larger, but they weren't as large as some of the Chinese or nearly as large as the Japanese. What about those nuts, because, you see, the blight killed all his Paragon chestnuts--you know, the cross between the European and the American chestnuts--killed them all off completely, as it did with me.

DR. ANTHONY: In our detective work we were instructed to follow down that plantation. Mrs. Sober is still alive, living in Lewisburg. The planting has practically disappeared. I am going over there next week. It is still with the man who wrote "Chestnut Culture in Pennsylvania." MR. CORSAN: It broke his heart.

DR. ANTHONY: We are going over there next week, but I think that whole planting has disappeared. When these things change hands, another man comes in who is not interested, and things disappear very rapidly.

(Continue with paper.)

MR. CORSAN: I want to tell you how to keep the deer out of the chestnut orchard. Plant filberts five feet apart all around the place, and after while just put one single electrified wire five feet from the ground, and the deer won't get in through that.

DR. ANTHONY: Glad to hear that, because deer is one of our problems.

(Continue with paper.)

DR. ANTHONY: There is a tree beside the blacksmith shop, and the old man used to go there early in the morning as a boy to get chestnuts. Today he has taken down the old blacksmith shop and built a home, but he preserved that tree in Linglestown. It practically covers his house, six feet six inches in trunk circumference, 60 feet high and a spread of 60 feet. It isn't too long before we will have chestnuts that big to eat alongside the old blacksmith shop.

DR. MacDANIELS. It is about three o'clock. We will take a five-minute recess.

(Whereupon, a short recess was taken.)

DR. MacDANIELS: For the first paper after the recess, we will call on Sargent Wellman to speak to us about the Persian walnuts in England. Mr. Wellman.

Notes on Persian Walnuts in England

SARGENT WELLMAN, Topsfield, Massachusetts

MR. WELLMAN: Members of the Association: I was fortunate enough to be in England last summer, and I agreed that I would say a few words about nut growing there. What I am really going to do is largely to read you a few things from some articles that I found there.

I was very much impressed with the little interest that there is in nut growing in England, and I was very much surprised at it. Of course, you all know that the walnut grows there. The chestnut grows there. There are some fine, marvelous trees in Kew Gardens, of course, that I saw, and if you read the English poets, you will remember how they talk about chestnut blossoms on chestnut trees, but curiously enough, there is now very little interest.

MR. McDANIEL. When they speak of the blossom, they speak of the horsechestnut, do they not?

MR. WELLMAN: Not always, but there are pink flowered horsechestnuts in France, particularly, whole avenues of pink ones. The cob nut, as they call the filbert, is very common there, grown in hedges. One year when I was in England previously I brought home a few in my pocket, and I have a seedling which grew from one of those, which is comparable to the filberts I have, but apparently there is no interest in that, so far as I can see--I mean, any investigation and any experimentation and encouragement of its planting. But there is about the walnut. That's the one nut tree in which they are interested.

I picked up two reports, both of them made by Elizabeth M. Glenn, who is the woman connected with the East Malling Station down in Kent and is the one person who is doing more with walnut work than anybody else, as far as I could find out. Unfortunately, the day I was there she was on vacation, so I couldn't see her, but they were very kind to me and took me around and showed me everything.

As you know, the East Malling Station is the place where they have done all that work with apple root stocks. This one is a reprint from the annual report for the East Malling Station for 1946. And then "The Men of the Trees," which is a forestry society there which some of you may have heard of, have reprinted in the Autumn, 1949, number another article by Elizabeth Glenn on "The Selection and Propagation of Walnuts." And I think if I make a few comments and read a few things from these, you will be interested.

She says, "The earliest record of a walnut tree in England is 1562, but remains of walnut shells have been found in Roman villas, and it is probable that the Romans planted some nuts and raised trees in this country."

She says, "There is a large tree of it"--black walnut--"at Kew, near the entrance to the Rock Garden." Of course there are some rootstocks, and they are all specimen trees, but they are not used for nuts. She says somewhere here, "In this country the nuts are of little value, although in America they are used for confectionery purposes."

The East Malling Station is really a fruit research station, as I said, and they are the ones who are primarily interested in walnut crops and not timber production. "However, there is no reason why a tree shouldn't produce both good crops and good timber."

"The French, have been grafting walnuts for well over 100 years, and the famous Grenoble nuts all come from grafted trees of named varieties." She emphasizes the fact that almost all of the English walnuts are grown on seedling trees and are very much inferior to those that come from the Continent and from this country. And of course that was the purpose of their work, to encourage the use of grafted trees.

