Chapter VIII: Section X: Amendments to By-Laws (1)

ARTICLE I. These by-laws may be amended at any Annual Meeting by a two-thirds vote of the members present provided such amendments shall have been submitted to the membership in writing at least thirty days prior to that meeting.

* * * * *

Forty-Second Annual Meeting
Northern Nut Growers Association, Inc.
August 28, 29 and 30, 1951
Urbana, Illinois

At the evening session on August 27, Dr. William Rohrbacher presented Dr. Arthur S. Colby, of the University of Illinois, who informally welcomed the gathering and set forth in detail the plans for the convention, with directions for finding different buildings, and suggestions concerning the several scheduled events. Dr. Colby concluded his talk by calling for a few remarks from one of our Canadian members, George H. Corsan, of Toronto, who is probably (with Dr. Deming) one of two nonagenarians in the association.

Mr. Corsan spoke as follows:

MR. CORSAN: My neck is still stiff. On the 27th of May I was up looking at a budding and I was coming down a 40-foot ladder, and when I was 22 feet from the ground the ladder had a bad rung and I took a head-first dive for the earth. I believe my tissues were made out of nuts, fruit, honey, and grain and I was able to survive. I looked exactly like a man in the gallows. They said, "You will be in the hospital for eight weeks or more." In two weeks and two days I was hoeing corn.

On the way here I dropped into various places that were of interest. Jack Miners. The place is really better than when their father was alive. I came over across the river and dropped into Battle Creek.

I spent a good time hunting for Kellogg and I couldn't find him. One person told me he was dead. He was quite peppy over the telephone and I was amazed because he had been ill and well, then ill and then well. He says, "Come on over. I am ready and looking for you." He wrote me a letter scolding me. He asked where I was going and I told him. I asked him, "Do you know you are a life member of that association?"

He has a monster dog descended from Rin-Tin-Tin and that dog is clean, intelligent and looks like a human being. He is on the shore of Gull Lake, a seven-mile-long, one-mile-wide lake. Marvelous looking. He had abandoned his big house and he gave that to soldiers and sailors and sick men. I had asked for him and they have never heard of him. That's how he hides himself. He is back on the lake again. So I hunted and found a house so unique that no one but he could have a house like that built. There he was and he was peppy as ever. He has a new man on the bird sanctuary. He was fully alive.

I don't want to take up any more of your time. I have had call on me an enormous number of people who are more interested in nut growing than ever. I can't blame them, with the price of meat so high, and so many doctors advising the displacement of animal foodstuff by the eating of nuts.

It was on my 94th birthday that I got a plaster cast and was in it two weeks and two days. I will tell you a little secret. I was supposed to have a diet. They had a dietician and I said I didn't need to eat anything. I drank orange juice and pineapple juice and apple juice and grapefruit juice. I ate some European black bread with carroway seeds; it tasted bitter. I don't eat so much as I did before the accident. I am trying to be careful of myself.

I want to have a talk with Wilkinson on the black walnut. I have four big trees of Stabler, and hardly a nut grows on them. Down there they behave themselves and have big crops. How do they have such big crops? I like them. I don't believe there is a tastier nut in the world. Even my hybrid Asiatic butternut cross. I have got quite a lot of them here to show you and the biggest filberts in the world and they are all seedlings.

Not a hickory nut, butternut or black walnut. I had a ton of black walnuts. There is a good crop of hybrids, filberts, English walnuts, and there are some other nuts. I am north of Lake Ontario. When any of you are going across, drop in and see me.

TUESDAY MORNING SESSION

DR. ROHRBACHER: Will you please come to order. My gavel is in Iowa City, so I will use my pocket knife. We have to make a little change in our program. Our leader, Mr. Magill, is not yet here.

First on our program this morning will be Dr. C. J. Birkeland, head of the Department of Horticulture at the University of Illinois. It's wonderful to have such a splendid response so early in the morning.

DR. BIRKELAND: It is certainly nice to see such a big turnout and we certainly welcome you to Illinois. We have been interested in nuts for a long time and probably will be more interested in the future. We have one man on our staff who has for years been interested. Now that we have two, we will be twice as interested. In the past, years ago, the Endicotts probably pioneered in a new variety of nuts. Later on, the Caspers and Gerardis and Whitfords and now the Oakes and Best families are doing a lot of work in the propagation of new and better varieties. We have a lot of areas in Illinois suitable for nut propagation, with the Wabash, Illinois, and Mississippi rivers, and we have been working with farm advisers and other groups to increase nut production and now we have a new horticultural experimental station in the southern part of the state. There is a lot of land suitable for that type of production.

Out on the horticultural farm we have, I guess, several hundred seedlings and varieties of nuts which you will probably see. I hope your stay here will be a lot of fun as well as profitable.

DR. CRANE: It is a great pleasure for me, and I know from the expression that I have had from those with whom I have talked, also for the members of the Northern Nut Growers Association who are here to be able to meet in Urbana as guests of the University of Illinois. As a matter of fact, we have tried and wanted to come out here for quite a long while, but we didn't have a good invitation and we are glad to accept--here we are!

