Chapter XV: Section X: Amendments to By-Laws (8)

Seeds of black walnut (_Juglans nigra_), Persian walnut (_Juglans regia_), Chinese chestnut (_Castanea mollissima_), pignut hickory (_Carya glabra_), shellbark hickory (_Carya laciniosa_), shagbark hickory (_Carya ovata_), pecan (_Carya illin_), pawpaw (_Asimina triloba_), and three persimmons (_Diospyros kaki_, _D. lotus_, and _D. virginiana_) were stratified in moist sawdust for three months at a temperature range of 35 to 40 degrees F. After this period of stratification the seeds of each species were divided into three lots and planted in flats 25 x 26 x 6 inches containing one of the following media: (1) sharp sand of the type used in potting soil, (2) potting soil, and (3) vermiculite. Seeds were kept moist with ordinary tap water and allowed to germinate and grow in the greenhouse. When the seedlings had grown two or three true leaves, they were carefully removed from the medium and examined for the type of root system developed.

Results

In the first eight species listed in Table 1, the differences between branched and tap-rooted seedlings were quite pronounced. The few tap-rooted seedlings growing in vermiculite medium showed some laterals and were less strongly tap-rooted than those in soil or sand. Pawpaws in soil and sand media were practically devoid of laterals, and their fibrous root system in vermiculite was not as pronounced as with the walnuts, hickories, and pecans. Of the species studied, the persimmons

Table 1.

Sand Soil Vermiculite

Species Number of plants
Tap rooted Fibrous Tap Fibrous Tap Fibrous

Black Walnut 20 3 24 2 0 39
Persian Walnut 15 2 13 1 0 15
Chinese Chestnut 35 6 32 7 3 37
Pignut Hickory 19 0 22 0 3 16
Shellbark Hickory 9 0 8 0 0 13
Shagbark Hickory 27 0 25 0 2 28
Pecan 21 0 23 0 0 15
Pawpaw 102 0 140 0 20 85
D. kaki 6 2 5 3 0 10
D. lotus 20 11 18 7 0 30
D. Virginia 16 0 20 0 0 14

showed the least tendency to produce tap-rooted seedlings. Typical branched or fibrous-rooted seedlings grown in vermiculite are illustrated in Figure 1.

Summary

The chief difficulty encountered in transplanting several nut tree and other commonly tap-rooted seedlings is thought to be due to the lack of a branched root system. The methods and results of a fairly simple technique of inducing fibrous roots, that of growing seedlings in vermiculite, have been presented.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 21: First Assistant in Plant Breeding, University of Illinois, Department of Horticulture.]

[Footnote 22: Formerly Half-time Assistant in Plant Breeding, University of Illinois, Department of Horticulture.]

Eastern Black Walnut Survey, 1951

H. F. STOKE, _Roanoke, Va._

The Northern Nut Growers Association, at its 1950 Annual Meeting, adopted a resolution directing that a survey covering the eastern American black walnut, _Juglans nigra_ be conducted during the ensuing year, and that the services of the State and regional Vice-presidents be utilized in making the survey.

In carrying out this mandate fifty questionaires were sent out, and 37 replies were received. Of these, 33 were from the States, including the District of Columbia, three were from Canada, including British Columbia, Ontario and Prince Edward Island, respectively, and one was from Belgium.

From these replies, as compiled, it is apparent that the natural range of the American black walnut may be defined approximately as follows:

Beginning at the Atlantic seaboard at Massachusetts Bay curving slightly northward then westward across northeastern New York to Toronto and on westward across lower Ontario, Lake Huron, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, in which state the line curves south-westward, crossing about the northwest corner of Iowa. From this point the line runs approximately south across the eastern parts of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. As the line approaches the Gulf of Mexico it turns eastward, crossing the southern parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, back again to the Atlantic.

The natural range of the black walnut may be said to have been limited on the north by winter cold, on the west by lack of sufficient rainfall and on the south by a winter climate too mild for the required dormant rest period. Where these limitations are removed the American black walnut appears to do well far out of its natural range.

In its native state it seemed to thrive best along water-ways and in hollows among the hills and mountains, though it was also to be found on the uplands wherever the soil was fertile and other conditions favorable. The overflow of streams undoubtedly did much to distribute and plant the seed, aided always by the ubiquitous squirrel.

Twenty-nine of the States reported the trees as thrifty and bearing well-filled nuts. Eastern Maryland reported the trees as thrifty but the nut crop light. Michigan reports the nuts as having been well filled formerly, but poor in recent years. West Virginia makes a similar report, and attributes poor crops to the presence of anthracnose, a fungus disease of the leaves causing early defoliation.

The nut crop of the wild trees appears to be ungathered to a large extent, taking the country as a whole.

Eleven states report whole husked nuts being marketed in a limited way and six report the marketing of home-produced kernels. Prices for the whole nuts are quoted as low as $2.00 per bushel, with a top of $5.00 per bushel for Kansas-produced named varieties.

Accurate statistics as to whole nut and kernel production are not available.

Tennessee reports black walnut cracking plants, as follows: One each at Lebanon and Morristown, and three located at Nashville.

A West Virginia report estimates the State's kernel production at $200,000 per annum. A cracking plant in St. Louis is reported as processing 1-1/2 million pounds of whole nuts annually, for which it pays 5-1/2 cents per pound. Other cracking plants reported are one at Stanford, Kentucky, one at Broadway, Virginia and one or two in West Virginia, location unstated. No statement was received as to the amount of business done by these. A new one is starting operations at Henderson, Kentucky in 1951.