I was interested in this sentence: "The late Mr. Howard Spence began the survey and collection of good varieties growing in this country and abroad, and collaborated with East Malling in the trial of selected varieties." He was always interested in our society and was an honorary member of it for a good many years prior to his death.

I was interested in the fact that the problems that they have over there in the way of climate and some other things are very similar to our problems. She speaks a good deal about the matter of climate. I will come to that as I go along.

"Work on walnuts, started at East Malling in 1925, soon showed that the budding or grafting of walnuts out of doors was far too chancy in this climate to be relied upon as a means of raising young trees," so that all their grafting is done in the greenhouse, and they don't try to do anything outdoors.

"Outdoor grafting can be done successfully only where the mean temperature from May to September is above 65° F." Then she gives a description of the greenhouse grafting, bringing in the seedlings and potting them in November, in the fall, and then starting along in February in grafting, and then taking them out and planting them in the spring. I won't go into that; there is nothing particularly interesting I think, for us about that.

Patch budding she also describes.... She says it's a much cheaper method than grafting under glass but at the moment the results are far less reliable.

"The walnut will tolerate a wide range of soils so long as the drainage is good and the soil is not too acid. Lime should be applied before planting, unless there is plenty present in the soil.

"The site should not be in a valley or frost hole, because, although the dormant tree is quite hardy and can stand severe frost, the young growths and catkins are very easily killed by spring frosts." They are talking about the same problem we have. In fact, in spite of the fact that the weather is warmer than in Boston and New England, they don't have the severe winters, but they do have this late frost.

Manuring. They recommend mulching with farmyard manure or compost put on the soil and worked in and no artificial nitrogen because that again gives too much late growth, and you have trouble with killing back.

She goes over the problems that we have been talking about this afternoon, about the time of leafing out in the spring and what the difference in the varieties is and the effects of that on the winter killing.

Now, I am not going to read much more. I will just read over the names of the varieties which may interest you. This first article, the 1946 one, lists Franquette, Mayette, Meylanaise, Chaberte, Excelsior of Taynton, Northdown, Clawnut, and Secrett. The latter article, which was published last year, says that in 1929, with the help of Dr. Taylor, the Royal Horticultural Society held a walnut competition. "Over 700 entries were received and were subjected to severe tests. Most of the nuts were far below the required standards, but five Were selected for propagation and further tests. The owners of the trees from which these nuts came supplied scion wood to raise grafted trees for trial at East Malling." The best ones came from a tree which they called "Champion of Ixworth." The second one was called "Excelsior of Taynton," which was in the list I read previously. Another variety is called "Lady Irene." I am not going into the description of these varieties here, because if any of you are interested, you can get hold of these publications and get it. She lists the Stutton seedling and then the Northdown Clawnut.

Also in this article she mentions the French varieties, of course, which were mentioned before.

Well, I thought it might just interest you that in another part of the world they are doing the same sort of thing we are, and they are having the same sort of problems and working on it. (Applause.)

DR. MacDANIELS: Several of these papers which were scheduled will be either summarized or read. One of them will be read now by Mr. Silvis of Ohio. The paper is by Carl Weschcke.

Prospects for Persian Walnuts in the Vicinity of St. Paul, Minnesota

CARL WESCHCKE

Although I was asked to prepare a paper on the Carpathian walnut, I feel that my other experiences with Persian or so-called English walnut (the botanical name of which is _Juglans regia_) are also of some value to those who might be tempted to try this species of walnut in cold climates.

When I first started my experiments with nut bearing trees, I included the English walnut among the possibilities for our section. Mr. J. F. Jones of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, gave me much information and a great deal of help in trying out what he considered hardy strains. There was a walnut tree in Boston, known as the Boston walnut, of which he sent scions, and which I grafted on butternut. This was about the year 1920, and was included in my grafting experiments together with black walnut, heartnut, hickories, and hybrids between hickory and pecan. Later on, he sent me scionwood from other known hardy varieties which I placed on butternut, and many of these made tremendous growths but were winterkilled the very first winter. None of the English walnut with which I continued experiments lived over the first winter until I received scionwood from Prof. James Neilson of Canada, who sent the Broadview. These Broadview scions were grafted on butternut and black walnut, and a few of the scions survived for possibly three seasons, even producing staminate and pistillate blossoms and small nuts which grew only to about the size of a quarter and then dropped off.

