Chapter II: Part 2

Mr. Stoke moved that the report of the nominating committee be approved, and that the nominees be declared elected. Motion was seconded and carried.

Mr. D. C. Snyder offered the following resolution:

"Because of the great and enduring service that Dr. William C.
Deming has rendered the Association, I move that he be named Dean
of the Association and be given an honorary life membership,
without payment of dues."

The motion was seconded, and carried with applause.

On being called to the chair, the newly-elected President, Clarence A. Reed, spoke as follows:

"I take this as a very great honor; it is an equally great
responsibility. All I can say is that I appreciate it deeply, and
that I will give you the best service I have in me."

The Ohio Section of the Northern Nut Growers Association, Inc., submitted a copy of its Constitution containing a provision that it affiliate with the Northern Nut Growers' Association by having its accredited members become also members of both Associations.

After an open discussion by officers and members of both Associations, a resolution was adopted by the Northern Nut Growers' Association expressing appreciation to the Ohio organization for their offer of affiliation, and accepting such affiliation on the terms stated.

It was also brought out as the sense of the meeting that the Executive Committee work out any necessary details in connection with this and any subsequent affiliation on the part of any district or state Association, the same to be submitted to the next annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers' Association for ratification.

It was also recommended that the President appoint a member of each affiliating Association to the Executive Committee of the Northern Nut Growers' Association.

This statement is made in lieu of an accurate transcript of the proceedings, or a verbatim report of the resolution as adopted, neither of which is available.

Aims and Aspirations of the Ohio Nut Growers

A. A. Bungart, Avon, Ohio

In one of the previous bulletins of the NNGA, there appeared an eighteen-point program formulated by the Ohio Nut Growers. No doubt you are wondering what has been done and is being done to make this program function. We have eliminated one point, the one on the pollen bank. At the time our program was being prepared we assumed that nut pollen could be stored for several weeks or months: Since nut pollen does not remain viable in storage, we shall substitute a point on the use of lime, fertilizers of various formulas and the use of trace elements in nut culture.

The Ohio Forestry Association on January 18, 1944, passed a resolution approving our eighteen-point program.

As you are well aware, the war put a damper on many activities, nut and otherwise. Here in Ohio, the nut crops of 1944 and 1945 were virtually failures; even the crop of 1946 is decidedly spotty. Yet in spite of the war and adverse weather conditions, the Ohio growers are looking forward, and planning for the future. As a group we are directing our efforts to the attainment of two specific objectives.

In the first place, we have almost $300 collected as prize money for State nut contests. I take this opportunity to announce a donation of $105 from Mr. John Davidson, of Xenia, Ohio. With the aid of such a generous contributor, we are able to offer a first prize of $50; second prize of $25; third prize of $15; fourth prize of $10; fifth prize of $5; and five one-dollar prizes for black walnuts.

In three or five years we intend to have another contest; either a sweepstakes of $110, or a repetition of the amounts offered this year. We may keep the contest open next year and the year after for those wishing to enter nuts for the final awards. In this way, too, we include black walnuts which are not bearing this year.

Our follow-up will work something like this: We intend to keep a record over the years of the performance of each of the ten prize winners and the ten honorable mentions of the 1946 contest. To that end we have made a score card. The first section of this card will contain information useful to the Department of Forestry and to nut culture in general, but it will not be a factor in selecting the prize winner unless a virtual tie might result in the sweepstakes contest. This section will include:

1. Location--owner, County, rural route, village, town, state
route, etc.

2. Location of Tree--isolated, moderately crowded, in dense woods,
farm, pasture, city lot, fence row, general ecology; types of other
trees in neighborhood, air drainage, exposure.

3. Size of Tree--circumference 4-1/2 ft. from the ground, probable
age, height, limb spread; shape, tall, short; symmetry or lack of
it.

4. Type of Soil--bottom land, slope and direction, upland; clay,
loam, alluvial; presence or absence of humus; acidity; sod or
cultivated, mulch or not; depth and kind of subsoil.

5. Moisture Conditions--presence of stream or tile drain, proximity
to to stream, lake, pond, etc.

6. Fertility Conditions--wild natural state, near barnyard,
fertilized or not with manure or commercial fertilizers,
application of lime, etc.

The second section will contain information that will aid in awarding the final prizes. Superior rating under this head might, in the final judging, make an "honorable mention" of the 1946 contest the best all around performer three or five years hence. This section will include:

1. Resistance to disease and insect pests 2 points

2. Bearing habits over the given period; annual, biennial,
occasional 7 points

3. Length of growing season; rate of growth; time of
blossoming (staminate and pistillate flowers), time of
leafing out, time of nut ripening, time of leaf fall 4 points

4. Size of nut clusters, range in number of nuts, per
cluster, number of pounds of immature nuts 2 points

5. Size of crop in proportion to tree 5 points

Total 20 points

Some formula will have to be worked out for the last, i.e., size of crop in proportion to the size of tree. Perhaps we might say the crop equals (pounds of nuts) / (r squared x h) in which "r" would represent the radius or half the limb spread and "h" the height, measured from the top to lowest branches.

For example, if a tree that yielded 100 pounds of nuts had a limb spread of 20 feet and was twenty feet high, it would have a value of 100 / (10 squared x 20) or 1/20. The fraction, of course, could be eliminated if the number of nuts were substituted for pounds. It is hardly likely that such a formula would be used for all the trees, probably only in instances where scores in other respects were close.

