Chapter III: Part 3

In Orchard 16 were 534 two-year-old trees from crosses between Rush and various filbert varieties. The cross was made by Mr. Reed and the seedlings were sent to Geneva by the late Mr. Bixby. Of these 534 seedlings, 62 bore catkins. The catkins on 14 of these were uninjured, 19 had varying amounts of injury, and 29 suffered 100 percent killing. Three hundred and ninety-two bore pistillate flowers and 74 of these would probably have had full crops had they been pollinated. In view of the complete loss of catkins on the filbert varieties in this orchard, the survival of catkins on about half of the blooming seedlings is of considerable interest to the filbert breeder. In addition, none of these hybrids experienced any wood killing.

If the list of varieties which passed through the very severe winter of 1933-34 is compared with the list of varieties which were not seriously injured by the very mild winter of 1932-33, only two sorts, Italian Red and Red Lambert are found to be satisfactorily hardy in wood and catkin. Red Lambert is too unproductive to be used except as a pollenizer. Italian Red may therefore be considered the most promising variety now available for western New York conditions. The nut is satisfactory and the tree is one of the most productive. Cosford and Medium Long may also be considered among the hardiest in spite of the complete loss of catkins last winter. In all previous winters they have been among the hardiest in wood and catkins. No variety should be eliminated because of a lack of hardiness during the coldest winter on record in the region where it is being grown, if it possesses other desirable characters.

I think considerable encouragement may be derived from the previous winter's experience. We are at last down to rock bottom and know what is hardy and what is not. It is evident from the behavior of the Jones hybrids and Mr. Reed's hybrids involving a similar parentage that sufficiently hardy varieties will result from this line of breeding work to make filbert culture possible in those sections of the country that are not too cold for peaches.

[Footnote A: Approved by the Director of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station for publication as Journal Paper No. 49.]

Notes on Hickories

_By_ A. B. ANTHONY

_Sterling, Illinois_

I am satisfied only when I am trying for the best, and the best to me in nuts is the hickory. For the past nine years in the nut season, and sometimes out of it, for nut shucks tell their story, I have been combing my own territory with hopes of finding some hickories more worth while. About twenty miles westward from my home brings one to the Mississippi River. One hundred years ago most of this twenty mile land tract was covered with timber, more or less interspersed with hickories, most of which have been cut down. Along the Mississippi there were then shellbarks and shagbarks, together with pecans, the latter of which I understand are all gone now. My own location was originally prairie land out of which one could not go in any direction without passing through a woodland tract. These nearer woods held in nut trees more shagbarks than of any other nut variety, with the bitter hickory nut coming in second place. As I thought about it, given a good enough tree, it seemed to me the hickory was the greatest one we could grow. Grandfather had let pass his opportunity to save any choice ones. So had my father. And if the neighborhood zest was overfreighted with purpose to find such trees I had not found it out. It looked to me like a worthwhile endeavor not to let this neglect go further, even though chance finds were much lessened from what they probably once were.

Having three or four kinds of hickories is no doubt a fine thing for us. Nature cannot manage nearly so well with them as can man, but she makes something of a hit once in a while. More than we think for, perhaps, in the hickories we are using to graft from, there is quite likely, in the sizeable shagbarks, something besides shagbark. Their distinctiveness, for which we selected them, is due to a fortunate, unlike cross bringing out their exceptional characteristics. What most hinders progress is quite conceivably a sort of swamped unchangeableness. That is very possibly the likely ailment we've got in our hazelnuts. There were no three or four kinds of them scattered more or less everywhere about the country with which nature could make chance crosses as with hickories. Seemingly my locality ought to yield as many, perhaps more, exceptional hickory specimens than many could. Here, or near here, the pecan of the south had reached its northernmost trek. Here also was the shagbark, shellbark, bitternut. And uniformity here should have more chance of a knockout. A riddance of sameness. Hazelnuts conceded no such diversity to help nature make freaks. In the hickory field was alteration, hope, and chance.

In the assemblage of varieties there is given opportunity for crosses that nature occasionally delves into, and in the additional eccentric types getting mixed, tending to offer in rare instances special merit. We have then through mixture, not that fixedness that usually stands in the way, but a getting away from set types where once in thousands of offerings a more useful specimen is made, one nature herself cannot handle to our advantage, but for which we should have our eyes open, and make use of when chance comes our way.

Just two years ago tomorrow I came upon what to me was an eye feast. A half grown hickory tree whose top-most limbs bent as in rare instances do limbs when heavily laden with sleet. And the nuts were of good size for shagbarks. With the shucks off there were forty-two pounds of them. They proved to be quite good crackers. I sent a sample to Dr. Deming and he very considerately gave them the name Anthony. From the shape of the nut, I believe it has a trace of the bitternut hickory in its make-up. Mr. Reed has likewise expressed such an opinion in writing me regarding it. This foreign blood tinge gives it, I believe, its jump in size and its rather attractive form, also I think, a bit lessening in quality. While we would like the very highest quality in our nuts, it is conceivable that it may be advisable to do with them as is done with peaches. Take the Elberta, with its many good traits, even though it does fail somewhat in quality.

