By-Laws (part 2)

Then this other thing that I think ought to be brought out, the thornless or near-thornless type as a general rule has a better quality of pods than the ones with the long thorns. Now, it is true that the parent seedling trees of the Calhoun and the Millwood both had a small quantity of thorns when they were growing wild. After they were propagated vegetatively the thorns, of course, were eliminated by taking scion wood from above the thorns. But in general in our state, the thornless trees—and we do have a lot of thornless trees growing wild—have a higher sugar content in the pods than do the trees with thorns.

I just wanted to give you a general idea of what we have done with honeylocust in Alabama. In 1938 the TVA sent down some Millwood and Calhoun for test planting. We put those trees in two different types of planting. We had an integrated planting where we were trying to select at that time some good pasture plants, and, of course, we had something like a hundred different species in the one planting. The trees were planted relatively thick, but the larger trees were planted longer distances apart, and the intermediate trees intermediate distances apart, and then we had shrubs coming in under those. It was supposed to have been a three-story type of planting, black walnut in the upper story, honeylocust as an intermediate and shrubs for the ground. We were using different types of plums for the understory; then on the ground we had Lespedeza sericea. But from that we did get several different plant materials that did look promising, and we put the Calhoun honeylocust and the Millwood honeylocust in with that planting for trial, and they did so well that we expanded the honeylocust into another planting. I am very sorry that this latter planting had to be taken out.

Hillculture research went under in June of 1947, and the Horticulture Department took this work over, and they thought they could not support the honeylocust pasture program in Horticulture, and the plot, of course, was pulled out and planted in peaches.

Anyway, we do have some information I'd like to give you. The Dairy Department of the Alabama Experiment Station carried out quite an extensive feeding test over a two-year period to find out the value of these pods in the dairy ration. They substituted the honeylocust pods ground. Professor Eaton of the Dairy Department assures me that none of the seeds in those pods were cracked. They ground the pods with corn in order to take up some of the excess honey that is in the back of these pods so that they'd grind well, and they ground them in a hammermill, and the burrs were running far enough apart so that he assures me that very few of the seeds, if any, were ever cracked.

That has been somewhat of a discussion, among feed producers especially, recently, as to whether or not it would be profitable to grind those seeds in order to get the protein and fats that the seed has. There isn't a very high percentage of food in the seed itself, but you do get a little more protein and a little more fat if you grind the seed itself.

We have found in storage that weevils get in these seeds, but the weevil doesn't destroy the carbohydrates, and the weevil will only pierce the seed and make a hole in it. Then the intestinal juices of a cow will go in through this hole and they can digest the seed. That is something that comes along with storage.

I'd like to give you just something briefly on what the Dairy Department of Alabama Polytechnic found out about the general value of these pods. They found that honeylocust pods could be substituted in a dairy ration for oats, pound for pound. Now, that means that if you can get a high yield of honeylocust pods and substitute it in a dairy ration for oats that you just about have half of the grain problem solved.

I'd like then to follow that up to give you the average yields. Before I give you these average yields I'd also like to bring out this fact about the Calhoun and the Millwood honeylocust. Those trees are very peculiar in their habits of bearing. One year they will bear a heavy crop. The next year they will bear scarcely anything. They are definitely alternate bearing, and I think that alternate bearing has a physiological background behind it. How We can eliminate that physiological reaction is something else. But the years that the trees are heavily loaded with the fruit the amount of carbohydrates that it draws from the tree is so great that the tree doesn't have enough carbohydrates left to produce fruit the next year. I think it is the carbon-nitrogen ratio from the physiological standpoint, and, of course, if that is the case, then there is a possibility that you could eliminate or correct that carbon-nitrogen ratio by thinning during the blooming period. But when you see these results I think that you will agree that honeylocust has a place, even if they do bear only every other year.

In our planting we have some trees that will bear this year. Next year they won't bear, but their sister trees will bear. So we have pods every year from some of the trees. Over a period of five years, during which these trees were planted (the oldest trees that we have in 1938, and in 1942) the average production of the Millwood was 58.3 pounds per tree. In 1943 there were no pods produced on the Millwood variety. We had a cold spell in the spring that completely eradicated all of the fruit in that year. In 1944 the average yield—and that is taking the average yield of 10 trees of the oldest ones that were put in—the average yield was 146 pounds of pods per tree.

Mr. McDaniel: That's for both varieties?

Mr. Moore: That's just for Millwood. I will give you the Calhoun in a minute.

Then in 1945 the average yield was 39.5 pounds per tree. In 1946 we had an average of 180 pounds per tree. In 1947 we had an average of 12 pounds. Now, note the break there in averages from year to year: 58, none, 146, 39, 180, 12. You get from that that we have almost definitely alternate bearing in those trees.

Now, this other thing is interesting. If you take the five-year average from 1942 through 1946 inclusive, and convert that to 35 trees—this is 10 trees—but when you convert that to an average of 35 trees per acre you get the equivalent of 92 bushels of oats per acre. Now, understand, with this yield of pods we were cutting two and a half tons of hay from the Lespedeza sericea each year. So we were getting our hay crop and our grain crop from the same source.

Now, to give you just briefly what the Calhoun variety did during those years, in 1942 the Calhoun trees—the same age planted under the same conditions on the same soil—averaged 26.4 pounds of pods per tree. In 1943 the Calhoun followed closely with the Millwood; on account of a freeze they didn't produce anything. In 1944 they produced 32.4 pounds of pods per tree. In 1945 they produced 63.8 pounds of pods per tree. In 1946 they produced 22 pounds of pods per tree, and in 1947 they produced 46 pounds of pods per tree.

Now, if you will take the average of those, contrast it with the average for the Millwood, you will find that the Millwood tree over a period of five years produced almost three times as many pods as the Calhoun. The Calhoun variety has a little more carbohydrates, and it always averages a little more sugar per pound than the Millwood, but the additional yield of the Millwood variety makes it very worthwhile.

I have done quite a bit of work on the blooming habits or the fruiting habits of the honeylocust over a number of years, and I find that there is quite a variation there in the individual trees. Some trees are typically males. They never bear anything, but they have staminate catkins. Others are typically females, never bearing anything but the pistillate flowers. Then we have an integration there of perfect trees. I know of one tree in Blount County, Alabama that for nine years never missed a crop. It had perfect flowers, or rather, both pistillate and staminate flowers on the same tree. However, the flowers were borne on separate catkins, the pistillate flowers, catkins, coming out on the same node with the male and producing the pod. So you do have a large variation in the fruiting habits, and we have found those variations on Millwood selections and on Calhoun selections, even though they were vegetatively propagated.

The reason why we can take a bud off a female Millwood and put it onto a root stock and get a male tree I can't figure out, but they seem to act that way in that respect. I have had a Millwood tree that never bore anything but male flowers. That is something for someone else to figure out. I can't explain it.

Just briefly I'd like to give you the observational work that we have done with honeylocust. For mules in a feeding test we fed a team of mules for 30 days nothing but honeylocust and hay, and these mules were in fine shape when they came out at the end of the feeding test. You say that's an awfully short feeding test. It is, but we had very few pods. Then for cows I have gone into it more extensively. I have a cow myself, and I have fed that cow honeylocust pods and that was all the grain she had through the winter months, and got excellent milk production. You get excellent milk flavor from these pods and an increase in milk production.

A very interesting thing happened. I went out in the community to gather pods from the wild trees for a feeding test, and there was a lady who owned a farm pretty close to our project. I went over and talked with her about getting the pods from her trees to feed to my cows for feeding tests, and it was O. K. But when I left she got to thinking the thing over, and she decided that if honeylocust pods were good for my cow they would be good for her cow! So I went back in a few days' time—the pods weren't mature when I went the first time. I went back in a few days and I didn't ask the lady if I could get the pods, I just stopped on the side of the road and we put a darky up in the tree to shake the pods off. And we saw a little darky coming across the field, just a streak. He said, "Missus says come over to the house." I went over there, and she was just a little bit embarrassed, but she said, "Mr. Moore, I have decided if honeylocust was good for the goose it was good for the gander, so I have been feeding honeylocust to my cows." And she went on with that story and said that she had been selling milk to a fraternity over in town, and the boys at the fraternity, after she had fed the cows honeylocust for a week or two, asked her what had happened to her milk, and she told them—she said honestly she was afraid she was going to lose the trade, she thought something bad was wrong with it. She told them, that so far as she knew there wasn't anything. They said, "Have you done anything to it?" "No, we haven't." They said, "Well, it's the best milk we have ever had, and we can tell the difference in the taste." And then she told them what she had done. She wouldn't tell them before.

Now, we have had story after story coming to us to corroborate that. Now, I have never seen with my cow any difference in milk flavor, either good or bad, but my wife can definitely tell, and she is very particular about her butter, because she likes to sell that. I can quit feeding honeylocust a few days, and my wife will say, "How come you quit feeding honeylocust to the cow?" It is that definite.

There are two things I want to mention: The value of a combination of a perennial ground cover with your honeylocust tree, and then I want to mention the fact that honeylocust planted in a pasture will give no benefit whatsoever. You are going to have to grow your honeylocust on the outside, harvest the pods and feed them just like you would corn, or you are going to have to plant your honeylocust on a barren hillside someplace that doesn't grow anything else—and I think honeylocust will grow with a little fertilizer on about the poorest soil you have, the most eroded soil you have, with a little care—then pasture it after your trees are large enough so that the cow won't eat the limbs. There is something about the tree itself that a cow loves. They will chew the bark and chew the limbs right down to the main trunk.

We have tried planting those trees at four years of age, even, in pastures, and we just can't get them to survive. In fact, the cows and the mules in our pasture ate the trees down to the stumps in the wintertime before they ever started putting out leaves in the spring. So it has been a problem. (See Dr. Diller's pasture tree-guard paper in this report.—Ed.)

This value that you can get from growing honeylocust and Lespedeza sericea on the same soil is the same as with honeylocust and alfalfa if you are in the alfalfa belt, or something like that with other perennial legumes. These are the benefits that I think you can get from a combination: In the first place, the soil is completely protected. In the second place, a concentrate and hay can be grown on the same acreage. Third, a good grazing and feeding out program can be maintained. If you plant your honeylocust on a hillside someplace and let the trees get large enough so that the cows won't eat them up, have your ground cover established, by the time that you are ready to pasture it you can put your cattle in. We had this combination, and I think it would have worked out very well if it had not been destroyed. We had our Lespedeza sericea for our summer grazing crop; then we had winter annuals planted in the Lespedeza sericea for our winter grazing, and the honeylocust was the fattening crop or finishing-off crop.

What we had planned to do was turn the cattle in on this last plot about January 1st, let them graze crimson clover, or bur clover, or any other winter ground cover that grows in your section until the Lespedeza sericea came on in the early summer. Then they'd graze the Lespedeza sericea till the honeylocust pods started falling in the fall, and they'd fatten off on the honeylocust, and you'd put them on the market just before the Christmas holidays.

Then fourth, the management cost is very low. Fifth, the weed problems in your pasture are controlled. Sixth, you get maximum production from the soil. You get your grain and your hay from the same piece of land.

Now, that's all that I plan to give on this subject. There may be some questions come up that we can discuss later.

A Member: What is the sugar content?

Mr. Moore: The sugar content of the Calhoun pods is around 38 per cent, in the Millwood about 36 per cent.

A Member: Is it different in the two varieties?

Mr. Moore: Not very much, only about 2 per cent different.

A Member: What spacing do you use in planting?

Mr. Moore: 35 by 35 feet is about the correct spacing.

Mr. Fisher: What is your labor problem? You say this is equal to oats.
Can you run a combine over the field and harvest in one operation?

Mr. Moore: This one you don't harvest at all. The cow picks them up off the ground.

A Member: If you had a few hundred trees, would these pods all come on at one time, or you mentioned having somebody shake them off. Can you pick them all up at one time?

Mr. Moore: Yes, you can shake them all off at one time, rake them all up with the rake, take a pitchfork rake, carry them to the barn and throw them in storage in a dry place. You don't have to worry about weevils.

A Member: Store them like hay?

Mr. Moore: Hay or corn. I have some that have been stored for three years, and the weevil gets into the seed, but it doesn't seem to affect it. My cattle like three-year-old pods as well as the new ones—well, they like them better.

Mr. Weber: Do the pods heat up?

Mr. Moore: They won't heat up, if they aren't green.

A Member: What about the protein content?

Mr. Moore: I will give you the analysis for that, the complete analysis of ground honeylocust pods. That might be interesting. Moisture content, 12.47. Ash, 3.14. Crude protein, 8.58. Now, the crude protein has run as high as 14 per cent. I want to bring that out. This was pods collected in the wild, and this was a sample that the State Chemist ran for us on that. Fats 2.12. Fiber, 17.73. Carbohydrates total 55.96.

President Davidson: I am afraid we will have to close this if we are to get on at all. That's the most authoritative information we have ever had, I think, in this Association about honeylocust. I am sure we have been enjoying it and have been benefited by it immensely.

On the possibilities of filbert growing in Virginia, Dr. Overholser will now give you a talk.

[Footnote 18: According to botanical authorities, the honey locust is polygamo-dioecious; that is, it generally has most of its male flowers on one tree and most of the female flowers on another tree, but the trees are not 100 per cent pure in this sex division. In my personal observations of flowers on grafted trees, including Millwood and Calhoun and scores of seedlings, both "male" and "female," I never found any pollen produced in flowers of the "female" trees, but nearly all "male" trees in the Tennessee Valley will have occasional catkins with one or more perfect flowers near their terminal ends (the basal flowers being staminate on the same catkin.) The functionally perfect flowers on such "male" trees have been observed to set from one to many pods in certain years, but such pods are generally small as compared with those borne on "female" trees in the same locality, and I have never observed a heavy pod crop on any "male" tree. Grafted trees of Millwood and Calhoun selections in Tennessee were observed to set pistillate flowers, but no pods (or very few) matured on them unless there was a "male" tree in flower within insect-flight distance from them. (At Auburn, Alabama, there were wild honeylocusts, including "male" trees, within a half-mile of the Hillculture planting of grafted honeylocusts when I saw it in 1943.)

I do not argue that no pollen is ever produced by Millwood or Calhoun flowers some probably is (though its demonstration might require almost microscopic examination, in contrast with the easy finding of pods on "male" trees.) But, in the practical culture of fruiting honeylocusts, and in our present scope of knowledge of their pollination requirements, our plantings should include a handful of seedling (thornless) trees or else some grafted trees of a thornless "male" selection such as the Smith, in a ratio of about 1 Smith to 10, say, of Millwood.

It is unfortunate that the presumed male mutants of the fruiting varieties, reported above by Mr. Moore, were destroyed when the Hillculture plots at Auburn were discontinued. Perhaps similar ones will show up elsewhere, and they will be worth looking for. Meanwhile, the Smith variety (originally propagated through a mixup in scionwood collection), has been demonstrated to be a satisfactory pollinator for Millwood and Calhoun, and it, as grafted, is also a thornless tree. Perhaps any thornless male seedling honeylocust tree, if its flowering period coincides with that of the fruiting variety, might serve equally well.—Note by J. C. McDaniel.]

Possibilities of Filbert Growing in Virginia

E. L. OVERHOLSER, Head, Department of Horticulture, V. P. I.,
Blacksburg, Virginia

More than four-fifths of the United States filberts are grown in Oregon and nearly all the rest are produced in the State of Washington. Prior to 1933, total filbert production in these two states did not exceed 500 tons, but production has since increased steadily and in 1945 it amounted to 5,320 tons. The value of filbert production in the U. S. in 1945 was about 3 million dollars.

As a wild hazel is native of Virginia and as filberts have been profitably grown, especially in Oregon and Washington the question is often raised as to whether hazelnuts or filberts could not be grown commercially in Virginia. It has been suggested that if varieties now available are not successfull in Virginia, perhaps new varieties may be originated by crossing, including inter-specific crosses.

+American Species+

AMERICAN HAZEL. As mentioned, one species, Corylus americana Walt., is native to much of Virginia. Its distribution is from the northeastern states and Canada to Saskatchewan and the Dakotas and south to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Its adaptation is much wider than that of the beaked hazels (C. cornuta Marsh or C. roxtrata Ait. and the far western C. californica) the two other Corylus species native to the United States and Canada. This native americana, species appears at least to have value from the point of view of soil conservation, as food for wild life, and for breeding purposes.

The American hazel is a large thicket-forming shrub, which sprouts very freely after cutting, and the foliage is generally dense. It is found growing on dry, well-drained sites, in both sun and shade. It, however, seldom bears fruit in the shade. The shrub is relatively hardy, withstanding mid-winter temperatures of -40 deg. to -30 deg.F. and is easily transplanted.

The nuts are available in the wild from July through September and occasionally persistent on the plant until December or even February. The nuts average about 250 per pound, with a germination of about 80 percent, producing about 60 usable plants per pound of seed.

Three of the best known varieties of C. americana are the Rush from Pennsylvania, the Littlepage from Indiana, and the Winkler (most hardy) from Iowa. [See footnote following.—Ed.]

Incidentally, Thomas Jefferson in his list of plants native to Virginia, as published in his Notes on the State of Virginia, which was written in 1781, and published in 1782, in 1784-1785, and in 1787, lists among other plants the "Hazelnut (Corylus Avellana)", which apparently should have been called Corylus americana Walters.

Breeding Filberts in the East. This brings up the question of filbert breeding in the East. Crane and Wood (1937) have fully reviewed the breeding program with filberts, and the breeding of filberts, for the East may be briefly referred to here. Tho pollen from C. californica and C. americana apparently does not function on the pistillate flowers of European varieties, (Corylus avellana L. and C. maxima). Since however, C. americana is useful as a pistillate parent, it is possible that C. californica may be similarly used.

The workers of the United States Bureau of Plant Industry are primarily testing first-generation hybrids resulting from crosses with the pistillate parents Rush, Littlepage, and Winkler of C. americana and pollen from varieties of C. avellana native of Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, and of C. maxima, the filbert of southeastern Europe and western Asia. Other pollen parents were C. colurna, (Turkish hazel, native of southeastern Europe and western Asia) and C. heterophylla Fisch., (various leaved hazel from eastern Asia.)

Crane and Wood (1937) suggest that varieties of high merit should be
developed for home plantings over much of the region from lower New
England and Great Lakes on the north, and to the Potomac and Arkansas
Rivers on the south, and that much of Wisconsin, southern Minnesota,
South Dakota, and Nebraska might also be included.