The members of the Northern Nut Growers Association are all good people and they are very much interested in nut growing, not so much from the standpoint of making a fabulous income and being able to retire on an unlimited bank account on ten acres of land in nut trees, but they get a lot of pleasure out of fooling with them as a hobby, and in order that they might more or less through their trees respond under God's loving care.

This is the 42nd annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association, so it is no longer a baby. It is growing up. I don't know what the membership is at the present time. The secretary is going to tell us what the membership is this afternoon. It has gotten to be quite a sizable organization. We welcome the opportunity of coming out here to Illinois to see some of the nut orchards and nut trees in this great state, particularly pecans, although we do see quite a lot of hickories and also walnuts.

We certainly thank you, Dr. Birkeland, for your welcome and I know that our pleasure here is going to be unlimited. We thank you.

DR. ROHRBACHER: Thank you, Dr. Crane. We had them bring up some water to take care of our whistles.

At this time I'd like to present our address.

President's Address

I want to say it is a real privilege and pleasure for me to visit with you today and to have the honor of serving as your president for the past year. I have always been impressed with the enthusiasm and optimism of this group. You know enthusiasm and optimism are highly contagious, and I look forward each year with great anticipation to my regular inoculation.

It is particularly fitting that we assemble here with a common goal and purpose and also with the common knowledge that there is much work to be done. This society, which was formed 42 years ago, has enjoyed great progress and I wish to commend the men who had the vision to conceive this association and nurture it to manhood. Their accomplishments were indeed fruitful. However, there is still room and need for a program of expansion. It is our responsibility and obligation to see that this growth continues. The rings of growth on a tree trunk push outward and continually expand and grow--so must our association. Sometimes we become so deeply engrossed in what we are doing or trying to do that it is advisable to back up and take a broadside view of our objectives and purpose. In other words, we sometimes cannot see the forest for the trees.

I should like at this time to review the real intent and purpose of the Northern Nutgrowers Association. The defined purpose of this association, as stated in the Constitution, is to promote: (1) Interest in nut bearing plants; (2) Scientific research in their breeding and culture; (3) Standardization of varietal names; (4) The dissemination of information concerning the above and such other purposes as may advance the culture of nut bearing plants.

We are very happy that the 1951 convention has come to Illinois, which represents the western rim of this group. Only one meeting was held farther west, and that was held in Iowa in 1915, when my good friend and fellow Iowan, D. C. Snyder's brother, was active and contributed so much to nut culture in this country. The late Sam Snyder's, as well as D. C.'s untiring efforts, did much to originate and develop some of the finest named walnut and hickory nuts in Iowa. Through the years many other good nuts of the black walnut, hickory, pecan, Persian walnut and chestnut have been added to the ever-growing list. It is my considered opinion that one of the real questions that must be answered and answered intelligently, based on actual experience, is what nut trees shall I plant now?

It is only natural that the list of different varieties has grown so long in nearly every variety that we should concern ourselves particularly with point three of our objectives, which I have reviewed with you--that being the standardization and selection of varietal names. In order that nut culture be extended and expanded for profit, as well as satisfaction, I feel this is a real problem. It is my considered judgment that a definite culling must be done. Those of us who find our favorite nut tree meeting the axe may propagate it on a personal basis. The fact remains however that a definite list of approved varieties, based on actual experience and performance, is needed. We will save many a heartache, much time, work, and money by knowing more definitely what to plant. This would enable the nurseryman or the propagator of nut trees to reduce the number of varieties it has been necessary to carry in the past. It is imperative that any growing business have a broad commercial base. The nurseryman is seeking information on the most desirable varieties because it is unprofitable for him to carry a huge inventory of varieties he feels are most desirable, yet are called for the least. It has been my experience that the nurserymen in Iowa are limiting the number of species for propagating purposes. They are making a selection of varieties based on their own judgment, which may be good or perhaps could be better. If more standardization and selection could be obtained, the nurseryman could and would propagate more of the varieties that are recommended for their particular localities. In my opinion, it is our responsibility to help furnish this information.

With this in mind, we have named a committee to work on this important problem during the past year. The very capable and efficient Mr. H. F. Stoke has been working with the vice-presidents of our organization to survey the black walnut through the black walnut belt. I am sure we all are anxious to learn about their findings and accomplishments later in this conference. It is my sincere hope that this report and the forum round table discussion will give all of us a better understanding of which black walnut to plant in each respective locality. If we can accomplish this one problem at this meeting, I feel this conference would be most worthwhile and be a contributing factor to an ever-expanding production of good black walnuts in this country.

If we can make real progress on the black walnut, and I am confident we can, the other varieties such as the hickory, Persian walnut, chestnut, and the lesser grown nuts, can be dealt with in the future.