The third section of the score card will record the rating of the judges on the cracking qualities and other characteristics of the nuts themselves. Any form accepted and approved by the NNGA will be satisfactory.

We plan to use this system for hickory, butternut and other nut contests. Without a Mr. Davidson, however, we shall be compelled to reduce our prizes for the other contests.

I should like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. C. A. Reed for originating this plan. He told us we ought to know more about the trees from which the prize nuts were taken. Our score card aims at a complete record.

Our second aim is to secure a full time research worker in nut culture under the Horticultural Department of Ohio. We have the promise of Director Secrest that he will include in his biennial budget an appropriation for such a specialist. We have the encouragement of Dr. Gourley, the head of the department. But both men will expect us to do our part. Both expect us to speak for our group and our project when the time comes. We accept that responsibility.

Our group has already contacted the members of the finance committee that passes on the budget, and we expect to have our representatives present when the budget is discussed in committee. At present, to be sure, we cannot furnish or even promise an endowment in money. Sixty Nut Grower members can scarcely compete with such powerful groups as the Apple Growers, the Hybrid Corn Breeders, the Poultrymen and others. We can, however, furnish an endowment of men. Among our members we have such men as Mr. Davidson, Mr. Shessler, Mr. Cranz, Mr. Smith and Mr. Weber, along with many others who have done a great deal with nut trees.

A research worker could draw upon their advice, their experience, their technique. He would have as his assistants men who were actuated by no mercenary or selfish motives, and would give of their time and trees to make this dream a reality. Certainly much of the experimental work such as the crossing of varieties could well be performed on the trees of individual members.

The need of such an expert is obvious. The job of getting ahead in nut culture is too big for any one of us. We all know, frequently to our regret, that nut growing is a slow and at times a discouraging business. If we are honest with ourselves we have to admit failures again and again; yet the work is creative and fascinating. We always plan to eliminate some blunder, to perfect some method, next year.

Sometimes a man has a green thumb, or a magic touch, or whatever it takes to make grafts grow, or buds take, or hunches to succeed. Such a man was Mr. Otto Witte, of North Amherst. As a nonagenarian, he was ever looking ahead to another year with his beloved trees, but he died in his nineties. Some of his prize trees have been cut down and probably others will be. What has happened to the experiments of 60 years? Another such man was Mr. Ross Fickes, of Wooster, whose skill in grafting nut trees was at once our envy and our admiration. When his farm is sold, will the new owner sense the hand of the master and watch carefully over the walnuts and hickories, or will he cut them down?

I suppose that death brings an end to many a business, but the nut business is a new one, and a slow one, too. It is regretted that a life time of patient care and painstaking research is lost to us and to nut culture.

True, a nut specialist will not keep death from the door of nut growers, nor will he save their groves from destruction, but he can keep a record of each grower's trees. He can plant his trees and lay out his plantings on state land where there would be more assurance of permanency. Once a nut department is established there is good reason to suppose that the work would go on until certain objectives were attained.

Well, what should our specialist specialize in? May I suggest a few activities? Such a specialist would be the proper person to keep the score cards of the prize-winning black walnuts, hickories, butternuts and English (Persian) walnuts of nut contests held in the state. He would have the time and space for grafting scions from such trees for further observation and study.

In the second place, he could plant and study other varieties under identical conditions and observe their performance. By correlating these data with the records of individual growers he ought to be able to recommend certain varieties of nut trees for various sections of the state.

In Ohio, we have chapters of the Izaak Walton League; we have Friends of the Land; we have sportsmens clubs; we have extensive tracts of municipal and state land. We have the problem of doing something constructive with strip mining areas; we have, and will have under contour farming, little crazy-quilt blocks of land unsuitable for cultivation. All these agencies and all these needs tie in with the intelligent use of trees, particularly nut trees, because they serve a fourfold purpose; lumber, food, erosion control, and a balanced wild life. Here is where the nut specialist would enter the scene. By collecting data, by pooling the results of the individual growers, and especially by selection and breeding, he should be able to recommend the proper varieties of nut trees for specific needs.

It seems to me, however, that the main job of such a worker should be to produce a streamlined black walnut, a thin-shelled, good-cracking, fast-growing walnut.

The black walnut is, indeed, a regal tree. It grows all over the State. Here is a tree of almost infinite variation. What an opportunity for the genetic scientist! What an opportunity for the nut specialist!

In connection with the improvement of the black walnut as a nut and timber tree, the specialist might well investigate the English or Persian walnut. What about the possibilities of Circassian walnut lumber? What is to prevent the growers and the specialist from planting the English walnut for timber? Here in Northern Ohio, English walnut trees have been cut for timber. There are probably several hundred English walnut trees scattered through the northern counties of Ohio. Some of them are from 10 to 18 inches in diameter. A few are second generation. As these trees seem to be fairly rapid growers it would seem reasonable that nuts from these hardy trees would grow into valuable timber, apart from the value of the nuts.

Perhaps all these aspirations and aims seem Utopian. Probably such a program would keep a dozen workers occupied. In cooperation with the Forestry Department, however, students might be assigned to study certain phases of nut culture. A Ph.D. dissertation might well be written on the variation of the Thomas walnut in Ohio.