Dr. Crane writes, by letter dated July 27, 1948, that he has as a result of breeding work, which was started many years ago, two new varieties that have been placed in the hands of nurserymen for multiplication. These varieties are at the present time carried under the numbers of 1667 and 2336, These are hybrids between the European filbert (Corylus avellana L.) and the native American hazelnut (C. americana.) At the Plant Industry Station at Beltsville, Maryland, these two varieties have been outstanding in their yielding ability, hardiness, and quality of nuts produced. Dr. Crane does not think, however, that these varieties may very materially change the situation as regards commercial filbert growing in the East and in the South.

Because of the conditions prevailing during the last war, nurserymen have not made as much progress, in propagating these new varieties as had been originally hoped. Dr. Crane plans to release these varieties for extensive plantings just as soon as there are sufficient plants in the hands of the nurserymen to warrant their being called to the attention of the general public.

HILLCULTURE PROJECT. The Department of Horticulture of V.P.I, has what is called a Hillculture project, with Professor R. C. Moore in charge. Among the materials planted in connection with these studies are filbert varieties to determine their possible value on hill farms in the mountainous regions of Southwest Virginia as a source of additional food and supplemental income for such families. The Forestry Division of TVA has co-operated in supplying not only propagated plants of filberts, but also of walnuts and seedlings of chestnuts.

Among the filberts now being grown are six German-named varieties from the Hillculture Division of the Soil Conservation Service, Glenn Dale, Maryland, planted as rooted cuttings in 1941. The German varieties, are as follows: (1) Barr's Spanische; (2) Neue Riesennuss; (3) Fruhe von Fruendorff; (4) Schliesserin; (5) Eckige Barelloner; and (6) Vollkugel.

In addition five varieties, including two of the Jones numbered seedlings from crosses between the American hazel and the European filbert, purchased from the J. F. Jones Nursery of Lancaster, Pa., were planted in 1947. These are the following: (1) Jones 185; (2) Bixby (a Jones hybrid), (3) Cosford, (4) Italian Red; (5) Large Globe and (6) Medium Long.

Seedlings of the American hazel have also been planted. Dr. Crane may be able to send the V. P. I. Department of Horticulture a few plants of his seedlings 1667 and 2336 to include among the variety plantings.

+Some Limitations of Filbert Growing in Virginia+

DISEASES. Possibly the present most serious limitation to commercial production of filberts in Virginia is the Filbert Blight or Black Knot (Cryptosporella anomala. (PK) Sacc.). While this fungus results in little damage to native species (C. americana) it does spread rapidly and with serious results to European varieties in the State. Possibly the seriousness of the disease has been lessened by the eradication of native hazel plants on roadsides, fence rows, and in the wild nearby, which serve as hosts for the disease.

It is present on the American hazel, but does little damage to the plant. The disease, however, as mentioned, is a serious menace to either European varieties or to the present hybrids resulting from C. americana x C. avellana. The control to date is to prune off and burn affected parts. Mr. George Slate has mentioned that Mr. S. H. Graham of Ithaca, New York, has a number of hybrids between C. americana and C. avellana that have been subjected to severe attacks of Filbert Blight and a few of these have to date escaped, although the others have been destroyed by blight.

The bacterial blight present on the Pacific Coast apparently does not occur in the East.

INSECTS. A second limitation is the problem of the attacks of insects. Dodge and Rickett (1948) report that Corylus may be affected by a leaf-damage from the feeding of leaf-hoppers (Phepsins ishida; P. tinctorius), which may involve less than half the leaf or may extend to the entire leaf. The first leaves to be infested are those next to the ground, which are affected early in July. Most of the damage ceases by the first week of August. Control is by spraying with nicotine sulphate and soap on the undersides of the leaves in late June or early July, repeating at the end of a week.

Certain nut weevils (Balaninus spp.) attack the native hazels, but Slate (1930) reports they do not attack the European filbert (C. avellana). Mr. Slate reports that in Geneva where nuts are carefully picked up they do not have much of a problem with weevils.

Dr. Crane reports that the Japanese beetle severely damages the filbert. While the Japanese beetle has not yet become widely established in Virginia, it undoubtedly will eventually become a problem throughout this state. The Japanese beetle can be destroyed by using four pounds of 50% wettable DDT or two pounds of actual DDT per 100 gallons. Such sprays should be applied as the Japanese beetles begin to cause injury, and usually two applications may be sufficient.

Mr. G. F. Gravatt has reported that his filbert plantings, surrounded on three sides by woods, are badly attacked by stink bugs that sting the nuts. DDT as suggested for Japanese beetles may also be used for stink bugs.

Another serious insect pest on hazelnut is the curculio. Clean cultivation has been reported as a supplementary measure for curculio control, as they depend, upon unbroken soil in the fall for their metamorphosis. Some hybrids are reported as being relatively immune to the attacks of curculio (Weschcke, 1946). Benezene hexachloride has shown promise with other plants in curculio control and may have possibilities on the filbert.

LACK OF HARDINESS. A third limitation has been lack of hardiness in the case of European varieties. With the European varieties the staminate or the pistillate flowers or both are likely to be killed by winter temperatures. In fact, occasional unduly low winter temperatures may kill the tree tops or even the tree trunks to the ground. The Winkler variety (C. americana) has been reported as more hardy in New York State than the Barcelona (C. avellana) or the Jones hybrids (C. americana x. C. avellana) (Ross Pier Wright, 1944).

Under western New York conditions, Slate (1930) reported that the blooming period starts about March 20 to 25 at Geneva, and lasts about a month. In central Virginia this may well be several weeks earlier. Slate (1930) also reports that the flowers in bloom will withstand considerable frost, and that even with temperatures of 16 deg.F. during the blooming season, neither female nor male flowers, may be injured. Nevertheless, with filberts coming into bloom in late February to early March, they would be subjected to temperatures that might result in injury especially to the catkins.

Some of the more hardy varieties as reported by Slate (1930) include the following: (a) White Lambert (not of value) (C. maxima); (b) Red Lambert (C. maxima); (c) Cosford; (d) Purple Aveline (C. avellana); and (e) Early Globe (of little value).

Some of the varieties upon which both the staminate and pistillate flowers tend to bloom relatively late are (a) Althaldensleber, (b) Kentish Cob, (c) Red Aveline, (d) Purple Aveline, and (e) Bolwiller. Late blooming, however, does not necessarily insure escaping injury from low spring temperatures. The Cosford, Italian Red, and Medium Long are considered by Slate as good for New York. The Bixby and Buchanan are the result of crossing C. americana x C. avellana, and appear to be of promise for home plantings in the East. Mr. H. F. Stoke is growing the Italian Red and Du Chilly (Kentish Cob) with Daviana for pollination purposes in the Roanoke area.

CROSS-POLLINATION. A fourth limitation is the fact that varieties are nearly entirely if not fully dependent upon cross-pollinization by other inter-fertile varieties that bloom at about the same time in order to insure a set of nuts. This limitation may be overcome by the proper planning of hardy varieties are inter-fertile. Colby (1944) has reported that the Winkler variety is self-fertile.

SUCKERS. A sixth limitation is the tendency of the C. avellana or C. maxima to sprout about the base and the labor and expense of keeping these sprouts pruned out. It is possible that this factor may be overcome by using Turkish hazel (C. colurna L.) as an understock and grafting or budding thereon the varieties that sprout when on their own roots. The Turkish hazel does not sprout as badly as the two other species.

Note by Editor: An Oregon nursery, which formerly propagated European filberts on the Turkish understock, now has abandoned its use. The grafted filbert tops did not seem to survive and bear as consistently as those on their own roots, after a period of several years in orchards.

PLANTING IN VIRGINIA. In a letter dated May 17, 1948, addressed to R. C. Moore, Assistant Horticulturist, V.P.I., H. J. Pettit, Assistant Secretary of the Planters Peanut Company, Suffolk, Virginia, reported that some years ago they planted several thousand trees of filberts, which they obtained from the states of New York and Oregon. From their experience it appears that late spring frosts destroyed the flower parts, which developed early, with the result that the yields were too low to be profitable. Hence, the filberts were removed and the land otherwise utilized. Mr. H. F. Stoke, however, in the Roanoke area has not found lack of hardiness as serious as the problems of diseases and insects of filberts.

An important nursery in Maryland has provided information to the effect that during this past 1947-48 season it sold for planting in Virginia a total of 34 filbert plants in lots of from one to ten. Its 1947-48 catalogue lists varieties of filberts for sale as follows: Barcelona, Daviana, Du Chilly, and American hazel.

Dr. H. L. Crane, Principal Horticulturist of the USDA, writes in a letter dated July 27, 1948, that he knows of no substantial plantings being made anywhere in Virginia. He has observed a few bushes or trees scattered about the homesteads, particularly in the northern or more mountainous part of the state. In most cases the performance of these filberts has not been entirely satisfactory because of leaf scorch during the summer, due apparently to high temperatures or unfavorable moisture conditions or to the winter killing of the catkins, or in some cases winter injury of the shoots. The largest plantings in Virginia that have yet come to the attention of the V.P.I. Department of Horticulture are those of Mr. Stoke in the Roanoke area.

Dr. Crane has observed the planting of a few bushes of the American hazelnut in Virginia. Their performance has been somewhat better than has been that of the European filbert, especially as to hardiness, and these American hazelnuts have borne more satisfactory crops of nuts than have the European filberts. The nuts produced by the native varieties, however, are small in size, thick shelled, and the kernels are small and lack quality. Observations by Dr. Crane, which have been made in the State of Virginia, lead him to believe that with the material that is at present available from nurserymen, there is not much hope of successful commercial filbert culture in the State of Virginia. When, however, seedlings 1667 and 2336 may become available, two varieties that are hardy and productive of fairly high quality nuts may provide material for home plantings or for local markets.

Ornamental Value. The filbert, however, also has possible value for ornamental plantings with its attractive foliage, or as a hedge, as well as for nut production, providing the home owner will control insects and diseases and maintain favorable growing conditions for our best known varieties.

Future Outlook in Virginia. With a further breeding program to combine the hardiness of the American hazel and its tolerance to Filbert Blight with some of the better qualities of the European and other species to obtain self-fertile varieties better adapted to Virginia conditions and with the better insecticides and fungicides now becoming available for insect and disease control, it may be that filbert growing in Virginia has a brighter future outlook than now appears to be true.

[Footnote 19: Tree Nuts, Acreage, Production, Farm Disposition, Value, and Utilization of Sales, 1909-45. USDA Bureau of Agr. Eco. Crop Rept. Brd.: 1-25 Oct. 1947.]

[Footnote 20: Rush, itself, is now considered a natural hybrid of
American and European filberts. Many of the European varieties are
derived from hybrids between +C. avellana+, +C. maxima+, and possibly other
Eurasian species.—Ed.]

[Footnote 21: Now located at Erie, Ill.—Ed.]

President Davidson: Thank you, Dr. Overholser. We have a paper from Mr. Elliott. Mr. Elliott is not here, but we are already behind our program, so I am afraid you are going to have to have that in printed form later on.

Filberts for Food and Looks in Kentucky

N. R. ELLIOTT, Extension Landscape Specialist,
Department of Horticulture,
University of Kentucky

Those of us interested in the landscape phase are always thinking of as many different kinds of plants as possible that may be used to create pleasing effects. Perhaps we might be criticized for overlooking several plants that would not only assist in creating pleasing effects but at the same time produce edible fruits of good quality. In my own experience I have often recommended the use of grape vines on a trellis to create a screen and at the same time produce fruit. Also in border plantings, like the shrub border, the gooseberries and currants make attractive shrubs and in addition supply fruits. In making these suggestions for plantings one needs to depart somewhat from the usual run of plants and in most instances the homeowner has never thought of using plants for effects as well as fruits.

+Filberts Good Dual Purpose Plants+

Filberts are certainly outstanding dual purpose plants, and I feel that they have not been used nearly as much as they should be. If we think of landscape from the broad point of view, we realize that screen or border plantings make up one of the most important parts of the set-up, especially in rural parts. Practically every farm home has some unattractive view near by that needs to be screened out, either partially or entirely. This view may be caused by a lot where farm animals are kept, an old, unattractive barn, or even a gullied field. Lots where animals are kept and the barn are necessary parts of the farm operations, and the gullied field may result from neglect, but regardless of the cause for the undesirable view it can and should be screened from view from the home.

In making a screen planting, two plans are possible—one, the shrub border, and the other the hedge row, and filberts are excellent to use in either planting. Where space is at a premium, the hedge offers the best form of screen. Filberts planted two and a half feet apart and pruned in such a way as to make them have a shrub appearance will make an ideal hedge and produce lots of nuts of good quality. This hedge can be counted on to be effective up to twelve feet in height.

In the shrub border filberts are allowed to produce many stems and to grow into small trees. This is done by pruning and by using groups of two or three plants in a place, planted some five or six feet apart. Different varieties may be used for different groups, thereby producing a variation of foliage. The filberts will take their places with the well known small trees like the dogwood and the redbud, when used in this way.

Still another use for filberts in landscape work is to use them for small trees as lawn specimen plants. They have a size, shape, and foliage that makes them attractive when used in this way.

+Cross Pollination Necessary+

Our experience has been that there is need for cross pollination to get maximum yields of fruit; therefore, we suggest that different varieties be used in a planting. Barcelona, DuChilly, and the Jones Hybrids seem to us well suited for this. Of course, there are others, but our experience with varieties is limited.

When it comes to the soil for filberts, we find that a fairly rich soil that has plenty of moisture is the best. Of course, the soil must drain well because the roots of filberts seem to be very susceptible to poorly drained soil conditions. If there is a lot of sand in the soil, give the filberts more moisture and food because they are rapid growers.

So far, we have not had many complaints about filberts suffering from winter injury. This may be due to the fact that so far Kentucky is not using great quantities of these plants, or it may be due to the fact that the varieties used have been reasonably hardy. The little winter injury seen so far has been in the terminal twig growth, and removal of these twigs in the spring has not meant altering the normal shape of the plant.

I do not know whether there is any significance to it but the filberts that have been fed by using well rotted manure applied in the fall and spaded into the top four inches of soil next spring have made the best growth and produced the most fruit.

So far the filberts that we have had experience with have been free from insects and diseases. One never knows how long that condition will last.

Now, when it comes to discussing filberts as a food, all that I want to say is that at Christmas time when you buy mixed nuts you usually get a few of the filberts in the mixture. These nuts are good eating, and when the plants are grown on the home grounds everyone who has them says they are much enjoyed by all members of the family. Our experience has been that filberts yield annually and, if given reasonable care, in good amounts.

In conclusion we would like to say we feel there is not only a place for filberts in landscape work, but there is an absolute need for greater use of these plants especially in rural plantings. At present, the professional landscape artists are not inclined to recommend them as often as they could, simply because they have not been trained to think of dual purpose plants. Greater publicity as to the value of these plants would undoubtedly mean greater use of them.

President Davidson: We also have a paper from Mr. Reed, which is of quite a good deal of importance historically on the work of Mr. Jones. I wish you could have that. Probably you will have to read that, too.

J. F. Jones, Introducer of Many Nut Varieties

CLARENCE A. REED, Collaborator

The name of J. F. Jones was once one of the best known and most highly respected in eastern nut culture. It was from Mountain Grove, Wright County, Mo., that he was first heard from in 1900, when he discovered and introduced the Rockville hican, which he named after the nearest town. It never proved of value, but that fact did not detract from the importance of being first, a habit which remained with him till his death. In 1902 he moved to Monticello, Jefferson County, Florida; five years later he moved to Jeanerette, Iberia Parish, Louisiana; and in 1912, he moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he died in January, 1928.

In 1903, while at Monticello, he successfully graft-propagated the Rush Persian (English) walnut and the Weiker hickory, an intermediate form between shagbark and shellbark. Both were from Lancaster County, and he used scions sent him by J. G. Rush, of West Willow, south of Lancaster. Mr. Rush is credited with introducing the walnut bearing his name, while credit went to Mr. Jones for the Weiker hickory. Some years later, on two occasions, Mr. Jones took a visitor to the Weiker parent tree when the branches were laden with nuts so that they hung down in a manner suggestive of plums. For some reason, never explained, no other tree of the variety, so far as is known, ever bore as much as a quart of nuts, although the trees frequently flowered profusely. The variety was, however, markedly dichogamous. The parent tree, which stood in the yard of Mr. Christ LeFever of Lampeter, about two miles east of the Jones home, was blown over in a heavy gale many years ago.

Mr. Jones graft-propagated a considerable number of Hales shagbark while at Monticello, with scions that came from the original tree near Ridgewood, New Jersey. However, this variety was first propagated by Henry Hales of Ridgewood, in 1879. He also had Kirtland from Yalesville, Connecticut, but like many others since that time, both it and Hales proved to be light bearers. Other hickories may have been propagated by Mr. Jones while at Monticello but these are the only ones of which there is record. The Kirtland was first propagated in 1897.

[Footnote 22: U.S.D.A. Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils and Agricultural
Engineering, Plant Industry Station, Beltsville, Md.]

+First Carload of Grafted Pecan Trees+

When he went to Florida, there were few pecan trees of bearing age in either that State or Georgia and none to speak of in the Carolinas. The "fast" trains went no more than 30 or 35 miles an hour, and a minimum of three days was required to see even an occasional planting or a single tree. Within the next few years, nurserymen everywhere propagated their own varieties and listed them in their catalogs. Mr. Jones was discriminating and propagated only varieties that then had the best reputation, such as Schley and Stuart, and some others that have not stood the test of time. In one way, he was distinctively first; he shipped the first carload of pecan trees ever to go to one address. This was in January of 1906, when 10,000 trees were shipped to Professor H. E. Van Deman who was then establishing a 900-acre orchard near Ferriday, La. A picture of the car appeared in the American Nut Journal, published by W. N. Roper, Petersburg, Va., Vol. III, No. 50, March 1906, (Van Deman had been the first Pomologist in the Department of Agriculture, 1886 to 1892).

Mr. Ray Simpson of Vincennes, Ind., went to Mr. Jones to learn how to graft pecan trees. He offered to work without pay if Mr. Jones would teach him the art. He had graduated at Cornell in 1905, and had been inspired by John Craig, Professor of Horticulture there. Craig himself later invested somewhat heavily in pecan orchards both near Monticello and at Albany, Georgia. Mr. Simpson was taken on and proved as good a propagator as the best hand and received the same pay.