Clarence A. Reed arranged to have some small seedling Chinese strain of _Juglans regia_ sent from Chico, California; these were planted in favorable places and survived a few winters. I also planted seeds of the Chinese strains which gave me no better results than the seedlings.

Then I bought walnuts from A. C. Pomeroy, of Lockport, New York. These were even more tender than other varieties with which I had experimented, although they were very much publicized by Mr. Pomeroy in the Nut Grower during that era as being extra hardy, because they were growing near the south shore of Lake Erie.

I next went to Mr. Jones, who was then selling quite a quantity of Wiltz Mayette and Franquette strains of English walnut grafted on black walnut. These proved to be among the most tender varieties I have ever tested here. Then he sent me scions of the Hall and Holden varieties, which he felt were considerably more winter hardy, but here they failed to survive even one winter.

We have not neglected the Rush English walnut either, which was tested in a similar manner without any good practical results.

This now brings us to the convention at Geneva, New York, in 1936 when the Rev. Mr. Crath and George H. Corsan presented a new strain of English walnuts, known as the Carpathian strain, originating in the Carpathian mountains in Poland. This so impressed me that after talking it over with my father we decided to finance a trip into the same region that Mr. Crath had been in, to locate new and better varieties for a real test. The story of the Rev. Mr. Crath's and my adventure along these lines, during the winter of 1936-37, has been printed in the records of the Northern Nut Growers Association, and I will bring out only the high spots that seem to be important 14 years later.

In the shipments of hardy material collected were some 4,000 scions of possibly a dozen different good strains of what Mr. Crath considered hardiest and best. In addition to that, there were around 500 trees ranging in size from small whips of one foot long to some that were over eight feet; also there were some 400 pounds of nuts to be planted to produce seedlings.

These nuts had been gathered from superior hardy trees with the expectation that the seedlings would produce nearly true imitations of their parents in the quality of their fruit and hardiness. These seedling nuts produced somewhat over 12,000 seedling trees, which were planted in about six large strips of land so as to give room for cultivation. The 500 trees received from Poland were planted in favorable locations and many of them are still alive. The scionwood was put on native butternut and black walnut. Some of it was grafted to young nursery stock, but most of it was put on large mature trees, being top worked. Grafting was started in April and continued into the early part of June. The later grafts were much more successful than the earlier ones, although some of the April grafts grew and flourished. Many of these grafts bore flowers and had little nutlets but none of them ripened nuts. After about three seasons some of the grafts that continued to live produced a few nuts.

Three varieties were practically mature, and then the native insect pests caught up with them. Also, there was a black rot or wilt which I am fairly sure was walnut bacteriosis disease, although specimens sent out to competent authorities did not corroborate this diagnosis. What turned out to be the butternut curculio attacked all grafted and seedling trees with such vigor that there was no way to combat it. I sprayed some of the grafted specimens and kept it up for several years, trying to hold on to them, but it became too much for me and my equipment; I doubt now whether any amount of poison would have saved the trees because the butternut curculio is difficult to kill with poison. One of the varieties, known as the Kremenetz, grafted on black walnut, was sent to Harry Weber. It thrives and bears nice crops at his country estate in Cleves, Ohio, near Cincinnati. He has sent me scions of this variety, and this spring I grafted them back on black walnut, as the butternut curculio is not nearly as bad as it was when there was so much English walnut foliage for them to feed on (this foliage is their choice over all other foliage). These insect pests also wiped out several heartnut varieties which came from J. U. Gellatly, of Westbank, B. C, Canada; for next to English walnuts the curculio loves heartnut foliage and its new branch growth.

We have about 60 to 70 acres of woods which contain a large percentage of butternut, therefore it is next to impossible to wipe out their native food. I doubt very much whether this would have benefited the situation at all, as the curculio would have then centered all its activities on the English walnut foliage and perhaps have attacked hickories, pecans, and black walnuts, on which they sometimes try their appetites. Hybrids between butternut and black walnut are viciously attacked by this curculio. Hybrids between English walnut and other species of walnut which I have here also become a prey to curculio. So there is no trick species which would be immune to their attack.

The English walnut usually vegetates too early in the spring to escape some of our late frosts. Because this new growth generally contains the flowers, the fruiting of such trees would be very unreliable and only occasional. We even have trouble with black walnut and butternut in this respect. The hickory is much better, and the pecan is even later in respect to vegetation. I mention this because even though everything had gone well it is doubtful whether reliable crops of English walnuts would ever have been produced from the so-called hardy Carpathian series.