In conclusion, the Ohio growers will try to produce better nut trees. Through prize contests they hope to find what nature has produced. Through the services of a scientist they hope to find what man can produce. The two aims dovetail. We are reasonably certain of the prize contests; we are not yet certain of securing the nut scientist.

Ohio is host to the NNGA this year. May the Ohio growers ask you for your moral support in this venture? The NNGA is the mother organization. Through the efforts of the officers, past and present, the association is in a flourishing condition with prospects of a very bright future. Whatever we do in Ohio, whatever will be done in other states and countries will be a monument to the NNGA. The groping years, the hard years, are behind. The spade work has been done. We want you to feel that the aims and aspirations of the Ohio growers sprang from your advice, your experiments and enthusiasm.

I would like to add a final word about the unique advantage we enjoy here in Ohio. We have the cooperation of a powerful and excellent farm paper, "The Ohio Farmer." Through its pages our contests get a wide publicity. Mr. Ray Kelsey has furnished us with 5000 folders announcing the contest and the purpose behind it. We have the cooperation of the Experiment Station here at Wooster and its affiliated agencies. Drs. Secrist and Gourley have been kind, encouraging, helpful. Dr. Oliver Diller, of the Forestry Department, and Mr. Walter Sherman, of the Mahoning Farm, have helped and worked with us in a hundred ways. We feel the NNGA ought to know about this harmonious and whole-hearted team work.

Nut Growing Under Semi-Arid Conditions

A. G. Hirschi, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

The pecan is the major nut crop in Oklahoma. The timber growth along the rivers and creeks contains enough pecan trees, if they were properly distributed, to make one continuous pecan grove entirely across the state.

Pecan improvement work is only in its beginning. The Oklahoma Pecan Grower's Association was organized in 1926. It is devoted to the general improvement of the pecan, and to the dissemination of information gained by the members from their experience and observation. Dr. Frank Cross, head of the Department of Horticulture of our A & M College at Stillwater, is very active in nut improvement and is giving us much valuable assistance. Early in the history of our association we began to graft the large improved varieties on our seedling trees. True, many mistakes were made. I recall when all our trees producing small and inferior nuts, were cut down level with the ground, and the sprouts growing from the roots, were budded or grafted to paper-shells. This meant a long wait for production. We soon realized it was better to stub back the limbs and graft these, or permit the sprouts to develop and bud them, plus saving most of the framework of the trees, which gives us heavy production of grafted pecans in a short time.

Competing growth, that is underbrush and all kinds of trees other than pecans, rob the grove of moisture, sunlight, and plant food. This growth was formerly removed by hand grubbing, but now with a large bulldozer it is pushed right out of the ground into piles where it is burned. Now the ground is clean, no stumps to grub out, and ready for a cover-crop or clean cultivation. Nothing remains but pecan trees, some elm, hackberry and oak, too large for the bulldozer. These are poisoned and burned right where they stand the following winter. For poisoning a mixture of two pounds of white arsenic and a pound of caustic soda to a gallon of water, if applied from an oilcan with a spout in an open circle chopped in the bark so as to girdle the tree, will usually deaden it in a short while. Within the year nothing is left but pecan trees. These are watched carefully for production and shelling quality and, if not desirable, or standing too thick, are removed for greater spacing for permanent trees.

Today, only the smaller pecan trees are top worked, either to named varieties or to selected seedlings. Due to changed conditions of market and labor, the native pecan has come into its own. The pecan sheller buys 90% of the native pecans. He will pay only a few cents more for the big paper-shell. The native pecan is as staple as butter and eggs. Every produce man buys them for the shelling plants. This leaves the big paper-shell to seek a special market at an advertising cost. Due to the small differential in the wholesale price of the native and the paper-shell, the larger native trees are no longer top-grafted but are encouraged in every way for heavy production.

Thus, when creek and river bottom thickets are opened up to sunshine and air, nothing left but pecan trees properly spaced, and this on land usually considered worthless, these trees will quadruple in production and pay a handsome return on a $200 per acre valuation. This is a real and altogether possible two-story agriculture to those who are fortunate enough to own undeveloped pecan timber land. Many of our members have beautiful groves redeemed from the wild with bounteous crops of nuts overhead and cattle grazing on enriching cover crops underneath. The pecan means a lot to the farmers of Oklahoma. The average yearly tonnage is about 16,000,000 pounds, with a peak production of 30,000,000 pounds. This amounts to an average of $2,000,000 annually, with a peak of $5,091,000.