While at Monticello Mr. Jones began to feel that the region might not be the best place for pecans. Perhaps he had made a mistake. It was 300 miles to middle western Alabama, where there were the nearest native trees. A disease was appearing among many of the trees planted in the East, which was then poorly understood (rosette). Pecan wood for budding and grafting was scarce and Mr. Jones would trust no one to cut it for him. He went to the trees himself.

One man who then had an abundance of wood and who could be relied upon was B. M. Young of Morgan City, La., and Mr. Jones went to him for wood several times. Once he became confused as to the trees from which he had cut a couple of bundles, so both were thrown in the river and he went back for more. Mr. Young was greatly impressed, so much so that he remembered the incident, as we shall see.

+The Move to Louisiana+

Back in Florida Ray Simpson wished to buy and Mr. Jones wished to sell, so a deal was soon made. Mr. Jones went to Louisiana where the pecan is native and there were many large trees, probably as many as could be found in any one place in the entire South. Mr. Young knew of a group from St. Paul, Minnesota, who were about to buy and plant a thousand acres near Jeanerette and who were looking for an experienced man to take charge. Mr. Jones was recommended and was soon at work. For another five years, he worked harder than almost any other white man in the State. Great odds were against him. Being from the North, he did not associate exclusively with whites, and presently the southern white people left him severely alone. That was not all; he could not raise as good nursery trees as he had in Florida. The trees grew slowly in the cold, heavy soil of Louisiana, and the fibrous root system failed to materialize. The excellent reputation he and his trees had enjoyed in Monticello began to deteriorate. He worked harder than ever and waited for a break. When it came, he did not hesitate.

+Jones Shifts to Pennsylvania+

The St. Paul crowd fell into a squabble and divided into two factions, each wishing control. A man went south to see if Mr. Jones would sell his stock. Would he? He knew when to keep his mouth shut and he meekly made a deal. He was probably never more glad over anything in his life. He came north, lock, stock, and barrel. But he was far from being without a place to land. Since his Monticello days, he and Mr. Rush had been good friends. Mr. Rush knew a farm of 20 acres with buildings, which could be had for $8,000. It was four miles south of Lancaster, and at a point where two main highways leading into the city came together. It sloped eastward enough so that it did not get the full force of west winds. It was two miles from Mr. Rush's home, with the town of Willow Street between.

Mr. Jones then began eight or 10 years of lean hard work. He modernized buildings, planted an orchard of nut varieties most of which were purchased from W. C. Reed of Vincennes, Ind., and W. N. Roper of Petersburg, Va. From Roper he bought both seedling and grafted trees. Some of the "seedlings" had been budded and then not cut back to force the buds. The latter were still dormant and when the trees were properly cut back, the buds pushed forth. T. P. Littlepage, of Washington, and Prof. W. N. Hutt, of Raleigh, N. C., had a good laugh at Roper, but as the trees bore no labels, they were no more valuable than seedlings and were treated as such. All three men are now deceased.

Thomas black walnut trees came from E. A. Riehl, Godfrey, Illinois. The variety had originated in eastern Pennsylvania and was first grafted in 1881 by J. W. Thomas and Son, at King of Prussia, Pa. The parent tree had been destroyed some time before by the Pennsylvania Railroad, in extending its lines. The Thomas is today the most widely planted variety, although it has rarely borne well. Mr. Jones selected and grafted the Ohio walnut, but the owner of the seed-parent tree was given credit for its introduction, although she probably knows nothing of the incident, to this day. She was a Miss Clark, McCutcheonville, Ohio, and it was felt that it would help more to give her name as originator if one were ever to locate the tree.

[See Ohio black walnut original tree photos, NNGA Rept., 1946.—Ed.]

The Stabler eastern black walnut, introduced in 1916 by Mr. T. P. Littlepage by means of a paragraph inserted in the Country Gentleman, was also propagated by Mr. Jones, but he early found it disappointing in its habits of bearing. He also found that about 80 percent of the nuts from the parent tree had single kernels, while with young trees 80 percent had double kernels. Most planters have long since discontinued using this variety. However, Mrs. Jane Baum, Douglassville, Pa., reports that her customers like the Stabler best. Others she has are Thomas, Ohio, and Ten Eyck.

Other varieties were tested by Mr. Jones, but he pushed none of them, rightly thinking that 4 leaders were as many as a nursery could afford to carry. He insisted that a new variety would have to prove its superiority before he would insert it in his catalog. Among other varieties was the Peanut from southern Ohio, the nut of which had single lobes; but apparently there was some mistake along the line, as nuts from grafted trees were indifferent and had 2 half kernels. He also had Creitz from Indiana, which Mr. H. F. Stoke, 1436 Watts Avenue, Roanoke, Va., thinks well of at this time. It was a prize winner in the 1926 contest of the NNGA. Neither Creitz nor Peanut was a Jones introduction.

+His Work with Hickories+

Among the hickories, there was the Stanley from Indiana in 1916, which was quite a favorite with Mr. Jones for some time. But did any one ever see a shellbark that bore well and filled the nuts? Shellbark trees are beautiful to look at, have enormous leaves, seven to nine leaflets, but they leaf out early in spring and the flowers are frequently killed back by spring frosts. Part of its flowers are killed outright with too great frequency for it to be worth growing for the nuts. These are very large, the hulls split entirely to the base, and what kernel there is, is of sugar-like sweetness. The shells are mostly thick and the kernels seldom well-filled.

The Glover shagbark hickory, from Connecticut, which was introduced by Mr. Jones in 1918, is undoubtedly one of the best shagbarks yet propagated. The nuts are of medium size and shell thickness. The flavor is very good. Most shagbarks have five leaflets; this one has seven quite as often, and the leaf is about a foot long.

There were other hybrids, or what are supposed to be hybrids. The Pleas hickory, introduced in 1916, was perhaps first successfully grafted by Mr. Jones, but credit for introduction went to the owner of the parent tree, Dr. E. Pleas, Collinsville, Oklahoma. It was a beautiful tree, shapely, with an air of considerable refinement, making it a graceful lawn tree. It bore fairly well, although not heavily. The nuts were thin-shelled and also had thin hulls that split entirely to the base. So far as most laymen are concerned, the Pleas may be but an edible, or semi-edible bitternut. On the grounds of the Plant Industry Station, at Beltsville, Md., there were once two trees of Pleas, but they were given to the Wild Life Service for planting 10 miles away, although there are many native bitternut trees just over the line fence in neighboring woods. We fancied that we could detect bitternut flavor in good shagbarks about the plantings, due to xenia influence, as in the case of chestnuts.

Burlington was another hican first propagated by Mr. Jones, in 1915. It came from eastern Iowa, and for a time was confused with Marquardt, which never was propagated, or apparently not. Burlington makes a fine appearing tree and serves well for ornamental purposes. It bears fairly well while young, but soon develops faulty nuts, few being well-filled and the majority weevil infested. It is also subject to shuck-worm and twig girdler injury.

Mr. Jones once wrote that he had given up with the hickories "in disgust." So far as is known, he never used any stock for hickories other than pecan, which grew well, made good unions and generally outgrew the scions. John Hershey, however, says this is not a good combination, but there are too many trees of Jones' propagation about the country, to accept Hershey's verdict altogether. Carl Weschcke, of St. Paul, uses bitternut largely or entirely; if it is a mistake, it will be expensive. Hickories are slow to grow and one gets too few nuts at best. It takes a lifetime to get even small crops, and for our part, we want no bitternuts on the place. Too often shagbarks fail to unite with bitternut and frequently they are short-lived.

In 1916 Mr. Jones propagated and introduced the Beaver hickory, from central Pennsylvania, a supposed bitternut-shagbark cross. It proved of little value and soon disappeared. The Fairbanks from northeast Iowa, a similar cross, was introduced the same year. It was one of the prettiest of all hybrids and stood up about the longest, but it had too much bitterness in the pellicle encasing the kernel and was much subject to weevil injury.

+Efforts with Persian Walnuts+

Many varieties of Persian (English) walnut were propagated and brought into bearing. Mr. Jones included a majority of the varieties brought into the country from France by Felix Gillet, of Nevada City, Calif., as early as 1870. There were Franquette, Mayette, Meylan, Parisienne, and a cutleaf variety which appears to have had no other name. A California variety of which he thought well for a number of years was Eureka, a western introduction of 1908. He propagated a number of eastern varieties such as Lancaster (Alpine) in 1913, although credit went to Mr. Rush; Boston, from Massachusetts, also in 1913; Ontario, from Canada, in 1914; and probably others. He obtained Chinese walnuts, from P. Wang, Kinsan Arboretum, Shanghai, and sold seedlings at wholesale. These were an Asiatic form of Juglans regia. He limed the soil, and thought the effects were beneficial. In this he was warmly supported by T. P. Littlepage and more recently by growers in Northern Ohio; but lately liming has not been found beneficial in Italy. All in all, however, the Persian walnut was not particularly dependable, and during the last few years the nursery which he left discontinued selling Persian walnut trees. In the East, the trees of older varieties usually were little more than interesting novelties.

+He Tried the Chinese Chestnut+

The Chinese chestnut was tried for a few years; but as so often happens with this species, nursery trees died badly in winter and Mr. Jones thought it due to blight, a disease which was then sweeping his part of the country, taking its mortal toll of both American and European species. However, blight does not seriously attack young trees and it is more likely that death was caused by a combination of summer drouth and winter cold; but no matter, the trees perished and the result was the same.

+First Heartnut Grafts+

Mr. Jones tried the butternut and there is still one tree in the experimental planting east of the residence. It is Aiken, from New England, and was first propagated by him in 1918. It proved disappointing. He grafted the first heartnut ever grafted of any kind insofar as is known, the Lancaster, in 1918. The only other heartnut for which he received full credit for first propagation was Faust, obtained from a dentist, Dr. 0. D. Faust, Bamberg, S. C., in 1918. Others that he was doubtless first to propagate, but for which credit went to the owners of the parent trees, were Bates and Stranger in 1919, both from R. Bates, Jackson, Aiken County, S. C., and Ritchie, a Virginia variety found by John W. Ritchie of Flemington, N. J., in 1918.

However, heartnuts are seldom heavy bearers and the trees do not grow large or live long. In Japan the wood is sometimes used for gunstocks but only because better material is unavailable. Heartnuts have practically no market where other kinds of nuts can be had and the trees are much subject to "bunch" disease. To an enormous extent the trees have been sold to unsuspecting people of the South and East as "English" walnuts.

[Footnote 23: See Weschcke's paper, elsewhere in this report.—Ed.]

+The Filbert+

Mr. Jones had a tree or two of the Turkish filbert, a species sometimes reaching a height of 60 feet and attaining a trunk diameter of three feet or more. Bixby found the species hardy in central New Hampshire. Mr. Jones obtained his seed from three trees in Highland Park, Rochester, New York, which are believed to be the oldest in the country. In some years, the Rochester trees bear freely, while in others there is not a nut. This is a valuable ornamental species, as it is green from early spring till the last thing in fall; specimens must be selected for such use, as often the trees are unshapely. Like all filberts, they are subject to Japanese beetle attack and must be sprayed or otherwise protected in beetle infested zones. Filbert foliage may be destroyed by these insects as many as three times in a summer and the trees die down to the ground. The nuts are too small to be of value; but the wood is white, very hard, and makes good turned articles.

+His Greatest Contribution+

It was with the filbert that Mr. Jones made his greatest contribution to nut culture. In 1917 he tried crossing European varieties with pollen of the native Rush. There were no results, and he tried again in 1918 with no better luck. In 1919 he reversed the order of crossing and nearly every nut set. He had discovered that native pollen was not effective on European stigmas, but that the reciprocal cross worked. By 1924 he had a fine lot of fruiting plants. The great majority were of no value, but his No. 200 apparently was well worth while. It was named Bixby in 1937, four years after another seedling, No. 91, had been named Buchanan. The explanation of this belated selection is that the soil about the Bixby tree had so eroded that the tree was starved for a time; but with a couple of years of heavy application of stable manure, it came back, so much so that it is now considered the better of the two. Both are rather small as compared with the large filberts of the Pacific Northwest; but when fully mature, they are sweet and agreeable.

After Mr. Jones was gone, the place was managed by his daughter, Miss Mildred Jones. She kept plants of her father's filbert varieties and the best of the crosses. The latter are now called the Mildred filberts, a name applied in Standardized Plant Names to the entire group of crosses between Rush American and any European filbert. Mr. Jones hoped to have these called after himself but there was an old variety of Jones "hazel" and so his own name could not be used. He once sent specimens to Dr. C. S. Sargent of Arnold Arboretum and somehow gained the impression that the name Jones was given to the cross. Later, however, Sargent's successor, Mr. Alfred Rehder wrote that Sargent had not used the name in either correspondence or on specimens placed in the herbarium.

The example of Mr. Jones in breeding filberts has since been followed by others, as the Department of Agriculture, the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, and. Mr. Carl Weschcke of St. Paul, Minnesota. The last has copyrighted his crosses under the designation "hazilbert," which is a good name; but with the issue of Standardized Plant Names in 1942, the name "hazel" was dropped for all members of the family. For a time, an effort was made to distinguish between the two by calling small-fruited ones "hazels" and those with large fruits "filberts," but there is not exact dividing line and so now all are called filberts.

Buchanan and Bixby are the only varieties of Mildred filberts thus far fully released by anyone and although neither variety is entirely hardy in the northernmost parts of the country, they do well as far south as eastern Tennessee. The nuts of both are too small to compete in the market with the large filberts of Oregon and Washington, but that is not the purpose for which they have been bred. It is for home planting, a use for which they are admirably adapted. Neither variety should be judged until after they have cured fully, at least a month or more. Then the flavor is excellent.

Of the various introductions made by Mr. Jones, the ones most likely to endure are the Ohio black walnut, the Glover shagbark hickory, and the Mildred filberts. The first has already lasted 32 years; the second 30 years; and the Mildred filberts are only nicely started.

[Footnote 24: Except for the last two paragraphs, this paper was read and approved by Miss Mildred Jones in Pavilion, N. Y., on September 2, 1948. The following day, or September 3, she became Mrs. Wesley Langdoc, of P. O. Box 126, Erie, Illinois.]

+Mr. Reed Comments on Seedling Trees+

+Editor's Note:+ The next two paragraphs should be read in connection with the "Round Table" on chestnut problems, elsewhere in this volume.

In a broad sense, it must be remembered that every variety of seedling tree, of any species and every hybrid form that has ever been planted, or grafted on another tree, has been worth something. This is still a free country and every man has the inalienable right to plant whatever he pleases. Even the hybrids of various forms, hickory, walnut, and chestnut, are all worth something. All are trees and it is better to plant a poor kind of tree than not to plant anything, particularly if it is a nut tree. Whatever prompts a man to plant a tree is worth while.

Hybrid chestnuts bred by crossing Chinese chestnuts of unknown performance record as to habit of bearing, size or flavor of nut, shape of tree, resistance to blight, or spring freezes, and other characteristics which combine to make good nuts, with the inferior and largely inedible Japanese chestnuts, are unlikely to do the damage to the industry that is sometimes predicted. They are now so mixed up that few will be planted by themselves, and there is considerable evidence that the xenia influence of good Chinese chestnuts with which the trees are being planted will render nuts from these hybrid trees fit to market and eat.

President Davidson: The value of nut trees in Tennessee, then, will be discussed by Mr. F. S. Chance of the Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station in Knoxville.

The Value of Nut Trees in Tennessee

F. S. CHANCE, Vice-Director, Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station,
Knoxville, Tennessee.

Mr. Chance: Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: As a representative of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Tennessee I want to say it is a great honor to have this distinguished group meet here in Tennessee, especially on the banks of beautiful Norris Lake, which is one of the tributaries to the dammedest river in the country. We are something like 600 miles from the Gilbertsville Dam, or Kentucky Dam near Paducah, Kentucky, and this area here is the beginning of a chain of lakes that run just about that far.

For those of you who are from a distance, you may know that in making a chain of lakes out of this great Tennessee Valley that we covered up lots of good land. We have developed lots of good power. Now, I am not just sure why I was put on this program, because, really I am not a nut tree specialist, as I see most of you people are. I will admit that I have been associating with experimentation for the last eight or ten years and have become slightly nutty, but really my big interest is timber. I am still a blockhead. So in discussing and talking with you this morning for a few minutes about the value of nut trees in Tennessee I want you to just keep in the back of your minds that the thing in the timber world that I think is the prettiest when it comes to furniture is black walnut.

So in some plantings that we made several years ago with the help of Spencer Chase at our various substations and at the parent station at Knoxville, when we began to prune those trees I wanted to go to pruning for timber and he wanted to go to pruning for nuts. He won. So as we developed these plantings we are sure that we are going to have some very excellent nut trees.

Tennessee ranging in altitude from something over a mile high down to some 300 or 350 feet at Memphis on the Mississippi gives us a very, very wide range of climate. This wide range of climate gives us the possibility of growing a very wide range of timber trees. A great part of that area is soil from a limestone formation. Nearly all parts of Tennessee are well adapted to the production of the black walnut. The tree as a nut tree has not in the past been looked at with such great interest. However, there are farms in Tennessee that have been purchased with walnut kernels. Over the period of years, why, thrifty families, especially in Eastern Tennessee sections, have gathered up the walnuts in the neighborhood round about, cracked them and sold the kernels and from year to year made certain accumulations of that kind, funds, and saved them with enough in the bank or in the sock to buy a farm. I knew one particular person who bought a nice farm in just that way.

Now, a great many of the people in the same neighborhood did not save their walnuts. These walnuts were gathered from everybody's trees without any objection on the part of anyone. But it was a means of those people getting ahead with their savings from their other farming operations, and this wintertime work that they could put in, why, that kind of thrift is the kind that gets people ahead who want to get ahead and have vision.

I might say a few words about pecans in Tennessee. We have throughout the state quite a few scattered native pecans that are used, especially in all except the more western sections of the state. As a whole they are for home use. Now, in the extreme western section of the state we have a certain amount of seedling pecans, mostly, that produce a considerable income to a limited number of people. In the 1945 census something over 4,000 farms reported some income from pecans—this was mostly in the western section of the state—the value of which was something over $32,000, which at the present time would be a considerable under-valuation.