This matter of selecting the best variety of black walnuts for a particular locality has been of interest to me ever since I became interested in the fascinating subject and practice of growing nut trees. Furthermore, I have become increasingly interested in this during each succeeding year. If you will pardon a personal reference, we started out by planting some of each variety that appealed to me that was being propagated or sold by nurserymen. In the beginning years we experienced difficulty with two factors: namely, cattle and flood waters. We still have a number of varieties but have discarded many for a number of reasons. However, in the next few years the trees will be ready to bear and will furnish many of the answers concerning production in our own locality. This single project may save future planters of nut trees many heartaches and, more important, loss of time--because they will know what to plant.

That sentence in essence is my main thought for the day--and year. And as a final example we could read the parable from the book of Matthew of the man who sowed seed but an enemy sowed tares and the servants asked if they should pull the tares. But Jesus said, "No, because in so doing they might uproot the wheat. Rather," said He, "wait until the harvest, then separate the tares from the wheat."

Earlier it was mentioned that we all like to be identified with a growing or expanding business or project. It is my firm conviction that we all should do more to promote more and better nut trees. We need more planters of a few nut trees as well as a few planters with many trees.

We have recently seen a tremendous rebirth of interest in grassland farming in this country. This is constructive and sound for the long pull. Livestock and proper land use are natural companions. Another ally and companion in this whole movement should be good walnut trees in every pasture, a few nut trees in every farm lot, in the fence row and corner of the farm. I am sure that our educational agencies would be very receptive to putting more emphasis on this sound and fundamental practice. Good pasture lands, clear streams, plenty of trees for shade are all important and real assets to any farm. Shade produced by a tree is incomparable to any man-made structure. Instead of compromising with any shade tree let us all accept it as our mission to educate the people to know that nut trees are the most economical and useful. Then, after a summer of furnishing the finest shade from the summer heat, fall would bring an abundant harvest of highly desirable edible nuts for the household and perhaps a few more for a city neighbor who may not have been so fortunate.

Thus, in closing, may I again emphasize that it is my sincere hope that the survey, which has been completed by Mr. Stoke through the good cooperation of the vice presidents, will result in a more intelligent selection of the best black walnuts for the respective communities and localities. This will enable the beginner, as well as others, to purchase black walnut trees with a reasonable assurance that the returns will be a source of satisfaction rather than a disappointment.

It is a real pleasure to come to Urbana and partake of the gracious hospitality of people like Dr. Colby, J. C. McDaniel, and others who have contributed so much to the success of this association. This is a great fraternity and it is my sincere hope that we continue from here to a most successful meeting. This common bond and mutual objective of better nut culture gives us pleasure, profit, pleasant association, healthful enjoyment, and at the same time renders a genuine service to our community and country.

At this time, we have to make a change in our program, due to the fact that our leader W. W. Magill, of the University of Kentucky, is not here with us. We have asked that S. C. Chandler, of Carbondale, Illinois, speak on the Control of Spittle Bugs on Nut Trees.

Control of Spittle Bugs on Nut Trees

S. C. CHANDLER, _Illinois Natural History Survey, Carbondale, Ill._

When Dr. Crane spoke about the fact that so many of you grow nuts for pleasure rather than for profit, I thought that probably explained why I just knew about this pecan spittle bug June 27 of this year. I never even heard of it before, although it has been quite serious in and around Union County, 200 miles south of here. The firm which owns the orchard where these tests were conducted, Conrad Casper and Son, has 75 magnificent pecan trees besides an apple and a peach orchard. Mr. Casper didn't say anything about the trouble until then. He lays much of the loss of his crop to the pecan spittle bug. I want you to know what it is like. It is a little out of season. The meadow spittle bug works on grasses and weeds. This is, we have found, a different species. This one I brought up doesn't show as much as it would if I had collected it three weeks ago. There is a little nymph of a sucking insect which spits as it feeds. It doesn't chew tobacco fortunately. I got it from down here in the bottoms of the Little Wabash River.

I first want to tell you a little of what the grower, Mr. Conrad Casper, considers the importance of it. Now, as I say, I don't pretend to be a specialist on nut insects. My work has been mostly with fruit insects. Whatever I know about this insect I have learned this year, and I am just passing on that information to you.

Mr. Casper says that in the year represented by this growth here the spittle bug worked right into the base, and that is the one that would have produced buds. So, instead of bearing nuts, it acts as if you have pruned it. It didn't stop the growth, but it stopped the bearing of nuts. That was attacked by spittle bugs, but at any rate it didn't produce nuts. That has gone on four or five years and his neighbors all say the same thing. Here is one year, two, three, in the twig growth. This year it did make some nuts, in that particular branch. I am not prepared to back everything he says. Here is a growth here, then another, and finally had a few nuts all over the tree. So much then for the importance of it.

My problem was three-fold. I wanted to find out what species was involved. I found out it was not the same species that works on the grasses, and I sent in some adults for identification. They told me the right genus, but couldn't tell me the species. They are either in the process of determining it or on vacation. It is a different thing from the Meadow spittle bug and has two broods instead of one. I wanted to learn something about the life history. All of you know that it is very important to get the life history of the insect, because then you know the stages in which they are most likely to be most easily killed. We know something of the stages and when it would be of use to spray or do something for them. In order to learn the species, I had to rear it out and to attempt some control measures when it was first called to my attention by the farm advisers. This first brood was about over, and I thought our work was about over. The spittle was drying up. It is interesting to note that unless it is actually feeding, you can carry it around in a car for only a short time. The insect seems to stop working and you can't get a very good sample.

