Chapter VI: Part 6

My constant talk about hardy strains of Persian walnut prompted friends to tell me of several plantings already growing in northern Ohio with more or less success. I promptly obtained scions and undertook to graft a number of these, but I had the usual ill-success of a beginner. I failed in attempts to top work trees and had no better results with bench grafting although I began early in the season and continued my efforts till the time arrived for planting the trees. I stored the grafted material in a cool apple storage house from the time they were grafted until they were planted. Then somehow I learned that walnut wounds would not callous over except at relatively high temperatures. Accordingly, I placed my next bench-grafted trees in a warm greenhouse, where growth started at once. This marked my first successful grafting of black walnut. Later, Mr. W. R. Fickes of Wooster, explained to me his technique of "boxing off" or "bleeding." By following his instructions, I was able successfully to top work some of the seedlings I had grown for the purpose. My next steps were to procure some of the nuts from Rev. Crath which he had brought from Poland and to make a personal importation of seed from an experiment station in Russia. With these two lots I started out to raise Persian walnut seedlings.

The first grafted trees set out at the Farm were obtained from Homer C. Jacobs of Kent, Ohio, in 1937. That year we began planting a three-acre tract. The trees were grown with scions cut from prize winning seedlings brought out as a result of the Ohio nut contest held in 1934. The trees were set 25 feet each way in order to conserve room. This distance allowed for but 69 trees to the acre and available space was quickly occupied. By 1944, it became necessary to add two more acres. The new land was from an abandoned berry ground. It was plowed, limed heavily and fertilized. The alternate rows were used for peach trees as fillers. The main rows were mostly filled with new varieties of Persian walnut from northern Ohio which had been grafted on black walnut stocks. Some of the room was used for growing black walnut seedlings for use in grafting with scions of prize winners in the next Ohio contest, plans for which were already under way.

In 1944, four plantings of Persian walnut trees located some distance from each other in northern Ohio, all had good crops and all produced superior nuts. A half bushel of the nuts were planted at the Farm during the following spring. All lots grew remarkably well. The resulting seedlings, together with grafted trees, which by then were growing in the Farm nursery, made it necessary to further add to the orchard room. The increase this time was eight acres, of which five were planted to trees during the spring of 1946. In all plantings, the distance between trees has remained the same as at first, not that 25 feet is enough for bearing trees but because it is expected to do a large amount of thinning out as bearing begins and many trees prove their inferiority.

The problem of propagating desirable varieties has been our greatest difficulty. The kinds we wanted were not to be had from nursery sources as they were entirely new. Commercial nurserymen would not even undertake the task of grafting. We were forced to rely upon our own ingenuity. Not only did we have to master the art of grafting but we had to drive hundreds of miles in order to obtain scions of the various kinds. We still know too little about grafting. We often raise the question as to how it happens that surgeons can do almost anything they wish in the way of cutting and splicing parts of the human body, yet with nut trees, 75 per cent of success is rarely attained.

Last spring I began a rather elaborate comparison of paraffin with beeswax--lanolin for use in grafting. Dr. Shelton had demonstrated that the latter was a good dressing for wounds and I assumed that in grafting, it would promote callousing. My experiment was partially frustrated by the loss of my melting pot which burned at about the time the work was half done. The grafting had to be finished without wax of any kind. Out of 60 grafts so set, only five grew. The five survivors had been merely "boxed off" or "bled," none grew which had been treated with hot wax of any kind.

Research with nuts has but barely begun at the Farm. We feel, however, much encouraged and that the worst is over. We have a total of 725 trees in the planting, many of which have already borne a few nuts. Production should increase rapidly and we will soon have considerable quantities of nuts and other material with which to work. We have the following genera, species, varieties, and hybrid forms: Butternut--Craxezy and Vincamp; Chestnut--Carr, Hobson, Yankee (Syn., Connecticut Yankee), and Zimmerman; Hickory, including hybrids--Bixby, Bogne, Boor Nos. 1 and 2, Bowen, Cranz Nos. 1 and 2, Fairbanks, Frank, Haskell, Leach, Lozsdon, McConkey, Nething, Reynolds, Ridiker, Russell, Stratford, Weschcke, and Wright; Pecan--Busseron, Greenriver, and Posey; Black Walnut--Barnhart, Brown, Cowle, Fulton (Syn. Miller of Ohio), Hare, Havice, Horton, Jansen, Krause, Lisbon, Mintle, Mohican, Murphey, Ohio, Rohwer, Snyder, Sparrow, Stabler, Stambaugh, Thomas, Tritten, Twin Lakes, and Wanda; Persian Walnut--Alliance, Baxter, Blosser, Broadview, Diller, Elmore, Gligor Nos. 1 and 2, Graber, Hall, Lieber, Lopeman, Oehn, and Schafer; Heartnut--Bellevue, Canoka, Fish, and Keck. In addition there are 55 black walnut seedlings of Brown and Lisbon varieties; 65 seedling black walnuts of unknown parentage; 280 Persian walnut seedlings of known percentage; 37 heartnut seedlings; 30 Chinese chestnut seedlings; and 22 seedling filberts.

The Ohio Black Walnut Contest of 1946

The contest was sponsored by the Ohio chapter of the N.N.G.A., Inc., and was publicised through the cooperation of the Ohio Forestry Association and the Ohio Farmer magazine. There were 692 separate black walnut entries, showing the great interest aroused.

The nuts that won first place were grown by Mr. Duke Hughes, of Coal Run, Noble County, O. He states the tree is about 50 years old and stands in well-limed permanent pasture near the crest of a ridge, in Muskingum silt loam.