This tree is found, I might say, throughout the state. I recall a few years ago coming off of the Cumberland Plateau down in Warren County into the cove there around Viola and seeing a beautiful grove of pecans along a stream. I hadn't been through that country before, but I had known a family that lived there, and I stopped at a house to see just what those pecans meant. And there was an old lady on the porch who owned the property, and I asked her some questions about it, and she told me how they got there and knew when they were not there. She had been raised on that place but she said, "I want to show you something." So I went with her around the side yard into the back yard, and she had a couple of pecan trees there that were loaded with pecans until the limbs were hanging over just like pear tree limbs, heavily loaded pear tree limbs. I said, "My, what a crop of pecans you have here. That's really wonderful." Those were the budded pecans, the type that is grown farther south of us. She said, "Just wait a minute, now. I don't know whether I have any pecans or not." I said, "What do you mean?" She said, "If the frost is two weeks later than usual we will have a wonderful pecan crop, if we have a late frost. If we have an early frost we don't have any pecans."

It was quite interesting to me to see that wonderful crop hanging on the tree and yet she wasn't at all assured that anything of value would come from it.

We have on some of our holdings at the University experimental Stations some wonderful Chinese chestnut trees. I can't get overly excited over them, remembering the chestnut as we had it once in Tennessee with the long, slender body, wonderful telephone poles and wonderful timber of other kinds, and to see that a tremendous economic loss has come to this country through disease that was and probably is not controllable. But from the nut standpoint we have at the present time some trees that look as though they are going to be the equal of our own native chestnut that covered Tennessee from the mountain top to the river bank. So we are very much in hope that again Tennessee will have a supply of chestnuts which will be equivalent, probably, to the harvest of chestnuts we once had. However, that's going to be many, many years off.

From the experimental standpoint I have been very much interested in the timber type of tree, hoping that our native chestnut trees, at least one out of the billions, maybe would prove to be resistant. However, watching these growths come up from time to time and attain an age sufficient to produce nuts and then have my hopes blighted by going back the next year and finding that the tree was blighted has become rather discouraging. I hope that some of you people will find just such a tree, one that will bear an excellent nut and at the same time produce excellent timber.

Now I am coming to our big asset in the way of nut trees in Tennessee, as I see it. I was rather interested here in Professor Moore's discussion of the honeylocust, that detestable tree which was such a thorn in my flesh as a child, and having heard someone championing it with such a story as he had, I have heard everything now. Everybody, though, has a champion. Even my mother loved me, regardless.

Black walnut is, as I said in the beginning, native to all sections of the state, and I think that through the collection of the better yielding or better cracking nuts by the Tennessee Valley Authority we are going to find in this crop a very potent asset to the state of Tennessee through the income from sale of nuts. We have in the state about four cracking plants. One of them is located in Morristown. Down in the basin part of the state where walnuts do particularly well, three others are in the city of Nashville. There were something like 10 million pounds of walnuts in the shell delivered in Nashville this last year, yielding about 1,200,000 pounds of kernels. Now, this is no mean return from a crop which was really just gathered up with very, very little attention given to the planting. It is just one of these free crops, so to speak.

If we were to add to that income the great income which we have been receiving through the years from the sale of timber trees, we would run the value of the black walnut into considerable proportions, with income from the sale of black walnuts in the kernel and in timber.

I see no particular reason why that crop cannot be increased ten, twenty or a hundred fold by just a stimulation of interest in the black walnut. I recall back just previous to World War I, or about that time, there was a tremendous demand, as usual, for black walnut for gun stocks. I happened to be free for a month or so at that time so I could give some attention to the purchasing and delivery of both veneer stock and walnut for gun stocks. It was quite interesting to me as I went over a couple of counties in which I made some purchases, to see that someone in the 40, 50 or 60 years back had had a vision of what the walnut tree would be worth to them on their tracts of land and how we were at that time reaping the harvest of the person who had a vision of the value of the walnut tree. A great many of those trees were trees that had been set or walnuts that had been planted years before by some far-seeing person, and it had gone on without any interruption, probably without the slightest bit of protection, until the time that it was needed and desperately needed for economic purposes.

We have some work going on also in connection with the planting of walnuts in pasture fields. The returns from the pasture in the planting of walnut trees have been just practically the same, maybe a little bit better in favor of the walnuts than where we did not have walnuts in the pasture. This work is being conducted down at the Middle Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Tennessee at Columbia. We are using the walnut tree and also the black locust in this experiment. We don't know what the future of it is going to be, but those walnut trees have grown large enough so that they have had to be thinned to keep them from putting too much shade over the ground.

I made a statement several years ago in the presence of quite a distinguished agronomist or horticulturist that I had never seen a walnut tree growing in the open, whether it was in the blue grass region or outside of a blue grass region that did not have blue grass growing under it. He looked at me askance, and I said, "Do you believe it?" "Well, I don't know," he answered.

So we happened to be coming out of Quincy, Florida, up through southern Georgia outside of the blue grass region, and we were both sitting in the back seat of the car. Our driver drove up to a filling station, and I saw this fellow looked up at a walnut tree over in the yard not very far away, in fact, the next yard to the filling station. I somehow or other sensed what he was thinking. He pushed his door open, got out. I pushed my door open, went around the car and followed him. He walked up to that walnut tree, turned around and said, "Well, it's there." He turned around and walked back.

Now, of course, a condition may prevail in dense shade, where that does not happen in young walnut trees, but I just happened to be right. There is a symbiotic relationship between plants—I don't want to get into that subject—but this one thing I am thinking, and that is that the reason why they were able to get this good grazing from under these walnut trees is that there is a relationship there between those two plants that makes it ideal for the production of pasture grass, and blue grass over a great many of our states is our leading grass.

I might say to the gentleman from Virginia that I had a letter from up there a few days ago. I don't know why they wanted to write to me, wanting to know if the walnut tree was a legume. So I presume that that was the reason, that the grass grew very nicely under those trees.

I have taken too much of your valuable time. It certainly has been a pleasure and an honor to be here and talk to you these few minutes. Thank you.

President Davidson: Thank you, Mr. Chance. We will take a short recess.

(Recess taken.)

President Davidson: The meeting will now come to order, please. The embryo development of the black walnut will be illustrated and discussed by Dr. L. H. MacDaniels of Cornell University.

(Paper to appear in next volume.)

Dr. Crane: I was very glad Dr. MacDaniels' paper preceded mine, because it does give you a very much better picture of the development of all of our oily nuts, excepting the filbert and, of course, the almond to some extent. But we take in pecans and the hickories and for the walnuts the situation is quite general.

Now, this paper that I am going to read is one that our staff in nut investigations has been working on for the past twenty or more years, and we feel we know a lot about the growing and the development and filling of nuts. And there is a lot in this paper that I think will be of value to all nut growers regardless of the kind of nuts that we are trying to grow.

The Development and Filling of Nuts

H. L. CRANE, Principal Horticulturist, United States Department of
Agriculture, Agricultural Research Administration, Bureau of Plant
Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, Division of Fruit and
Vegetable Crops and Diseases.

All nut growers are confronted with the problems involved in the production of nuts of large size with well filled kernels that are "bright" or light colored. Unsatisfactory development and filling of the kernels is more often a cause of complaint by growers than any other single factor affecting nut production. This is because all of our commercial nuts now sold in the shell are priced on a basis of size and the degree to which they are filled. The size and degree of filling of the nuts varies not only from year to year, but from district to district, orchard to orchard, and even in the same orchard, because nuts of one variety may fill well and those of another poorly. This is true even though the kind and variety of nut being produced is grown in a locality usually having suitable climatic conditions for normal nut production.

+Climatic Conditions+

Prevailing climatic conditions in any locality determine how well a particular kind of nut will fill. For example, the pecan is native to the southern part of the United States and a small area in northern Mexico. In its native habitat the summers are long and the day and night temperatures are uniformly high, with little difference between maximum and minimum daily temperatures. When the pecan is grown under conditions of shorter summers, or where there is a marked difference between night and day temperatures, the nuts do not grow to proper size and the kernels fill poorly, if at all. Although pecan trees are quite hardy and may be grown successfully well north of their native limits, the normal development of the nuts and the filling of them cannot be expected there.

Good examples of the climactic effects can be cited. At Davis, California, the pecan tree grows, flowers, and sets fruit satisfactorily, but the nuts fail to grow to proper size, fill poorly, and may not mature before frost. At Davis there is an average length of growing season of 242 days; the day temperatures are high, but the night temperatures are comparatively low. Pecan trees are hardy even in Connecticut, but the trees fail to bear because of the short growing season and the great difference between day and night temperatures. The pecan is truly a hot weather crop and is not suited for culture under mountainous conditions. On the other hand it cannot be grown under subtropical conditions because of insufficient cold during the winter to meet the chilling requirement of the trees. Under such conditions, tree growth starts very late in the spring, and, although the trees may flower, few nuts may set and those that stick may be very poorly filled at harvest if they mature.

The pecan is probably more exacting in regard to its climactic requirements than are our other kinds of nuts, but the filbert or hazlenut is probably a close second in this respect. The filbert, however, represents the opposite extreme in that it does best under conditions of mild winter and moderate summer temperatures. These differences are pointed out for the reason that many amateur nut growers want to grow certain nuts outside of their native range in places where unsuitable climatic conditions prevail, and they cannot understand why success is not possible.

+Growth and Fruiting Habit of Nut Trees+

Since the growth and fruiting habits of our different kinds of nut trees are closely related, it is desirable to point out some of these relationships. All of our different species of walnuts, the pecan and all hickory nuts, as well as hazelnuts and filberts, are borne terminally on shoots of the current season. In other words all walnut species, pecan, and all hickory species bear the pistillate flowers that develop into nuts at the terminal end of the shoots produced the same year that the nuts mature. The staminate or pollen-producing flowers of all these species arise from lateral buds on shoots that grew the previous year. In the case of hazelnut and filbert the pistillate flowers are borne in lateral buds on shoots of the previous season, as are also the staminate flowers or catkins. In this case, however, the pistillate flowers are formed and pollinated before the current year's shoot growth is made. Almonds are borne laterally on shoots produced the previous season. All chestnuts are borne laterally on shoots produced the same season as the nuts.

The chestnut bears most of the staminate flowers separately in staminate catkins whereas the pistillate flowers are in mixed catkins, but all are formed laterally on shoots of the current season. The almond, which has perfect flowers, produces these in lateral buds on shoots of the previous year. Both the hazelnut and the almond flower before any current-season growth is made, whereas all of the other kinds of nut trees mentioned produce almost all normal shoot growth before flowering occurs. These differences in growth, flowering, and fruiting habits provide a basis for the explanation of why growth of almond trees, for example, is harder to maintain than is that of walnut or pecan. Flowering and early development of the fruit before shoot growth is made tend to check such growth, so that flowering and fruiting trees will not make as much new growth as they would have made had flowering and fruiting been prevented.

In general, it can be stated that, in the case of bearing trees, the longer the shoot growth and the greater its diameter in proportion to length, the greater is the number of pistillate flowers that may be formed at its terminal. Furthermore, the set of nuts and the size that they attain are in proportion to the length and diameter of the shoots bearing them. In other words, the number of flowers formed, the nuts set, and the size that they attain are directly correlated with the vigor and growth of the trees. As trees attain age, fewer long, strong shoots and more short, weak shoots are formed. Hence the average size of the nuts produced decreases because of the reduction in average shoot growth. Furthermore, under normal conditions, the degree to which the nuts are filled is related to the vigor as it is measured by the length and diameter of the shoots bearing them. Strong, vigorous shoots usually produce the best filled and earliest maturing nuts.

+What Is a Nut and of What Does It Consist?+

Webster gives a general definition of a nut as "a fruit consisting of a kernel or seed enclosed in a hard woody or leathery shell that does not open when ripe, as in the hazel, beech, oak, chestnut." Technically speaking, it is a hard, indehiscent, one-seeded dry fruit resulting from a compound ovary. In horticultural language the fruit consists of the hard or leathery nut containing a kernel, together with the husk, hull, or bur that surrounds the nut shell. This kernel consists of the embryo plus the endosperm or its remains. In all of our important nuts, such as walnuts, pecans, hickory nuts, almonds, and filberts, the kernel is essentially the embryo with its thickened cotyledons or seed leaves, as the endosperm has been absorbed except for a thin membrane.

At the beginning of its development, growth of the embryo is slow, and in very early stages it is merely a rounded mass of cells. Later, the meristems of the epicotyl (stem or top) and root axis develop, but the whole embryo is still microscopic in size. Still later the cotyledons (seed leaves) start development from the apical meristem and their growth in length is rapid, but they are very thin and follow the contours of the seed coat. Growth in length of the cotyledons may be arrested by unfavorable nutritional conditions during the time of elongation. In such case, the lobes of the cotyledons may not attain the full length of the seed coat, or pellicle, which surrounds them. After the cotyledons have attained full length, growth in thickness begins in the area nearest the epicotyl and proceeds toward the margins. This growth in thickness results from cambium-like meristem with the formation of new cells. The formation of well developed or solid kernels that completely fill the cavity within the shell is dependent upon meristematic activity continuing almost to maturity. The weather conditions, the nutrition of the tree, or other factors that affect the synthesis and translocation of elaborated food materials from the leaves and shoots to the kernels at this time determine the degree to which the cotyledons are thickened, or in other words how well the nuts are filled.

+Periods of Development+

In the development of the nuts there are three periods or stages: (1) The period of growth in size; (2) the period of nut filling or development of the kernel; (3) the period of maturing.

What takes place during these periods of development determines the size the nuts attain, the degree to which they are filled, and finally the quality at harvest. These three developmental stages are interdependent, because the size of the nuts may affect the degree of filling, and that, in turn, the time and nature of their maturity. They are not entirely separate and distinct but overlap in that there is more or less development of the kernel, varying with the species, while the nuts are growing in size. In general, however, there is not appreciable kernel development until after the nuts have attained approximately full size, except in the chestnut.

The outstanding example of this situation is the pecan. There is practically no growth of the kernel until after the shell of the nut has started to become hard. At that time growth of the embryo, which constitutes the kernel, become rapid. The major portion of the kernel is formed during a period of approximately one month, starting at Beltsville, Maryland about the middle of September. The final stages of filling occur just before the nuts mature, and the first nuts to fall usually have the best filled kernels. Later maturing nuts are generally poorly filled; their shells and kernels are often discolored, and the shucks fail to open properly, if at all.

The development of walnuts, hickory nuts, and filberts, so far as is known, is in all essentials the same as that described for the pecan nut except that the kernel or embryo begins to grow somewhat earlier in the season. However, the major portion of the filling, which consists in the thickening of the cotyledons, takes place late in the season, and only a month or a little more before the nuts mature.

The period of the maturing of the nuts generally closely follows the completion of the filling of the kernels. During this period in the pecan, certain other species of hickory, the Persian walnut, chestnut, and others, food reserves are transferred from shucks, hulls, or burs to the nuts. Abscission layers are formed and shucks, hulls, or burs split open on drying out, thus partially or wholly releasing the nuts. There is a very direct relationship between the degree to which the nuts are filled and their time of and normality of maturing; well filled nuts mature early and normally, whereas poorly filled nuts mature late, if at all, and shucks, hulls, or burs fail to open properly.

+Growth in Size+

The size of the nuts produced by a tree is determined by a number of factors, one or all of which may operate during the course of the season. These are: (1) Age of tree; (2) position of the nuts on the tree; (3) fertility of the soil and moisture supply, or the nutritional status of the tree; (4) size of the crop borne.

In general, old trees bear smaller nuts than do younger trees. Hence size of nut for a particular variety is only relative. The first few crops produced by a tree usually consist of nuts large in size for the variety; and then, as the tree attains age, nuts become smaller in size. Young trees make longer and thicker shoot growth than do older trees. There is, then, under normal conditions, a direct relationship between the growth made by a tree and the size that the nuts attain. The more vigorous trees not only produce larger nuts than those produced by less vigorous trees, but the hulls and shells of such nuts are thicker and constitute a higher total percentage of the total weight of the fruit.

The position of the nuts on a tree has an important effect on the size that they ultimately attain. In general, the nuts in the top are larger than those nearer the ground; and those on the strongest and most vigorous shoots of the top or lateral branches will attain a larger size under normal conditions than those located on weaker and shorter shoots or on the inside of the tree. Here again there is a direct relationship between growth of the tree and growth in size of nuts. All normal trees make longer and stronger shoot growth in the top than they do on the terminals of lateral branches, and the shortest and weaker shoots as well as the smallest nuts are generally on the lateral branches inside of the tree top.

Fertility of soil and moisture supply determine in large measure both the growth made by the tree and the size of nuts. The nuts borne on trees growing on fertile soils adequately supplied with moisture are generally much larger in size than those borne by trees on infertile soil or soil poorly supplied with soil moisture. Deficiency of either nitrogen, or moisture, or both is particularly effective in limiting the size of nuts produced. Pecans grown under soil conditions in which both nitrogen and moisture were deficient have been known to attain only about one-fourth the size of nuts of the same varieties grown in the same orchard but under conditions of clean cultivation and supplementary nitrogen applications. A prolonged drought during the time that the nuts are increasing in size very frequently causes them to be much smaller than they would have been had the moisture supply been adequate.

The size of the crop borne by a tree determines in a very large measure the size that the nuts attain at maturity. There is generally an inverse relationship also between the number of nuts borne in a cluster on a shoot and the size they attain. In this respect nut crops are little different from apples and peaches, which, too, are sold on the basis of size. In order to produce fruits of large size having a high market value, the crops are thinned in years of a heavy set of fruit. In the case of pecans, for example, thinning the crop at the time the nuts are growing in size on heavily producing trees is a very effective method of increasing the average size of the nuts allowed to remain on the trees. The earlier the thinning is done the more effective it is; however, it will increase the size of the nuts even when done as late as when the shells have started to become hard. No practical and economical method of thinning the crop of nuts has as yet been found; nevertheless it is well to bear in mind that a large crop borne by a tree generally means reduced average size of the nuts at harvest.

+Filling or Development of the Kernels+

In general, the fruits (nuts) of a nut-bearing tree are what might be termed storage organs. In them are stored mineral elements and such elaborated food materials as carbohydrates (sugars and starch), oil, amino acids, and proteins that have been removed from the leaves and wood of the tree. These materials are stored for future use of the embryo in the nut to sustain respiration, to permit germination, and to maintain the seedling until it has produced enough leaf area to become self-sufficient.