Production of black walnut kernels as a home industry has languished since the Federal ruling that the kernels must be pasteurized as soon as produced. Most of such kernels are now consumed locally, so as not to run afoul of inter-state regulations. No epidemic has, as yet, been traced to such local use.

A question designed to disclose what named varieties give the best results in the various localities was not very effective. Replies usually came in the form of lists of varieties being planted with little definite indication as to the ones that have proven superior.

As might be expected, Thomas led the list by being mentioned 15 times. Elmer Myers was listed 9 times, Stabler 6, Ohio 6, Mintle 3, Snyder 2, (New York and Tenn.), Sifford 2, (Kentucky and Kansas), and the following one each: Adams, Grundy, Korn (Michigan); Rohwer, Vandersloot (Kansas); Sparrow, Victoria, Homeland (North Carolina); Ten Eyck (New Jersey); Creitz (Virginia); and Impit (British Columbia).

A study of the geographical distribution of the preferred varieties fails to produce any significant conclusions as to the varieties best adapted to any specific state. Doubtless Thomas heads the list because it has had the longest and largest distribution. A New York state survey gave Thomas the preference 9 times, Snyder 7, Myers 4, Ohio 2, and one each to several other varieties. A similar survey in New Jersey gave Thomas preference 2, Stabler 2, Ten Eyck 1 and Ohio 1.

One New Jersey correspondent reported Ohio as "excellent", another listed Ten Eyck as "fair", and a third reported Thomas as "terrible".

One Kansas producer reports Thomas his best and Ohio his worst. Another Kansan reports the exact opposite.

Pennsylvania reports Ohio as best, Stabler as worst. Her neighbor to the east, New Jersey, rates Stabler highly, as does Ohio, immediately to the west.

The notable leaf-disease resistance of the Ohio variety is worthy of the consideration of planters in districts where early defoliation causes poor filling of the nuts.

For a late comer, the thin-shelled Myers makes a strong showing, which may be significant. It is worth watching.

Until there is wider planting and production of the named varieties, it will not be possible to name the varieties best adapted to any specific state or location, in the opinion of your reporter.

The possibilities of profit in planting black walnut orchards have not been determined.

From Pennsylvania comes the report that of the several black walnut orchards planted twenty-five years ago, only three are now being given care.

A ten-acre orchard at Wharton, Md. that, presumably, was being given special care, is reported as nearly all dead--"too much commercial fertilizer, or the wrong kind."

The report on several small West Virginia plantings is submitted as "inconclusive".

The main general interest at present appears to be the planting of the better walnuts on home grounds and on the farm. Twenty-four states reported such use, with varying degrees of interest.

Considering that the black walnut is our finest cabinet wood, and one of the best in the world, forestry planting may be truthfully said to be lagging deplorably.

The state of Pennsylvania has shown some interest and made some small plantings.

Ohio has done some planting. The Sunny Hill Coal Company of New Lexington, Ohio, is reported to have planted 5000 seedlings.

In Indiana Ford Wallick has reported the planting of 14 bu. of seed, the seedlings to be budded later to the Lamb curly walnut. Tennessee and West Virginia report small plantings.

Kansas reports some interest in planting walnuts on lands that have been destroyed for agricultural purposes by strip coal mining.

As a whole, the forestry plantings of the walnut of the future, as of the past, appear mainly dependent on the untiring squirrel.

There has never been an adequate supply of walnut timber since pioneer days when walnut logs were rolled together for burning in the clearing of land, or split for fence rails, nor is an adequate supply in sight for the future.

In producing districts buyers are always ready to pounce on the owner of any walnut tree of marketable size. Prices paid are usually much lower than the real value of the timber, partly because the stand is so scattering as to prevent the use of efficient means of logging and transportation.

Of all the agencies tending to destroy the black walnut, war is the most devastating. The superb qualities of the wood for the making of gun stocks causes the country to be combed more and more closely by buyers in each succeeding war.

However, from the standpoint of human interest, the picture is not wholly dark. It is perhaps too much to expect that private enterprise will enter into the long-time investment necessary for extensive forestry plantings, but the states can and should do so in connection with their park and forestry programs. As already indicated some few states are working in that direction.

Of perhaps more immediate concern and value are the possibilities of interesting the 4-H clubs and similar organizations of youth in making home and farm plantings. Refreshingly encouraging is the following excerpt from the report of the Arkansas state Vice-president, Mr. A. C. Hale, a vocational instructor of Camden, Arkansas.

"When a student comes into the class of vocational agriculture in the ninth grade I try to get him to plant some black walnuts so they will get big enough to graft while he is in high school. The use of this method is helpful in getting many trees started. By grafting one or more of the Persian walnuts, interest is also added."

"One way that has helped me get people started with a tree on the home grounds is to pot a few sprouted nuts and when a neighbor is sick take a seedling walnut instead of a flower. I usually go back to help with the transplanting of it."

Such practical methods, if widely used, would bring far more valuable results than any legislative program.

The Virginia Polytechnic Institute is showing some interest, and conducted a field clinic in top-working the walnut in the Shenandoah Valley area in the spring of 1951. County Agents have become interested, and a county-wide Black Walnut Contest will be held at Harrisonburg, Va., Nov. 9 and 10th of this year, in which VPI is collaborating. It is hoped this idea will spread.

On Prince Edward Island, just off the Canadian east coast, there does not appear to be enough summer heat to mature the nuts, though the tree is grown somewhat on home grounds.