Having found this nut tree just two years ago hardly gives time enough for adequate judgement of its merits. With something like three-fourths of an inch of rain this year, from sometime in March to the seventeenth of June, none of our crops can be judged by their performance. Skipping last year, except for a very few nuts, this hickory came out this season heavy with bloom. I was watching it at blooming time. On May 23 I brought home from it a bit of bloom, laid it on a paper and the next morning it had shed its pollen. The next morning after that we had a frost on low ground. This tree is near such ground. With frost, and two dry seasons, this year's crop has amounted to but one and one-half quarts. Most hickories have done little since 1932.

Another hickory tree found last year that I call No. 2 did have four and one-half pounds on it last season. It is hardly half grown, is a shagbark, my best find toward cracking out in halves, and the earliest in maturing nuts of any hickory I have found. It has no crop this year but is worth keeping an eye on the coming seasons.

No. 3 is my best find in quality, quite good of cracking, good in size for a shagbark and has possibly a trace of shellbark in its make-up. While bearing light crops, it has been very consistent in doing so every year for at least three years. It is an old tree, medium early in maturing its nuts and doubtless could do better if freed from the under and surrounding smaller trees. Its crop, shucks on this year, is sixty-five pounds, or above eighteen pounds shucks off but not dried.

To the best of my present knowledge, and with such conveniences as I had, and to aid in grafting, I should have been told to make a long narrow box, put a wire screen bottom on it, make a cover for it, fasten a wire at each end, put my scion wood in and let it down deep in a cistern, and let it hang two or three inches over the water for scion keeping. When grafting I should have been told to carry my Merribrooke melter around in an empty pail to keep the wind from blowing it out and to be able to better hold the blaze down and keep the wax at the right temperature. And when and if the blaze does go out, do not try taking the thing apart for relighting. Instead, split a small stick, put a match in the split, take out the wax cup, strike the match and reach down from the top for relighting.

Talk to people about better hickories and you discern first that the subject has never been brought to their attention. On further discussion, when they are made to understand that worthwhile hickories can be grown, you come to the balking point. It's the crop! It's too far off! People do not let the time question bother them when they set out the usual dooryard trees because expectancy goes no further than trees. In our latitude grafted hickories, first of all trees, rightly should be in everyone's dooryard. It takes about as much time to grow the best ornamental and shade trees as to make a hickory tree. And the latter furnishes quite as much ornament, just as much shade as were it some other kind of tree. Even if one cannot live long enough to eat nuts from his own planting, plant grafted hickories anyway. Left to their own, and most people's council, their lesser tree selections would approach the eventual worth of a good hickory. Why not make the choice a good one?

No one knows, so far as I have ascertained, the age of a hickory. It is much beyond that of an apple tree, at least in my locality. Of its close relation, the pecan of the south, it has been said there are pecan trees there now bearing nuts that were here when Christopher Columbus discovered America.

Not long ago I read that there are something like five thousand telescope nuts in the country. (You know we here are all interested in nuts.) I can understand that it is interesting to search off in vast spaces to ascertain facts, but it is hard to understand why more people cannot find interest in rare and useful nut sports that can be strived for and, in addition to that enthusiasm, help give to future mankind that first of all essentials, food.

Whether we can get a helpful clue with experiences of the past I do not know. But I often cannot help but recall a bit of the blindness of man when I think of the potato. It was once said that they were fit only for hogs to eat. Many years back when they were having war in Ireland, soldiers would go through people's home and take all they had to eat. It was found, however, where there was a potato patch soldiers would run right over them, giving no thought of there finding food. There then was a chance for home dwellers to better hold their own and it gave the impetus, the beginning of potato growing, to the Caucasian race and the name we have to this day, Irish potato. Years later, when they still had kings in France, their ruler realized his poor subjects could help themselves so much if they would only grow potatoes. There seemed no way of getting them to do so. One day, however, the king went and had a plat of ground planted to potatoes, set guards around it day and night, and let it be known they were the king's potatoes and no one was going to be allowed to steal them. That awoke the people. If potatoes were that good the king would have them, they would have them also.

Franklin Roosevelt likes trees. Do you suppose we could get him to be a king to lead for the finest in tree planting, grafted hickory-nut trees?

Another thing. Every bit we can add to the feeling and knowledge of our securing is a help to us. We have many people whose make-up is not one that enables them to provide for their later years, not even if they earned ten dollars a day over a long period of time. Planting grafted hickories would be something of a standby, extend away into the years, and helping too when physical strength is no more ours. So too, we can count too much sometimes on what we have in a bank. We may do likewise with an insurance company. And there have been people whose governments went back on them. Ours has, on gold promises! All one's hickory trees, had he such, are not likely to treat him like that, at least won't all die in a bunch! They won't even refuse a crop because of a depression! And if one couldn't eat all of his nuts or even any of them, they are something to offer in trade for that which can be used.

Again, if I am not mistaken, there is nothing that we of this latitude do grow or can grow in field or garden that so equally takes the place of meat as do nuts. Speaking of gardens, it has been said "gardening is an occupation for which no man is too high or too low." Likewise could the truth be so said for so clean a pursuit as nut growing.