The system of judging was that set up by the TVA at Norris, Tenn. The judges were Oliver D. Diller, Secretary of the Ohio Forestry Association; L. Walter Sherman, Superintendent of the Mahoning County Experiment Farm; and C. W. Ellenwood, Associate Horticulturist at the Wooster Experiment Station. They were assisted by William H. Cummings, Spencer B. Chase and Thomas G. Zarger, all of T.V.A., and several members of the Ohio chapter of NNGA. The prize winners are listed in order of awards.

Name Weight, First Final Percent
Applied Grams Pick, Pick, of
Grams Grams Kernel

1. Duke Hughes, Coal Run, Duke 27.2 6.8 6.9 25.3
Washington County, Ohio

2. J. C. Burson, Rt. 5, Athens, Burson 21.5 4.9 6.2 28.8
Athens County, Ohio

3. Mrs. C. E. Campbell, Lowellsville, Kuhn 19.0 5.5 5.8 30.5
Mahoning County Ohio

4. Ed. Smith, Rt. 3, Athens, Athens 23.5 4.9 6.5 27.6
Athens County, Ohio

5. Mrs. O. Shaffer, Lucasville, Oliver 22.6 5.3 5.8 25.5
Scioto County, Ohio

6. Wm. J. Davidson, Xenia, Davidson 13.5 4.6 4.8 35.5
Green County, Ohio

7. A. C. Orth, Rt. 5, Dayton, Orth
Montgomery County, Ohio

8. H. C. Williamson, Southside, Williamson
Mason County, West Virginia

9. Herbert Penn, Otway, Penn
Scioto County, Ohio

10. Mrs. A. L. Jackson, Little Jackson
Hocking, Washington County, Ohio

1946 Iowa Black Walnut Contest

By C. C. Lounsberry, Secretary I.N.G.A.

The 1946 black walnut contest sponsored by the Iowa Nut Growers' Association was held at the Hoyt Sherman Place, Des Moines, Iowa, on November 14 and 15, 1946. The judges were Prof. H. E. Nichols, Dr. H. H. Plagge, and Dr. J. M. Aikman.

Following the policy set in the 1942 contest, the Iowa State Horticultural Society put up cash and ribbons with special reference to standard and previously shown varieties, while the Iowa Nut Growers' Association was interested in new varieties. The following are the premiums awarded:

Standard Varieties:

Prize Name Variety

1 Schlagenbusch Bros., Ft. Madison Thomas
2 Russell Krouse, Toddville Krouse
3 Schlagenbusch Bros., Ft. Madison Stambaugh
4 E. F. Huen, Eldora Thomas
5 Seward Berhow, Huxley Ohio
6 Seward Berhow, Huxley Myers
7 R. S. Herrick, Prole Thomas
8 Schlagenbusch Bros., Ft. Madison Hepler
9 E. F. Huen, Eldora Ohio
10 E. F. Huen, Eldora Rohwer

New Varieties:

Prize Name Variety

1 Schlagenbusch Bros., Ft. Madison Schlagenbusch
2 F. J. Wagner, Danville Wagner
3 Tom Bandfield, Shell Rock Shepard
4 Roy A. Wood, Castana Wood
5 Mrs. Minnie Waldo, Grand Junction Waldo
6 E. F. Huen, Eldora Huen
7 Ira M. Kyhl, Sabula Tinker
8 Schlagenbusch Bros., Ft. Madison Kramer
9 Sam Moncrief, Center Junction Acme
10 C. E. Brockway, Grundy Center Birchwood

There were only 22 entries in standard varieties and 22 entries in new varieties so we did not make much of a showing as compared with the 1946 Ohio contest. However, very good walnuts came in. They were all sampled with a mechanical cracker. An interesting development to me was the fact that machine cracking left the center of several of the best varieties of walnuts looking much like the core of an apple, instead of being broken in two as in hand cracking.

Grafting Methods Adapted to Nut Trees

By H. F. Stoke, Virginia

(The notes I contributed to the 1945 Report under the title "Experiences With Nut Grafting" were so fragmentary as to be of little value. In an effort to correct the error I am offering the following supplementary notes in the hope that amateurs like myself may find them of some practical use.)

My best success with the propagation of nut trees has been with the following methods. For budding, I use the plate bud exclusively. For grafting on stocks up to one inch I use either the splice graft or the modified cleft graft. For larger stocks I use either the simple bark graft or the slot bark graft. Each will be discussed in order.

In making the plate bud, it is cut from the scion or bud stick the same as for the familiar T bud. Usually a bit of wood is cut away with the bud, which should not be removed. A bud, or a bit of bark, should similarly be cut from the stock at the desired point, and discarded. The area of exposed cambium on the stock should correspond as closely as possible with the cambium area exposed on the bud. The bud is then laid on the exposed cambium of the stock, and bound in place, preferably with rubber budding strips. The point of the bud should be left exposed.

Choice of time when conditions are right is quite as necessary for success as the proper procedure. There are two separate periods when the plate bud may be used on walnut with the greatest success. The first period, in Virginia, is the latter half of May, when the black walnut stock is in almost full leaf. If done earlier the bud is likely to be drowned by the excessive bleeding of this species. Dormant buds cut the previous winter are used.

The follow-up care is vitally important. The stock should be cut off above the bud within five to seven days after budding. If successful, the bud will start into growth within another week or ten days, and may be a foot long within 30 days.

2. Splice graft; unexcelled when scion and stock are of equal diameter.

3. Modified cleft graft; for all general purposes.

4. Plate bud; for small and medium stocks.]

The tying material should be cut and removed within a few days after the bud starts, to prevent strangulation of the tender shoot. Be sure to keep native growth of the stock trimmed off until midsummer to force growth of the bud.