In the fruit-growing sections of British Columbia the black walnut appears quite at home, trees of a diameter of from three to four feet being reported at Chilliwack, in the Fraser River valley. J. U. Gellattly also reports the walnut at Brooks and Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Confirmation of the ability of the black walnut to stand extremely low temperatures is to be found in a letter of Aug. 22, 1951 from W. R. Leslie, Superintendent, Dominion Experiment Station, Morden, Manitoba, as follows:

"Black walnut is doing fairly well in such places as the Provincial Horticultural Station, Brooks, Alberta, (P. D. Hargrave, Supt.), and at Portage la Prairie, Winnipeg and Morden, Manitoba. Apparently the black walnut enjoys a heavier soil than the butternut (or white walnut). The white has been more widely planted than the black. The Manchurian seems hardier than either and is the most rapid grower of the three _Juglans_ on test here. However, the two natives usually give us a fairly abundant crop of nuts."

"Our source of black walnut was from around New Ulm, Minnesota; the butternut came from around Sault Ste. Marie, at the lower end of Lake Superior. I am not aware of either indigenous species being native closer than the points mentioned."

Belgium reports the black walnut as thriving in door-yards and along roadways, where the nuts are mentioned as a menace to traffic.

In conclusion it is urged that friends of conservation and a sound economy should lend their every effort to the extension of black walnut plantings. Some progress has been made since the days of pioneer plunder, but much remains to be done.

Thanks are extended to all those who have contributed to this survey.

Crath's Carpathian English Walnuts in Ontario

[23]P. C. CRATH, _129 Felbrigg Ave., Toronto 12, Ontario_

Introduction

The English Walnut (Juglans regia) in England is known as Persian walnut. Some think that the nuts originated in Persia. The primeval forests of English walnut trees, which in many places cover the southern as well as northern slopes of the Caucasian Mountains show that Caucasia is the country of the origin of those trees.

But in the Western Carpathian Mountains in Europe geologists had excavated ancient walnuts in the salt rocks of the pits of Weliczka. In some places of the Eastern Carpathians walnuts could be found in a wild stage; and of course domesticated walnuts flourish in every Ukrainian orchard from the northern slopes of the Carpathians up to the southern banks of the Pripet River, and all over Ukraine as far as the Don. But there they could not be found in a wild form.

Walnuts in such countries as Italy, Spain, France are probably of Persian origin.

Since Canada was discovered by Cartier European settlers have many times tried to introduce the southern European walnuts in to the New World, but without success. Only in California, along the Ocean's shore, Europeans succeeded in acclimatizing some, as they think, "English Walnuts"; though in reality the California Walnuts are halfbreeds.

In Old Ontario the people enjoyed the local wild black walnuts, butternuts and hickory. Up to the present English Walnuts are imported into this Province.

When in 1917 I settled in Toronto and found that even in the southern part of the Province, so rich in different fruits, no English Walnuts grew there, I was amazed.

In my old home in the Ukraine walnut trees were as common as elms in Ontario. And I have found that the Southern Ontario climate is warmer than the climate of Kiev or Poltava regions in Ukraine.

It has seemed to me that English walnuts from the Carpathian region should thrive well around Toronto.

My Experiments

In my old home I have heard gardeners say: "Where apples grow, walnuts will grow there also." And around Toronto there I have seen nice apple orchards producing splendid fruits. The Ontario apple trees withstood winter colds well, and that fact encouraged me to try to plant English walnuts from Ukraine in the neighborhood of Toronto. At the end of the First World War Ukraine revolted against the Russian Empire and at the same time she was fighting for her independence with Poland.

At that time my father's family lived in the city of Stanyslaviv at the northern foot of the Carpathians. I asked my sister to send me as many local English walnut seeds by mail as she could. Giving such an order to my sister I expected that the nuts would arrive not later than the end of October, just in time to be planted before the freeze up. This was in 1921.

I remembered from my boyhood that planting of English walnut seeds was surrounded by some mystery. It seemed to me that people in Ukraine regarded it as a very difficult matter to cultivate walnut trees.

Being under such a notion myself I asked a horticulturist how long the germination power of a walnut seed would last. He told me that it could prevail in a fresh walnut not longer than a week. He advised me in order to prevent walnuts from drying to dip them in melted parawax. Following that information I wrote my sister to parawax the walnut seeds before sending them to Canada.

Owing to the Polish-Ukrainian war at that time the shipment of the walnut seeds got to Toronto not late in the Fall, as had been expected, but in February when the farm land around Toronto was frozen. And the worst of it was my sister did not parawax the nuts!

Being sure the kernels were dead I allowed the children to do what they pleased with them. But before they cracked the last one my wife advised me to plant a dozen of the nuts in our flower pots, as she said, "for fun". I did it. Other nuts the children destroyed, and in spite of my sorrow and anguish in two weeks the walnut sprouts came up in the pots. Everyone of them came up, proving that you do not need to protect walnut germination by dipping the nuts into melted parawax.

From the flower pots the walnut seedlings were transplanted that spring of 1922 into our city garden at 48 Peterboro Ave., Toronto.

At least a thousand of the kernels of several varieties were thus destroyed and I was obliged to wait until another fall when the _Juglans regia_ nuts were sent again by my sister. They came also late in the winter and were dry as pepper.