MR. McDANIEL: We have some out there on our pecan trees and on the walnuts also.

MR. CHANDLER: Down there we found where walnut was interplanted with pecan, it would be very light on a walnut then. So I thought that maybe our observations and tests were over before they ever started, but by July 8 or 10, a new brood had started. Dr. G. C. Decker could hardly believe it. There is only one brood of the Meadow spittle bug with which he was familiar, but this was a different species. It was very much more numerous than the first brood. Ninety-five per cent of the terminals were infested. If that does anything to nut production it is bound to reduce the bearing. Now that brood lasted until late August. The adults continued to emerge for about a month, starting August third, and as far as I know they were still emerging on Sunday afternoon, August 26.

Now, just before telling about that and showing some of the pictures and spraying test, I might wind up this part of it by saying something about the distribution. I wondered if it is in Gallatin County. I found it abundant there. Mac already says we have some in Urbana. I was wondering if it was down in the so-called pecan orchards. These orchards are really just seedling groves. Immense things. I went down there on my way and they do have it. The first man I met said I think we haven't been getting pecans because of that spittle bug. It did seem funny to stumble on the thing. Mr. Casper was really an apple grower. It took him four years to suffer enough to complain about his pecan insects.

I want to show you some slides. Dr. Kelly will start showing the pictures.

I tried to take a picture of one of the worst infested branches. Really, later I found I had taken it a little too soon. This thing actually hangs down in bags.

This was my attempt to show some of these previous year's growth that was killed, and there it was. You can see some of this whitish material here. This was taken after we had sprayed. The new growth is coming through here.

I must have gotten my finger in the way here. This is the dead part and the new growth and something working on it.

Another thing that Mr. Casper says is that sometimes it gets bad enough so that some of these nuts are caused to drop off. They seem to be pretty well established.

Now there are small things I am attempting to show here. I think our official photographer is on vacation. He has some that are larger than I was able to take. I tried to take a picture when the spittle was dried up, but I don't know whether you can see them.

I wanted to show you some of the cages. They were emergence cages that cover a branch. The nymphs would develop into the adults inside that.

Here again I wished for my official photographer. These are the adults, darkish up here and light in the other end. They are about three-eighths of an inch long and they are a hopper. They have wings with which they can fly, but mostly you see them jumping about. They look like your tree hoppers.

I just wanted you to take a look down this magnificent orchard of Mr. Casper's. He has 75 of those trees. They are 31 years old, planted 55 feet apart. They are 75 feet high. I am going to have to use some of my boy scout ability and measure by proportion. He claims to have sprayed at least the lower three-fourths of the tree.

MEMBER: He uses a speed sprayer, doesn't he?

MR. CHANDLER: No, it's another kind. With all the pressure on one gun, he can get a long way up. One of the materials we used was too strong and we got a crinkling on the leaves. After that he cut it down to what I told him.

My data slide. I want to tell you about this. He sprayed first on July 16 in the orchard which I showed you. He sprayed the whole thing with parathion. He had been using it with his apples and he thought of that as being such a deadly poison that that must be the thing to do. We thought so the first day afterward. He sprayed in the evening. At nine the next morning we could find practically none of those terminals that seemed to have live spittle bugs, but in about two days we could see some were surviving that treatment so we came in again. That spray was applied July 23. At any rate, we sprayed one row with lindane, 1-1/4 lb. per 100 gallons. When I went through the original parathion sprayed plot there was well over half that had some live nymphs.

We started our tests over again. On July 30 we sprayed with lindane (25% wettable powder) with one pound to one hundred gallons of water. Only three terminals with any live nymphs out of a hundred were left in the lindane. The parathion has 38 per cent alive. TEPP which is teta ethyl pyrophosphate is a very quick acting material but doesn't last. Whatever it does, it has to do in an hour or two's time. It has lost its efficiency after that. But we know it might kill everything in a big hurry. There was still ten per cent. We could rule out parathion. We went back to this one row and sprayed on July 23 and on August 2 and 3. That would be nine days. There still were only four infested terminals. That lindane is a refined BHC, which is that material that stinks. It has been known to produce an off flavor in peaches, and it could very easily make an off flavor in pecans. In tests before this on Meadow spittle bugs on crops which might be used for food they did not use BHC, which would be cheaper. There are four or five different forms of the molecule that are important in making that and this gamma is the most important. We used a pound of this 25% gamma lindane and that apparently was the most successful. I didn't get this idea out of a clear sky. I talked to Dr. G. C. Decker and read one or two articles showing where they had been using dieldrin and lindane with the most success.

I guess that is all the slides now.

MEMBER: Do you get away from the bad effects of BHC by using lindane?