The second period for successful plate budding of the walnut centers around August first, varying somewhat with the weather conditions. Buds of the current season's growth are used. The time must be late enough for these buds to be well matured, and early enough so that the stock is still growing and the bark slipping. If the buds are immature, or the bark tight, the operation will be a failure.

The buds remain dormant during the following winter, and are forced into growth by cutting off the stock above the bud early in the spring. The tying material, if durable, should be removed about 30 days after budding.

If conditions are right and the work is properly done, a high percentage of "takes" may be expected. In summer I preferably place the bud on the shady side of the stock, or shade it with a little skirt of white paper tied just above the bud.

Chestnuts can be budded by the same method, but the spring budding should be done earlier, while the stocks are in bud, and the summer budding should be done two or three weeks later than with the walnut.

I have not tried the plate bud on hickory or pecan, but it is the only budding method I use on walnut and chestnut, and I have tried them all.

When it comes to grafting, the simple splice graft, as illustrated, is very successful, but it should only be used when scion and stock are of the same size. It works splendidly on chestnut, filbert and hickory, and can also be used on walnut; however, I prefer the modified cleft graft for the latter, because of the bleeding problem.

In making the splice graft, the diagonal cut should be about four times as long as the diameter of the scion, to prevent slippage in tying.

For the modified cleft graft I cut the stock off at the selected point at an angle of from 45 to 60 degrees. This greatly facilitates the healing of the entire wound.

The cleft is made not by splitting, but by making a cut with a sharp knife, beginning at the apex of the stock and cutting diagonally downward and inward toward the center of the stock.

Before making the cut, the scion should be selected, and the wedge cut, with one face slightly longer than the other. This enables one to properly judge the depth and angle of the cleft, thus securing a fit on all four cambial lines. The longer face goes toward the main body of the stock, and is left slightly above the top of the stock. The apex of the stock is squared off slightly before the cleft is cut, and the knife is set very slightly on the wood at the starting point, rather than between the bark and the wood. Care at this point guarantees very rapid healing, with no dead tissues or "heel" on the stock, sometimes called "dieback."

Remember to watch all ties in grafting to prevent strangulation of the tender new growth. This, with removal of sprouts or suckers from the stock below the graft are two very important features of after-care, and neglect can nullify the most expert work in the grafting operation.

In grafting the black walnut I prefer to use the side graft because of the bleeding problem. This is precisely the same as the modified cleft graft except that the cleft is made about three-fourths of an inch below the apex of the stock. By making the graft a little below the top of the stock one can tie and wax it, without waxing the top of the stock, which is permitted to bleed at will. This freedom to bleed relieves the pressure of the sap at the graft, where healing takes place without flooding.

For stocks under an inch in diameter, I use the splice and modified cleft grafts exclusively. For larger stocks, such as are encountered in top working, other methods are preferred.

One can cut the main stock off just above a small limb, and graft one or more of the limbs. Again, one may cut the large stock off a year in advance, and bud or graft one or more of the suckers that are thrown out.

If neither of the above methods are applicable, one can use either the simple bark graft, or the slot bark graft.

In making the simple bark graft, I cut the stock off at a 45 degree angle as for the modified cleft graft. The scion is prepared by making one long wedge face, and on the other side make two short faces so that the point is triangular.

To insert the scion make a cut through the bark downward from the apex of the stock. Insert the scion between the bark and the stock, with the long face next to the wood, and force gently down until just a little of the face of the wedge shows above the top of the scion. It is well, in case the stock is large, to place three or four scions around the stock, removing all but the strongest after a year of two.

This graft is satisfactory for thin-barked species, but for the hickory, the slot bark graft is preferable.

For this graft, the scion should be trimmed as a wedge, with one face about twice as long as the other. Two parallel cuts are made through the bark at the top of the stock a distance apart equal to the width of the scion wedge. This strip of bark, or "tongue" is loosened at the top, and the wedge is forced between it and the wood, with the long face next to the stock, as in the simple bark graft.

Secure tying and waxing should be practiced in all grafting. Small nails or tacks driven into the top of the stock will help in anchoring the tying material to the sloping surface.

Inexperienced propagators should get it clearly in mind that union takes place only in the new growth. This new growth builds up from the cambium layer, which is the outside layer of wood cells that lies just beneath and in contact with the bark.

This is why it is so vitally necessary that the lines between the bark and cambium be placed in parallel contact as closely as possible, in the splice and cleft grafts. Never mind if the outside of the bark of scion and do not match perfectly, due to differences in the thickness of the bark. It is the inside line of the bark that must match.

Actual union takes place along this cambial line. The old wood of the wedge and cleft cannot, and never does, unite.

A word about scions. I seldom use a scion with more than two buds. The best scion wood is of the previous season's growth, if it is of good diameter and well ripened. Thin, slender twigs give poor results. On old, slow-growing, bearing trees it is sometimes not possible to get good scion wood one year old. In this case it is best to take some of the older wood in cutting the scion. When used, the wedge should be cut from the two-year wood, just below the one-year wood, with the top of the scion carrying two or three buds on the new wood. The tip of the scion should be waxed, if cut.

Scions should be cut when perfectly dormant and kept in cold storage until used. If kept too warm and wet the buds may swell, making the scions worthless.

It is quite possible to cut the scions about three weeks before the buds begin to swell and get good results by grafting immediately. The chief danger from this practice is that late frosts may nip the buds after starting, which is fatal to the new scion.

Waxing all cut surfaces, including the tip of the scion, should be practiced except as explained when the side graft is used for walnuts. Some advocate waxing the entire scion, also. If this is done I think it better to leave the buds unwaxed.