History has spoken of "the age of acorns." We hope we can look into a not too distant future and rightly see additional help, food, leisure, income for everybody made so partially, in a little way at least, in an age with nuts.

DR. DEMING:

Mr. Anthony sent me quite a generous sample of his hickory and I got to be quite familiar with it. I consider the Anthony one of our best hickories. It is quite evident from his paper that he is a thinking man, and I noticed that he has found out in two or three years things which I have found out only after twenty-five or thirty years of study and which I thought were exclusively possessions of my own.

MR. REED:

The shellbarks and shagbarks are among the finest looking trees in Washington. They are symmetrical, erect and have dark green or light green foliage. At this time of year they are taking on a superb golden yellow. The landscape gardeners use the hickories for the golden effect of the foliage. Before we get through with this meeting I would like to get some reports from the people from the North as to which species grow the farthest north. Is it the black walnut or the shagbark? Does the bitternut grow farther north than either one of them?

MR. CORSAN:

Yes. The bitternut grows 150 miles north of Ottawa. The hickory is much farther north than the black walnut.

MR. SNYDER:

It has always been my impression that the butternut reached farther north than the black walnut.

MR. ELLIS:

The hickories go as far north as Lake Champlain. The butternuts go up as far as the line of Canada.

MR. CORSAN:

Butternuts go way above the Canadian line.

MR. REED:

In New England the shagbark grows considerably farther north than the black walnut and west of the Great Lakes the black walnut grows farther north than the hickory.

MR. WALKER:

I believe the bitternut grows farther north than the butternut. I think the rivers have an influence on them. Getting away from the rivers you don't have to go so far before they run out.

THE PRESIDENT:

With the exhibits is a picture of a Wisconsin black walnut I grafted myself. Dr. Zimmerman also has one growing. The meat of this black walnut is as white and sweet as an English walnut. I think it is quite promising for northern territory. Mr. Reed, did you have an opportunity to test them.

MR. REED:

They impressed me as being very promising. I tried to get cions but was not able to at that time.

DR. ZIMMERMAN:

I don't think I have ever seen a hickory nut tree so loaded with nuts as a Manahan which I have grafted on bitternut. The Taylor every year sets a bunch of young nutlets, but I have never yet seen a catkin on it. I don't know anything that will pollinate it. Until we select buds for hickory nuts and walnuts as they do for citrus and other fruit, I don't believe we can get very far.

MR. REED:

I have some hickories growing and fruiting well on bitternut. I've also seen enough of them not growing well so that I prefer shagbark to bitternut. I prefer shagbark on shagbark.

Motion was made and carried that the next annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers' Association be held at Rockport, Indiana, Monday and Tuesday, September 9 and 10, 1935.

Letter from Rev. Paul C. Crath

Kosseev, Poland

(_Read by Title_)

Being eager to get on time to the walnut harvest in the Carpathian region and personally select walnuts for planting in Canada and the U.S.A. I borrowed $400 and--now I am here. On October 11 I sent to Toronto eight boxes of selected walnuts, about 50,000 in all, and I hope they will arrive in Toronto in time for the Royal Winter Fair. There are 43 varieties and amongst them some of very high quality are on the way to our Acadia. But it was no easy task to find out here good walnuts. I bought 1400 kilograms of different nuts before I picked out of them 600 kg. for Canada. Besides me three men were busy searching for the best walnuts in the orchards of Kosseev and Kooty. Inclosed please find a description of 45 walnut trees and their nuts. A collection of these nuts I am sending you separately.

I found here that:

1. Every walnut tree bears nuts of different variety. The nuts differ from nuts of other trees in shape, hardness of shell, size, texture and flavor of kernels.

2. On every tree walnuts are of three sizes, large, medium and small. It depends how much sunshine they receive. Those nearer to the trunk and on the northern side of the tree are the smallest.

3. According to flavor the walnut trees may be divided into three different groups. Those which bear nuts of sweet kernel are the best. Those nuts which have some bitter flavor are not bad, but those which are languid or tasteless are no good at all.

4. Giants have kernels smaller than the cavity of their shell. But I was told that in this country somewhere are Giants with sweet, hard kernels which fill up their paper-thin shell fully. Some gentleman pointed to the city of Tchernievtjee as a source of good Giants. It is not far from Kosseev, but on the other side of Rumanian frontier. It means that I should go to the province of Bookovina if we wish to find those perfect Giants. I sent to Canada some good Giants, but not perfect ones yet.

A physician who resides in Kooty told me that in the mountaineers villages of Rozhen (500 meters above sea level) there is a tree bearing awfully sweet walnuts. He ate those nuts but he does not know the name of the owner. Now it is my task to find those nuts. In the village of Twedeev (400 meters above sea level) is a tree bearing one year large nuts and next year small nuts. But those small nuts are awfully oily. I failed to secure nuts from that tree but I know its whereabouts. There in the mountains about 600 meters above the sea level comes the line beyond which no walnut tree grows. That line is stretched from the east to the west along the northern slope of the Carpathian region. I have seen some nuts from that colder belt. In shape they are rough, but one variety has papershell and sweet flavor. It seems to me that among these (as natives call them Hutzoolian walnuts) we could find some good variety for northern Ontario and maybe Manitoba. My nearest task will be to go along the cold line and select some walnut trees there.