The question may be asked, why is it so important that nuts be well filled? The answer is very simple, because the quality of the oily nuts is determined by how well the kernels are filled. All but one of our most important nuts—almonds, filberts, hickory nuts, pecans, and walnuts—are oily nuts; and well filled kernels contain from 50 to 75 percent or more of oil, depending upon the species. Chestnuts are starchy nuts and contain less than one percent of oil. The relationship between the degree of filling and the composition of the kernel in oily nuts is outstanding, in that the better filled nuts have a higher content of oil and a lower content of protein, carbohydrates, water, and undetermined constituents than do poorly filled nuts. Highest quality of the kernels is directly associated with highest oil content and highest degree of filling. Nut kernels that are poorly filled are often hollow, shrunken, shriveled, and chaffy. When eaten they may taste sweet, but are lacking in the oily flavor characteristic of the particular species of nut eaten. It is only in the best filled nuts that highest quality, flavor, and oil content are found.

The degree to which nuts are filled or how well the kernels are developed at harvest is determined by a rather large number of interrelated factors: (1) Size of crop, or ratio of number of leaves per nut; (2) average size of nuts; (3) condition of leaves; (4) amount of second growth of the trees; (5) size of preceding crop and how well the nuts produced were filled; (6) disease and insect injury to the nuts; (7) weather conditions; (8) heterosis or effect of cross-pollination on embryo size.

+Size of crop:+ Nut growers want their trees to bear large annual crops of nuts. It is very seldom that one hears a nut grower express the opinion that a certain tree is carrying too many nuts for the crop to attain proper size and fill well, yet this is very often the case. Furthermore, the production of a large crop of poorly filled nuts one year is almost certain to result in a light crop or none at all the following year. There is a very close inverse relation between the size of the crop produced and the degree to which the nuts are filled at harvest, namely, the larger the crop the less the nuts will be filled. It has been pointed out above that nuts are storage organs, and the food materials required to grow and fill them must be made in the leaves. When too many nuts are set and carried through to the filling period, in proportion to the number of leaves or the leaf area of the tree, it is not possible for the leaves to synthesize the large amount of food materials required to fill the nuts. In pecans, for example, it has been shown that six to eight leaves are required normally to fill a nut properly and 10 or more leaves per nut if the tree is to flower and set a crop the following year. Other ratios for number of leaves or leaf area exist with other kinds of nuts. It is general experience that large crops of nuts remove such large amounts of food materials and minerals from the trees that a light crop or no crop at all is produced the following year. This is especially true if the nuts are not especially well filled in the "on crop year."

+Size of nuts:+ Almost everyone prefers large nuts to small ones, and that is one reason, why the larger sizes command a higher price on the markets. Many remember how popular the McCallister hican was a number of years ago because of its extremely large size. Such varieties of the pecan as Nelson and Mahan were very popular because the nuts produced were generally much larger than those of other varieties. These varieties remained popular until experience in growing them showed that they were very often poorly filled at harvest. As a general rule, large nuts are more difficult to fill properly than small nuts. This is obvious, because much more food material must be made by the leaves and transported to fill the kernels of large nuts than is required to fill an equal number of nuts of smaller size. In seasons with conditions favorable for both tree growth and growth in size of the nuts, it is often the experience that the nuts are poorly filled at harvest. On the other hand, if the weather is dry during the period in which the nuts are growing in size, they are much more likely to be well filled at maturity. In fact, the writer has seen several instances in which, because of severe drought in the spring, pecans were undersized, yet the kernels developed and filled so well that the shells of the nuts cracked at maturity.

+Condition of leaves:+ To produce well filled nuts, nut trees must bear a large leaf area and the leaves must be in good health and vigor. If they are to produce annual crops, the trees must carry their leaves until cold weather in the late fall, undamaged by insects or diseases. The importance of a large leaf area free from injury or abnormal condition is so great that it can hardly be overemphasized in connection with nut production. It can be definitely stated that under normal conditions the size of the crop produced and the degree to which the nuts are filled is directly related to the leaf area and the length of time it is carried by the tree.

If the leaf area is to be large, the trees must make good, strong, vigorous shoot growth, and this means that proper attention must be given to fertilization to insure that the trees have adequate amounts of nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, zinc, and boron, as well as all other essential elements. The elements mentioned have been found most likely to be deficient in the soils of eastern and southern United States. In those regions their lack may be expected most frequently to limit tree growth or the filling of the nuts because of their effects on the leaves and the consequent inability of the leaves to make food materials. Deficiency of one or more of these elements results in leaves that are not able to make food materials in anywhere near such amounts as do normal leaves well supplied with all essential elements. In severe cases, deficiency of one or more of these elements results in chlorosis of the leaves, still later in leaf scorch, and finally in premature leaf fall. Trees having leaves in such condition cannot be expected to fill the nuts borne by them.

Most nut trees grown about home or farmstead are deficient in nitrogen, as the trees must compete with grass, weeds, shrubbery, or other trees. Frequently there is not enough plant food for all. A deficiency of nitrogen limits the growth and the leaf area carried by a tree. A deficiency of potassium or magnesium very greatly limits the amount of food material made by the leaves and hence greatly decreases the filling and the oil content of the kernels. Zinc or boron deficiency has a similar effect.

Hence, to insure the production of well filled nuts, one must be certain that the trees are well fertilized and that the fertilizer elements applied are in proper balance one with the others.

Injury to the leaves resulting from attacks by diseases and insects is one of the most common and important causes of poorly filled nuts. Every species and variety of tree nut suffers from at least one disease or insect pest that damages the leaves and hence limits or curtails the amount of elaborated food materials they can make. In most cases the fungi or bacteria causing foliage diseases infect the leaves in early spring at the time they are unfolding and growing in size, although the infection may not be noticeable until later. These infected areas, even though they are small and not numerous enough to cause the leaf to fall, seriously impair the functioning of the leaf out of all proportion to the area directly affected. Should the infection be so severe as to cause premature defoliation, the damage will be great even though only a small percentage of the leaves falls. The disease of eastern Mack walnut known as leaf spot, or anthracnose, is one of these defoliating diseases that causes untold damage from poorly filled nuts in the current crop year, and results in a small crop or none at all the following year. The development and spread of these diseases is gradual, and unsuspecting growers do not realize the damage they cause.

On other hand, the injuries caused by such insects as the webworm, the walnut caterpillar, the pecan leaf case-bearer, the Japanese beetle, and others are somewhat spectacular in that the leaves may be partly or completely consumed on portions of the trees. The injury caused by the walnut aphis, the walnut lace bug, the pecan black aphis, and others, on the other hand, is less conspicuous; but the end result is far more serious than it usually is with the leaf eating insects, because the damage caused is more widespread, almost all of the leaves on a tree being affected. These sucking insects are small in size and may be overlooked until premature defoliation takes place. If nut trees are to bear satisfactory crops of well filled nuts, the diseases and insects that attack and cause injury to the leaves must be controlled. Under normal conditions the size of the crop produced, the regularity of bearing, and the quality of the nuts harvested is proportional to the leaf area of normal leaves carried by the tree from early spring until freezing-weather in the fall.

+Second growth of the trees:+ Certain of our nut trees, such as pecan and walnuts, under some conditions have two or perhaps more periods of shoot growth during the same growing season. The first, or main period of growth, starts at the time of foliation in the spring and ends soon after the shoots flower. The second period of growth, if it occurs, may begin any time after the nuts are set, and may end any time later. This second growth seriously affects the filling of the nuts, in that food materials are consumed in producing this second growth rather than in the growth and filling of the nuts. Generally this second growth is not made until late in the season, and it usually follows a period of dry weather, when conditions again become favorable for growth. Usually this is at the time the kernels should be developing, and hence the degree of filling is affected. The seriousness of the effect on the filling of the nuts is largely proportional to the amount and duration of this second growth. A third period of growth may occur later if weather conditions are suitable.

+Preceding crop:+ It has already been pointed out that nuts are storage organs and in their growth and development large amounts of food materials and minerals are removed from the tree. Under conditions of heavy crop production, the reserves of these materials left in the tree at the time of harvest are likely to be very low; and unless the trees are growing on a fertile soil and carry their leaves until frost, these reserves of minerals and elaborated food materials are not likely to be restored. Under such conditions, in the following spring the reserves are low and although there may be enough to initiate flowering and the set of nuts, they are not sufficiently high to produce well filled nuts. It is for this reason that the nuts produced in an "off crop year," even though the crop may be much lighter, may be less well filled than those produced in an "on crop year."

Such nuts as pecans, hickory nuts, and walnuts transfer large amounts of potassium from the tree itself into the shucks or hulls. The kernels of such nuts are high in nitrogen, phosphorus, and magnesium as well as in oil, which is one of the most concentrated food materials and has the highest calorie value. Nitrogen reserves in the trees are readily and rather quickly replaced if adequate amounts are applied, as this element is not fixed by the soil. This is not true of phosphorus and potassium, as they are apparently taken up by the trees much more slowly than is nitrogen. Furthermore, certain soils have a high fixing power for these elements and hence they are slowly, if at all, available.

+Insect and disease damage to the nuts:+ Certain insects and diseases attack the nuts, causing them to be poorly filled at harvest. Although these pests may destroy, or cause a certain percentage of the crop to drop before harvest, and hence serve as a thinning measure, the affected nuts remaining on the tree may not be well filled at maturity. Examples of such insects are the pecan or hickory shuck worm, the walnut husk maggot, and the codling moth. Infestations by these insects occurring before the shells of the nuts have become hard cause the nuts to drop. However, infestations taking place after the nut shells have become hard do not cause the nuts to drop. These late-infested nuts may be poorly filled because the insect larvae mine the hulls or shucks, severing the conducting tissues that transport food materials from the fruit stem or peduncle through the shuck to the kernel. The damage caused not only results in poorly filled nuts but also interferes with the natural separation of the shucks or hulls from the shells.

Examples of diseases that attack the nuts and cause them to be poorly filled at harvest are pecan scab and walnut bacteriosis. Pecan scab may also attack other species of hickory. It is the most destructive pecan disease, causing a high percentage of the nuts on highly susceptible varieties to drop prematurely and those that stick to the tree to be poorly filled at harvest. Walnut bacteriosis or blight is the most important walnut disease in the West and unless controlled causes severe losses from premature drop or from nuts both poorly filled and having discolored kernels at harvest. It is obvious that if large crops of well filled nuts are to be produced, these insects and diseases must be controlled.

+Weather conditions:+ Many growers are inclined to blame the weather for all small crops and poor nut quality because they realize it can have such important effects. In reality its direct effects are generally much less than they are thought to be, and its indirect effects are usually much greater than is usually realized. Weather conditions have a very great effect on the development of insects and diseases and on the damage caused by them, so that most often these are of major importance.

It has already been pointed out that a prolonged drought may adversely affect the size of nuts when it occurs while they are growing in size. Similarly, the degree to which nuts are filled at harvest is affected by the moisture supply during the filling period. A moisture deficiency within the tree probably affects the translocation of food materials to the nuts to a greater extent than it affects leaf functioning, for under such conditions the leaves will withdraw so much water from the developing nuts that the shucks and hulls become wilted. Under conditions of prolonged drought the kernels do not fill properly, maturity of the nuts is delayed, and the shucks or hulls do not open normally.

Under drought conditions the temperatures of the air and of surfaces exposed to the sun are often very high, and this sometimes results in sun-scald or burning of the hulls or shucks. In severe cases the injury extends through the hull or shuck to the shell and kernels. The pellicle, or skin of the kernel, turns brown or amber color, as does the portion of the kernel that has developed at the time of injury. Further development of the affected portion of the kernel is arrested; and on drying it becomes shriveled because of lack of filling. The greatest amount of damage from sunburn occurs on the south and southwest sides of the trees. Little can be done to prevent this type of injury other than to grow good, strong, vigorous trees that bear a heavy dense foliage that shades the nuts.

+Heterosis or hybrid vigor:+ The pistillate flowers of certain nut species, such as the almond, chestnuts, and filberts, must be cross-pollinated with pollen from another variety if satisfactorily crops of well filled nuts are to be produced. These species are self-sterile or self-unfruitful. On the other hand all walnut, pecan, and hickory species are self-fertile and cross-fertile, but may be self-unfruitful because of dichogamy, because they may shed their pollen either before or after the stigmas of the pistillate flowers are receptive to it. In all nut species cross-pollination is generally recommended so as to assure a set of nuts. With cross-pollination a better set of nuts is to be expected than with self-pollination, as well as better filling of the kernels. It has recently been found that when the pistillate flowers of a certain variety are cross-pollinated with a pollen from another definite variety the embryo or nut kernel is larger and better filled. This is a manifestation of hybrid vigor, or heterosis. Heterosis has been found in the chestnut and in the pecan. It likely will be found in other nut species. Some day the principles of selected and controlled parentage underlying hybrid vigor may be utilized in producing superior nuts, as these principals are now so widely used in producing hybrid seed corn.

President Davidson: That paper was so extremely important that I hesitated very much to stop it, but we are already at the point where we should have adjourned. Now, unfortunately, we have some very important things, I think, yet before us, but if the speakers can give their talks from now on in the form of, shall we say, syntheses of the whole thing and give us the conclusions rather than the details, it will be appreciated by us all. Mr. Wilkinson is going to give us a very important talk on what he has done with the propagation of the Lamb curly walnut. Mr. Wilkinson.

The Grafted Curly Walnut as a Timber Tree

J. FORD WILKINSON, Rockport, Indiana

Our native trees are and have always been one of the most valuable resources of this country, and one of the greatest heritages ever to fall to a nation.

Wood has been used by our people since the landing of the Pilgrims, for almost every comfort and purpose in life, from the making of cradles to caskets.

Wood is still one of the principal materials in building homes and furniture, and is used for railroad ties, for paper, and in so many other ways that we could scarcely get along without wood.

The United States is the native home of many species of trees, of which a number are superior in some certain ways for some special purposes. The hickory has no equal for ax handles. As a building-timber where strength and durability are needed the oak ranks among the first. Other species are equally as important for some other uses.

Not to be overlooked are nut trees. They serve the twofold purpose of producing both food for man and wild life, and valuable timber.

+Black Walnut Has Great Value+

Of the nut tree group, the black walnut is one of the most important. It ranks among the first for lumber, furniture, cabinets, and finishing material. It has no rival in use for gun stocks and airplane propellers; as walnut wood is light, strong, will not get rough, but wears smoother with use. Neither will it splinter when pierced by a bullet. Walnut wood has been largely responsible, at times, for keeping us a nation of free people.

The black walnut tree is an aristocrat of forest and field. It can justly be proud, for no other tree can fill its place. As the late author A. H. Marks said, "Who has not noticed the look of contended usefulness which a nut-bearing tree wears? It is of use to the world and knows it."

Walnuts, like other species of trees, are not all alike, either as to nut production or in the grain of the wood.

+The Lamb Black Walnut+

Several years ago an unusually highly figured, and very valuable,
black walnut tree was discovered by Mr. George N. Lamb, then
Secretary-Treasurer of the American Walnut Manufacturers Association of
Chicago, Illinois.

When the logs from this tree came into the mill, and their value was realized, Mr. Lamb went to the place where the tree had grown. He secured some twigs from the branches of this top and sent these, as I have been informed, to Dr. Robert T. Morris and Mr. Willard G. Bixby, knowing of their interest in propagating better varieties of nut trees.

This wood had been taken from the top many days after the tree was felled, and so was dry and nearly dead. I believe Dr. Morris succeeded in getting only one graft to grow, and Mr. Bixby two. This variety was then named in honor of Mr. Lamb.

Several years later Mr. Bixby sent me a very small stick of graft wood from one of his trees, from which I made two grafts. One of them grew, giving me a start of this variety. I have annually propagated a few trees of it ever since, though with little encouragement, and even much discouragement from others, including State and U. S. Government authorities.

On one occasion I thought I practically had an order for a quantity of these Lamb walnut trees for a reforestation project. However, the prospective purchaser, before placing his final order, wrote to government authorities, then wrote me as follows:

" … Sept. 30, 1940 …

"Following some investigation in connection with the so-called curly walnut varieties, we have been advised by government authorities that these trees do not form, or grow into, a curly walnut tree at any time during the growing stage.

"We took it for granted that the wood formation would be of a curly nature, and for that reason we were interested in that particular variety.

"In view of this information which we have concerning these trees, we would not be interested in growing them as we have plenty of native black walnut here…."

This and other discouragements, from both government authorities and individuals, had about as much effect on me as King George's advice to the American people not to use tobacco; they smoked calmly on, and I continued to propagate Lamb curly black walnut trees.

I have been propagating nut trees since 1910, and have never yet known one of my propagated nut trees to fail to carry the characteristics of the parent tree, as to habits of growth, bark, bud formation, foliage, texture of wood, or quality of nuts. The Deming Purple walnut tree, when asexually propagated, reproduces the purple wood, so I reasoned the Lamb variety would reproduce figured wood. Nature seldom blunders.

+Value of Original Lamb Walnut Tree+

When I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a few years ago, doing some tree work for the late William J. Wallace, he took me a few miles to the location of the original Lamb tree. It was near a small river in a gravel loam soil near Ada, Kent County, Michigan.

The following is an extract of a letter received from Mr. Lamb as to the original tree:

"November 27, 1929

Lamb Figured Walnut—
Cut into veneers @ 6 to 18c per sq. ft. (1/28")
Use: Furniture
Amount of veneers 60627' [Value: $8,637.62 to $10,918.86 (Prewar!)—Ed.]
Logs produced:
8' x 21"—144 Log Ft.
6' x 18"— 73 " "
10' x 36"—640 " "
14' x 30"—591 " "
10' x 32"—490 " "
Stump —500 " "
_____

2438

Location of tree—Ada, Kent County, Michigan.
Location—River flat 20 rods from river.
Soil-Gravel loam.
Type of tree—Open grown.
Shape—-Double stump.
Height—40 ft.
Figure—Throughout the tree."

Mr. Lamb further states in his letter: "Unquestionably it was one of the most thoroughly figured trees ever discovered, and if figured wood will propagate itself this stock should, certainly should, do so."

He further states, "The figure in this tree was quite apparent, even in the small branches, while the Forest Products Laboratory found evidence of a developing figure in the twigs not over five years old."

The wood specimens I now have on exhibit here were taken from one of my 12-year-old grafted trees that I cut, and in them you will find figure visible to the naked eye, or easily noticeable by touching with a finger, in wood from branches not over 7 years old.

Comparing age at which figure shows in the wood of the two trees, this young tree seems to be developing figure at an early age, as in the parent tree.