Have your knife very sharp. A broad blade is desirable in a grafting knife, as it helps in making smooth, flat surfaces in wedges and clefts. For budding, use a knife with a narrow blade, but also very sharp. Develop skill in making the scion wedge, and in cutting the cleft just the right depth and width for the scion selected. Experiment on worthless material until you get the knack. If you are a good, natural-born whittler you will find it a greater asset than a college degree.

Beginnings in Walnut Grafting

By C. C. Lounsberry, Iowa

Anyone who has studied propagation manuals from ancient to modern times cannot help but see how methods are carried down from older books to modern ones. However, in walnut grafting one suspects there were trade secrets not permitted publication. How different this was from friendly and helpful cultural and propagation directions given by Mr. J. F. Jones, Dr. W. C. Deming, Dr. Robert T. Morris, and others of the Northern Nut Growers' Association.

Beginning with Ancient Times

Greeks: Theophrastus mentions hazel nuts but nothing about walnuts.

Romans: Pliny, Cato, etc. have little to say about walnuts. Pliny refers to planting seeds of walnuts but no other method of propagation. However, he states oaks and walnuts are poisonous to soil, and walnuts are only used in a few cases for human remedies.

English: Loudon, Evelyn, Knight, etc. Loudon sticks to propagation of walnuts by seed. Knight[8] followed the French practice of grafting walnuts by approach up to the time of his discoveries in 1832, which were similar to Dr. Morris's "immediate" grafting.

French: The French used grafting by approach (inarching) early in the 19th century. Mortillet[11], 1863, states only one-third to one-half of walnut grafts are successful. These were probably Persian walnuts. We are not sure what other methods the French used. Mr. C. E. Parsons of the Felix Gillet Co. in 1940, sent us a picture showing Felix Gillet in his greenhouse at Barren Hill Nursery, Nevada City, California. This picture he states was taken in 1900-1902. It shows one year grafted walnut trees, and bench grafted walnut trees covered by tumblers six inches high, grafted by the "Treyve" process.

Beginnings in the United States

The first grafting of black walnuts thus comes down to the beginning of the 20th century.

William P. Corsa[3] with the USDA gave much information from replies to a questionnaire sent out in 1890, on nut culture and grafting, including bench grafting, in 1896. Mr. G. W. Oliver[13] in 1901, describes a method followed by Corsa in bench grafting walnuts and hickories. He used an incubator. Mr. Jackson Dawson[15] previously, working with hickories, had success in the greenhouse.

Andrew S. Fuller[4] in his Nut Culturist, published in 1896, advises that the South had not yet perfected pecan grafting. This seems to have been a challenge to Mr. J. F. Jones[1 & 7], for we find he moved from Missouri to Monticello, Fla., about 1899, and specialized in pecan grafting. He developed the slanting cut he later advocated in walnut grafting. However, again showing "there is nothing new under the sun" the author's uncle, Owen Albright, is credited by Corsa[3] with suggesting it in 1894, and it is also suggested by Mortillet[11] in 1863.

Grafting Wax

The necessity to protect graft unions by excluding air and moisture from cut plant tissue led to the use of balls of mud in ancient times. Later, various kinds of waxes were used.

In 1879, Prof. J. L. Budd[2], head of the Horticultural Department at Iowa State College, using resin and linseed oil, side grafted 150 varieties of Russian apples received from the interior of Russia in the winter of 1878. A boy swabbed hot wax on the grafts, using a lantern heater not too different from those used nowadays.

Mr. F. O. Harrington and Mr. S. W. Snyder, Iowa nurserymen were teaching grafting to members of the Iowa Horticultural Society in 1900, 1901 and 1902, at their annual meetings. Mr. J. B. McLaughlin[9], College Springs, Iowa, speaks of successfully grafting walnuts in 1900 in a discussion of the horticultural society led by Van Houton, Edwards, etc.

In 1909, Mr. E. A. Riehl[14] gave a talk before the Iowa State Horticultural Society in which he advocated covering the whole walnut scion, buds and all, with liquid wax. His first Thomas grafted tree is in a ravine back at his barn at Godfrey, Illinois. It was planted about 1902[12].

In 1910, the Northern Nut Growers' Association was organized by Prof. John Craig of Cornell University, Dr. Robert T. Morris, Dr. W. C. Deming, Mr. T. P. Littlepage and others. Craig had previously been at Iowa State College where he and Budd had shown much interest in nut trees.

In 1912, Mr. J. F. Jones [1][7], came up from the South where he had been successful in pecan grafting and started a black walnut nursery at Lancaster, Penna. He had been in Florida up to 1907. While in Florida he became acquainted with Mr. John G. Rush, of Willow Run, Penna., and did some walnut grafting for him. It was Mr. Rush who advised him to go to Lancaster and start a nursery for northern black walnuts. Jones patented his patch budder in 1912, and using the hot wax method developed by Mr. E. A. Riehl was very successful in walnut grafting.

In 1914, Dr. W. C. Deming and President T. P. Littlepage of the N.N.G.A. and Messrs. C. A. Reed and C. P. Close of the USDA had a conference in Washington which resulted in the publication of the American Nut Journal.

Paraffin In Grafting

Dr. Robert T. Morris[10], writing in the American Nut Journal in 1929, advocates the use of paraffin to cover walnut grafts instead of wax. Both he and Dr. J. Russell Smith[15] credit Mr. J. Ford Wilkinson with first using paraffin instead of wax on walnut grafts. Mr. Wilkinson wrote that he got the idea from seeing a careless workman splash paraffin on the buds as well as on the union in fruit tree grafting at the McCoy Nursery about 1914. The author bought apple and plum grafts about 1922 from the Gurney Nursery which were all covered with paraffin. It was at conventions of the Northern Nut Growers' Association that new methods like this were passed along to members.