MR. CHANDLER: Yes. Now we feel that at any rate in the very short time in which we have known anything about the thing we have at least learned something about the pest and the distribution and the species and apparently we have got a lead on control. Mr. Casper thinks there is no reason why he shouldn't start in the first brood, although he has had about four years build up of the thing and no wonder it is bad. If we should try that another year, I would say we should start about the middle of June, because when he looked on the 27th of June the show was about over.

MEMBER: Your lattitude is about the same as Evansville?

MR. CHANDLER: Yes, Carbondale is almost on the due west line with Henderson, Kentucky, and Anna is 20 miles south of Carbondale.

MEMBER: One hundred miles north would be about two weeks later.

MR. CHANDLER: Yes, I wouldn't be surprised if it wouldn't be later. We thought maybe you might have to spray when the adults were out. We didn't know whether any material would go through that spittle. We thought you might have to spray and envelop the tree when the adults were around.

MEMBER: I saw some spittle bugs in Northern Michigan on wild hazel, and I am wondering if they are a pest on filberts.

MEMBER: We have no damage on filberts and I think we have spittle bugs in St. Louis. Our first brood comes between the first of June and the tenth, and in the last eight years they have been very serious.

MEMBER: Did you say Northern Peninsula of Michigan?

MEMBER: We have reports from Illinois and Missouri and Mr. Armstrong found it over at Princeton, Kentucky, and I know it is in Indiana.

MR. McDANIEL: I have seen some on pecans in Tennessee, but not as abundant as in Union County.

MEMBER: English walnuts in Ohio.

H. F. STOKE: I am in southwestern Virginia. I can say that we have spittle bug in the South. I am not sure it is the same species. When I get it determined, I will let you know.

DR. CHASE: That occurs in all the southern states. It is quite bad in Georgia and Florida and Alabama and in fact all the southern states.

MR. McKAY: It is very bad on weeds and grass in our orchards.

MR. CHANDLER: That's another species.

MR. McKAY: I have never seen any on our nut trees.

MEMBER: Just before this attack on the nut trees it was real bad on clover and grasses in our area.

MEMBER: That comes a little earlier. We ought to be sure that we get that determined. Dr. Milton W. Sanderson has had to send some specimens to a specialist in this group in Lawrence, Kansas.[1]

MEMBER: Are there just two broods?

MR. CHANDLER: There might possibly be three. I have another cage in my check block in which I collected the live ones, and I am going to find out whether they produce or don't.

MEMBER: There are two broods in Iowa.

MEMBER: Do I understand the common spittle bug is an enemy to nut trees?

MEMBER: That is for young nursery seedlings.

MR. CHANDLER: Did you see these big trees where I told you about having the crop? I explained for several minutes that there must be two varieties.

MR. FERGUSON: There is a spittle bug that bothers the June berries.

DR. ROHRBACHER: We have a spittle bug we had a year or two in Iowa on the elm trees.

At this time Dr. Colby would like to make a few announcements.

DR. COLBY: I just had a call from Tubby Magill. He is over in Danville and he has burned out a bearing and he is going to get over here for this afternoon. We will have to pinch-hit the rest of the morning.

DR. ROHRBACHER: We will now have a presentation by Dr McKay on the Preliminary Results of the Training of Chinese Chestnut Trees.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Dr. Kathleen G. Doering, at the University of Kansas identified the spittle bug from the Illinois pecans as _Clastoptera achatina_, a species not hitherto recognized as an important pecan pest. Spittle bugs from southeastern pecans have been referred to a different species.--Ed.]

Preliminary Results from Training Chinese Chestnut Trees to Different Heights of Head

J. W. MCKAY AND H. L. CRANE[2]

Introduction

Many growers of Chinese chestnut (_Castanea mollissima_) want to know how soon their young trees may be expected to bear their first crops of nuts. This is determined by several factors, but perhaps one of the most important is the amount and kind of pruning the trees receive during the first four or five years they are in the orchard. One reason for the importance of type of pruning is the characteristic habit of the species to form branches low on the trunk, so that low-headed and spreading tops result if trees are left unpruned.

It has long been accepted by most horticulturists that any kind of pruning of fruit trees tends to be a dwarfing process. Hence, pruned trees would be smaller than similar unpruned trees. Pruning of young fruit trees, though reducing the size of the top and the number of growing points, tends to stimulate the growth of the remaining shoots. This has a marked tendency to delay the formation of fruit buds. Hence, unpruned trees come into bearing earlier than even lightly pruned trees. Tufts (2)[3] reported that lightly pruned deciduous fruit trees, such as apple, pear, apricot, and peach, came into bearing one to three years earlier than similar trees that had been heavily pruned. Crane (1) found that height of head in apple trees had little effect on yield for the first nine years in the orchard, but at the time the experiment was terminated the trees were still too young for him to expect much fruit production. He found, however, that the low-headed trees made more shoot growth and a larger gain in trunk diameter than the high-headed ones, and thus the bearing area was larger. Because the tree form of the horticultural varieties of Chinese chestnut is somewhat comparable to that of apple varieties, it would be expected that the two might give similar growth and yield responses to pruning or training procedures. The experiment described in this paper was initiated for the purpose of determining the response made by trees of Chinese chestnut varieties pruned and trained to three heights of head.