A year or so following the experiment with the Carpathian walnut, I imported about 100 pounds of seeds from Austria. They came in two different lots: one of them was more expensive than the other seed, and it proved to be much the hardier. The larger lot of smaller seeds was not as hardy. Although we have several hundred trees of this better seed lot which remain alive, they are no better off in any respect than the Carpathian seedlings. In fact, I could not see much difference between the behavior of these seedlings and the behavior of the Carpathian walnut strain.

While in California in 1939 I picked up about five pounds of seeds from a hardy tree growing in the Sierra Nevadas in Sonora, also some native black walnuts. These survived a few years but finally were winter-killed entirely, root and all. The Carpathians are never killed out entirely but continue to grow from the root systems, even though they are frozen back to the ground; but the insect and the fungus have destroyed many thousands of the original group of trees so that there are today perhaps between 1000 and 2000 living trees, which sprout up each spring and kill back each fall with clock-like regularity. Among these; However, are a few outstanding varieties which extend some hope that there may be among these survivors one or more trees which resist the butternut curculio and have become acclimated, to such an extent that they do not entirely kill back but only a little of their new growth is killed. These specimens usually are the ones that make a shorter growth during the summer, in fact have more of a tendency to be a genuine dwarf type of tree. Three such seeding trees were known to have sprouted from exceptionally large and very thin-shelled walnuts, which I believe the Rev. Mr. Crath calls the giant type.

I will now summarize and express my own private opinion regarding the future possibilities of introducing the English walnut into such an extreme northern latitude as we are in. First, experiments started thirty years ago, which period gives a reasonable period of time that any man should feel is necessary to devote to giving a species a try-out. Secondly, we have used material from every reasonably known source. Third, persons in charge had a reasonable amount of skill and success with other varieties to have insured success if the material had been responsive. My opinion, for what it may be worth, is that the species is out of its range in this northern latitude, more particularly because it is too tender to fight its own battles as to insect life which attacks it, particularly the butternut curculio. Grasshoppers, leaf eating insects, and worms of different sorts, also attack it more than they do other nut tree foliage. The possibilities of a break in the strong cycle of insect life is a hopeful prospect which we are helping by breeding tens of thousands of toads and frogs. This might allow some, of the more vigorous specimens to acquire sufficient size to overcome this weakness. In my opinion, the climate itself is not the main governing factor which would kill out all hope of raising English walnuts here; but certainly, coupled with the disastrous attack of insect life and susceptibility to blight, these three foes are almost insurmountable. And then in view of the early vegetating habit of these species, there is the possibility that even though you had a hardy tree, immune to insects, you would never get much fruit.

Discussion

DR. MacDANIELS: Remember, the climate up around St. Paul is a bit rugged, and I think that work of that kind is certainly of value to give us an idea of the limits at which we can grow these trees, but I don't think that we have by any means explored the whole field.

In the Morris collection at Ithaca there is a little Persian walnut about the size of the end of this finger (indicating), a very small nut, that was given to Dr. Morris by a consul from the interior of Asia up in the Himalaya Mountains in Tibet, from of an elevation of about 10,000 feet. That little walnut had a hard shell, harder than some of our shellbark hickory nuts, and a bound kernel that I would say was much less promising than many of the nuts which we discard.

Somewhere, it seems to me, in this vast range of material we ought to be able to find some variety or clone of these species that would be adapted to practically every part of the United States. There at Ithaca we have the difficulties with the Persian walnut mainly of winter cold. That is the absolute low temperature that wipes out the trees, now that I have seen them come and go in my place there and in the vicinity. The old Pomeroy strain is killed at about 20 below zero Fahrenheit. It stayed there in fairly good condition up in the Lockport region until the extreme cold of 1933-34. Once the temperatures went down to nearly 30 below zero, except for a small region around the Niagara peninsula, where it hit only 12. Those trees are still there in that little circumscribed area around Niagara, and we saw a picture of one of them in Mr. Sherman's collection. But the Pomeroy trees, I have learned--I haven't seen them myself--were practically wiped out, as were the others, in what was thought to be the protected area along Lake Erie.

I remember the trees on the Whitecroft farm along Keuka Lake. Some of you saw those when the Nut Growers Association met at Geneva. They are on a bench close to Keuka Lake, which up to 1933-34 had not been frozen over for many years. They had grown, produced good crops, were in excellent condition, but that year the temperature went down to about 30 below zero and stayed there for a number of days. The lake froze over, and the trees were severely damaged. A California redwood which was there--had been there for 80 years--was killed outright, and so it goes.