Kooty and Kooseev district are really walnut country. This district produces papershell walnuts for other parts of Poland. But walnut trees could be found five degrees to the north. Too, I wish to investigate walnuts north of the Dniester River and then proceed farther north to find the northern limit beyond which no walnut grows. I am going to publish 3000 questionnaires, one for each walnut tree. I or my friends would examine these questionnaires when filled out. Maybe we'll come across some extra good walnut through this inquiry. But the easiest way to locate the best walnut is to organize a walnut contest as you did in Michigan, with the help of Mr. Kellogg. With the help of the local agricultural papers we could have such a contest and I am sure we'll have an amazing success. Do your best to get some funds for the prizes. Then please go to the Royal Winter Fair which starts this fall November 21 and inspect my walnuts I shipped there recently. Create a judging committee of Prof. Neilson, Mr. Corsan, Dr. Currelly and others. Open a couple nuts of each variety and judge which walnuts are the best. Then write me from what trees I should cut scions. You see, I am waiting now for winter to cut scions from trees bearing the best walnuts I found. Then after Xmas I'll ship to Canada a large box containing about 10,000 walnut scions. I expect to cut every scion personally and that way secure the best stuff for the spring grafting.

I am told that there are in Latvia filberts of very good type. Latvian filberts have grown eight inches thick in diameter. In that country the ground is frozen in October, like in Manitolia. It seems to me that the Latvian filbert will be ideal for the northern part of the North America. I wish to go there too while I am in Europe. I would bring the Latvian filbert to Canada and the U.S.A. if a small financial support could be given to me to accomplish this task.

To assure bringing of the best walnut into Canada and the U.S.A. I made an agreement with a local gardener to graft for us 500 walnut seedlings with the scions I would secure for him. Thus grafted seedlings could be brought to Canada the next fall. Furthermore, I have an idea to create the largest and the best walnut which ever grew on the globe. For this purpose I selected several walnut trees bearing Giant nuts and I wish to pollenize them next spring with pollen of a tree which yields the hardest and the sweetest kernel. Such a tree is in the city of Stanislav. And here in Kosseev is a tree bearing Giants which before they are dried weigh ten nuts to one kilogram (2.204 pounds). I hope that combination could give us a desirable type.

It is also desirable for me to stay in this country until the fall of 1935. Then I am sure that we'd have some desirable walnuts and filberts. I hope that my friends in Canada and the U.S.A. would come with financial help to give me a chance to accomplish my task. To assure the shipment of scions I need one hundred dollars. For my existence in this country I need $240 for next twelve months, and for traveling expenses about $100. All together I need $500. I hope that some Canadian or American would understand the importance of my expedition and will come with the help. Please put my case before some people who would back me in my enterprise.

MR. CORSAN:

Mr. Crath is a Presbyterian minister, he is out of a job and he is a man of extraordinary practical skill in agriculture. Now he informs me that, up in the Carpathian mountain region, in the valleys they don't have the English walnut, but the estates up in the mountains for hundreds of years have cultivated and selected it. The estates are being divided up and the trees cut down. He has gone up there to select these trees to have the nuts sent to him before the dealers get them and kill-dry to insure them against spoiling.

The Chestnut Situation in Illinois

_By_ DR. A. S. COLBY, _Illinois_

Illinois claims prominence as a state where the commercial chestnut crop has been a profitable one for many years, beginning nearly three decades ago. Before chestnut blight, Endothia parasitica (Murrill), killed the trees in the East, tons of nuts were gathered there and a considerable quantity marketed; these, however, were chiefly of the smaller native species and little attention was paid to the trees, most of which were wild. During the past few years some consideration has been given chestnut culture in the far West; this development, however, is quite recent.

Two men stand out as pioneers in Illinois nut growing: the late George W. Endicott of Villa Ridge, who crossed the native American with the Giant Japanese chestnut in 1895, his work resulting in the origination of the Boone, Blair, and Riehl varieties, the fruit of which combines the size of the Japanese with the quality of the American parent; and the late E. A. Riehl of Godfrey, who for over 30 years, until his death in 1925, carried on experimental work in nut culture, originating, among others, the Fuller and Gibbens chestnuts, superior late and early varieties. Both Mr. Endicott and Mr. Riehl planted the better varieties in orchard form and found the undertaking a very profitable one.

The third large orchard planting in Illinois is located at Farina and owned by the Whitford family. Here the soil type is less favorable for chestnuts and the water drainage is not of the best, but in spite of these disadvantages, the trees are productive.

These orchards, with other smaller plantings in the state, came into full bearing at about the time of the gradual failure of the eastern crops and have made money for their owners, especially where attention was paid to sizing the nuts and to other advanced marketing practices.