Experimental Procedure

The three varieties used in the experiment are Meiling, Nanking, and an unnamed variety carried under the accession number 7916. The last variety is characterized by dwarf, heavy-bearing trees that mature their crops very early in the fall, whereas Meiling and Nanking are vigorous, fast-growing varieties that mature their nuts in midseason. In the early spring of 1948 thirty-six two-year-old grafted trees were planted 25 feet apart in the orchard in four short rows of nine trees each. The three treatments consisted of (1) no pruning; (2) pruning to a 2-foot head; and (3) pruning to a 4-foot head. Three trees, one of each variety, were included in a plot or treatment. Thus, the experiment was arranged in a randomized block design with the three treatments randomized in each row and the four rows serving as replications. Each spring the trees received a liberal application of a 10-6-5 fertilizer. Strips six to eight feet wide on each side of the contoured rows received frequent cultivation each growing season, while strips of orchard grass sod were left between the rows to prevent erosion. The soil is Riverdale (tentative series) sandy loam that had been in orchard grass sod for ten years before the experiment was begun. It has been necessary to spray the trees each year with DDT, parathion, or both to control Japanese beetles and mites.

Pruning of the trees was begun during the first winter following the planting in the orchard, but only a few of the lower limbs were removed in order not to dwarf the pruned trees severely. The second winter a few more lower limbs were removed and at this time the two-foot-head treatments were complete. A third pruning was necessary before the heads of the trees in treatment three could be raised to four feet. Detailed records and measurements were made of the diameter of each tree trunk one foot above the ground, and of the weight and number of nuts produced (yield).

Experimental Results

=Table 1. Effects of training to different heights of head on the average diameter of tree trunk and yield of nuts of three varieties of Chinese chestnuts at the end of the third season (1950) after transplanting=

===========+=============================+==============================+
| | |
| Average diameter of tree | |
| trunk (millimeters) | Yield of nuts (pounds) |
Treatment +-----------------------------+------------------------------+
| | |
| Meiling No. Nanking Tree | Meiling No. Nanking Tree |
| 7916 average| 7916 average |
------------+-----------------------------+------------------------------+
| | |
No pruning | 43 43[1] 47 45 | .19 .43[1] .05 .16 |
2-foot heads| 25 19 21 22 | 0 .12 0 .04 |
4-foot heads| 27 22 25 25 | 0 .03 0 .01 |
------------+-----------------------------+------------------------------+

=============+==============================+
| |
| |
| Number of Nuts |
Treatment +------------------------------+
| |
| Meiling No. Nanking Tree |
| 7916 average |
-------------+------------------------------+
| |
No pruning | 11 22[1] 2 10 |
2-foot heads | 0 7 0 2 |
4-foot heads | 1 4 0 2 |
-------------+------------------------------+

[1] 2 trees missing.

Data on the diameters of the tree trunks and yields of nuts at the end of the third year in the orchard are given in table 1. It should be pointed out first that these grafted trees produced some nuts the third growing season they were in the orchard. This is very much earlier than seedling trees ordinarily could be expected to bear nuts. It will be noted that trees of Number 7916 developed a somewhat smaller trunk on the average than the other varieties did, but Number 7916 outyielded them about two to one, both in weight and in number of nuts produced. The tendency of Number 7916 to bear nuts earlier and on smaller trees than other varieties may prove to be a valuable characteristic that will justify naming and releasing this clone as a new variety. The fact that it matures its nuts early may also make it suitable for growing in more northerly areas than other varieties, because the length of season required for maturing the crop presumably is shorter than for other varieties. However, this cannot be determined without extensive tests in the North, which are now being made by a number of growers.

It will be noted also in table 1 that the trunk diameters of the unpruned trees were about twice as great as were those of trees trained to two-and four-foot heads; and furthermore, the yield of nuts was more than four times as great. This means that cutting off the limbs that formed below the 2-foot level checked growth so that the bearing surface of the tops was greatly reduced as compared with that of unpruned trees. Also, growth of the tops of these trees was etiolated and spindly, and the shoots produced few or no catkins as compared with the abundant catkins produced by the unpruned trees. Several of the trees with four-foot heads became so top-heavy that staking was necessary, and nearly all the pruned trees leaned to some extent. At the end of the third year in the orchard, the unpruned trees were much taller than trees headed at two and four feet, and the spread of branches was also much greater. Preliminary results from this experiment indicate that early pruning of young Chinese chestnut trees causes severe dwarfing and consequent delay in the formation of catkins and the bearing of nuts. All pruning operations should, therefore, be delayed until the trees reach bearing age, and from that time on low limbs may be removed gradually from year to year until the trees are trained to the proper height.