Bench Grafting

In 1932, on account of the difficulties in outdoor grafting of the walnut, the author became interested in bench grafting of walnuts in the greenhouse as a means of supplementing outdoor grafting. However, like many other so-called new methods, it was discovered when we looked up the literature in 1937 that William P. Corsa[3] had used methods that were similar about 1896. He cut off the seedling above the crown instead of below the crown as we did. The completed graft was packed in layers of sphagnum and placed in an incubator instead of using a greenhouse.

Notwithstanding all that has been done in black walnut grafting, the straight grained and brittle wood, the heavy sap flow, the almost instant oxidation of cut tissues, the liability to frost injury in the North in short seasons lowering vitality of scions, all combine to make walnut grafting with best methods available, a seasonal gamble.

Literature Cited

1. AMERICAN NUT JOURNAL
Life of J. F. Jones. Am. Nut Jour. 28:35, 1928

2. BUDD, J. L.
Hot Waxing of Apple Grafts. Trans. Iowa Hort. Soc. 14:421. 1879

3. CORSA, WILLIAM P.
USDA, Div. of Pom., Nut Culture of the United States. pp. 13-16,
58. 1896

4. FULLER, ANDREW S.
Nut Culturist. 1896

5. HERSHEY, JOHN W.
Life of J. F. Jones. The Nut Grower. 4:22, 1928

6. INSTITUT FUR OBSTBAU, BERLIN
Die Walnusz verediung. (Vegetative Propagation of Walnuts.)
Merkbl. Inst. Obstb. Berlin 5, pp. 15, 1936

7. JONES, J. F.
Propagation of Nut Trees. About 1927

8. KNIGHT, THOMAS ANDREW
New methods of Grafting Walnuts. Trans. Hort. Soc. of London.
2nd series. Vol. I, 1831-1835. pp 214-216

9. McLAUGHLIN, J. B.
Grafting Black Walnuts. Trans. Iowa Hort. Soc. 35:534, 1900

10. MORRIS, DR. ROBERT T.
Paraffin Coating Solves Difficult Grafting. Am. Nut Jour. 30:70,85. 1929

11. MORTILLET, PAUL D.
Le Noyer sa Culture ses Varieties. (Propagation of the Walnut.) Rev.
Hort. 136:499. 1863

12. NNGA CONVENTION, St. Louis
Trip to Riehl Nut Orchard. Am. Nut Journ. 23:59, 1925

13. OLIVER, G. W.
Grafting Walnuts and Hickories. Amer. Gard. 22:307-308. 1901

14. RIEHL, E. A.
Nut Growing for Pleasure and Profit. Trans. Iowa State Hort. Soc.
44:84, 1909

15. SMITH, J. RUSSELL
Tree Crops. 1929

16. STANDARD CYC. OF HORT.
Hickory Propagation, p. 1489, 1925

17. WITT, A. W. and HOWARD SPENCE
Vegetative Propagation of Walnuts. Ann. Rep. East Malling Res. Sta.
1926-7,
Supl. A 10, 1928, pp. 60-64

Forest Background

By John Davidson, Xenia, Ohio

(Read at the Ohio Nut Growers Annual Meeting, Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, August 16, 1946.)

Where did the Persian, or so-called "English" walnut come from? Why is it a good commercial nut? The Pecan? How far can it be carried north beyond its natural, or original, environment? The Pawpaw? Why is it not a good commercial fruit? Why don't most people like it? What is the matter with the mulberry in America? In China and Japan it has a score of uses and great popularity.

These questions need an answer, and the answer almost invariably is that the poorer varieties and species have had but little attention and development by human beings while the better ones, Persian walnuts, grapes, melons, apples, dates, figs--all have had much attention and painstaking selection--in some cases for centuries. Upon the other hand, to cite a contrasting case the black walnut has no such history. It is the baby among nuts--a pure American baby--waiting for some nursemaid--for many nursemaids--to tend and develop it as a prince among trees should be developed.

Let us look back into the story behind a few--a very few--of our better known fruits and nuts and see, if we can, how they happened.

In America once lived a man nicknamed "Johnny Appleseed." His neighbors called him a "crackpate." He had a mania for planting tree seeds wherever he went. As a rule they were haphazardly selected seeds, but usually appleseeds.

What started him upon this crazy journey through the wilderness? Whatever it was, it would be worth while to isolate the germ and with it inoculate our present-day soil wasters.

But he was not the first one of his kind. Hundreds of pre-historic planters had gone before him. For years, now, explorers have been searching out and sending back to America certain valuable discoveries. Tremendously interesting, all of them. As one reads, it becomes increasingly evident that a considerable amount of scientific plant and animal breeding, selection, perhaps even grafting and artificial cross fertilization, budding and slip propagating may have been practiced by pre-historic, intelligent, forgotten men long before our modern times.

We usually find, today, that the best plants and animals have had their start in some center of old civilization. China, Manchuria, Japan, Indo-China, India, Persia, Asia Minor, Central America, Oceania--these places, the nurseries of all existing races of men are today the bonanza spots for these explorers. Such a coincidence could hardly have been due to chance. It must surely occur to the mind of anyone who cares to put two and two together that, in each of these centers, other ancient gatherers and planters had been busy in their day, just as our own explorers and experiment station scientists are carrying on today--our modern, scientific Johnny Appleseeds.