In the spring of 1923 I took the walnut seeds of the second shipment to the farm of my friend Mr. M. Kozak located a couple of miles north of the Scarboro Golf Club. There I soaked them in water in a tub for five days and then planted in rows 1-1/2 ft. apart, row from row, and the nuts 6 inches apart nut from nut and two inches deep. In a couple of weeks nearly every nut produced a sapling. I kept them well cultivated the whole summer, and in the Fall the seedlings were from six to eight inches tall. The nuts on the Kozak farm were of different varieties; some were small, some large, some were round, some oblong, some paper-thin-shelled, some hard shelled; some varieties had sweet kernels, some had a little slightly bitter taste, some were flat. According to their variety the bark of the seedlings, some of them at least, was shiny brown, while other varieties had their bark shiny dark green, light gray, light green.

Now I have known how to produce walnut seedlings. Then another worry came--could the seedlings stand the Ontario winter? They had stood the winter of 1925-28 very well. Only the tops of those were spoiled, which were injured by buffalo tree hoppers.

It seemed that the regular Ontario caterpillars did not like the sap of the English walnut foliage. But the worst enemies of the Carpathians was the bacterial disease. The leaves and young shoots curled, turned black, being infested by the disease. In such a case the spraying is needed.

Acquaintance with the Vineland Government Experimental Farm

Somehow, but very soon after I started my experiments with English Carpathian Walnuts in Ontario, Mr. James Neilson, the nut specialist in the Government Experimental Farm, Vineland, Ont. discovered me. By him I was introduced to the late Mr. G. H. Corsan of Islington, Ont. who was known as a prominent nut grower in Ontario. In the year 1924, when we met the first time, Mr. Corsan already was interested in the culture of black walnuts and butternuts, in hickories, pecans, hicans and filberts. Soon I transferred my English Carpathian walnut nursery to Corsan's place at Islington. Mr. Corsan, with a great deal of enthusiasm broadcasted my Carpathians all over the American continent, but under different names: English Walnuts, Persian, Russian, Carpathian, etc. Soon we were joined by a third walnut enthusiast Mr. L. K. Davitt, a teacher in a Toronto High School.

Prof. C. T. Currelly the Founder and at that time the Director of the Royal Ontario Museum of Archeology in Toronto, also became interested in my walnut experiments. Then later on some other prominent Torontonians followed us and the Nut Growers Society of Ontario was organized.

Americans also became interested in the Carpathian walnuts. First among them was a graduate from Cornell University, a farmer near Ithaca, N. Y., Mr. Samuel Graham. Mr. George Slate of the Geneva Experiment Station was one of the first Americans who early got interested in the Carpathians.

There in the States is the Northern Nut Growers Association. Following Mr. Corsan I also became a member of the Association.

My Research in English Walnuts in Ukraine

From the year 1924 until 1936 I spent most of my time as a Presbyterian missionary in Western Ukraine, which was then under Polish occupation. From time to time I used to come to Canada on furlough. Every time, coming from Ukraine, I brought also a box or more of Carpathian English Walnuts for planting.

Then I liked to tell Dr. Palmer, the Director of the Vineland Government Experimental Farm about my research in walnuts in Ukraine.

In Western Ukraine my headquarters were in the city of Kolomyja, Province of Galicia, at the foot of the Eastern Carpathians. Thus I was in the center of the culture of the Carpathian walnuts.

Though my circuit was very large (Provinces of Galician and Volynia) and there was a time when I served 30 congregations, nevertheless I had a little time also to study the English Walnuts in their native environments.

Before starting the research in that country I decided for myself what in my conception should be the ideal English walnut. I have come to the conclusion that the nut should be of large size, thin shelled, its kernel well filled up, being of a pleasant sweet taste; inside of the nut there should be no partitions, thus allowing the kernel to roll out unbroken.

Then I printed questionnaire blanks for each individual nut tree to be examined. Beside the above mentioned questions I added:

What is the name and address of the owner of the tree, and its location?

How old, tall and thick the trunk of tree is?

How many pounds of the nuts the tree yielded that year?

In what kind of soil does it thrive?

What enemies attack it?

What fertilizer, or manure, has been used in the particular case, or none?

Is there in the nuts, leaves and bark any sign of cross-pollination?

Regarding the grafting and budding I found that the local nut-growers had not the slightest idea how to go about it. They also did not care to prevent their walnut trees from cross-pollination.

Soon I found that there in Galicia alone could be found several hundreds of varieties of Carpathian English walnuts. Anyway till 1935, I sent to Toronto 200 varieties of the Carpathians.

Some of those English Carpathian walnuts were 2-1/2 inches long, or five nuts to a foot; others were only one third of an inch. Some very small Carpathians produced nuts in clusters, like grapes. In some Carpathians it was possible to detect cross-pollination with Asiatic walnuts by their harder shells, by partitions, by the shape of nuts, by the construction of the leaves and their odor, and in some cases by the color of bark.

By kernels all the Carpathian halfbreeds are English walnuts, differing group from group by the taste. I remember that only in 1898 in the bourg of Loubni, and in 1933 in the City of Kolomyja I came across two trees which resembled our black walnut. In both towns some people used to live in America, and coming home they could bring with them some American nuts.

In the region around Kossiv I came across groves of American black walnuts and butternuts. Those trees were planted there by the Austrian Government 75 or so years ago. Of course they did not cause all the hybridizing I mentioned above. Maybe the Asiatic nuts were brought in Eastern Carpathians when the Tartar hordes crossed the mountains in the region of Pokouttia (Kossiv) in the year 1242.

Not far from Kossiv, westward, in the village of Kosmuch in the Carpathians 2500 feet above sea level I found English walnut trees of small size (15 feet tall, 6 inches thick) with light gray bark, producing 2 inch long nuts of speary shape, like our Canadian butternuts but of English Walnut shells and kernels. The kernels were tasty. There was no question but that they were halfbreeds, English plus Mongolian nuts.