I want to show you what it means to some of our members to develop their native pecans, either as natives or grafted to improved varieties. The proceeds from one lone pecan tree in Mr. Skorkosky's cotton patch paid the taxes on his farm several different years. Thus encouraged, he redeemed a small thicket, added a few nursery trees of paper-shells, about ten acres in all, which now often makes a return equal to the rest of the farm. Mr. Kramer paid $1,000 for 10 acres, with part in seedling pecans. He sold $1,000 worth of pecans several different times, and the rest of the farm makes a good return in pasture and hay. He also has 51 acres that often makes a return of $50 per acre in pecans, besides pasturing 20 Herfords. Mr. Kramer destroys trees by girdling. Mr. Pfile makes it a business to buy farms on which there are pecan thickets. One farm has 70 acres, all top-grafted to improved varieties. Trees were small and no production for five years, supporting production for the next four years. Tenth year grossed $8,500; eleventh year, $5,400; twelfth year, $1,800, and this year his conservative estimate is $10,000. Mr. Camp has 600 acres in pecans, 90% improved varieties. He planted 50 acres on upland sandy land on terraces, with pecan trees 40 feet apart and an apple tree between each two pecan trees. The tenth year he produced 8,000 pounds of paper-shells and 4,000 bushels of apples. More recently he planted 125 acres on upland, but planted the pecans 60 feet apart on terraces with an apple tree between. In this orchard he produces 3/4 of a bale of cotton per acre and plants vetch in the fall between cotton rows. In October he had four crops on this land, cotton, vetch, apples and pecans. He says apple trees alternated with pecans on terraces are OK. Cotton, potatoes and sweet potatoes between the terraces for the first ten years are OK, but vetch as a winter cover crop to improve the soil must not be neglected. Grover Hayden has the largest native pecan grove in the world--1,800 acres fenced hog tight. He started 31 years ago as a farm hand. He had rather have 500 acres of pecans than 1,000 acres of alfalfa. Now after 30 years he owns the place at a purchase price of $90,000, not counting improvements and equipment. His average production is about 300,000 pounds per year. In 1935, he produced 400,000. He held back his 1941 crop and together with his 1942 crop, he sold both for $61,000. Think of the faith a man must have in pecans in Oklahoma to go in debt for $71,000 as Mr. Hayden did! He rode a pony that was mortgaged for all it was worth from Arkansas to this ranch.

Those of us who do not have native or seedling pecan trees to work with, must develop orchards from nursery trees. I was raised on a poor farm in Missouri. I always had a desire to take a poor piece of land and see what I could do to improve it. Consequently, I planted 225 improved pecan trees of 25 different varieties and all other kinds of nut trees, fruit trees and a variety of berries on a piece of worn-out upland, pronounced by our county agent to be the poorest piece of ground in our county, and predicted it would be a complete failure.

I planted the pecan trees 60 feet apart, and interplanted with other nut and fruit trees. The trees were planted on the contour with youngberries and many others planted in rows between the tree rows, making a perfect soil conservation arrangement. Barnyard fertilizer was used to start the trees. Every September, vetch and rye were sown as a cover-crop and soil-builder and disked into the soil the following spring. Clean cultivation is practiced during the summer to conserve moisture. This procedure has been adhered to most rigidly without a single crop failure. At 12 years most of the trees are producing $25 worth of paper-shells. The youngberries and plants sold have paid the expense of the orchard and a handsome profit besides, until the trees needed all the room. This project has proved to my satisfaction that profitable nuts and fruit crops can be grown on upland, if soil conservation and improvement are practised. The limiting factors of nut and fruit production are plant food and moisture, and if these are supplied, good production is assured.

Black Walnuts

The native black walnut of Oklahoma is small and of little value. Most pecan growers have a few native black walnut trees they graft to the improved varieties. I have Thomas, Stabler, Ohio, Mintle, Myers, and others. Thomas has been used most extensively, but does not fill well on upland. However, in deep sand and low bottoms it fills perfectly. It is an alternate bearer and is subject to sunscald in our hot dry summers. Ohio and Stabler have not proven satisfactory. Mintle is a fine nut, splendid cracker, fills well, but is an alternate bearer. I like Myers very much, a consistent bearer, has thinnest shell of all, vegetates after frost in spring, has abundant foliage and twigs, holds leaves until late autumn. Myers is my choice of all varieties at present. However, as with pecans, what varieties to use is each grower's individual problem. We will be looking for better varieties 50 years from now. For five years I am offering $25 annually for the best seedling black walnut. Write to our A & M College, Horticulture Department, Stillwater, Oklahoma, for rules and regulations of the contest.

How to Make Money with Black Walnuts

I believe I have discovered the best way to market black walnuts. I have not had much success selling them either husked or unhusked, "too hard to crack." Then someone remarked, "If you would crack them and put in some horseshoe nails to pick out the meats, they might sell." There it is: the secret is discovered. The lowly and almost extinct horseshoe nail will sell cracked black walnuts. I have the reputation among local hardware dealers of having more horses than any man in Oklahoma. Black walnuts and horseshoe nails are reminiscent of the good old days down on the farm. The big fat meats of improved cracked walnuts peering through the sides of one or two pound cellophane bags pinned shut with a couple of horseshoe nails is a temptation few people can resist. Leave a few packages with your grocer or druggist and try it. I get 25c per pound for the whole walnuts, and 35c for those cracked. I sell several thousand pounds every season, and since the black walnut does not become rancid we sell them all the year. I have a down-town shop window to display nuts and fruits. We husk our walnuts by running them thru an ordinary corn-sheller, or by jacking up the rear wheel of an automobile, put on a mud chain, with a trough underneath, place car in gear and scoop walnuts into trough in front of the wheel. This will husk them rapidly and well. We should promote the growing of more improved black walnuts. Most catalog nurseries still list seedling walnuts. We sold 3000 Thomas and Myers black walnut trees to one mail order nursery, and they could have used more.

English Walnuts

I tried all the California varieties, but these lacked hardiness. The Wiltz Mayette grew into a big fine tree but the 1940 Armistice Day freeze proved fatal. Breslau, Broadview, Schafer, and several others with some 25 Carpathian seedlings are just coming into bearing. Some give promise of adaptation here. I am determined to find a prolific and adapted variety. In the meantime we must content ourselves to grow this most attractive tree with its large waxy leaves and beautiful light-colored bark as a useful novelty.