It is hardly possible, here, to follow to the ends of the earth all of the trails of the tribe of Johnny Appleseed. One little section will do well enough for purposes of illustration. Let us consider Iran, or, as our fathers knew it, Persia. Here is a field that, possibly because of previous plunderings, is not now the most fruitful of our sources of plant and animal discovery, yet it is an eye-opener, and will do very well as a type of similar test-plots throughout the world.

Here is a short list of only a few of the plants which have been developed for centuries, and were reported in the last century as growing in Persia--many, no doubt, descended from stocks which once grew in the famous hanging gardens of Babylon: apples, pears, filberts muskmelons, watermelons, grapes, peaches, plums, nectarines. And of flowers, these: marigold, chrysanthemum, hollyhock, narcissus, tulip, tuberose, aster, wallflower, dalia, white lily, hyacinth, violet, larkspur, pink and finally, the famous rose of Persia, from whence comes the attar of roses for which Persia is still famous. It would seem that someone must have possessed a knowledge of plant propagation in Persia centuries ago.

Several of these products have had their influence upon the history and poetry of the world. It will be remembered by most high school students that when the Caesars and big shots of Rome and Greece wished to create a big splash in the social ponds of their day, they sent, at enormous expense, for melons and dates from Persia. Melons, in particular, seemed to be the high spot in those Lucullan feasts, and, in this connection it is well to remember that Lucullus, himself, as commanding general of a Roman legion, had long lived in Persia and had, no doubt, acquired a taste for Persian delicacies. His princely estates near Rome, no doubt, grew rare plants from Asia Minor and were very likely tended by the skilled Aryan, early Accadian or Semitic gardeners of Persia. These slaves were probably descended from and were heir to the trade secrets of some of the very builders of that seventh wonder of the world, the hanging gardens of Babylon. Except for those forgotten workers from Persia, one may well wonder whether, today, our Rocky Ford, Ohio Sugar, or Hearts-of-Gold muskmelon delicacies would exist at all.

An interesting side-light may be found in the history of the peach. Originally this fruit was in all probability a poisonous variety of almond. What wizard, or succession of wizards, was it who created a peach from a pest--an asset from a liability? Persian, probably. Whoever did it, it constitutes one of the outstanding miracles of plant breeding, whether natural or artificial. The poison was sealed within the seed (where it remains to this day) and the nectar of the gods was bred into the pulp around it.

Consider also the Persian walnut, now, for some strange reason, popularly called "English" walnut. This delicacy, too, was unlikely to have happened merely by chance. It was, no doubt, bred by a race of men trained in observation and experiment such as the Persians preeminently were. Having first been nomads, domesticators and breeders of animals; they eventually became husbandmen, breeders of trees and plants, and they undoubtedly found that the principles which were so usefully employed in producing animal variations could also be used in producing and fixing plant varieties. The pollen or germ of an outstanding good male individual, when brought into contact with the pistil or ovum of an outstanding female individual of the same species will produce a scion that is more likely than any other to have good qualities. Here was the secret of most of the progress which has been made in both animal and plant breeding, a secret of immense value--so valuable, in fact, that it was guarded for generation after generation by a close-mouthed priesthood.

Just as, in the middle ages, the monasteries of Europe and Asia kept alive the tiny flame of Greek and Roman culture throughout the foggy ignorance of the Dark Ages, so did the priests of Baal, of Ashtoreth, of Marduk and of Ormuzd pass on the torch of their day to their successors who were Greeks and Romans. The Eleusinian mysteries, which at a later time were associated with a considerable amount of sensual, closely guarded ritual, were, in the Greek period, celebrated in the temple of Ceres in Eleusis. The origin of these sacred mysteries is lost in the shadow of profound antiquity. We know, only, that they were in the safekeeping of many generations of priests who jealously guarded them from thieving and ignorant conquerors. These mysteries were probably, at bottom, a body of scientific truths. They undoubtedly had to do with a store of information, painfully gleaned for generations, about those facts of reproduction, selection and beneficient fertility which are so close to the Holy of Holies of creation itself. Probably these precious mysteries could be simmered down to a few fundamentals and such as are now generally practiced by all plant and animal breeders. And they are not fully understood today, any more than they were fully understood three thousand years ago.

By the practice of these simple arts, hedged in with taboos and religious inhibitions, Persia, Assyria, and all Mesopotamia became the garden spot of the world where things seemed to grow as they grew no place else. Here, in fact, was said to have been located the only genuine and original Garden of Eden, pointed out to this day by the faithful as the veritable spot where the father and mother of the race lived in a laborless, exhaustless Paradise.

Mention has been made of the probability that the Persians, who originally were nomadic and therefore were chiefly interested in the domestication of animals--which means, really, selective breeding--used this knowledge in plant breeding when they finally settled down. The big leap from nomadic to settled life must have caused the old timers of that day plenty of headaches. It was a new deal to top all New Deals. Was it, perhaps, some Johnny Appleseed who engineered the New Deal of that day?

Let us guess at the method he used. As the nomad tribe passed from place to place with its goats, its sheep, its camels, Johnny with his sons and grandsons would take to prettying up the camp sites a bit. He particularly like the dates from one palm that grew upon an oasis far down the desert. He carried the seeds from this tree and planted them at various stopping places. He did the same thing with some especially sweet nuts from a walnut tree which he had found, let us say, in the Caucasus Mountains. He set out many bright-blossomed desert weeds in order to attract the wild honey bees. Bees! Wherever there were bees, he had found flowers that reproduced themselves, trees that bore fruit. Some of these bees he found to be good workers and others he found lazy, quarrelsome and inefficient. He killed out the quarrelsome colonies and built hiding places for the better ones. In short, he did so much to make the camping places cozy, comfortable and in every way desirable that finally it became more and more difficult for the tribe to tear itself away on moving day. By reason of the small irrigation arrangements which Johnny had found desirable for his plantings and his bees, grass became more abundant and the flocks did not need to be moved so often. In time, the whole tribe wakened to the fact that a revolution had taken place. They did not need to move at all, ever! There was plenty of grumbling from the die-hards, but here the tribe stuck. It refused to budge.