Now, just for these Carpathian strains it seems to me that we have pretty well--perhaps you might say--licked this question of winter cold; that is, at least down to perhaps 30, 35 below zero Fahrenheit, but we certainly haven't licked the problem of early vegetation. That is, it starts out with warm days in the spring, the shoots get about this long (indicating), you get temperature going down to, say, 26, 27, 28, and your shoots are all killed back and you have lost your year's crop. So that's the problem which in the selection of varieties for this northern country, we have got to keep in mind, as I think that's one thing to look for among your Carpathian trees. It's one which will mature its foliage in the fall fairly early and which does not start out too quickly in the spring.

Now, we know there are some that don't start out in the spring, like these Chinese types, but what we want is a combination of short-season, late-starting, winter-hardy walnuts, and I think we can find them if we keep at it.

I didn't start out to talk so long, but I thought that was perhaps a sort of a summary of some of these things which we are looking for.

DR. CRANE: I'd just like to make a few comments. There is one thing that you have got to be very careful about, I think, in watching for these late-blooming Persian walnut trees that start in to grow, in Oregon, particularly, although the same thing is true in some areas of California where we are growing large quantities of Persian walnuts. You know that a deficiency of boron will cause trees to go into a condition which the growers out there now call "sleepers." They will stay dormant for quite a long period of time in the spring before they start growth. That's due to a severe boron deficiency.

Now, we have a lot of boron deficiency here in the East, and in areas in which we have trouble with growing vegetables, like cauliflower that has a hollow stem, or beets or turnips that split and crack, or where we have so-called drouth spot or internal corking in apples, you can be sure that you can't grow a Persian walnut, because the boron requirement alone is many, many times that of an apple or of most vegetables.

In Oregon on the same soils where we are growing apples, we put on a half a pound of borax per tree to control boron deficiency on apples. On walnuts we have to use anywhere from five to ten or twelve pounds for a tree of the same size. We have to have a boron content in walnuts very, very much higher than that of apples. We have got to be careful about that.

So if you do find late-sleeping walnut trees, or walnut trees that are late in starting to grow, you will probably find that is a result of boron deficiency.

MR. CORSAN: Mr. Chairman, I visited the Pomeroy Nursery in 1934. I had, in my own planting, about a score of trees and they were a most amazing sight. The big trees were all seriously damaged by that 1933-34 winter, as were all Ben Davis apple orchards. So what amazed both of us was the fact that Pomeroy's young trees weren't dead.[2] Of the Pomeroy, all the big trees were dead. I ordered some more from him, and I planted them, but the trees froze down to the ground. Just as a very few varieties of the Crath Carpathians did. They froze twigs and they froze buds and sometimes they froze the trunk. Only a couple of Carpathian varieties froze down to the ground, but every one of the Pomeroy did. I was quite sorry, because I had a Chinese English walnut from North China that was extremely hardy and lived through that winter almost undamaged. The nut, though, had a bitter tang, and Pomeroy's nuts were quite sweet and delicious, but I haven't a Pomeroy on the place. They are all stone dead.

[2] See Mr. Gellatly's paper in this volume.--Ed

DR. MacDANIELS: Thank you, Mr. Corsan.

Mr. Harry Weber will give us a paper by Gilbert Becker on Persian and black walnuts in Michigan.

Grafted Black and Persian Walnuts in Michigan

GILBERT BECKER, Climax, Michigan

The performance of grafted Persian walnuts in southwestern Michigan has been so satisfactory that I would not hesitate to recommend them, in preference to grafted black walnuts. One of the nicest things about grafted Persian walnuts is that when they start to produce nuts, they bear _every_ year--there is not an off-season, as with the black walnut. Our locality may be especially suitable to them. Our skies are cloudy, and it is cool through much of the spring, thus preventing early growth before conditions are right for the buds to develop unhampered by late spring frosts. We have had an occasional late freeze that caused the lower nuts to drop, while the higher ones remained on the tree, unharmed.