My confidence in this outcome had never been shaken by the doubts of others. Few seemed to share this belief with me, and for this reason I have never pushed the sale of Lamb trees. Now I do not hesitate to state that curly figure will reproduce in any propagated Lamb trees, as the evidence before you here is stronger than any argument.

One purpose of the Northern Nut Growers Association is to encourage the perpetuation by propagation of the better varieties of nut trees. I consider the Lamb variety one of the best walnut trees known from a timber point of view, and until a better variety is found I shall continue to propagate Lamb black walnut trees.

+Ed. note:+ The nuts on Lamb trees, as seen at Norris, Tennessee, during this meeting, appear to be of at least average size and have better than average shell structure. They probably would be well adapted to machine-cracking. Thus the Lamb would not be a bad variety to grow for its nuts. Or we could double-work the trees, to have each tree with a good trunk of the Lamb wood growing beneath a fruiting top of any desired walnut variety. One or two of our members already have made a start on this latter scheme of propagation.

+Author's Note:+ The Lamb variety is a rapid and upright grower and should be well adapted as a stock for the purpose suggested.

President Davidson: I don't think one can minimize the importance of what Mr. Wilkinson has done with the Lamb curly walnut. There are possibilities here that are of immense value to those who are interested in timber. Now, I am very, very sorry to put off the rest of this program until this afternoon. Possibly we can work a part of it then. Meantime, we had better adjourn.

Mr. Chase says that he has arranged for a group picture to be taken at the Community Building at one o'clock. Let's everyone be there at one o'clock. That means, of course, that you are going to cut the sandwich and coffee pretty short.

All right, let's adjourn.

(Luncheon recess was taken.)

+Tuesday Afternoon Session+

President Davidson: Come to order, please. The first speaker on the afternoon program is Mr. Shivery. I think I will get Mr. Chase to say a word.

Mr. Chase: Our next speaker is Mr. George Shivery, Extension Forester for the University of Tennessee, and I know that the interest of this Association is in the planting of improved black walnuts, and I simply can say this man arranged for the planting of more Thomas walnut trees than any other man in the world. George Shivery.

The Black Walnut Situation in Tennessee

GEORGE B. SHIVERY, Extension Forester, University of Tennessee,
Knoxville, Tennessee.

Mr. Shivery: Mr. Chairman and members of the Association: I certainly appreciate that compliment made by Mr. Chase, and I want to assure all of you that we certainly are interested in the black walnut in Tennessee. In the past we have had to depend pretty much on the wild black walnut, and we will for years in the future. But we have done everything possible to get distribution on this Thomas improved black walnut which has been propagated here through the efforts of Mr. Chase, Mr. Zarger and other members in his division.

It seems to me that this black walnut kernel industry is sort of a tradition, particularly in East Tennessee. If you have lived in this state as long as I have, you have become curious about its history. Well, in the early days there were no railroads in this state, and commerce moved pretty much by means of wagon team, and the supply center seemed to be Baltimore, Maryland. Now, I can visualize very well that on outbound trips they doubtless carried black walnut kernels, and on the way in, of course, they'd bring clothing and other materials that were not produced here at home.

In the early days they produced tremendous amounts of maple sugar and maple syrup. Doubtless this was consumed at home and nowadays we don't have any evidence of that, because the climatic conditions in New York State and other northern states and New England are much better suited to the flow of the sap. The weather, I believe, is not so changeable up there. Our weather is changeable. We may have a very severe cold week, and then in ten days it will be balmy and pretty weather. We haven't made any effort to bring back the sugar maple industry. We don't consider it economic in this state, because cane sugar in the past has been cheap in price, and then we have another product that some of you may not be familiar with, sorghum molasses. That serves as dessert lots of times in many meals, hot biscuits and sorghum to finish up the meal.

Now, I might mention something about the size of the black walnut industry in this state. We estimate that there are eight million pounds of uncracked whole walnuts produced on the average in a normal crop year in Tennessee, and there is another five million pounds that is never gathered, never hulled, never enters the market, never used, and the value of this crop in a normal year would be around $750,000. That is for the nuts, the fruit, the kernels. If you speak of timber it will amount to $960,000. That is in the form of lumber and veneers, and if you figure that in the form of a log at the shipping point, we'd reduce that figure and say it would be $480,000.

I think to understand this state you have to give some consideration to physiographic regions, and if you will bear with me I'd like to sketch through these regions of the state, because they have a bearing on production of black walnut. Here in the east we have the East Tennessee Mountains, and proceeding westward we have the Great Valley of East Tennessee. It goes all the way down to Chattanooga, up through Bristol, on up through Virginia to Hagerstown, Maryland, all the way up to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

We have fine soil, and we also have different kinds of shale in that valley. Then we proceed westward. We come to the Cumberland Plateau, and the elevation of this plateau is around 2,000 feet. It is higher than this valley. Then we cross that and we reach this area (indicating on map). That is what we call the Highland Rim. That is made up of limestone soil of a different character, usually, than that in this East Tennessee valley. That is what we term the Eastern Highland Rim, and this around here (indicating) we term the Western Highland Rim. And this red portion would be the Central Basin in which Nashville is situated. Then you would travel through this central elevation, come up on the Western Highland Rim, and then you come up here and you cross the Tennessee River flowing north. Then you get into West Tennessee.

Now, that is coastal plain soil, and as you approach the Mississippi River here you have a covering of what the Germans call loess, fine, wind-blown material, silt loam. So that very sketchily gives you some idea of the physiographic regions in this state.

Now you want to know where these black walnuts are grown. Well, up about here (indicating the northeast) we have the towns of Greeneville and Rogersville and Morristown and Jonesboro, the counties of Washington County, Greene County, Hawkins County, say, ten counties; radiating around those ten counties you have in the past had great quantities of walnut kernels produced and sold. Now, go on down this valley past Knoxville, and McMinn County (southeast) has some years produced heavy crops of walnuts. So you have heavy production all through the valley.

There's another center, we might term it, of about six counties in this central basin. But I don't want you to get the wrong impression, because walnuts grow in almost any county in this state, but I am mentioning these greater producing areas. And this County of Williamson south of Nashville in years past has sent plenty of walnuts to market. So that's a walnut producing area. And up here in this Highland Rim we have some counties by the name of Pickett and Overton and Clay County. Well, they produce walnuts, and the people up there have in the past cracked out a lot of walnuts. And in Montgomery County they produce walnuts. So the normal trade centers where these walnuts move is really to a great degree here at this town of Morristown in East Tennessee, and Nashville in Middle Tennessee, and this Middle Tennessee center draws from Kentucky. In fact, these four or five large shelling concerns know about the walnuts pretty much all over the entire walnut producing territory.

Through the years the Agricultural Extension Service, University of Tennessee, with which I am connected, has been keenly interested in assisting in any way we can to get additional income out of walnut kernels, and in recent years the whole uncracked walnut. And even though I am a forester I can see the possibilities of this, and we like to carry it along. In fact, I consider walnut as kind of a dual-purpose tree, fine for timber production, also for production of nuts, walnut meats or kernels. You might term it a triple-purpose tree. I don't think there is any better tree than that for a shade tree in pastures, in the field, and around the home, because for one reason it makes what we term in this state a "cold shade," and it is not a hot shade like you get under a sugar maple. The maple has a dense foliage. And as Mr. Chance indicated this morning, walnut is usually associated with blue grass. Blue grass will grow under it.

I guess some of you here remember the years of the depression, and I remember in 1932, for example, we had a heavy crop of black walnuts in the state. Then I believe the price for kernels of 15 cents a pound would have been a good price during that year, and some of them probably sold for less. So if we had the time we would follow through all the years, beginning with 1927, but just to make it as brief as possible, I will leave those out, but I would like to mention the year 1941. It sort of disrupted things in the kernel industry, because at that time the Pure Food and Drug people came in here and set up regulations, and it interfered with the merchandising of these kernels, because the producer had to satisfy certain sanitary regulations, and it really sounded worse than it was. Anyway, it confused our people, and probably that is about the year in which we had this big shift from the production of walnut kernels cracked out at home to a sale of uncracked walnuts to these shelling plants.

Then another year that I think of (we always think of these as walnut crop years) was 1945, and that year we got better prices, probably, than ever before or since, and a lot of our country people were able to sell hulled uncracked walnuts as high as $6 per hundred pounds.

We will continue to be interested in this industry, but, of course, nowadays the wage scale is higher and money is not worth as much as it was in the past, so it really seems to me that in order to get out this crop we just have to try to make the price a little more attractive.

President Davidson: "We are now going to hear from Mr. Shessler of Ohio, on his method of grafting, and I wish to assure you that he knows what he is talking about. He has done a lot of it.

Grafting Walnuts in Ohio

SYLVESTER SHESSLER, Genoa, Ohio

In 1934 the Ohio Nut Growers Association conducted a black walnut nut contest. I read about it in the Ohio Farmer. As soon as the names of the winners appeared in that publication, each owner was contacted for some nuts from the prize winning trees. Answers were received from nine of the 10 winners. I did not receive nuts from the Hoover tree. The Brown nuts I planted came up in 1935 and the trees are now 22 feet high, with spread of 22 feet, and are 27 Inches in circumference. The Tritten prize nuts were planted in a fence row. These did not come up the first year. The next year I plowed and disked the patch of ground and planted potatoes. To my surprise the Tritten seedlings came up with the potatoes. I let them grow and I now have five trees from these nuts. All of these trees produce nuts which resemble the original Tritten nut and have good cracking quality. One in particular fills out nicely, has a very thin hull, and is a little larger than the original Tritten. I have named it the Shessler. The Brown seedling trees also produce good nuts. The seedling trees from the Cowle nuts produce nuts with rough shells.

Following my nut planting project I began to collect scions from all of the original trees. Mr. Homer Jacobs, of Kent, Ohio, supplied me with scions from the Tritten tree. The next year Mr. Jacobs asked me to send him scions from the Brown tree as he intended to bench-graft some. I have planted nuts along a road 80 rods long, so that I could have many stocks to top-work. I began to graft in 1935, using the seedling trees as stock. I now have 200 seedling black walnut trees, 100 grafted black walnut trees, 25 grafted Persian walnuts, 20 chestnut trees, two "buartnuts," 15 heartnuts, six pecans, one butternut, 20 grafted hickory trees and five persimmons. Some of these trees are planted in orchard form, others are scattered along fence rows.

For grafting, I cut scions so that there is about four inches of two-year-old wood at the base and some one-year-old wood with small matured buds. These small buds will grow, as a rule. The scions are kept in damp sawdust until used. I like the stock to be a half to one inch in diameter. I wait until the trees are in full leaf before I graft. After leafing out the stock does not bleed. If I find that the stock is bleeding hard when I cut back, I wait a few days before grafting. It is a waste of time to graft when the stock is bleeding. I have grafted very early when the bark would not bleed at all. I just dug down into the cambium layer and put in the scion. I tried one Persian and three black walnuts like this and all grew. I use the slot bark method of grafting, as described in Mr. Reed's bulletin [U.S.D.A. Farmers Bull. 1501]. The stock is cut straight across and I put the lower bud just above the bark on the outside. I roughen the bark of the scion that fits just behind the bark of the stock. A small nail is pushed through the bark and scion with the handle of my knife. I generally tie with cord but sometimes when the bark is heavy I do not use cord. A two-pound paper sack with a hole on the earth side is placed over the graft and the sack is tied at the bottom. This serves as a "hot house" and protects the scion from rain. As soon as leaves appear on the scion, the sack is removed and all the new sprouts are broken off below the graft. I put only one scion on each graft. I use Beck's cold wax. It is easy to thin with water and I just flatten a stick for my brush. I never wax the bud but wax scion well on top.

I cannot give an accurate count of my grafting success but estimate that 75 percent of my grafts live. Rather than keep records I use that time to graft more trees. I am not an experimenter—I simply like to have grafted nut trees. My own trees are scattered over a two-mile area. I have grafted trees in Toledo and Grand Rapids. Every Sunday I attend church, then in the afternoon I graft trees. My aim is to try all the promising trees and select the best and weed out the poor ones. I am saving only the trees that bear nuts every year.

In 1947, I grafted the Ohio 1946 prize winning black walnuts. I achieved survival on all except Nos. 5 and 8. The scionwood of these two was in poor condition and I did not think they would live. I also have No. 54 which looks promising to me. I am looking forward to other contests in Ohio and elsewhere so that we can uncover some more superior black walnuts.

President Davidson: Thank you, Mr. Shessler.

Mr. Slate, will you say a word to us on grafting? That's right along the same line.

Grafting Walnuts in the Greenhouse

GEORGE L. SLATE, State Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y.

Walnuts have been grafted in pots in the greenhouse at the Experiment Station at Geneva, N. Y. for a dozen years or more and the practice is successful and very useful. This method was adopted for two reasons. First: Under field conditions results are often uncertain, owing to the vagaries of the weather or neglect at a critical time. The inexpertness of the operator made it desirable that the work be done under as favorable conditions as possible, with the hope that a favorable environment might overcome in part the lack of skill. Second: The work can be done in March before the field work begins, whereas field grafting in May would often not get done owing to the pressure of other work at that time. This method is not original with the writer, but is similar to the method used at the East Malling Research Station in England and described by Witt in 1928 .

The rootstocks, two year old black walnut seedlings raised from nuts planted in the nursery, are dug in the fall, stored in the nursery cellar until late February or early March, at which time they are potted in six or eight inch pots, depending upon the size of the rootstocks. The roots are cut back so that the plant will fit in the pot. At this time the tops are cut off, leaving the stem about 8 inches high. The pots are placed in a warm house, watered as needed, and in about 10 days the buds begin to break.

The Jones modified cleft graft is used. The stub is cut off at grafting time and the cleft is made by cutting, not splitting, the stock with a large grafting knife. The scion is tied in place with nursery tape, half-inch size, with a short wick leading out of the cleft. The scion is painted with grafting wax.

+Care of the Grafted Plant+

The pot is set in a propagating frame about 18 inches deep, with bottom heat, and covered with glass, plus lath or cloth shade. An inch of peat in the bottom of the frame is desirable, to hold moisture and maintain high humidity. The temperature of the frame is kept in the eighties, but is not allowed to go above 90 deg.F. Under these conditions of warmth and high humidity, growth activity is rapid and in about two weeks the buds break, although, some may not start for a month. This spring adventitious buds developed on several scions. Many suckers arise from below the graft, and these are rubbed off two or three times a week. As soon as the shoots from the scion are two or three inches long the plants may be removed to a cooler house, where there is less danger of overheating on hot spring days. Later, they go to the cold frame for hardening off, and when danger of frost is over after May 21st, they are set in the nursery for two years. First year growth is not over eight or ten inches, but the second year the plants grow to three or four feet or even more in a favorable season.

The percentage of grafts starting depends largely on the scion wood. Wood cut from vigorous young trees which is grafted the same day will give a 90 percent stand or better, but wood from other sources varies according, to the age and vigor of the tree from which it is cut and the percentage of success may be much less.

This method is useful for small scale operations where a greenhouse is available and it is desirable to do the grafting before outside work interferes with it. For one not skilled in nut tree grafting success is probably more certain than with nursery grafting.

+Literature Cited+

1 Witt, A. W. The vegetative propagation of walnuts. Ann. Rpt. of the East Malling Research Station 14th and 15th Yrs. 1926-1927 II Supplement pp. 60-64.

President Davidson: There are plenty of us who don't know much about grafting, and I did want you to hear Mr. Slate's method. It is certainly worth trying and would come at a pleasant time of the year, would be easy to do, and any of us could try it out.

We now should like to hear from Mr. Clarke on Nut Investigations at
Pennsylvania State College.

Nut Investigations at the Pennsylvania State College

WILLIAM S. CLARKE, JR., State College, Pennsylvania

Our present work in nut growing at the Pennsylvania State College was begun in 1946. Some work had been started many years ago, and a small number of trees were planted, mostly black walnut; but a site was selected which proved to be very cold and frosty, and most of the trees soon died. Further work had been planned at a later date, but the depression and lack of labor and land prevented us from getting under way then.

When the present project in nut growing was approved, the country was just beginning to recover from the recent war, and materials of most kinds, including nut trees, were very difficult to obtain. Therefore, in order to learn as much as possible about nut trees, we started at the beginning, with the seed. About two bushels of hulled black walnuts were collected from fence-row trees; some were planted out in the ground that autumn, and some were placed in soil in a box and kept over winter on the outdoor porch of the packing house. Some hickory and pecan nuts were bought and also stored in a similar box. The only nuts which grew were those planted out in the ground. They gave us a good germination, while not a single nut stored in the boxes grew.

At the present time we have about 200 black walnut seedlings in the nursery. When they are a year or two older, they will be grafted to several of the named varieties of black walnuts, and those that take will be planted out in a nut orchard. These seedling trees were transplanted after one year's growth. About four or five times as much of the walnut plant was underground in the root as grew above ground where we could see it.

Since the first year's work we have made a few purchases, and planted a few more nut seeds. At the present time we have planted five pairs of named varieties of filberts, four Chinese chestnuts, of which three survive, four Persian walnuts, three of which survive, and two Japanese walnuts. We also have a few seedlings of Turkish tree hazel obtained from nuts sent to us by one of our friends in the state of Washington and a few butternut seedlings grown from nuts of a tree on the college campus.

Future plans include an orchard with many of the named varieties of black walnuts and also, we hope, some of the new hardy strains and selections of the Persian walnut being introduced by the United States Department of Agriculture. Representative specimens of a wide range of nut species will be collected. Some further work on chestnuts and filberts may be attempted if they prove to be hardy here. Plans for the more distant future include studies in soil fertilization and in spraying for disease and insect control.

+Cold Injury in 1947-48+

This past winter has been very hard on nut trees, and on some other trees as well. In the first place, the cold weather of the autumn began very suddenly after six weeks of uninterrupted warm weather without any cool nights to harden the wood. In late September a few days of cool weather came, and then three nights in five with temperatures near 20 deg.. The walnut foliage and some of the youngest wood turned black. Next came a winter with extremely low temperatures, with the minima ranging from 18 to 23 degrees below zero over our orchard land. Our four Persian walnut trees were killed back to the ground; three of them have sprouted this summer from the roots. Considerable leaf bud killing occurred on Chinese chestnut. One Japanese walnut died back to the ground and has sprouted from the roots. The other tree lost most of its younger wood, but some buds near the base of last season's growth have sprouted out to make a new top. Several specimens of the golden chinkapin (Castanopsis) of the Pacific Coast, which had made one year's growth here, were killed outright.