There in Kosmuch, not far from the historical Tartar Passage, through which in 13th century Ghengis Khan hordes invaded the Danube plains, in winter the temperature falls to 45 degrees below zero. Owing to the hardiness of the strain and pleasant taste of the nuts I picked up about 10 pounds of them to be tried in colder parts of Ontario, (and some of them already are bearing north of Toronto and true to the type.)

I called the nuts Hutzulian Pointies, as they grow in Hutzulia the country of the Ukrainian Mountaineers.

The year 1936. My last trip to Western Ukraine

In Ontario farmers were slow to grasp the idea of cultivating my Carpathian English walnuts. Either they did not believe the English walnuts could thrive in this Province, or waited till my trees would start to bear. Nevertheless some thousand of my seedlings were planted here and there all over Ontario and smaller quantities in the Maritime Provinces, Manitoba and Alberta. The late Sir Wm. Mulock hired Mr. Corsan to graft with the Carpathian scions tops of many of his black walnut trees in Orillia, Ont. Fred Gaby, the engineer who built the Ontario Hydro, ordered through me from Ukraine 50 to 12 feet tall Carpathians of bearing age and planted them on 10 acres near Cooksville. Ont. Prof. Currelly has bought 25 acres near his estate west of Pt. Hope, Ont. for my use in experimental work. The late Col. McAlpyne planted one thousand of my yearlings on his estate at Fenelon Falls, Ont. Two young farmers, Papple Bros., in the Georgian Bay region also started an English Carpathian walnut orchard. In 1935 I moved my Carpathian walnut nursery from Islington to Prof. Currelly's estate, and Mr. L. K. Devitt sold his lot of the trees through the Dominion Seed Co., Georgetown, Ont.

In the States, Mr. Carl Weschoke, a manufacturer in St. Paul, Minn., who in the year 1935 was elected the President of the Northern Nut Growers Association, also got interested in Carpathians. His son-in-law about that time started a walnut nursery on their estate some 30 miles east of St. Paul. That 1936 year Mr. Weschoke sponsored my expedition to Northeastern Poland (Northwestern Ukraine) to find the geographical line north of which English walnuts do not thrive in Europe.

My expedition was successful. I discovered that northward from the Pripet River, which flows from west to east toward the Dneiper, English Walnuts could not be found. If I had come across there some English seedlings nearer to the Lithuanian boundary and the Baltic Sea shore, they would have been planted there recently and not before the year 1924.

Farther north, though there English walnuts do not thrive, around the Lake Peipus I came across filberts not as bushes but as large trees. Every fall peasants in that district go in the woods and bring bags of filberts for winter use.

Such filbert trees I found also in the Carpathian mountains near the Ukrainian settlement of Vizhnytza in the Province of Bukovina.

West of the town of Sarny and south of the Pripet I came across a grove of 18 ancient English walnut trees. In the year 1648 when Ukrainian Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytzky led a war against Poland those trees already were 70 years old, and they still were bearing in 1936 when I visited that region. Indeed their limbs were broken and they presented a sad sight, but they proved how long the Ukrainian English walnut could live. The seeds of those ancient trees I also shipped to Mr. Weschcke. Beside that I brought to my sponsors thousands of selected walnut seeds, seedlings and scions.

My English Carpathian walnut tree in the back yard of 48 Peterboro Ave. Toronto, Ont., being planted out there from the pot in the spring of 1922 started to produce nuts in 1929. The nuts were exactly to the type: oblong, pointy, inch and a half long, the shell semi-hard, partitions large, the kernel of pleasant taste. It started to produce female bloom when it was 4 years old, but till 1929 there were no catkins of male bloom.

The crop of the nuts, that year and following years was usually carried away by marauding black squirrels.

Other people who got from us the Carpathian English walnut seedlings reported that their plants also started to bear the seventh year or around that. But the Papple Bros. reported that they had a case when a seedling produced by them straight from the Carpathian walnut bore a nut in the second year of its life. On the other hand there were cases where some Carpathian English seedlings, as well as grafted ones, still produce no nuts though they are 15 years old and over.

I think the cause lies in the soil. On the gravelly hills over Ithaca, N. Y. Carpathian walnuts are slow to bear, even being grafted. The undersoil in the valleys 6 miles north of Pt. Hope, Ont. is not favorable, not only for English walnuts but even for native black walnuts, though very favorable to hickories.

On another hand, north-east of Toronto and near Unionville at the place called Hagerman Cornor on the farm of Mr. M. Artymko there is an orchard of 27 Crath's Carpathian English walnuts over 18 years old, each fruiting now every year. The trees are 25 feet tall, 5-6 inches thick, situated on a knoll of clay, well drained soil, lying open toward the northwest. When the trees were younger they were subject to attacks of the bacterial disease and their barks were cracked by frost. Now the trees are in nice shape, no trace of the bacterial disease injuries and the frost's scars disappearing. Some of those trees produced a bushel of the nuts each.

Among Artymko's trees there is a tree bearing the walnut of giant type, and the tree--Hutzulian Pointie. The success of the Artymko's farm lies probably in the soil and its high elevation.

There in Toronto Mr. T. H. Barrister, has in his backyard two Carpathian English Walnuts, producing nuts of the giant size--five nuts to a foot. The bacterial disease had touched them slightly, and the tree never has been sprayed.

We should expect that the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph would find out what is the best soil for English walnuts and what fertilizer to be applied for them. Chicken wire fences should protect the walnut orchard from squirrels and the trees should be sprayed against bacterial disease.