In this article I would like to answer briefly our most often asked question, as to which varieties do we think best from our experience with them? Our climate must be quite different from that found around Ithaca, New York, because we have never had winter injury in certain Persian varieties, as occurs in that area. (And we had 26 below zero in February, 1949.) An instance of this difference is in regard to the McDermid variety, which happens to be our choice. We honestly believe the Crath No. 1 variety to have great commercial possibilities, because of its heavy production of large, thin-shelled nuts, of average quality. The Broadview is another. The Carpathian "D", apparently, pollinates the Crath No. 1 well. This one, however, is small, with a very white kernel that is sweet. We have many other varieties producing, some with their first crop this year; but we are not able to recommend any of them yet.

The black walnut varieties must be rather limited, because of the brooming disease trouble; so we select from those that are quite able to resist it, or that seem immune to the trouble. The Thomas and Grundy varieties lead with us, and two other local nuts, the Adams and the Climax, rate high in our estimation. We have some nice grafts of the Homeland bearing their third crop, which we like very much, and they appear disease free. The Elmer Myers, Michigan, and other varieties are now badly affected with brooming disease.

Several years ago I reported on my observations on the brooming disease. Now, I wish to report a little more upon the subject, especially in regard to how certain varieties have withstood its ravages. I hesitate to make any estimation as to how prevalent the disease is in the wild black walnut today, for it could be quite a controversial subject, with some claiming I was very wrong. Anyway, many of our native walnuts are now affected. Outward appearances are often very deceiving; but, when one cuts the top off a seedling and attempts to graft it, he may be amazed at the broomy growth that soon appears from the stock, should his graft fail to take. Trees that appear healthy, but have made slow or poor growth are often affected. Short, twiggy, upright growth that soon becomes dead or partly so, and arises from the main framework of an apparently healthy tree, is one of the signs that disease is there.

I have claimed there are two, or possibly, three forms of brooming disease, and I am still as convinced as ever. The so-called "witches-broom," as commonly seen in the Japanese walnut, is the form most people seem to think of. The second form is the rapid-growing type, that lops, or arches downward, is gray or green in color of wood, is very brittle and easily broken in the wind, ripping off good sized limbs, and winter-injures badly. An investigation, will, however, show much dead wood comes before severe weather. This form has some broomy, upright growth, like the first, but it is never bunched. The other, or possibly, the third form, is the latent type that doesn't seem to do much harm, merely causing poorly filled nuts. The latent form is difficult to note, and can be detected only by the many short, dead, or partly dead, upright twigs scattered along the main framework of older trees. Cutting off part of the top will cause the typical growth to arise, thus identifying itself.

Early observation showed that certain walnut varieties were almost unaffected, or could even be immune, to the brooming disease. Different limbs of a large tree were topworked to the Thomas and the Allen varieties of black walnut. The Allen "took" the disease at once, while the Thomas grew thriftily and has always produced good crops of nuts. Later, the Calhoun variety was grafted on some lower limbs, and has remained healthy. The diseased Allen grafts are still in the tree, are now 15 years old, and are more or less alive, but in very poor condition, with the signs as found in what I call the latent form. In 1938, the McDermid Persian walnut was grafted into this same tree, and its grafts produced good crops of nuts.

I wish to cite another instance of how little the Persian walnut is affected, regardless of variety. In 1938 a large black walnut near the house was grafted with Persian grafts, on stubs that had failed the previous year. The tree had the second, or rapid growing form, of brooming disease. I have pictures showing how badly the 1938 grafts took the rapid growing form of growth; while two 1937 Persian grafts showed no signs of trouble. The tree started to bear in 1941, and has made remarkable growth. It is now one of the nicest Persian walnut trees I have, bearing heavily every year. It is about 30 feet tall and 20 feet broad, with no apparent signs that it was ever affected.

I feel we should recognize the fact that eradication of brooming disease is impossible; but one should plant, or graft, those varieties known to bear good crops in spite of this trouble. The Thomas and Grundy black walnuts do very well here, as well as the two local nuts mentioned. I do not know of any Persian varieties affected. I do not have any Persian trees with the typical broomy bunch, as is so often seen in the Japanese walnut, and its hybrids. The native black walnuts, when affected, seem to fail to fill properly, are immature, and watery, black veined, and worthless at harvest time, shriveling to a dark, hard, kernel when cured.

I think this answers the oft-asked question, "Why do not my black walnuts fill as they used to?" There is a strange relation to the filling of the native black walnut and the days of 1934 and 1935, when we had the great walnut caterpillar scourge!--when the trees were stripped of all their leaves. Ever since, we have had the brooming disease to contend with. One could jump to the conclusion that improper filling and this trouble were caused by a lack of certain nutrients; but seedlings in nursery rows are often affected, even where they are given every care.