Heartnuts

Here is a surprise nut and tree to Oklahoma people. Both are unlike anything ever seen here. When they see this most unusual tree, with its tropical leaves and taste the delicious nuts they want a tree for their yard. Visitors stare in amazement at the immense catkins, and the grape-like clusters of nuts that develop later. This is a heartnut year. In most all varieties, ten to fifteen nuts to the cluster hang from the terminal of each twig. The leaves sun-burn easily. In spite of this we had a heavy crop of well-filled nuts. Of the several varieties I have, Stranger is the most prolific. Fodemaier, and Walters bloom late enough to escape our late spring freezes, are larger nuts, and should prove to be the best eventually.

Butternuts

Butternuts grow native in Missouri and Arkansas. Our section is most too hot and dry for them. However, I have a few grafts of Buckley and Weschecke bearing nicely, grafted on native black walnuts.

Hickories

The wooded hills and river bottoms contain several kind of hickories. I have several pecan trees grafted to the Pleas and McCallister hybrids, but they are light producers in Oklahoma. I have 80 acres of river bottom hickory nuts in southwest Missouri that bear abundantly.

Oriental Persimmons

Persimmons grow native here. The Early Golden, an American variety, is very productive and ripens in September long before frost. Of the Orientals I have Tamopan, Eureka, Fuyu, Data Maru, Tanenashi. Most all bear heavily, in fact usually overbear. They stand our dry weather better than does the native persimmon. The very large fruit usually in colors of yellow and red attract much attention from visitors who think they are oranges. The persimmon belongs to the ebony family. The fruit contains as high as 40% sugar and in the Orient is a national dish. We propagate them by grafting our native stock.

Pawpaw

The Pawpaw is native in Missouri and Arkansas and in the eastern part of Oklahoma. It is a beautiful tree and very productive. We shade the small trees here until they get started, after which they do quite well. The fruit is a favorite with many.

Chestnuts

I think the greatest tragedy that ever befell American horticulture was the chestnut blight. Not so long ago every hill and mountain-side east of the Mississippi River, from near the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border was covered with native chestnut trees producing millions of pounds of food for man and beast. Today all has been devastated by this terrible blight and nothing remains save leafless trunks, like tombstones, in memory of a grand food tree.

In 1889, Tom and Mary Jones left their Kentucky mountain home to establish a new one in Oklahoma. As with all pioneers they brought seeds of many species with them, including chestnuts. I now own the farm they homesteaded. On it today there is an American chestnut tree 4 feet in diameter with a limb-spread of 50 feet. This grand tree has been an inspiration to me, surviving our hot dry summers and outliving two generations of fruit trees by its side. This beautiful tree, now nearly 60 years of age, was proof-sufficient that chestnuts would grow in Oklahoma. I began to plant chestnuts. I planted all the Riehl varieties--Progress, Dan Patch, Van Fleet and others. I also had Boone, an American and Japanese hybrid, brought about by Endicott, also of Illinois. These have borne well. Being isolated and outside of the native chestnut range, they have not blighted.

Since 1906, the Government has imported many thousand seed chestnuts from China. Later, it distributed little trees among the nut growers in an effort to re-establish chestnut growing in this country. This Chinese chestnut is blight-resistant. The best Chinese seedlings have been selected for propagation and have been named; of these I have Stoke (a hybrid), Hobson, Carr and several others. They are very prolific and often set burs the same year set out. Mr. Stoke sent me scions of the newer varieties this spring--Colby's hybrid, and Stoke seedling's Nos. 1 and 2. I grafted these on Chinese stocks; they set burs and matured nuts the same year grafted. The named varieties of Chinese Chestnut are the most precocious bearers of all the nut trees, are adapted and worthy of planting over a wide area. It should be the duty of every man who is interested in food trees to lend a hand to help re-establish chestnut growing in this country, now that we have blight-resistant varieties.

Almost within the shadow of our State Capitol, on a main highway leading from our fair city, I have planted 2-1/2 acres of blight-resistant Chinese chestnut trees, as a living memorial to our only child, Harold, who gave his life to our country in a Jap prison camp in the Philippines. We shall devote the rest of our days to this Living Memorial, and leave means for its continuance, so that passers-by in generations to come may be reminded of the world's greatest tree tragedy, and to demonstrate that chestnuts which once grew native over half the nation, and were laid low by a terrible disease, may again be grown.

In conclusion, let me warn you to improve your soil continually. NO TREE CAN BE BETTER THAN THE SOIL IN WHICH IT GROWS. No man is a greater exponent of soil improvement than one of Ohio's most illustrious sons, Louis Bromfield. In his book, "IN PLEASANT VALLEY," he says, "What we need is a new kind of pioneer, not the sort which cut down the forest, and burned off the prairies, and raped the land, but the kind which creates new forests and heals and restores the richness of the country God has given us."

Weather Conditions versus Nut Tree Crops

By J. F. Wilkinson, Indiana

Nut tree crops, like other crops, are dependent on heat, light and moisture in proper amount at the right time to produce a crop of nuts of normal quality; soil conditions also to be taken into consideration.

These conditions are probably more essential to a nut crop than most of us have realized; even the weather of the preceding season of late summer and fall may affect or determine next seasons nut crop.