During the past twenty years, interest in chestnut culture in Illinois has been increasing gradually. Many plantings of the improved varieties have been made in widely scattered localities. Through the co-operation of Mr. P. A. Glenn, of the State Nursery Inspection Service, a survey of Illinois has been begun to locate all the chestnut trees in the state. By the fall of 1934, with about one-third of the counties surveyed, a total of 7,601 chestnut trees has been found, approximately one-half of which are of bearing and one-half non-bearing age. This latter group includes nursery stock and newly planted young trees mostly of named varieties.

In a preliminary study of the approximately 3,700 trees of bearing age, a number of facts of interest were noted. Nearly all these chestnuts were of the named varieties, the plantings ranging in size from 1 to 800 individuals and in age from 5 to 40 years. Most of them were planted in orchard form and given some attention as to cultural needs. However, there were over 400 older trees averaging from 50 to 60 years with five, 80 years of age and three reported to be 130 years old.

These older trees are in poor condition as a rule, with many dead tops and branches and hollow trunks, but still struggling for life and producing some nuts. Very little care had been given them. They were found along the roadside, in pastures, in the yard about the home, in rows bordering an orchard. Some of these older trees were known to be seedlings from seeds brought in from the East; others had been planted, the trees coming from eastern sections. Very few of these trees are infected with blight. They indicate ages at which chestnut trees may be productive in Illinois if blight is controlled.

Satisfactory soil and climatic conditions for chestnut culture are found in most sections of Illinois, since plantings are reported from Pulaski County in the extreme south to Lee in the north, and in the central sections from Champaign west to Hancock County. As the survey progresses, it is probable that these limits will be extended.

One of the reasons for the state survey was to make a careful inspection of the trees found for evidence of chestnut blight and to have the necessary steps taken for its prompt eradication. Blight was found in Illinois in 1926, and efforts have been made since that time to eradicate it. Only a few infected trees were located prior to 1934. Most of them have been destroyed. In this year's (1934) survey, 123 diseased trees were found, and these are being handled in the most effective way to check further spread of the blight. These trees were found in nine counties, mostly scattered over the southern third of the state, with one infection center in central Illinois in Logan County.

Such is the present status of the chestnut in Illinois. What of the future? We believe that chestnut blight will continue to spread. The disease has been reported in several of the near-by states, including Michigan, Indiana and Iowa. With the scattered centers of infection in Illinois, it is probable that other diseased trees will continue to appear. Only the most determined efforts to check it, based upon a thorough understanding of the life cycle of its causal fungus, can be of any possible value in keeping it in control for any considerable time. Continuous inspection of the trees, with prompt removal of diseased material, such as cankers and infected branches, following methods recognized as sanitary, and immediate burning will be very helpful in checking the trouble. When the entire tree is infected, necessitating its removal, the stump should be treated by peeling back the bark and building a hot fire around the trunk in order that all bark tissues shall be destroyed. It is advisable, also, that all chestnut trees be given good care, especially as regards their needs for plant nutrients. Beginning with the young trees, newly planted, bark injuries of any kind should be guarded against. Extreme care is necessary in the training of the scaffold branches, as the tree grows, in order that the mature tree shall be well formed with as few large wounds as possible through the removal of large branches.

The application of fungicidal sprays, such as Bordeaux, at intervals throughout the growing season, may be helpful. The trunk and the main branches, especially, of young trees should be protected from sun scald. Borers and other insects must be kept out. Injury from tools used about the trees must be guarded against. Any break in the bark offers easy entrance to the fungus spores. Wrapping the trunk with burlap or paper may be very helpful in preventing such injuries. Probably the best time of year to make necessary pruning cuts is in early spring. Pruning should be followed by the painting of the wounds with shellac, later covering this with a good grade of paint. The tree should be well fed to aid in the growth of callus formation to cover the wound quickly.

Other methods of attack in solving the problem include the immunization of the chestnut against the blight and the breeding of resistant varieties. Experimental work along these lines is being carried on by individuals and Federal and State agencies, but the work has not as yet progressed sufficiently to give results of commercial value.

If careful cultural methods are followed in every locality, with special emphasis on the prompt and thorough disposal of diseased material, by removal and burning, we can look forward to a number of years of profitable chestnut production in Illinois.

DR. DEMING:

Is the Riehl orchard free from blight?

DR. COLBY:

One of the same gentlemen who visited Ithaca the other day, by authority, is making a very careful survey for disease of the nut trees in the eastern and northern United States. The Riehl orchard that we visited last year about this time had considerably over 100 trees badly diseased. We'll have to do the best we can with the old trees but watch the young ones carefully.

DR. DEMING:

Don't you think that one of the commonest causes of the blight of chestnut trees is through the wounds and the inoculations made by the claws of squirrels?

DR. COLBY:

Yes, and also woodpeckers. The old trees can be preserved for a longer or shorter time, depending on the care that is given to them. We found the disease down in the Endicott orchard, even in plantings of mature standing. There have been several trees located at Lincoln where the disease has been found. Any of those old trees where there are any injuries to the bark will be subject to the trouble.