Literature Cited

(1) Crane, H. L.
The effect of height of head on young apple tree growth and yield
West Virginia Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 214. 1928

(2) Tufts, Warren P.
Pruning young deciduous fruit trees
California Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 313: 111-153. 1919

Discussion

MR. McDANIEL: What age and height were these trees when planted?

DR. McKAY: These trees were grafted on two year old stock and allowed to grow a year. They were three years old. They have grown in the orchard three years, so they are now six years old and about five feet high.

They were grafted about a foot from the ground and they grew three feet or so. They were a good size grafted tree.

MEMBER: May I ask the time of the year when you pruned?

DR. McKAY: In the dormant season.

MR. SHERMAN: I have been pruning some Persian walnuts. Just as the side branch starts I rub that bud off and I can't see that I am dwarfing it any.

MEMBER: Maybe you aren't pruning enough to do any dwarfing. We have removed whole limbs.

MEMBER: I have taken it off and allowed the center to go up.

DR. McKAY: It may have different effects. We actually removed wood from the tree.

MEMBER: Is that 7916 a pretty good sized nut?

DR. McKAY: It is a smaller nut. The 7916 is a potentially high bearer. It bears quickly after it is planted and that is one of the things a lot of us are interested in.

MEMBER: How about eating quality?

DR. McKAY: It is just as good.

Our preliminary conclusion is that early pruning in this species causes severe dwarfing and delay in the fruiting of Chinese chestnuts. Just let them alone. Plant them and forget about pruning them until they come into bearing. Let them alone and you will get nuts two or three years sooner than if you start taking those lower limbs off. Once you get it into bearing then start in and take off a few limbs on the bottom. You could still over-do the thing. The point is to wait at least three or four years. We will have some recommendations in another year when we shall know more ourselves.

MEMBER: What do you disinfect those cuts with?

DR. McKAY: We don't figure it is necessary to be too particular about painting the wounds. Those wounds heal over very quickly. Use an asphalt tree wound compound.

MR. SILVIS: Personally it appears to me that Walter Sherman's method of rubbing off the buds or very young shoots just as they start growth is to be preferred. Your method of cutting off limbs is destructive pruning. Though you say pruning dwarfs the tree, actually the root is still there and given enough time will not the tree recover?

DR. CRANE: I carried on pruning experiments for many, many years, with apples, peaches, pears and cherries. Since then I have been working on nut trees. As for this debudding, the reason he doesn't know he was injuring, was that he didn't have checks and experiments. When you have, you will see that debudding or even pinching the terminals will actually dwarf the tree, although not as badly if it is not done in the summer time. If you do it in the springtime, and if you keep on debudding along in June and July, you are dwarfing your trees.

MR. McDANIEL: In the University orchard you will see some Chinese chestnuts which have been pruned heavily, and the results aren't good.

MR. CORSAN: I visited a sweet chestnut orchard in Michigan, and the grower told me that there were two types of Chinese chestnut trees, one that grew tall and the other squatty. The one that grew shorter was much later than the tall one. Then I would like to tell you about an experience I had years ago. I imported from this state of Illinois from Miss Amelia Riehl, and I also planted about a bushel of seed of Chinese chestnut trees grown in the Niagara district. These Niagara seedlings are quite large and the amazing thing is they didn't grow any nuts. So I came across another orchard in the Niagara district where they were growing that large pointed type of nut and I got some grafts from that and I put them on these non-bearing trees and they all took at once. A bunch of them would all grow up without any failure. That was easy and now they are growing fine. I just thought I would tell you that peculiar experience, and that knocked me cold. The trees from Illinois and the trees from the seeds of the large good sized nuts were equally good.

MEMBER: Did they bear after you grafted them?

MR. CORSAN: They sent out sprouts that far. [Indicating.] The trees were all right.

MR. STOKE: I think you are both wrong. I think you will take the tree and plant it without pruning and then it starts and then in the summer after it is in full leaf pinch off the leader in the lower branches. That will retain the value of those lower leaves. By doing that and suppressing the lower you will get better results than either of the other ways. Nature will remove and make unfruitful the lower ones. You can help nature in forcing the upper growth and removing the lower.

DR. McKAY: That is one way of doing it. A lot of people want to get ahead of nature. If you wait for those lower limbs to die, the tree will have to be pretty large. Lots of people want to get under their trees before that. You sometimes want to get there after three or four years. I think it would take ten years for the shade to do it.

MR. STOKE: I didn't mean to let the shade do it. We after three or four years can remove the limbs ourselves with less shock and much better results. That will work on any tree.

DR. McKAY: I don't see how you can remove.

MEMBER: You force stronger leaders at the top and hasten the growth of the top.

MEMBER. You will get a delay of fruiting.

MEMBER: I think you make up for it.

DR. CRANE: That may be true. We have seen very conclusively that when you prune even a little you are going to destroy fruiting.

MR. STOKE: You will have a larger tree in five years by my method than by yours.

MR. A. M. WHITFORD: I have trees of that very spreading type of Chinese chestnut, that are lying on the ground and I should have removed those limbs five or eight years ago. You should remove them in not more than five years after planting.