The size of the nut depends on the weather in Spring and early Summer, for when the shell is once formed and hardened little more growth can be expected under any conditions, while plumpness of kernel depends on favorable conditions in late Summer and Fall.

After the shell is formed it fills with water which gradually changes to kernel, beginning at outer part next to shell, and unless there is plenty of heat, light, and moisture, kernel may not be filled, which will cause kernel to shrink, and not be plump, neither will it have normal germinating vitality, flavor, or weight.

In the past there have been seasons when nuts were not up to normal quality, but I did not realize then just what caused this condition, until a few years ago, I heard a party remark that a dry season was an indication of a good nut crop the following year.

Recalling back several seasons this, as a rule, has been true, especially where there was no unusually early Fall freezes, and Spring weather was favorable.

The season of 1944 here was one of the driest on record. Up until the middle of August, nut trees were showing signs of going dormant. Late in June, sap was getting so low that I did all my budding late in June, a month earlier than usual.

This early dry weather caused the nuts that year to be very small, especially on trees growing under less favorable conditions. Trees that were well cultivated produced nearer normal sized nuts.

About the middle of August rains began, and these nuts were well filled. The rains of August brought new life into the trees causing them to hold their foliage unusually late, and not being thoroughly dormant before cold weather, at which time no doubt many of the fruit buds were killed, with the result that a very light crop of nuts was set in Spring of 1945.

Spring opened very early with a bright warm March starting growth before usual time, even some trees set Pistillate bloom by the first of April; then later in April it began raining, and rains continued most of the Summer with much cool, cloudy weather with the result that most of the nuts failed to properly fill, or mature. This was true of hickory nuts, walnuts and pecans of both the named varieties and native seedlings.

While the 1945 nut crop was very light of both pecans and walnuts, I had a few trees with fair crops, though none of the nuts had well filled plump kernels.

Some of the first nuts to ripen seemed to have fairly well filled kernels after gathering and kernels got dried out, they shriveled and lacked flavor.

Walnuts seemed to suffer even worse than the pecans. I was not able to find a walnut tree in this section that produced good planting nuts; even farm crops suffered, especially corn of which much of the crop was not of normal quality.

The spring of 1946 began very much as in 1945 with a very warm March, again causing trees to start growth unusually early, and this spring, pistillate bloom was visible on some pecan trees in the last days of March. This weather condition remained until about the middle of April when cool rainy weather set in lasting for a month with frosts and light freezes as late as May 10th, which took all the nut crop in this section with the exception of a very few walnuts, and these were of very poor quality.

Another very peculiar thing happened in Spring of 1946. The Posey and Giles varieties, both of which are usually heavy bloomers of Stamen bloom, failed to set a single catkin this spring, while trees of other varieties growing near them set heavy crops of catkin bloom.

The behavior of nut trees in this section in the past two years, both of which have been unusual seasons, is evidence that nut crops are subject to weather conditions, not only of the present, but of previous season as well.

Nut Tree Notes from Southwestern Ohio

Harry R. Weber, Cincinnati, Ohio

Influence of Stock on Scion

At my farm home in the northwestern part of Hamilton County, Ohio, at about 800 feet elevation, on clay soil, the Carpathian walnuts commence growth too early in spring for their own good and my comfort, well knowing what lurking Jack Frost can do to them. These Carpathian walnuts are uninfluenced by their black walnut understocks, the Schafer variety alone excepted. I also have two Schafer trees that came grafted apparently on Carpathian understock; but these start as early as the others.

The Schafer exception, to which I refer, is grafted on a native black walnut stock to which the Broadview variety also had been grafted. (The Schafer variety is patented. I had permission to use the graft as I did.) With these two hardy varieties in the same tree, which itself is a late starter in the spring, I unwittingly laid the foundation for an unanticipated result. This became apparent after a severe early spring frost in 1945 caused me to examine all my hardy (Persian) walnut trees to note the effects of that freeze. The new growth of Broadview on the same tree with the Schafer was frozen, while the Schafer with the rest of the tree was dormant. The new growth of the other two Schafer trees; of Breslau top-worked on two trees; of Broadview on another tree; of an unknown variety on still another tree; all trees being native black walnut, all were frozen. The same was true as to Breslau seedlings and also a Kremenetz on Minnesota black walnut. Of course, all these trees staged come-backs with no bad after effects.

In April, 1945, we had a severe hail storm that clipped clean the second new growth from these trees. The topworked Schafer was still dormant, while its companion Broadview in the same tree suffered like the rest. The spring of 1946 showed the topworked Schafer still dormant, while all the others were active. The Broadview on the same tree with the Schafer was almost in full leaf before the Schafer and the rest of the understock showed signs of growth. A number of persons thought the rest of the tree was dead.

The Keystone Black Walnut

I have a cut leaf black walnut tree, of value as an ornamental, which originated in Pennsylvania. Although it had catkins for several seasons, not until the past season did it produce, and then only one lone nut. The husk of that nut had a smooth exterior similar to that of a Persian walnut; but it lacked the characteristic black walnut odor. In fact, it had none. If this tree has any Persian walnut blood in its makeup, that hybrid strain may have manifested itself in the foliage; in any event, there was an influence of some kind that caused the change in the usual type of foliage. I was more interested in planting the nut to see what kind of foliage the seedling will have rather than in cracking it for examination to determine its value as a nut.