Report on Commercial Cracking and Merchandising of Black Walnuts

_By_ H. F. STOKE, _Virginia_

(_Read by Title_)

The 1933 black walnut crop of southwestern Virginia was light and exceedingly spotted. Some districts reported a complete failure, a most unusual condition.

The volume of shelled nuts offered on the local market was smaller than usual, due partly to scarcity of the nuts and partly because the mountain folk who produce most of the kernels were not so keen at cracking walnuts for a pittance when once they had tasted the sweets of 40 cents per hour on road work offered as part of the Federal recovery program. This, apparently, will become a factor in the development of commercial cracking plants.

The price was better than for several years past. Home-cracked nuts sold at an average price of 25 cents per pound to local consumers, who took most of the season's production. Sales to northern concerns were mostly at from 30 to 35 cents for hand-picked goods, ranging up to 38 cents per pound by midsummer. I do not know present prices.

The writer knows of no new development in mechanical cracking and separating processes. At the present time he is completing the construction of a power driven cracker of new design, but any report must await successful operation.

In the marketing of kernels five channels may be considered:

1. The local consumer market, which should be cultivated as far as possible.

2. Mail order consumer, usually reached by advertising. A two-pound carton lined with wax paper makes a most satisfactory unit for sales of this kind. This package has been selling generally at $1.25, postpaid.

3. Commercial consumers, who are usually manufacturers of food products, such as bakeries, ice cream manufacturers, confectioners, etc. Usually these people buy from wholesale supply houses.

In order to hold this trade the producer should be in a position to fill orders throughout the year. An "In-and-outer" cannot hope to hold this excellent class of customers.

4. Wholesale supply houses, who specialize on supplying commercial consumers and nut stores.

These people depend on buying their season's supply as cheaply as possible during the flush period and distributing later at a profit.

It is to their interest to demoralize the market early, so they can buy cheaply, and later proclaim a scarcity so the market will advance to profitable levels. They seem fully alive to their interests. At the opening of the past season one very prominent New York buyer was offering from 16 to 18 cents per pound for hand-picked kernels, though I knew of none selling at anywhere near that figure.

This class of customer is rather unsatisfactory, though they will pay fair prices late in the season if a real shortage exists, and they are out of supplies.

5. A good, honest broker or commission merchant is probably the most satisfactory channel for handling large quantities of kernels. He is acquainted with actual prices and market conditions, as well as a large list of possible customers. His customers are usually commercial consumers, though he also sells wholesale supply houses. His commission is usually 3 per cent.

As a note of warning, be sure your broker is honest, then stick to him. Some concerns masquerading as brokers or commission merchants are really wholesale buyers on their own account. They will charge the shipper a commission on sales to themselves at a low figure. The Baltimore market seems especially cursed with this sort of thing, though it is now, I believe, forbidden by a code. As a whole, Baltimore is not a very satisfactory market for black walnut kernels, though the largest in the East. I find Philadelphia and New York more satisfactory.

The outlook for the 1934 black walnut crop in this section is most promising. A dry spring was favorable to a good set of nuts, while plenty of rain during the summer guarantees good size. Prices will probably be satisfactory, due to the extreme drought in the West and the labor situation already referred to.

At this point I shall digress from the subject assigned me. The following matter may be left off the record, at your discretion.

a. In my 1932 report I made mention of several promising black walnut seedlings found in this locality. Samples of the nuts of the parent trees of the 1931 crop have been kept to the present time. All have deteriorated to a greater or lesser degree except the Stanley, which is as sweet and good as when gathered. The Stanley and Caldwell are precocious as grafted trees.

The Bowman seedling tree, which was reported as most precocious, is continuing its record of not having missed a crop since its third season from seed. It must be reported, however, that a two-year-old graft of this tree has not borne, as yet.

b. One thing of interest concerning the black walnut that has been observed is the scarcity of the walnut web worm this season, none having been observed by the writer up to September 1st. Is this a general or a local condition?

The year of the Geneva convention, 1931, was the worst ever observed by the writer in this respect. Do web worms occur in cycles, or do other conditions govern their appearance?

c. The injury caused by the melting of grafting and coating waxes by the hot sun is well known. Last spring an attempt was made to overcome the difficulty by painting the waxed surface with aluminum bronze paint. The experiment was a complete success, as even straight paraffine failed to melt beneath the aluminum coating during the hottest summer here on record. English walnut grafts so protected were more than usually successful. Reflection of the sun's rays by the bright surface undoubtedly lowered the temperature to below the melting point of the paraffine. This lowered temperature was also doubtless beneficial to the life processes of the graft union.

Direct coating of the trunks of newly set trees with the aluminum paint, without the use of wax, was also tried with satisfactory results. Applied direct to the dormant buds of the sweet cherry, however, it proved toxic, as the buds never developed. This was no doubt due to the bronzing liquid rather than to the aluminum.

The material is very easily applied, either with a brush or spray, and makes a silvery, impervious and very durable coating. It should be completely effective as a preventative of sun-burn of the bark of tender species, especially to cover the creosote applications sometimes used by tree surgeons. Such black coverings often defeat their purpose in the hot sun by killing the living tissues by the absorption of the sun's heat.