About walnut trees bearing and fertilizer--let us return to their native abode in the Carpathians. There in the village of Peestynka I have come across a large English walnut tree 40 feet tall and about 36 years old which, as I was informed by the people there, never fruited till the First World War. During the war an Austrian horse squadron had put a stall around the tree. The horses well manured the soil around there and since that time the tree was bearing nuts regularly and abundantly when I saw it in 1936.

At Last Success!

The year 1951 should be regarded as the final establishing of the culture of the Carpathian English walnuts in Ontario. The three decades of experimentation have passed leaving a splendid result. The fact is established that the Carpathian English walnuts have become aclimatized in South Ontario. This fall I had an opportunity to examine my walnut trees at many points in the Province. Everywhere I have seen the tree bearing. In Toronto in many a backyard, in Thorold South, in Welland, in Port Colboren, in Islington, near Port Hope on Prof. Currelly's estate, around Scarboro, Ont. and so on, the Carpathians are in good shape and all are bearing.

The more the trees mature, the better they look. On the average they are 20 years old, 20 feet tall and 6 inches thick.

The summer of 1951 in Ontario was more cloudy than usual, and it caused the Carpathian walnuts in this Province to turn out smaller than their size, should be about one quarter smaller.

The people who knew Carpathian English walnut trees in Galicia agree that in Ontario the Carpathians grow more slowly than they do in their native land.

It is not in Ontario, but on the University Farm at Madison, Wisconsin, one of our Carpathian trees is nearly 40 feet tall and bearing. In Galicia I had seen many a Carpathian walnut tree as high as 60 feet.

Polish Government Interested in My Activity

During the time of my activities, in the town of Kessiv, there used to live a famous physician, Dr. Tarnawski. Outside of his clinics he was much interested in the welfare of the country. My activities could not be hidden from his sight. "What does that "American" see in our nuts? Are there in America no nuts?" he asked. Soon I was introduced to him. It was in the fall of 1934. He was not well and in bed at that time. He liked to talk with me about the walnut culture and wished to know why I was collecting the nuts, scions and seedlings for Canada. And then it seemed to him impossible that there in Ontario and the northeastern states English walnuts were not yet cultivated. Then I turned his attention to the fact that in Poland they know little about their own trees. My challenge awoke him to activity, and through his intervention Starosta, the county governor, planted the first twenty-five acres with walnut seedlings along the south side of the highway leading from Kessiv to the town of Kooty.

Dr. Tarnawski wrote also an article to a horticultural magazine on English walnuts on what he learned from me.

When in the fall of 1936 I was going back to my home in Toronto, Dr. Tarnawski wrote about me to the Department of Agriculture in Warsaw introducing me to the minister. I had an opportunity to give a talk on the Carpathian English walnuts in the presence of many horticulturists in the Government Experimental Farm at Skieerniewice near Warsaw.

Late in 1936 I came back to Canada and till the Second World War continued to cultivate the Carpathian walnuts and other horticultural material brought by me from Western Ukraine.

The Second War cut me off from my field in Europe.

A decade and a half has passed. The Carpathians have been acclimatized, have grown, and have been bearing nuts in Ontario. When such success has been achieved, it seems that there in Canada all the enterprise is forgotten. Of course, the Carpathian walnuts could not advertise themselves--they are "dumb critters."

In the States the situation with the Carpathians is entirely different. Interest in them is growing steadily, and as I said previously the American nurseries have already put the Carpathians on the broad market.

In 1950 at the annual meeting the Northern Nut Growers Association made me an Honorary Member of the Association.

In 1951 the Association held a contest and the "Crath" Carpathians won most of the prizes.

Culture of Crath's Carpathian English Walnut Trees

1. _Propagation by seeds_

Pick up the largest and heaviest nuts from a certain tree. Dry them in a windy place, but not in the sun. Gather the nuts into a jute bag and hang for the winter in a dry and cold place protected from squirrels.

Around May 14th put the nuts into a vessel with lukewarm water, soak about one week.

Prepare a bed of rich soil manured previously with horse manure. The land should not be of a wet kind. Plant the nuts in rows, 6 inches nut from nut, and two feet, row from row. Protect your nursery from squirrels.

In a week or two the nuts should come up.

Keep the nursery free from weeds. It will protect the seedling from the buffalo tree hoppers. If the signs of the bacterial disease are detected spray the seedlings at once.

For the first winter leave the seedlings as they are in the field. The next spring dig them up, every one. Cut off the leading root of each plant and transplant the seedlings again in rows a foot apart seedling from seedling and two feet row from row.

The amputation of the leading root causes the seedling to grow up instead of down and will make them start to bear nuts earlier.

In Europe instead of cutting off the walnut seedling's main roots they put under them a flat stone, or start in an earthen pot.

The next spring the walnut seedlings are ready for the permanent planting. Being permanently transplanted they should be cultivated at least two or three years.

Whitewash the walnut trunks in the late fall to protect bark from bursting by the winter sun. Put a screen around the trunks to protect them from mice and rabbits. Though, if a walnut is gnawed by rodents do nothing about it, the tree will produce a stalk--a new one--from the root.

2. _Propagation by Grafting_

Take Canadian black walnut seedling, one or two years old early in the spring, if you have a greenhouse and can graft them one inch above the root line, tie up with raffia, cover with melted parawax and put in boxes covering each row with light soil mixed with the moss. After 20th of May when the danger of frost is over transplant in your nursery.