Throp Walnut

The parent Throp tree stood bordering a road along the Ralph Throp farm in Indiana, 40 miles from my home. About six years ago, with the permission of Mr. Throp, and being a very old tree, it was cut down as its branches interfered with overhanging wires. When I last saw the stump early in 1942, it had staged a come-back by throwing numerous suckers. However, the main point in mentioning this tree is to register the fact that it bears two kinds of nuts, single-lobed, or peanut type, and doubled-lobed, with the peanut type predominating. A Throp tree of mine showed this variation, and on my next visit to the Throp farm, in the presence of Mr. G. A. Gray, one of our members, Mr. Throp definitely confirmed the fact that the parent tree bore the two kinds of nuts aforesaid and that the peanut type predominated.

I am prompted to make this statement for the reason that one of our prominent members, well versed in the performance of our best varieties of northern nut trees, had not been aware of the dual performance of the Throp tree, until I called it to his attention.

Black Walnut Nursery Studies

S. B. Chase, Tennessee Valley Authority, Norris, Tennessee

Briefly summarized, here are the results of a series of black walnut nursery studies undertaken in 1940 and 1941 by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The object was to develop nursery practices which would yield the large uniform seedlings most desirable as understocks for grafted or budded trees.

Germination and Stratification

It is known that either fall- or spring-planted walnuts germinate readily if the nuts are viable and if those planted in the spring are properly stratified over winter. To find out just what effect spring and fall planting has on germination and to compare various methods of stratification, three seedlots were given the following treatments on November 28, 1940:

1. Planted in seedbeds 5. Stratified at 65-75 deg. F
2. Stratified outdoors 6. Stored dry at 45-50 deg. F
3. Stratified at 38-40 deg. F 7. Stored dry at 45-50 deg. F
4. Stratified at 45-50 deg. F subsequently soaked in
water prior to planting

Nuts from the three seedlots were kept separate and planted in random plots in three seedbeds. Each treatment was therefore represented nine times with a total of 162 nuts in each treatment.

To determine whether time of outdoor stratification has any effect on germination and emergence, three other seedlots were treated as follows:

1. Planted November 28, 1940 5. Stratified January 30, 1941
2. Stratified November 28, 1940 6. Stratified February 20, 1941
3. Stratified December 19, 1940 7. Stratified March 13, 1941
4. Stratified January 9, 1941

These three seedlots were also planted in three seedbeds with a total of 135 in each treatment.

With one exception, all nuts in the two tests were planted April 3, 1941. One of the two lots stored dry was soaked in water for five days, then planted April 7. Seedbeds were equipped with screen wire cloth at a depth of 10 inches.

~Results~: In both tests, fall nut planting resulted in the best germination. Germination was higher for nuts planted in the fall than for nuts stratified on the same day for spring planting, although the difference was significant only in the second test. Outdoor stratification produced the best results, followed in order by indoor stratification at 38-40 deg. F and 45-50 deg. F. None of the nuts stored dry germinated. Time of stratification proved to be important. Any delay after November 28 resulted in reduced and retarded germination and consequently smaller seedlings.

Depth of Planting and Seed Orientation

The effect of planting depth on germination and on seedling size was investigated by planting black walnuts one, two, three, and four inches deep. Other nuts were planted in three positions: (1) radicle end up, (2) on side, and (3) radicle end down.

~Results~: Germination was unaffected by any of these treatments. The emergence of the seedlings was retarded by deep planting and hence the final diameter of seedlings was smaller. There was little difference in seedlings from nuts planted one and two inches deep but they were noticeably larger than those planted 3 and 4 inches deep. Planting nuts with the radicle end down invariably produced seedlings with undesirable crooks in the root-stem region which made them unsuitable for grafting. Planting nuts radicle end up produced straighter seedlings than planting them on their side. The latter method was the most economical for nursery practice.

Seed Size

To study the effect of kernel size on size of seedling produced in the nursery, nuts from nine wild trees and Thomas nuts were planted. Kernel weights ranged from 1.21 to 5.61 grams; nut weight from 6.5 grams to 24.3 grams.

~Results~: With one exception where germination was poor, nuts with small kernels produced small seedlings and nuts with large kernels produced large seedlings. Under nursery conditions the need for uniformly large seedlings for budding and grafting is apparent. The results of this study indicated the desirability of using seed nuts with large kernels for production of understocks.

Seedbed and Budding Studies

Density of stand in seedbeds influences seedling size. As size of seedling is important in budding and grafting black walnut, information on the most desirable spacing in seedbeds was needed. In three seedbeds Thomas nuts were planted in three nut spacings: 4 x 4 inches, 5 x 5 inches, and 6 x 7 inches. In other plots nuts were planted 4 x 4 inches and after emergence the stand was thinned. All seedlings from the thinning test were set out in nursery rows the following spring and those large enough were budded in the summer.

~Results~: Increasing the spacing produced seedlings of larger girth and shorter height--a desirable characteristic in black walnut budding stocks. The most desirable spacing appeared to be 6 x 7 inches. Even though the number of seedlings resulting from this spacing was approximately half the number produced at 4 x 4 inches spacing, more usable seedlings were produced at the wider spacing.