At the present time manufacturers are being corresponded with looking to the development of a bronzing liquid that shall be non-toxic to buds.

Now if some investigator will come forward with a non-toxic, water soluble coating material for the roots of nursery stock, Professor Neilson's dream will be fully realized.

Last year Mr. Homer Jacobs of the Davey Tree Expert Company gave us a very excellent report of his company's experiments with various coatings used in connection with the moving of large trees. It is to be hoped that they will add aluminum bronze paint to the list of materials tested, and give us the benefit of their findings at our next convention.

In the meantime, the private experiments mentioned will be continued.

d. A publicity stunt for the furtherance of nut culture is being tried in the way of vases filled with sprays of Oriental chestnut, with opening burrs, displayed in the windows of our leading department store, with a showing of fall goods. A card gives credit for the display.

Judging from the enthusiasm with which the store manager and the window dresser received the suggestion, it would appear that the idea could be used almost anywhere. If living sprays were not available, a display of nuts hardy to the locality could doubtless be used in the same manner. Cards identifying the nuts and stating they were grown (or could be grown) locally would add to the interest.

It is a matter of deepest personal regret that, due to a combination of New Deal, raw deal and general lack of a great deal, I am unable to be with you other than in spirit.

I salute you.

Nut Culture in Ontario

_By_ GEORGE H. CORSAN

_Islington, Ontario_

As most of you know, I was away from my place for six years, but in the meantime my nut trees grew and yielded. The past season has been most severe on nut trees and plants. Last winter the winds came straight across the land without any apparent obstruction, and it blew all winter long and we had no snow. Then a dry summer with a little moisture in the fall has created a situation that was never known before. Last year I gathered nine large baskets of filberts but this year I secured only about three baskets of filberts and these from bushes that were in a protected place. Most of the male catkins had frozen. The filberts in the unprotected places died. A Burlington Hican (purchased as a Marquardt) lived under circumstances that hardly any other tree could withstand. One Stanley shellbark lived and one died. It is strange how hardy the pecans are. Not a bud was killed last winter. It is seldom that the pecans mature a crop as the summer season is too short in Ontario, but they grow well and make a beautiful tree. We find that hickories grafted on pecan stocks do well, putting on two and one-half to three feet of new growth in a year. The butternut is so common around certain parts of Ontario and Quebec that the people do not even bring it to market, but they do appreciate it.

I am carrying on a program over the air as I am the "Nut" man of station CFRB and follow the farm report on prices at 1:45 o'clock each afternoon. We are trying to influence the farmers to plant nut trees along the lanes, around the barns and in the pastures and thus beautify the farms and bring the boys and girls back from the cities. None of the work that has been done in the research line of agriculture has approached the value of the work that Prof. Neilson has done here in Michigan in the last few years. The surface of the farms can be planted to grains and vegetables and yield practically nothing, but you can plant a nut tree and it will reach down into the sub-soil with its long roots and bring up the finest food in the form of nut meats.

Nut Growing on a Commercial Basis

_By_ AMELIA RIEHL, _Illinois_

(_Read by Title_)

I have several times given figures stating the size of our chestnut crop and the income from year to year. To this I might add that the crop last year amounted to 6,423 pounds and was sold at wholesale for $1,082.76. Because we do a good part of the work ourselves, it is hard to figure the cost of harvesting. But the amount we paid out in cash comes away below $100.00. We still think it pays to grow chestnuts, though things look pretty bad around here now.

This was the third very dry season we have had in succession, and the very worst of all. We had no rain at all for over seventy days, and the heat was terrible. Everything suffered from drought. Even forest trees on the island below us died from lack of moisture. You can imagine what happened to the nut trees on the steep hillsides. All were more or less scorched, and many of them actually died. These are the old trees that father planted years ago. The young trees, which were planted after he was gone, on fairly level ground, are heavy with burrs, and I know will produce a fair crop of nuts as usual. For the first time in several years we will have no hazels. They bloomed very early this year and were caught by late frost. There are a few walnuts on some of the trees, but I doubt if they will be well filled.

For forty years father tried to grow English walnuts, but never succeeded in getting any of them to bear nuts. Finally gave it up in disgust. After he was gone we started out all over again, planting several varieties that were thought to be hardy. Now for the first time one of them has set eight nuts. It is the Alpine variety, scions of which were given me by Mr. J. F. Jones. Of course, it is yet to be seen whether or not there is anything in these nuts. But it is encouraging anyway.

We all send greetings to our many friends at the convention. Will be with you in thought and wish you all a happy time.

Some Notes on the Hardiness of the English Walnut in Michigan and Ontario

_By_ J. A. NEILSON, _Michigan_

In a study of the desirable characters of nut trees for planting in the northern part of the United States and in southern Canada, one is forced to place hardiness first. Rapid growth, high yield and excellent quality of nuts are of little value if hardiness is lacking. Hardiness, of course, is a relative term and may be applied to disease and insect resistance, adaptability to diverse soils and capacity to withstand extremes of winter and summer temperatures. In the present paper emphasis will be placed on resistance to winter cold and to unusual weather conditions, such as occurred during the autumn of 1933 and the winter of 1933 and 1934.