The grafting of walnuts should be called a barking method. Cut off the upper part of the stock horizontally. Split the bark with your grafting knife as much as needed and lift up the bark as far as the wood and insert the scion. Tie up with raffia and do the rest as said previously.

The top grafting on the large Canadian black nuts gives good results also.

3. _Budding_

We bud the walnuts in the middle of August. Regular "T" cut has to be done, the bud put in and wrapped with raffia. Then it should be covered with parawax and left for a couple of weeks. After that time the budding should be examined and the raffia removed. If the leaf by the bud remains green it indicates that the grafting is successful.

The next spring, cut off the upper part of the stalk about two feet over the bud. You will tie up to it the budded shoot, which by the fall might be up to 6 feet high.

Spraying and cultivating is required as has been said above.

Owing to the fact that the budded plant in its first year continues to grow deep into fall and in many cases its upper part does not harden well, wrap the budding with straw for winter.

4. _Harvesting_

In the Carpathian Mountains when they gather the walnuts in the fall they mash them down with a very long and quite thin hazel sticks. Doing that they beat off the thin tops of the walnut branches. They say such an operation causes a better crop of the nuts next season.

5. _Giant Walnuts and their problems_

Some giant walnuts on the same tree have sometimes small kernels or withered ones. In the Carpathian Region they do not know what to do with such a problem.

It seems to me that we in Canada have to solve it. Maybe it is because of the bacterial disease, or it may be a lack of the proper fertilizer.

In Warsaw I have seen the giant walnuts sold not being dried.

6. _Reforestation with the Carpathian Walnuts_

Crath's Carpathian English walnuts could produce for Canada a very valuable forest and in shorter time than other trees do. We should always remember that in the Caucasian Mountains there are huge walnut forests. Some trees are of primeval age. Before the First World War English buyers often paid a Caucasian farmer from 5,000 to 10,000 rubles for a tree.

Walnut Wine

There in the Town of Kooty Mrs. Babiuk, a good wife of a local burgher told me about the walnut wine as follows:

"In my girlhood in this region there raged an awful epidemic of cholera. Many people died. But those who drank the wine made of green English Walnuts did not die."

The recipe that she gave me is as follows:

Take equal parts of walnuts in which the shells are not yet hardened, and the same quantity of sugar. Cut each green walnut in half a dozen parts, mix them with the sugar. In a couple of days the juice will be extracted by means of the sugar and ensuing fermentation which continues about one month. In two months it is ready to be consumed.

On my return to Canada I made wine from the Canadian black walnuts. The color of the wine was dark brown and quite pleasant. It stops stomach ache.

Also we should not forget the walnut oil and the use of walnuts in confectionary.

Walnut Candies

Take equal quantities of walnut kernels and honey. Mix. Boil, watching that the honey does not over-run. Mix with a wooden spoon. In half an hour cool to see if the honey has turned into taffy. If not, boil longer. When it is ready put upon a wooden board, with a spoon. When cooled the candy is ready.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 23: Mr. Crath died late December 1952]

Nut Tree Plantings in Southeastern Iowa

ALBERT B. FERGUSON, _Center Point, Iowa_

Last year on our return from the Nut Growers Assn. tour, Mr. Snyder and I stopped to see the Schlagenbusch Brothers and their nut plantings. We thought at the time that it would be profitable to the Association to have a report on their work. Mr. Snyder and I went down a month ago to visit them again.

Sidney and Carl Schlagenbusch live in the southeastern part of Iowa. The walnut orchard is on high land overlooking the Mississippi River bottom. The ground was formerly oak and hickory timber. Most of their other plantings are near the farm buildings which are just below the higher ground.

The first planting of the walnut orchard was made in 1928 and was completed 8 or 10 years later. It consisted of 205 trees. Later additions have been made. There are about 325 grafted trees in the orchard at present, most of them of bearing age. The trees are spaced 50 feet by 50 feet in staggered rows. Some of the branches are beginning to touch. The diameter of the larger trees is 18 inches. The orchard is in grass which is not grazed close. The larger portion of the orchard is the Thomas variety. They have a selection of their own which was first in the Iowa contest a few years ago. I thought it outstanding, but they consider it a little small.

The nuts are gathered in a wagon and run through a corn sheller, then cleaned in a device they made themselves. The nuts are then floated and dried. Over half of the crop is cracked and sold as kernels. They have been getting around a $1.20 per pound in Fort Madison. No crop to date has exceeded a thousand dollars in value.

They also have several hickories and hybrids. The shellbark variety, Wagoner, is outstanding--the best I've seen. It is large, thin shelled, cracks easily, and is of good quality. A small tree grafted on shagbark is bearing well. They have the common varieties of pecans, a few chestnuts, a few English walnuts, Japanese walnuts and hybrids. The Winkler Hazel has not been very productive with them.

They had several trees of Stabler, which were not satisfactory so they cut the trees off close to the ground and put 6 or 8 bark grafts in the stump. They saved the largest one as the main trunk and taking a graft or a large sprout from the opposite side of the stump, inarching it into the main trunk two or three feet up. This prevents the wind from blowing the graft off of the stump. It also makes it possible to utilize the strength of the roots from the opposite side of the stump. They had several trees worked this way which are now of good size.

In addition to caring for their large farm, nut orchard and a choice herd of Hereford cattle, Carl has found time to do some breeding work with Oriental poppies from which he has made some very choice selections. They have also worked with several other perennials. Sidney and Carl Schlagenbusch are true horticulturists by nature and are fine folks.