Thinning seedlings spaced 4 x 4 inches resulted in larger girth of those remaining--very similar in size to seedlings spaced 5 x 5 inches. Seedlings from the thinned and unthinned plots averaged 0.62 cm. and 0.55 cm. in diameter, respectively. In the nursery row 73 percent of the larger transplanted seedlings were large enough for budding the following summer, while only 59 percent of the smaller seedlings attained proper size. Bud survival was 22 percent on the larger stocks indicating the desirability of using large stocks.

My Experiments, Gambles and Failures

John Davidson, Xenia, Ohio

In reading the past reports of this Association, I find one thing lacking. One becomes interested in a report dated, let us say, 10 or 20 years ago, which contains an account of a project then started. It had great possibilities. What was the outcome? We do not know. No mention of it has appeared since. Did it fail? Let us say it did. Why? The answer to this final query is almost, if not quite, as important as would be an account of the means employed to make it successful--if it succeeded.

I should like to know, for example, whether anything remains of the Neilson-Post project in Michigan and what its history has been. I should like to hear more, also, about the outcome of many of Mr. Gerardi's intensely interesting and original experiments, such as his method, described in the 29th Annual Report, of asexual propagation of heartnut trees on their own roots; or his method of artificially creating beautifully marked burls on black walnut logs by systematically and repeatedly scoring the bark. These and many others. Which experiments were successful and which were not? Mr. Gerardi's original and adventurous mind is the sort that should be probed for the benefit of those who come after us.

My report today is my own short and tentative contribution to such a resume.

In the 1938 Report, on page 73, you will find my ambitious and optimistic "Farm Plan for Nut Tree Planting." In it I tried to outline a plan which could be used by any practical farmer with but slight sacrifice of useful land. Its last sentence reads as follows: "Meantime, I shall have kept practically all my land in profitable use all the time." Well, that depends upon what is interpreted as "profitable use." Tree growth is surely profitable.

The plan, in substance, was as follows: First, plant 20 acres in a modified forest formation to selected seed, mostly black walnut, the trees to stand 8 feet apart in rows 22 feet apart. Use the space between the rows first for truck gardening and later for an interplanted row of some fast-growing species for timber. No grazing permitted. Second, plant another 20 acres to a nut orchard using grafted trees of named varieties spaced 80 feet apart. Protect from livestock and permit grazing. Finally, plant seed in another 30 acres, spaced 80 feet apart, the seedlings to be eventually topworked to the wood of promising discoveries from the first plot. Protect and cultivate or graze.

What has been the outcome of this plan to date? The proposed plan worked very well in a 20-acre plot where a meadow was planted to an orchard of grafted trees, mostly pecans and Carpathians, which were protected by cattle guards, but was not completed in the seedling 20-acre plantation where the trees stood 8 feet apart in rows 22 feet apart. No grazing was permitted there, but berries and truck crops were put out. I couldn't keep it up. The reason: a World War, and lack of help for the intensive type of farming required for the project. Finally, when I attempted to interplant the rows with fast-growing trees, weeds choked out most of them in spite of my own efforts. My own physical and time limitations defeated me in the interplanting undertaking.

This leads up to an enumeration of my mistakes. First, I did not start early enough in life. The elements of health and strength have their part in success. Then, too, let us see what might have been the result if I had started at the age of 20. Remember, in this first tract of 20 acres I planned a forest plantation of selected black walnut seedlings, some chosen for nut quality and some for large, straight timber growth. A tract of 20 acres planted 8 x 8 x 22 feet will hold about 4500 trees. Allow for thinning and other reductions. If only 1250 trees should reach log size in 50 years, that is, by today for me, at an average of $50 each, they would come to $62,500--a very tidy estate.

Just now there are perhaps 2500 well grown trees in the good portion of the ground in this 20 acres. Pleasantly enough, they do not now seem to need the interplanting of faster-growing trees in order to develop upright growth but are pushing each other up as they stand, 8 x 8 x 22 feet apart. In this planting, then, there is evidence of successful timber growth in the good ground but of almost complete failure in the poor ground.

Another failure is to be noted in my original plan for cattle guards. These guards were 12 feet in diameter, and about 6 feet in height. These were satisfactory for sheep after I had installed pipe for posts, but not for cattle. Trees grow horizontally as well as vertically. Cattle, reaching for these side shoots, reached over the guards and pushed in and under. I later reduced the guards to a 6-foot diameter of stronger woven fence-wire with 6-inch stays, not 12-inch, and raised the height to not less than 10 feet. The cattle may now nibble off the side shoots if they wish but the vertical growth is protected. Above 10 feet the trees can spread out without danger.

Others say, "Permit no grazing at all." This statement, I think, should be made with certain qualifications. Where bluegrass bottom is used for the orchard planting of pecans or black walnuts, there is a possible slight reduction in growth from lack of cultivation, but this loss will be nowhere nearly proportionate to a farmer's loss of pasturage. And even in my 8 x 8 x 22-foot planting of seedlings, though no grazing was permitted while the trees were young, now the older trees are large and strong enough in the good soil to take care of themselves. Some lower branches are rubbed off but they should be off anyhow. Also, thank heaven, the weeds are at last kept down by grazing, the grass is utilized and, most important of all, the hazard of grass fires is entirely wiped out. I know of a neighbor's planting destroyed in this way and I shall always fear fire. I should not permit grazing in a general purpose woods lot where young growth is constantly coming on.