Most of the terminal buds and youngest wood of our nursery trees of black walnut were killed, but the trees have grown well this year from the lateral buds. In the woods some black walnuts which had been cut down about four or five years ago, and which had made sprout growth now about fifteen feet high, were killed back from two to four feet by the winter. A twenty-year-old Stabler black walnut on our lawn lost many of its top limbs, though the lower limbs survived the winter all right. Some other types of trees were also badly damaged: some locust trees were killed to the ground, and many others were killed to very old wood. A ginkgo tree on our lawn was killed back to the main trunk. This was one of the few times that I have ever seen injury on this species.

One of the five named varieties of filberts, Pal, escaped winter injury. DuChilly and Italian Red each have one good tree and one that was killed back to the ground, but is now sprouting from the roots. Of Medium Long, both trees have been killed way back. One tree of Cosford was killed completely, and the other tree has been badly damaged.

President Davidson: Thank you, Mr. Clarke. Our family stopped on the way at a shelling plant where they were handling nuts by the ton, not the bushel, just the ton. I am not exaggerating. You have all heard the hill-billy program from Renfro Valley, no doubt, and we have with us today the man who is running that cracking plant and also this hill-billy chorus, Tom Mullins, who will tell us about what he is doing down at Renfro Valley.

Black Walnuts: A New Specialty at Renfro Valley

TOM MULLINS, Renfro Valley, Kentucky

Mr. Mullins: As Mr. Davidson said, I come from a little hill-billy section up in Kentucky known as Renfro Valley. Up until about a year ago the main commodity there was hill-billy music and a lot of noise on Saturday night. About last August our boss there kind of got interested in black walnuts. There were a lot of them going to waste all over the county due to the fact that most of our locals up there are kind of lazy. They don't like to get up there and stomp them out.

His original idea was to set up a hulling plant and hull the nuts and then buy the walnuts from the locals after they were dried. One thing led to another, and we talked to Mr. McCauley there, and Dad bought a big walnut plant to process black walnuts all the way through. He was new to it and so was I. He said, "Let's buy a million pounds of black walnuts." I didn't any more know what a million pounds of black walnuts was than I know how many grains of sand is in three or four buckets. It didn't take me very long, I think it was 31 days, and I bought 1,030,000 pounds. That's a whole lot of walnuts in anybody's language.

One of the local boys on our radio program came up with the bright idea that before in Renfro Valley we used to be just half nuts; now we are walnuts.

We started cracking these things along about the 15th of October, and last Saturday we cracked our last 10,000 pounds. Our machine is capable of cracking approximately 10,000 pounds in an 8-hour shift, and we carry the walnut all the way through to remove any of the field litter that it may have when it is picked up, and through cleaning air blasts and into a cracking machine that does darn near all the work. The only thing we haven't been able to figure out yet is how to get this machine to tell a bad kernel from a good one. We have to leave that to some of the girls who do the work on the picking belts.

Our future plan for this fall is to buy a million and a half pounds this year and process them. I believe one of these gentlemen a while ago mentioned something about the pure food laws. They are pretty rough on us. We have to pasteurize our walnuts. The state law of Kentucky requires 190 degrees of heat for an hour and a half. That's a lot of heat.

We package our nuts in two-ounce packages and in 35 and 50-pound cartons for the wholesale trade.

That has created quite a little industry there in our county. We have one county there, Clark County—Winchester, Kentucky, is the county seat of it—and out of that one county last year alone I bought 800,000 pounds of walnuts. That was, walnuts in the hull that the farmer had picked up and brought to us in trucks.

Our success was not too great in this method of hulling green walnuts to get our supply. We weren't adequately fixed up to dry the walnuts and take care of them in storage. We lost a few of them that way, but I think this year we have a little better sense and will let the farmer stomp them out.

We are working now on an educational program, both newspaper and radio, to persuade the farmers in our locality to let their walnut trees grow. We tell them nearly all the walnut trees will produce enough kernels or shelled walnuts to bring in as much money as they would if cut down and taken to the mill and used for saw logs. That is our main problem now, to try to keep the black walnut industry working there in our community. And our future plans call for plantings of black walnut seedlings and convincing the farmer and the 4-H Club members and all the boys in the Future Farmers of America and organizations like that to protect and cultivate their black walnut trees.

I am kind of on the fence this year. I stuck my neck away out the other day and bought a farm. After checking the farm I found I had about 600 walnut trees. Now, then, I am hollering on one hand for an increase in prices of raw material, and as a sheller I am hollering on the other hand to get the prices down. But I believe as a producer for next year I am going to try to forget about the shelling and let the prices go to the devil.

Mr. McDaniel: Would you mind telling us what you had to pay for the walnuts in the shell?

Mr. Mullins: Our average last year was $4.33. We went as high as $4.80.
Some of those we bought hurriedly—

President Davidson: In the hull?

Mr. Mullins: No, that's dry shell. Our walnuts in the hull we paid a dollar and a quarter a hundred for, and if we had had good success we'd have made some money on it at that angle.

There is one question I'd like to put before you gentlemen. Maybe some of you know a little something about it. I was reading an article not long ago in Popular Mechanics Magazine about some plant on the West Coast that is developing the Vitamin C content of the walnut hull itself. It is very high, the Vitamin C content in the walnut hull.

Another thing we did last year. After we hulled all of these walnuts we had a mess of hulls on hand, and our farmers were a little reluctant to come and get them. We tried to talk them into using them for fertilizer. They are kind of like some of the boys, they have got to be shown. They have to see somebody else do it before they tackle it.

Out of curiosity I laid my garden off and divided it in half, and on one half I put a top dressing of these dried-out, pulverized walnut hulls, and I firmly believe that the side that had the walnut hulls on it produced twice as much. And some of the boys in the neighborhood kind of noticed what kind of garden I had, and we don't have any hull problem anymore. They carried them all off.

Same way with the shells. We tried to get them to haul the shells off to use them on the fields for tobacco land and to grow blue grass, and they found out that was pretty good, so they are bothering us now about our shells.

We have another by-product. It is too small a granule kernel to go through, and we can't remove the shell from it. We have tried that out on chickens and hogs and some other farm animals, turkeys, ducks and geese. One boy that works for me there in the cracking plant had 28 hens. He had them in a pen, and he was getting six and eight eggs a day. So I talked him into taking some of these granules home and feeding them to his chickens, and in two weeks his 28 hens were producing 20 to 24 eggs a day. That kind of settled that problem, too. Some of the boys kind of got an idea they'd like to have some of that.

A lot of you folks are here from the North, and you possibly would be going back along Highway 25 going home, and I'd like to extend an invitation now to stop off tomorrow or the next day and look over our plant. It's quite interesting, quite a complicated piece of machinery. Mr. McCauley at Chicago is the gentleman who designed the machine, and he will have something to say about it.

One of the local farmers came in to see that machine one day, and it was operating, just batting the kernels out right and left. He looked up at it, gandered it all over, and I asked him what he thought it was. He said, "It's a damn lie. That thing can't do it."

So come see us.

President Davidson: Thank you, Mr. Mullins. Next, Marketing Black Walnut
Kernels. This fits in with what Mr. Mullins has said. Mr. McCauley from
Chicago will tell us about it. Mr. McCauley.

Marketing Black Walnut Kernels

F. J. McCAULEY, McCauley Company, Chicago, Illinois

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: Tom has got me on the spot here. I came here to speak to you about the marketing of black walnuts. Machinery is a hobby of mine, and that thing there was just one of those off-shoots of an infertile brain. But Tom is having a lot of trouble, and a lot of fun with it, so if you people would like to see that machine, that particular machine, I am glad that he invited you up there. It may give you a little different idea of what the sheller is up against in the salvaging of black walnut kernels.

You are interested in growing the black walnuts and other nuts in the shell, but they do have to be prepared for the public, and Tom's job, and other people's that are in the shelling business, is getting them out. The machines are made at Knoxville, Tennessee, and you can get a fairly decent idea about the shelling of black walnuts from the machine Smalley has. Tom's is a much larger size.

Now we will get down to this thing I came here to talk to you about, the marketing of black walnuts. My speech is divided into three parts; the first is about nuts, the second is about nuts and the third is about nuts, and I am nuts. Yes, that's more true than you think. My nickname throughout the United States is "Nuts" McCauley, and I am proud of it. It is a good nickname to have for a man that's in the nut business. And I most certainly am in the nut business, machinery on one hand and the selling of various types of nut kernels on the other.

You people probably don't know it, but you have the best advertised nut in the United States that you are working with, black walnuts. There are very few people in the United States that don't know what a black walnut kernel is, or a black walnut. In fact, I would say that 75 per cent of them at some time or other have gathered black walnuts, have hulled them. You know those pretty stained hands you have, and I can remember back in those days when I was a kid when I used to get those hands of mine just so brown and black from the hulling of black walnuts that my mother would almost want to turn me over her knee and spank me. But when wintertime came I always had a bunch of black walnuts that we could sit down and crack and put in those cookies or in that fudge.

I have talked to a good many of you people here, and I have a prepared speech, but I am going to ramble a little bit and I am going to ask you to ask me questions, because I found out that I don't know so many things, or the speech that I was going to make to you might not be as interesting as your asking me questions. I do want to say a few things, and I will go through quickly.

The first is the marketing of black walnuts in the shell. We find in the marketing of any product that there is a tremendous amount of waste due to poor sacking, due to a little dishonesty on the part of the people who are selling merchandise. You know, if there is a brick in a bag, the brick weighs a pound, that costs the man who buys the black walnuts money. In other words, out of that pound of brick he intended to get a small quantity of meats to sell, so his cost immediately goes up. You'd be surprised at how many bricks and how much iron there is in black walnuts and pecans! It's universal throughout the United States. There is a lot of chiseling that goes on. Your bags should be good. Black walnuts must be held for some time before they are processed, and one black walnut bag used one year can't be used another. If you can get by with one year's use of a bag to hold a hundred pounds, or whatever is put in it, of black walnuts, you are very fortunate. Usually they break out before the year is over, and that causes waste. So start out with a decent bag.

I made a little note here to talk to you about California black walnuts. The standard throughout the United States to people who actually buy black walnut kernels is what we call in the brokerage field Eastern black walnuts. That means Kentucky and Tennessee. Those are Eastern blacks, they are the blacks with the flavor, the blacks that stand up. From my home state they have Missouri blacks, but the quality isn't there. The flavor doesn't hold up. But you people down here grow the finest blacks in the world. California, yes, California grows and shells a lot of black walnuts, but they don't have a black walnut flavor. The flavor is gone. Where it went, I don't know. But there isn't any black walnut flavor in California blacks. [A different species, Juglans hindsi—Ed.]

So some unscrupulous people buy California blacks and mix them with Eastern black walnuts. Then they can't call them Eastern blacks. They are just black walnut kernels. But black walnut kernels that are 100 per cent Eastern black walnut kernels should be the standard of black walnuts through the country.

Now, Tom has told you something about the process of shelling. I am just going on to say that the average sheller gets about 10 to 11.7 pounds of black walnut kernels to the hundred pounds. So you can realize there again what a problem he has.

Well, the marketing of black walnuts is the selling of black walnuts in the shell or shelled. We have very little demand in the Chicago markets for in-the-shell black walnuts. I probably sell, oh, maybe 5,000 pounds a year on South Water Market, and they go out to the various stores, and they, in turn, sell them to the homes that like to crack black walnuts instead of buying the kernels.

The American public buy with their eyes. Consequently, the packaging of black walnut kernels or the packaging of any merchandise is very important. I made a statement this morning that has always been interesting to me. You know, Chicago is the biggest candy center in the world, and we do a lot of experimenting with candy. Now, your industry is tied very closely to candy, because a lot of the black walnuts, hickory nuts, and the like, go into the making of candy. But to prove my point, a number of times friends of mine who are interested in the sale of merchandise have taken quality candy and packed it in a common box, and they have taken an inferior quality of candy and packed it in a fancy box and set it on the floor and put the same price on both products. The American public, remember, buys with their eyes. So they buy something that is well dressed and they buy that inferior product, twice or three times as fast as they would that quality product in the common box.

I am bringing this out to illustrate a point. Well packaged merchandise, sightly merchandise, always pays. Quality to you people who actually crack black walnuts in your homes is something that will pay dividends. Separate your big kernels. Offer them to the public and they will pay for them.

I was talking to Dr. Jones of Pennsylvania about the sale of black walnut halves. He says that he gets a good many of them. Well, there are throughout these United States of ours a good many very fancy stores that will buy merchandise of this type. But the quantity that anyone gets is very small, so the suggestion that I made to Dr. Jones is that he take his quarters and mix them with his halves. That's not cheating or anything like it. It is making a product that is superior. And you know they say if a man makes a better mousetrap the world will come to his door. And that is generally true. Sometimes it takes a long time to bring it to the American public or to your buyers, to make them realize that you have a superior product, but that's the thing that it takes.

Now, there are a number of ways they sell blacks in this country. They sell them in two-ounce cellophane bags, they sell them in six-ounce cellophane, they sell them in eight-ounce cellophane, but the greater quantity of the blacks are sold in bulk, as Tom told you, in 35- and 50-pound cases, and they go to the candy manufacturer, they go to the ice cream manufacturer, and chiefly throughout the southern part of the United States for ice cream, believe it or not. The Southern States buy more black walnut ice cream than any other division of the United States. In the Central West, too, black walnuts are quite popular for use in ice cream.

Now, if there is anyone that has any questions, I'd like for you to ask them, and I will try to answer them, I won't promise that I can, about the marketing of black walnuts.

A Member: What's the retail sale on those cellophane bags?

Mr. McCauley: What would be the retail sale price?

A Member: Yes.

Mr. McCauley: Well, the cellophaning of walnuts is quite an expensive proposition. We will say right now the kernels are worth 70 cents a pound. The cellophaner has to add a dime a pound to that price, so he figures his cost at 80 cents and the cost of cellophane, and he sells that merchandise so that he makes a 15 per cent profit. Let me see if I can tell you, a two-ounce bag—

Mr. Mullins: It sells for from 18 cents to 25 cents.

Mr. McCauley: Yes, 18 cents in the chain stores. An 8-ounce package at A & P in Chicago will sell for 59 or 69 cents. I have forgotten now just what it is. I can't keep these prices in my mind, although I will tell you this now. If any of you ever come to Chicago, I have an experimental plant in Chicago. If you could remember McCauley, it's "McCauley Company," or "McCauley Machinery Company," and in that plant I also have a new machine for bagging nuts, cellophane bagging. It makes the bag, fills it and seals it in one operation, and we have operated that machine at the rate of 100 bags per minute, 2-ounce or 6-ounce, it doesn't make any difference. The only trouble is the people couldn't handle the bags that fast, so we had to cut it down to 58 a minute. It's quite an operation, and at this time it is an experimental operation. But I would be more than pleased to have any of you drop in on me in Chicago. If I am not there someone in my organization will be glad to show you, if you tell them what you came for.

I have a "California" walnut, or Persian, as you call it. I was much surprised to see all these samples of walnuts down here. I have a walnut shelling plant in Chicago, I do at this time. Maybe when you get there it will be a pecan shelling plant, or maybe it will be a Macadamia nut plant. How many of you people have ever heard of Macadamia nuts? (Several hands raised.) More than I thought for. Well, we are working on a plant to shell Macadamias now. Of course, that is a tropical nut, grown chiefly in Hawaii and Australia. The Australian nut is not nearly as good as the Hawaiian nut. But to those of you who are not familiar with the nut, I have given it to any number of people and asked for their reaction, and some said it tasted like a filbert, others said it tasted like cocoanut, and the third one named was Brazil nut. So it's a very pleasant nut to eat, but very, very expensive.

Dr. Moss: I live in Williamsburg in Whitley County not far from you, and we have no market there for black walnuts at all and got quite a lot of them there. I wonder if it would be practical to have a collection center.

Mr. Mullins: It certainly would. In the southeastern part of Texas we have one.

Dr. MacDaniels: A question, Mr. McCauley. You said that you are able to recover about 11 per cent in the cracking plant on the average, I think you said 10 to 11.7 for ordinary run quality. Now, if you had walnuts that would run 25 to 28 per cent kernel, how much would your processing plants recover out of that, I am just-wondering?

Mr. McCauley: Well, I would like to say two per cent less than the hand-cracked weight. In other words, if you had a total, hand-cracking total kernel content of 25 per cent, I would like to say 23, but I think that is just a little bit strong. In Tom's early processing of black walnut kernels at Renfro Valley his first average was 16 per cent on wild nuts. I don't know where he got those nuts. They must have been Thomas variety. But as he told me today, he is down to 10.7.

Mr. Mullins: Those nuts I talked about, Mac, that ran up that high percentage were from over in Clark County around Winchester. And I have quite a few of them that I pick-up that are even larger in size than some of these Thomas nuts that are lying in here, out of that particular locality. They are very big.

Mr. McCauley: You will find that that is true. Your percentage varies over the country. I like to think that the wild seedling black walnut has a possibility of about 18 pounds in a hundred. I may be wrong.

Dr. MacDaniels: Is that loss in the cracking procedure; I mean, that the things don't crack out?

Mr. McCauley:. The loss is in the cracking, but on an 18 pounds possibility we would probably get between 14 and 15 per cent with this new method of cracking and processing.

Dr. MacDaniels: Now, if you had a nut that would run hand-cracked 24 per cent, you lose 2 in your cracking procedure, and you recover 22. Would you pay twice as much for nuts of that quality as you would for common grade?

Mr. McCauley: Yes, I think that I would. If I had assurance that I was going to get 22 per cent kernels I would be very pleased to pay double. It would pay me, if I were shelling, to pay twice as much for that variety for the simple reason that I only have one cost of picking. Now, the average cost of picking black walnuts kernels is about 11-1/2 cents a pound. At least, that's the best I have ever been able to do with them. And if you sold me a walnut that would give me twice as many kernels with one cracking and one picking, I'd make money and I could pay you twice as much money for that nut.

Dr. MacDaniels: What volume would a cracker have to have to make it interesting? What quantity would have to be produced and offered to a cracker to make it interesting? That is, say I have 50 bushels of Thomas. That isn't any good to you, because your cracking plant—

Mr. McCauley: Why wouldn't it? If I had 50 bushels, that is 2500 pounds, right? All right, Tom could run his plant for two hours and a half, we will say, on 2500 pounds, and in that two hours and a half he would be getting as much kernels as he would otherwise in five hours. That's good business.