In order to properly understand the effect of the past winter on the English walnut, it will be necessary to devote some attention to the weather conditions that prevailed in the southern half of Michigan in the autumn of 1933. A perusal of the meteorological records shows that the average maximum and minimum temperatures in September and October were unusually high and that there was a heavy rainfall in these two months. The following table shows the precipitation and temperatures recorded at the Kellogg Farm where most of our nut cultural experiments are conducted.

September--The average maximum temperature, 79.1; average minimum temperature, 55.7; precipitation, 4.55 inches. October--The average maximum temperature, 60.1; average minimum temperature, 38.4; precipitation, 6.81 inches.

The unusually high temperatures and heavy rainfall caused growth to continue much later than normally and thus prevented the wood from ripening properly before winter set in.

English walnuts are found at several places throughout the lower peninsula and more particularly in the southern half of the state. In no place, however, are the trees numerous with the exception of a small area around Lexington, where there are approximately 100 trees. Inasmuch as this paper deals with the effect of low temperatures on the English walnut, the minimum temperatures of the weather station nearest to the places mentioned in the following text are given hereunder.

Lowest
Place Mo.--Date Temp.
Allegan Feb. 9 -19
Bay City Feb. 9 -20
Caro Feb. 9 -30
Croswell Feb. 9 -26
Fennville Feb. 9 -20
Flint Feb. 9 -15
Grand Rapids Feb. 9 -16
Gull Lake--Kellogg Farm Feb. 9 -18
Hart Feb. 9 -22
Lansing Feb. 9 -18
Mount Pleasant Feb. 9 -21
Muskegon Feb. 9 -16
Owosso Feb. 9 -20
Saranac Feb. 20 -25
Sparta Feb. 9 -22[A]
Leamington, Ont. Feb. 9 -18
Guelph Feb. 9 -30
Simcoe Feb. 9 -30

[Footnote A: Unofficial.]

The extreme cold of the past winter following a warm, wet autumn caused a great deal of injury to English walnut trees in this state and elsewhere. The data presented herein were obtained by a careful examination of several plantations or individual trees scattered over the southern half of the lower peninsula in Michigan and in southwestern Ontario. To properly present this information it seems desirable to group the varieties or strains according to their place of origin.

Group 1. _Cultivated Varieties from the Pacific Coast._

In this group we have Mayette, Franquette and Seeando. The Mayette has been considered one of the hardiest of the cultivated varieties and was therefore included in the plantings at the Kellogg Farm. More than twenty trees were planted and every one died last winter or in the preceding winter. Seeando, a new and supposedly hardy variety from Washington state, was planted in limited numbers in the spring of 1933, but every tree perished last winter. Franquette was not planted as a nursery tree, but was top-grafted on several large black walnuts at the Kellogg Farm and at East Lansing, Michigan. The grafts made a vigorous growth but only two out of eleven lived through the winter. In Simcoe, Ontario, where the minimum temperature was -30F, a six-year-old tree was so badly injured that it will likely die this winter, but should it not perish, the degree of injury is so severe that it will be of very little value. In the Niagara district the Franquette top-grafted in 1926 on black walnut came through in moderately good condition, but in this part of Ontario the minimum temperature was only 10 below zero F.

Group 2. _New Varieties of Canadian Origin._

This group contains Broadview and McDermid. Broadview scions were secured from Mr. J. J. Gellatly of Westbank, B. C., who discovered the variety near Broadview, B. C. These scions were grafted on a medium-sized black walnut in 1931 and have since made a remarkable growth, but notwithstanding the vigorous growth there was no killing back during the past winter or in preceding winters. This variety was also grown as a top-graft by Mr. Carl Walker of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where the minimum temperature last winter was -26 degrees F. Some killing back was reported on this tree, but the injury was not severe enough to be serious. The Broadview is reported to have endured without injury -25 degrees F. in British Columbia and in Russia, where the parent tree originated, equally low temperatures are said to prevail. The McDermid was obtained from Mr. Peter McDermid of St. Catherines, Ontario. This tree is a third generation tree in Ontario and is descended from a tree brought out from Germany more than 100 years ago. The nuts are large with a moderately thick shell and contain a kernel of excellent quality. McDermid has been grown as a top graft at Simcoe, Ontario, East Lansing, the Kellogg Farm and Estate near Augusta and at South Haven, Michigan. All of the trees of this Variety grown in Michigan came through without injury, but the tree at Simcoe, Ontario, suffered somewhat by killing back of the past season's growth. The larger branches and trunk, however, were uninjured and have since made a rank growth. The McDermid top-grafted on a black walnut on Mr. G. Tolles' farm at South Haven proved hardy and was one of the few English walnut trees in Michigan to bear nuts this year.

At the Michigan State College where the temperature went to -18 degrees F. vigorous McDermid grafts on a thrifty black walnut were uninjured whereas all the Franquette grafts on the same tree were killed outright. Similar results were noted on several trees at the Kellogg Farm near Augusta, Michigan.

Group 3. _Carpathian Walnuts._