On the way home from this recent trip, we stopped to see Corliss Williams near Danville. His brother Wendell Williams, located the Winkler Hazel, before the first world war in which he served and never returned. We saw a Persian walnut, 25 or 30 years old, in Mr. Williams front yard. It was a U.S.D.A. introduction from Russia. It seems to be perfectly hardy, bears well and is of excellent quality. The shagbark hickories are plentiful in his locality. He has top-worked 200 or more, many of them to Burlington, which is productive and fills well with him.

Rockville as a Hickory Interstock

HERMAN LAST, _Steamboat Rock, Iowa_

As a nut-grower I am afraid I have been over-rated; I make my living tilling the soil and dabble in my nut grove only when I can find a few moments to spare--in fact all I know about nuts and nut-grafting, I owe to my good friend, Edgar Huen. I shall always remember that balmy May morning 25 years ago when Mr. Huen came over with a kit full of hickory scions, and suggested we go out in my pasture and do some grafting. In that bag were Stratford, Rockville, Des Moines, Marquette, Hagen and Monahan.

We grafted all that day--that is Mr. Huen did the grafting and I watched him. Today these trees are living monuments of our work.

The only tree of these varieties that has ever borne enough nuts to feed a squirrel is the Stratford.

Meanwhile I have been doing a little grafting myself. I acquired a few pecans for understocks but the only variety that was congenial with pecan as far as I knew was Rockville, but it produced no nuts--it was just a nice tree to look at.

One spring my brother-in-law who lives just across the line in Missouri sent me some shellbark scions from a tree in his pasture. I grafted these scions on a pecan and they took off like a house on fire. This variety proved to be a rugged individual and bore every year but the nuts were no good--all cavities like a true shellbark.

Then one spring morning I grafted some of these shellbark scions on Rockville; the grafts took and I soon noticed a transformation. The grafts had blended with the understock and the offspring was different from either parent. The best part of the new hybrid was that it bore abundantly and the nuts are of fine quality.

To those who have some young Rockville trees for top-working, I can furnish a limited amount of scionwood of this shellbark which I have named my Super X, it being so rugged and hardy.

To me the grafting of trees is a noble work. Someone has said that he who plants a tree is a true lover of his race and I don't know of anything that will live longer in the memory of our children and those who follow in our footsteps than a row of hickories laden with nuts.

A Fruitful Pair of Carpathian Walnut Varieties in Michigan

GILBERT BECKER, _Climax, Mich._

I would like to tell you briefly my experience with the difficulties of Persian walnut pollination. It took 8 years before I got any nuts, although they had nutlets time and again! It was after I had Crath #1 bearing, that all proceeded to fruit, and then heavier every year, until 1951 when the freeze of November 1950 eliminated the nuts.

Crath #1 has done so well that I feel it well worthy of being a commercial prospect for us. The size and shape are so attractive. (The accuracy of the numbering was once questioned by Mr. Stoke, so I do not know if it is the same No. 1 that others have had from Crath. This was named by Prof. Nielson. It definitely is not Broadview, as Stoke at first thought.)

My Crath #1 had over four bushels of hulled and unhulled nuts (as they are picked up, after shaking) this fall. It was grafted on black walnut in 1938.

At my folks' place I planted a grafted Crath #1, and a Carpathian "D", side by side. There are no other Persian walnuts near, and they have always had nuts, since they started to bear. I feel that this is a proper combination. I do not know whether the blooming periods overlap.

Suggested Blooming Data to be Recorded for Nut Tree Varieties

J. C. MCDANIEL, _Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, Ill._

Such experiences as Mr. Becker's (extracted from a letter to me) are well worth knowing, and we need similar information for several years and at different locations, for all the promising Persian seedlings and new varieties. I would suggest that all of us who have them flowering in our plantings (even if only one tree) make an effort in 1953 to record as much as possible of the phenological data on them. A form such as the following might be used, for flowering, fruiting, and related data.

Year: 19_____ Location: ____________________ Data by: _______________ First freeze previous fall: (Date) _______________ Minimum temperature previous winter: _____ deg.F. on (Date) _______________ Last killing frost this spring (Date) ______________________________

+---------+-----+-------+---------+--------+---------+----------+-----+-------+ |Variety |Age |Date |First |End |Date |Nuts |Yield|Remarks| |(or |of |from |catkins |of |pistils |harvested | | | |seedling |tree |new |shedding |shedding|appear |(date) | | | |No.) |or |growth |(date) | |receptive| | | | | |graft|scion | | | | | | | +---------+-----+-------+---------+--------+---------+----------+-----+-------+ |1. | | | | | | | | | +---------+-----+-------+---------+--------+---------+----------+-----+-------+ |2. | | | | | | | | | +---------+-----+-------+---------+--------+---------+----------+-----+-------+ |3. | | | | | | | | | +---------+-----+-------+---------+--------+---------+----------+-----+-------+

Under "Remarks" could be recorded such information as the distance and direction to trees furnishing pollen in the period when a given variety has sticky appearing pistils, the abundance of pollen shed, apparent winter killing of catkins, etc. The list of items could be expanded, if desired, but it is thought that those included here are among the most important in determining the potential performances of varieties and variety combinations in specific climates. A compilation of such data for a period of about three years, supplemented with data on the nuts themselves, would be of very practical value as a basis for selecting varieties most promising to plant or propagate. The same data form would be applicable to other walnuts, hickories, pecans, and filberts, and perhaps to a lesser extent with chestnuts.

Note on Chinese Chestnuts

HARWOOD STEIGER, _Redhook, N. Y._