DR. McKAY: I want to make a comment. Some grafted trees are not bearing. This to us shows the importance of varieties. This difference between 7916 and the two others is so striking it means in the future we have to pay more attention to the varieties. There is no question that some varieties will bear sooner than others. We have to talk about grafted trees because that is the only thing that can be developed. Every grafted tree is potentially like every other of the same variety.

MEMBER: What factors suppress them? In pinching back, do you mean that the actual growth rate is changed, or that debudding will suppress the entire tree?

DR. McKAY: We mean the amount of the top itself. Usually it is the spread and the height together. When you prune, you tend to hold back the total amount of the fruiting area of the tree. If you allow it to develop untouched you have a greater fruiting area.

MEMBER: The chestnut tree often will sprout from the trunk. What are the processes to check that?

DR. CRANE: It is very largely root pressure. When you have a tree that is uninjured, all of your water and soluble minerals are going up to the top. When you have the tree trunk killed or cut off you still have water in your root system. In some trees you have a lot of adventitious buds that are still there and never forced out. Nitrogen will force those dormant buds into growth. At each walnut node or leaf we have as many as seven buds, all of which are capable of producing growth. Normally it is only the major bud that grows, but propagators sometimes get a patch bud back to life even though the primary bud dries up. Keep on forcing it and you are bound to get a sprout out of that bud. That is just the way it is with a lot of dormant buds. There are so many that when we cut off the top these dormant buds are forced into growth. Some trees don't have them. Tung does not form dormant buds, but will form those adventitious buds. They will form numerous buds even in a very small area of callus. It is just a safeguard that some plants have developed to keep the individuals alive.

MR. McDANIEL: I think what Mr. Craig had in mind was the tendency there is in Chinese chestnut to form multiple trunks.

DR. CRANE: That is due to these dormant buds and the ability to produce callus. Chestnut is one of the species that produces abundant callus very readily. That is one of the reasons this Chinese chestnut is so blight resistant. When it has an injury it will form callus at the point of the injury.

MEMBER: Would you tell me how you would start a blind bud growing. It will not break. It doesn't form. When I come to a wood which is blind I cut it off.

MR. CHASE: We have had such buds and find if that bud is blind you can force all you want to but you won't get any new buds to grow from that bud patch.

DR. McKAY: It does on two-year wood. Perhaps on one-year wood you have no adventitious buds. When the bud dies, that patch is through. On two-year wood frequently small adventitious buds will grow.

MEMBER: If you rub the main bud off, it will start on the side.

MEMBER: Do you recommend two year wood for budding?

DR. McKAY: We recommend one year if it is large and vigorous. If you have to use chestnut wood smaller than a pencil the results will be indifferent.

MEMBER: What time do you recommend budding?

DR. McKAY: We graft in spring, the first week in May, using dormant wood the size of your little finger. We wait until the first leaves are open, usually in May.

MEMBER: Do I understand that most any place along that tree trunk there are adventitious buds?

DR. McKAY: Particularly next to the root.

MEMBER: Have you had any success in bench grafting of the chestnuts?

DR. McKAY: We have had some success and other times failures. We can't recommend bench grafting. Perhaps you can do it, but we haven't yet worked out a satisfactory method.

MEMBER: Wouldn't it do better if you dipped the top in paraffin or something?

DR. McKAY: Ask Mr. Bernath. He is the authority.

MR. BERNATH: No, none whatever. No, it wouldn't help.

MR. CORSAN: In New York they had weevils. That is the most terrible thing I ever saw. Has the weevil disappeared entirely?

MEMBER: No, indeed, we have weevils over a large area. It is a very important pest in the East and in the Ozark Chinkapin range around chestnut plantings. There is a very satisfactory and easy way of control. DDT, two pounds per 100 gallons of spray solution or a dust of one per cent. The trees are sprayed once or twice or three times from about the last of August on until shortly before harvest.

MR. McDANIEL: That is discussed in last year's annual report.

MR. CORSAN: I fumigated my seed nuts for the weevils and killed them all effectively, and we have no weevils of hickory or chestnuts now. That is, as far as southern Canada is concerned. It would matter terribly if we had any weevils of any kind. Anyone hear about the hickory and chestnut weevil?

MEMBER: Standard directions are available for the control of weevils both in chestnut and hickories.

MEMBER: There are practically no weevils in New York. The boundary line would be about southern New Jersey. It doesn't make much progress farther north. It's also absent toward the Southeastern and Gulf coasts.

MEMBER: That is an interesting discussion, but it is off the current subject.

DR. ROHRBACHER: I am sure your project is interesting, manifested by the questions you have been asked.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: Horticulturist and Principal Horticulturist, respectively. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau Plant Industry, Soils and Agricultural Engineering, Beltsville, Md.]

[Footnote 3: Number in parenthesis refer to literature cited, p. 25.]

The Filbert and Persian Walnut in Indiana

W. B. WARD, _Department of Horticulture, Purdue University_