In time, a certain phrase, current throughout that part of the world, was used to describe this pleasant country: "A land flowing with milk and honey!"

Unfortunately, it was a land, also, which could not fail, in the flower of its wealth and luxury, to attract the attention of those savage northerners who lived beyond this favored land. They came, they saw, and eventually they conquered. When Rome had definitely destroyed the flower of Asia Minor's civilization, the Roman proconsuls and merchants "rescued" and carried back to Italy many of the rarest of Mesopotamia's possessions. Among these, perhaps, were those indispensable wonder-workers among the flowers, the better bees of Persia. And this may be the reason why, these many centuries later, our bee experts still recommend that, if we wish to increase the strength and productivity of a backward hive of bees, we buy and introduce into the hive an Italian queen. Her ancient and still prepotent virility can almost invariable be relied upon to transfuse the colony with new and fruitful vigor. An "Italian" queen, is it? We wonder, as we think of that venerable land of Eden which once flowed with milk and honey, whether this so-called Italian queen might not more correctly be named Persian.

You see, in this story we are traveling backwards into history like Ally Oop in his time machine. But beyond Persia one can go only in imagination. For the Persians, too, were a conquering nation and, no doubt, gathered their booty of gold and sheep and camels, of flowers and bees, from all the then known world which was subject to them. So perhaps Persia, too, has no more right to label her treasures Persian than has Italy with her presumably mislabeled Italian bees, nor England with her undoubtedly mislabeled English walnuts. However, the work of Johnny Appleseed has always belonged, not to his tribe nor to his locality, but to the world. These same Persian walnuts take rank among the better clues by which migrations of the Aryans may be traced over the face of the earth. For instance, not only do they take root easily in the mild, friendly climate of California, but much hardier strains are found to have climbed the Carpathians and the steppes of Russia almost to the very doors of Moscow. Scions of these hardier strains have very recently been made to grow and yield their nuts in America as far north as Toronto and are being set out in numbers in the northern part of the United States. How well they will prosper in this new, more variable and chilly climate remains to be seen, but the start is made. No doubt it will be by Johnny's old method of patient and repeated selection, first for hardiness then for quality, that the planned result will be accomplished.

The contributions of Persia and the plantings of its forgotten scientists have here merely been touched on. Nothing, for instance, has been said about her great groves of mulberry trees, which led to silk-worms, which led to silk, which led to the production of jewel-bright vegetable dyes, which led to the development of a decorative art in fabrics that is rivaled by China, alone, in all the world. And of course, Aryan Persia is only one of the many treasure centers of ancient civilization. In scores of racial settlements elsewhere our lives today are being changed and enriched in innumerable ways by the hands of those old miracle-workers whose names were writ in water and whose works are immortal. The accomplishments of China are of such magnitude that even now we are only beginning to discover our debt to her. India, Indo-China, Mongolia, Manchuria, Japan--all have similar backgrounds. Even in the United States, young as it is, the migrations of pre-historic races have left their trails in the gardens and forests around us. Pecans from the South, for example, have been carried North and are gradually developing hardy strains that survived in Indiana and Illinois groves.

Enough has been said to blaze the way to the end at which I have been driving. It may begin to look as though modern plant explorers have now followed the plant-spoor of human migrations to their final limits. It may look, too, as though the ends of these converging trails will find civilization at last firmly established. Or will they?

The future race, let us admit, may eventually be able, by means of an almost unthinkable development of food, clothing, building and medical supplies of a synthetic or semi-synthetic nature, to dispense with some of the agriculture we know. This is the prediction of some scientists. Let it stand. What then is to be done with the land upon which our food crops had formerly been raised? Manifestly, it must again be covered with hurricane-control, flood-control, and erosion-control vegetation, chiefly trees, perhaps. Trees for safety's sake, trees for beauty's sake, for recreation's sake, trees for food's--yes, food's sake, for flavor and health, trees and vegetation as sources for the very synthetic that are supposed to supplant them; and last but not least, trees and vegetation for the protection and perpetuation of animal life, of bird life, and insect life. All these are inseparably bound up with human life.

Come what may at the hands of a short-sighted human race, no matter what surface changes may come about in human eating habits, housing styles, farming or factory practice, still the winds will sweep the earth in hurricanes where there is nothing to impede them; the waters and ice of the heavens will still tear apart and level the hills, will gash the valleys and will carry off the earth and dump it into the sea. Following this, the sun will burn the unprotected earth into a cinder. Nothing can change these facts. From the beginning of life upon the earth, trees and vegetation have been the chief means by which a balance has been maintained between the antagonistically destructive and creative natures of the elements.

Do we realize fully, I wonder, how important is the work of this group and the parent NNGA? The interest of its members is chiefly in "wild" trees that produce food crops--mainly, but not exclusively, nut crops. And they are interested not merely in planting and testing names and known varieties, but in finding and testing the best individuals among the wild trees, planting selected seed, enjoying the exciting gamble which is always sealed up in the magic, unknown potentialities of a hybrid.

As, centuries ago, the Persian walnut was rescued from the forest and developed into the splendid nut we know today, so the American black walnut can be rescued; its nut can be improved and developed by selection and cross-breeding. It is a grand mahogany-like timber tree which is becoming far too scarce. Each war takes its toll for gun stocks. Its nuts are the only nuts within my knowledge, not even excepting our lost American chestnuts, that retain their full distinctive flavor through cooking. Nothing can replace its flavor in candy or cake making. The tree is indigenous to America and, in contrast to the Persian, has only decades, rather than centuries of selective breeding behind it. No one can tell what even one short century of intelligent selection may make of this great tree.

We Americans, in fact, have barely started on the Appleseed trail, a trail which tends toward the development of a permanent perennial, rather than annual, type of agriculture, with trees, shrubs, vines and perennial grasses its chief interest. For, no matter what chemistry has in store for us in the way of plastics for construction and of synthetics for foods and drugs, the good earth is still our sole source of supply. The chestnut, the mulberry, persimmon, pawpaw, pecan, hickory, wild cherry, the grape, the elderberry in fact the whole tribe of fruits and nuts with flavors found nowhere else on earth--all are growing along this ancient trail. They offer an infinite variety of opportunity for exploration and discovery. To work with them gives one a sense of sharing in the work of creation.

Graft the Persian Walnut High in Michigan

By Gilbert Becker, Climax, Michigan

The rule to plant the Persian walnut where peaches and sweet cherries do well is a good one; but not infallible and certainly can't be too closely relied upon here in southwestern Michigan. Since 1933, I have placed several hundred grafts of the Persian walnut upon black stocks. Many of these are top worked trees, but there were 68 grafted seedlings in nursery rows, grafted in 1936. These were planted out two years later. Some are now about ten feet tall with a well branched head. Of this lot I have only harvested one ripe nut and that was four years ago. Two of these same trees were planted near some buildings and shrubbery at a neighbor's home, and they are now bearing well.

Before going further I must say that Persian walnut trees and peach trees are quite different. First, the Persian walnut cannot stand having its female flowers frosted when they are out or nearly so. Second, the peach can stand frost at, or shortly after, full bloom, and they will set a bumper crop of peaches. We have had two years of late spring frosts at the time nut trees were in bloom, and we have had bumper crops of peaches each year. Apples were badly hit, so many have failed to bear. Lilac blossoms failed to come out and be showy because of these severe frosts. However, I know of a peach tree heavily loaded right now growing between two Persian walnuts that haven't had a single nut either year, though they have borne nuts previously. Thus, peaches will bear in frosty springs when Persian walnuts are damaged. Further, good-air drainage, such as a high hill, with a deep valley below will save the Persian nut crop in a frosty spring. I have a small Persian walnut grafted in such a location, and it is the heaviest loaded nut tree I have. It has so many large nuts on its limbs that its lower limbs are actually resting upon the ground. This was grafted upon an established black seedling four years ago.

What I have so far told would lead one to think that there is no nut crop on my Persian grafts this year. This is not so, for I have one of the largest crops in the 13 years I have had grafted Persian walnuts. These are on top-worked trees high above the ground! Most of the top-worked trees are over 12 feet at the graft, or higher, and it is best to have them this high, because almost all lower limbs are simply minus nuts, due to our unfavorable spring. As for proof, I noticed that the lower limbs had blackened leaves, while the entire tops were undamaged a few days after the frosty weather. The lower branches leaved out the second time in late May. It seems as if the Persian walnut produces two nuts to every one that a grafted black walnut will on a top of equal size. We are troubled with walnut curculio as well as considerably by squirrels, and by a leaf disorder that often blackens the leaves and causes them to fall in early September, followed by premature dropping of the nuts. Even then, there should be a good crop this year.

Now, comes the question, should we graft the Persian walnut high, here in Michigan? It certainly saves time, because a middle-aged walnut tree produces, in terms of pecks and bushels, in eight to 15 years. Being well established it saves patience and disappointment. And I know it is far more profitable.

This writing of my experience is not intended to hurt the established nut tree nurseryman in any way. Any of you who may live in Michigan are certainly devoted to your hobby and have doubtless learned the skills and pleasures of top-working a good sized seedling black walnut. You will surely find it profitable. First, purchase the grafted Persian tree from your nurseryman, and later, from this, work your established seedling blacks at your convenience. Graft them at least 12 feet up and see if what I say isn't quite true.

Pecan Growing in Western Illinois

By R. B. Best, Eldred, Illinois

We need a consistent philosophy in this troubled world of ours. Working with nature and especially with nut trees helps us to develop this philosophy and to realize that there are no panaceas for our present day problems except as we work them out ourselves. After all our wishful thinking with panaceas and doctrines, we come back to the same conclusion. Those people with the best foundations built on reason and truth are those who are nearest the soil and growing things. Those who work with trees and other living things in nature possess the philosophy which acts as a breastwork against the forces which would destroy our society.

We started our propagation of nut trees in 1930 under the guiding hand of Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. Sawyer and Professor Ray Marsh of the University of Illinois, and later have had help from Dr. Colby of the University. We have at present about 2500 grafted pecan trees, a few varieties of hickories, black walnuts, chestnuts, filberts, persimmons, butternuts, heartnuts, pawpaws, etc. When people ask me what we expect from our trees, I tell them that the trees have already paid me in satisfaction if not in filling my purse. I do expect our nut tree project to give us a good financial return. The pecan is our leader in Western Illinois as a popular nut. Much of our Illinois river bottom land, if deserted by man, would immediately pass back to nature and exist as pecan groves. I have been working with pecan trees since 1930 and today find myself with more questions than answers. We are growing at present about 37 varieties of pecans. We are reaching certain notions which we hope are right. The hybrids are fine and make wonderful trees but I doubt if they are the answer to our problem. With these remarks I dispose of further discussion of the Burlington, Rockville, McCallister and Gerardi varieties.