Mr. Chase: I'd just like to comment on that 18 per cent kernel you mentioned as the average you'd like to think of. Mr. Zarger has run a study on the sample trees in the Tennessee Valley to measure the kernel content in some 130 trees for about seven years running, and it pans out to about 18 per cent. I thought you'd just like to know.

Mr. McCauley: I didn't want to make a definite statement and then have somebody throw something back in my face. That's why I said I'd like to think.

Mr. Fisher: Since this question has come up and a cracker is here, and that is the question, whether the commercial cracker would be willing to pay a premium price for premium nuts, I wonder if Tom will answer the question, would he pay twice as much?

Mr. Mullins: Certainly.

Mr. Chase: Mr. Acker is another sheller who operates in Morristown, Tennessee, and Broadway, Virginia, who just dropped in on us. I'd like to ask him that same question.

Mr. Acker: What is the question again?

Mr. Chase: Would a considerable quantity of walnuts such as Thomas be worth more to you?

Mr. Acker: We'd be inclined to buy them according to the value we get out of them.

Dr. MacDaniels: What would you do, run sort of a pilot test on them?

Mr. Acker: If I can buy something for a dollar and make money on it, I am willing to try.

Mr. Chase: I made a little unscheduled talk last night in which I said from my information from shellers in Nashville, particularly, that they at this time would not be able to pay any premium price for higher quality nuts simply because they do not have time to examine each bushel, each hundred pounds that comes in and see whether they would pay a special price for better walnuts. Is that the general situation?

Mr. McCauley: Yes, I think generally that is. They take everything at the price of seedling variety. However, you gentlemen who are growing cultivated nuts shouldn't be too disturbed, because of the fact that there is going to be a time in the not-too-distant future where you can dispose of those nuts according to the kernel content within the nut.

President Davidson: I think that's the answer. Eventually it will come.

Mr. McCauley: It's good business. Stop and consider. We go right back to that point where we are going to get twice the amount of merchandise out of a hull which must be broken, which must be picked, which must be cleaned, which is one operation. In a two and a half hour period, which is what it would take, we will say, to run 2500 pounds, you would get the net content on a Thomas variety that you would ordinarily receive in five hours of actual operation. You are saving two and a half hours labor, you are saving two and a half hours machine time, and you are getting just twice as much.

Mr. McDaniel: You'd have twice as many girls on the sorting belt, wouldn't you, to examine that volume?

Mr. McCauley: No, not necessarily. When it gets to that point it isn't necessary. Sometimes the machine gets too far ahead of them, but the machinery is fast getting to a point where it is going to be more or less mechanical. It's an inspection proposition.

Mr. Taylor: May I ask you this question? In other branches of farming you have what you call seed certification, as with certified potatoes, and people who certify those potatoes. Wouldn't it be possible for the same Government agency to certify growers of walnuts so that when you bought from certain members of this association they would be certified so you would know what you were getting? Would that be possible?

Mr. McDaniel: Certification has to do with planting stock.

Mr. Taylor: I mean a different type of certification.

Mr. McDaniel: What you have in mind probably is U. S. Grades on fruit. For instance, if it is stamped "U.S. 1" it should be considerably better than orchard run, and I don't know why it shouldn't be possible for nuts in the shell. It is used in California.

Mr. McCauley: It is in peanuts. All peanuts are Government graded, and that's in the shell. But this black walnut situation is going to take a little longer than that. But I am sure that there are people in the shelling business who would buy Thomas variety or the other varieties if you just go ahead and tell them that's what you have. People are always looking for something better, and I am sure that your cultivated varieties are going to be better, but you are going to have to keep talking them up all the time and getting them to the people who will buy them.

President Davidson: Right. We'd all like to go on with this, but we must really go on with the program, too. We will next hear something about pasteurization. The Production of Bacteria-Free Walnut Kernels will be discussed by Mr. Pease of West Virginia University. Mr. Pease.

Production of Bacteria-Free Walnut Kernels

ROGER W. PEASE, Assistant Hillculturist, West Virginia University,
Morgantown, West Virginia

Mr. Pease: Before I go into any detail about the construction of the pasteurizer, I am going to review the bacillus that causes the trouble very briefly. Most of you will know more about it than I do, but some of you may know less.

When the farmer takes the hulls from the black walnuts he generally spreads his hulled crop to dry almost anywhere. Rats will go over them, and these rats or mice infect the hulled walnuts with an organism called Bacillus coli that is on the outside of the shell. They go from there to the cracking plant, go through the cracker which thoroughly mixes up the infected nuts with the clean ones. They go from there to the separator, which does a better job at spreading the bacteria. Then they go on the market. If they are shipped from one state to another they are subject to inspection by Federal authorities. If they find this organism in the kernels, they may at their discretion heave the whole shipment into the river. They don't always do it. They haven't worked out yet a definite scheme to follow. In other words, they will not tell us, "If your kernels have a certain number of these B. coli in them we will let them by." As it reads, there should be not one organism there, and I can assure you that's almost impossible to get if a rat has crawled over those things.

Now, to get rid of poison ivy the best way is not to get it, and it's just the same with this organism. The place to get rid of it would be for the farmer to store the nuts to dry where the rats and mice cannot get to them and for the cracking plants to do the same. Unfortunately, this isn't done and sometimes isn't practicable. The next place to hit them would be before they are tumbled, that is, before the black powder on the outside of the shells is shaken off in a tumbler, or immediately after that to disinfect the shell without hurting the kernel.

That is where we should have started at West Virginia, but we didn't. We began at the other end after the thing was through and began studying pasteurization. The Government had recommended, I believe, temperatures of up to 300 deg.F. for pasteurization. We found out right away—that is, I didn't, Dr. Colmer and Harvey Erickson, who are now—one of them—in Baton Rouge and the other one in Seattle, and they would know about it. They found out that after temperatures of over 300 deg. the nuts tasted toasted and they would not keep nearly so well or so long as an unpasteurized nut.

After inspecting what pasteurizers they could get access to they concluded some work was necessary, so they spent 12 months and found that at a temperature of 160 and humidity of 80 per cent a more efficient job of pasteurization was done, and at the same time the kernel was not hurt at all. The taste was identical with an unpasteurized nut, and it would keep just as long. At that point one of them, as I say, went to Louisiana and the other went to Washington, and the research fell on my shoulders, that didn't know much about it.

We started to construct the machine. Meanwhile, Mr. Erickson told me he had developed a new strain of bacteria which was much more hardy and 160 degrees at 80% humidity would not kill the thing. So we constructed our machine to run a temperature of 180 at 70% humidity for 30 minutes, and that will kill them.

Now, in 15 minutes I can't give you anywhere near all the details of construction of that machine. I can give you a few of the principles. On the outside, of course, is a well insulated box. The nuts are fed through the top with a revolving drum with fins on it. They comes down to a belt that travels this way for six feet, drops to another, travels back, a series of five belts. It takes them just half an hour to go through. The layer of nuts is perhaps three-eighths of an inch thick. The temperature is kept up with electric coils. It is regulated with a thermostat.

We had some difficulty with the humidity. Try it and see. As we raised our temperature it was hard to keep our humidity up. Finally we went back to the simplest thing, which usually works. We just took a pan of water, with a solenoid valve and float such as you have in the modern hot air furnaces and put a magnetic switch on it. As the water boiled it helped raise the temperature, and it gave off vapors. The automatic switch and the wet and dry bulb from the thermometer and thermostat will shut the water off and shut the heat off automatically when you get the required temperature and the required humidity. In that machine our nuts start at the top, take 30 minutes to travel through. From the time they start at the top until the time they get to the bottom they have a standard temperature of 180 deg. plus the 70% humidity.

Then the second problem, if you want to make one, is to get that temperature standard in all places. I know one man who made one of these machines and put four fans in at different places, and when he closed it up and got it to working, the center of his machine was still cold, because your hot air acts differently from free air. We put at the bottom a shelf with a tube in it and a big fan in the middle. The air is drawn down from the top here, driven through there, hits some baffles and comes across each belt. In that way it works.

Now, if you want, any of you, to get the details of the pasteurizer you could write to Mr. Erickson, College of Forestry, University of Washington, Seattle 5, and he who designed it would be very glad, I believe, to help with your problems, or you could write up to our Agricultural Engineering department, and they would do the same.

I will tell you this, that after we drew up the plans, I took the plans to several manufacturers, and the cheapest bid I got was $5,000 to make it. We made it ourselves for a little less than $1,200 not counting labor. Not that they would have made that much profit, but I tell you that to show you it's a rather inexpensive machine. On the other hand, you can save considerable money by getting it made up yourselves.

I am going to stop with the thing there. If there are a few questions that you wish to ask, I will try to answer.

A Member: What is the name of the bacteria you are killing?

Mr. Pease: Bacillus coli, that's the chief bacteria, and the others that cause the damage are similar to that, and they are always spread by the rats or the mice.

A Member: Do the kernels properly pasteurized show any brownness of kernel?

Mr. Pease: No, they are identical with an unpasteurized kernel at that temperature.

Mr. Korn: I buy kernels at the plant in Nashville, and some of them have been toasted.

Mr. Pease: They have 350 degrees.

Mr. Kays: You mentioned you should have started on the other end a while ago. Could you treat those nuts before they are cracked and do the same thing for less money?

Mr. Pease: I believe you could.

Mr. Kays: The other question I have is how about using ultra-violet light?

Mr. Pease: I have written to a good many authorities, and some of them say yes and some say no.

Mr. Kays: In pecans that is one of the practices.

Mr. Pease: I believe you could use it in our present machine.

Mr. Stoke: Isn't this heat to remove contamination? After the nuts are cracked is there any examination of the nuts?

Mr. Pease: No, there is not.

Mr. Stoke: Could there be any possible value in sterilizing the nut before it is cracked?

Mr. Pease: Yes. You see, the bacteria is on the shell, on the outside.
Then when you crack it, it gets on the nut.

President Davidson: Thank you very much, Mr. Pease. I do hate to cut these discussions short. You get as much out of them or more, sometimes, than we do otherwise. There is just one thing I'd like to say before we take a five-minute recess. Mr. Acker is here. He is another man that you might talk to in addition to talking to Mr. Mullins during the recess.

(Recess taken.)

President Davidson: The meeting will come to order. The first thing on the program is a talk by Dr. Cross, Head of the Department of Horticulture, Oklahoma A. & M., Stillwater, Oklahoma, on Pecan Selection in Oklahoma. Dr. Cross.

Pecan Selection in Oklahoma

DR. FRANK B. CROSS, Head, Department of Horticulture, Oklahoma A & M
College, Stillwater, Oklahoma

Dr. Cross: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: The present status of the pecan industry in Oklahoma is the result of close cooperation between the growers and the experiment station combined with a resource which we have in that state consisting of thousands of native pecan trees which may be quickly and economically changed into producing trees instead of just wild forest trees.

I am going to utilize my time this afternoon to discuss, first, briefly the present situation as we find it with reference to pecans in Oklahoma, because there is the important phase of nut growing which we follow in that state. We do grow some walnuts and we have a great many men interested in walnuts, but far and away our major interest is in pecans.

We might divide the work and interest in the state into two phases. First, but of least importance, is that connected with the planting and production of varieties. We have a great many men in the state who wish to plant land to pecans, and, of course, in cases like that the varieties which are available are always selected for planting, and nursery trees, of course, are utilized. The latest phase of that type of development is the planting of apple trees for filler trees with the expectation that the apple trees will be removed after 15 or 20 years, thus leaving the pecan trees at a large size to fully occupy the ground, and in the meantime the apple trees, of course, have produced a profitable crop.

Our growers, however, and the industry in the state are far more concerned with the utilization of the native trees. To talk about these native trees is almost—well, we might borrow a Texas expression—these trees grow both in Oklahoma and Texas—and the Texans say whenever a Texan tries to tell the truth everybody knows he is lying. That's the way everybody knows about some of these native trees. When we think of a huge, tall tree 20 or so feet in circumference over a hundred years of age and realize that the white man has occupied that particular territory for only a little over 50 years, we wonder about the history of that tree for the first 50 years of its life when wild Indians were roaming the territory and buffalo were grazing under these trees which were getting started.

These trees occur along the streams, very seldom out away from the streams for any considerable distance, as one of the native forest trees and in sufficient number so that when all other trees are removed the stand of pecan trees remaining is in many cases more than adequate to make a complete stand of pecans for commercial production. So that after having removed the oaks and elms and cottonwoods and willows and the other native trees, we have the opportunity of making a considerable selection of desirable native or seedling trees by observing the type of nut which each tree produces.

We are not, in making this selection, concerned so much with the size of the nut produced as we are with the kernel percentage which will be yielded by the nut upon cracking and extracting the kernels and by the ease of separation. Within comparatively recent years many cracking and shelling plants have been established throughout the state, and the history of the industry I think will record that the establishment of these cracking plants in the territory where the pecans are produced will be a great stimulus to the production of that kind of nuts.

I don't know whether I have made the picture clear or not. Throughout the eastern part of the state, that part which you in your old geographies knew under the name of Indian Territory, and particularly concentrated in the middle of the state there are native trees which if properly handled, that is, cultivated and sprayed and thinned so that each tree stands out individually by itself, will produce in paying quantities.

On the experiment station we have a half mile of such territory lying between cultivated fields on both sides of a creek which had eroded a considerable basin. The area was unsatisfactory for cultivation, and so it was fenced out. Back some years ago the area was cleared of grape vines and other trees, and we have since that time pastured sheep in this tract of land. It Is narrow, not over three or four hundred feet wide at any place and, of course, varying in width from one end to the other, and the creek meanders along. There really is more than a half mile of total length.

The potential production of that half mile is now, in terms of dollars and cents, about $2,500 to $3,000, and before wheat and cattle attained their present prices that was no mean income for a quarter section of land. Naturally, with that opportunity prevalent over a great part of the state, we in Oklahoma are interested in the production of native or seedling pecans to be sold to the cracker. We feel that the future of the pecan industry is undoubtedly headed toward the utilization of pecans as kernels and not nuts in the shell. Such being the case, we are not interested particularly in large size. We are interested in kernel yield and in the potential production of each individual tree.

There are a great many problems connected with the industry, and we have more or less taken those into consideration and classified them under insects and diseases and marketing and harvesting and varieties. I will not have time to touch upon very many of these. Our harvesting situation is completely chaotic. Within the last two ot three years shaking machines have been developed, and we are indebted to the West Coast growers for these inventions, which are very helpful. Previous to that a, long bamboo pole was used to knock the pecans from the trees, and then they were picked up off the ground. There are two machines now waiting for the present crop to be harvested which are supposed to pick up the nuts by vacuum picking.

If the industry can be mechanized in that manner, getting away from harvesting pecans as we have been harvesting them, it is just like cradling wheat as compared to the present-day 12-foot, self-propelled combine that cuts the wheat so rapidly. If this mechanization can be put into effect, then the native seedling territory in Texas and Oklahoma will be able to produce pecans at a price which the market will accept.

I don't know whether you know it or not, but the pecan market situation has apparently reached a condition of saturation. It was very difficult to sell pecans last fall, not because there is over-production, no, but because there is under-consumption.

There are two things which will remedy the situation. The pecan is unquestionably the finest nut that is produced in the United States. If the people of the North can be acquainted with the pecan, there is no question in my mind but that it will be possible to vastly increase consumption. The Oklahoma growers and buyers hope to put before the legislature a proposition to assess a tax of a quarter of a cent or something like that per pound, which will be used in an advertising campaign to advertise pecans outside of the state, so maybe you folks in New York and elsewhere, if the campaign is successful, will hear more about Oklahoma pecans in the future.

Well, these seedling trees—I must get on with my story—are cultivated and sprayed. We are sometimes accused of producing wild nuts at no cost. This is not the situation distinctly. It costs just as much to produce these native seedling nuts as it does to produce the varieties, the advantage being that we start with a large tree which is capable of producing from 50 to 200 or 300 or even 400 pounds of nuts within four or five years after the operation is started instead of waiting 20 or 25 years to get good commercial production.

As I said, a selection is made of the trees at the beginning. The selection is continued with each succeeding year as the trees grow larger and additional trees are thinned out so that they stand eventually a hundred or 150 feet apart, giving to each tree adequate room.

Throughout the state we have a great deal of interest in propagation by topworking of varieties of pecans. The experiment station made the serious error for 15 or 20 years in the early development of the interest in the work in centering on the idea of changing these natives over to varieties. We now are swinging back to a proper evaluation of the native nuts, and nobody is satisfied with the present varieties, our interest of developing and the exploration and discovery of new varieties being such that the Northeast Oklahoma Pecan Growers Association arranged two years ago to finance a contest for the discovery of seedling nuts which could be utilized in that territory and be more profitable than any variety that we now have.

We don't like the Stuart because of its low quality. We don't like the Stuart because it doesn't come into production until it reaches a considerable age. We just simply will not have the Mahan, because it doesn't fill. We do not like the Success because it has a tendency to over-bear every other year and does not fill. We cannot use the Squirrel's Delight which for ten years or so we had at the top of our list, because a special strain of scab fungus came in and completely wiped them out, and so on throughout the list of varieties that we have.

Well, these growers decided to take the matter into their hands and in cooperation with the experiment station have been, during the past two years, attempting to find some nuts which would be more desirable, and I thought those of you who are in the walnut exploration work would be interested in learning how this is worked out.

I don't suppose you can see this. It Is an entry blank for the grower. Annual prizes of $50, $25, $15 and $10 are awarded. Ten awards are made each year, and the ten winning growers this year will have their particular nut automatically entered in a grand prize contest hoping that some of those nuts will be worth naming, and if any should be worth naming, after further study, naming and introducing, the grower will be awarded a prize of $1,000.

Four of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, crackers are financing this work by putting in $75 each annually. The college is cooperating in this respect, and when I say the college, I also mean the Extension Division. The Extension Director is pushing the matter and tells the county agents to pay attention to these entry blanks when they come, and get as many growers in each county to send in samples as possible.

The contest closes on November 25th. Those samples are sent to the college, and in three or four days—and those of you in colleges will recognize the Thanksgiving holiday—in three or four days' time those nuts are cracked and evaluated and placed. Last year, the second year of the contest, there were over 200 entries, and it was no small job to finish in time to get them on display at the annual meeting and show of the Oklahoma Pecan Growers Association in early December.

We are not content with the evaluation of the nut. It is just one phase of successful production to have a nut which is satisfactory for cracking and consumption; unless those trees are free from disease and productive and otherwise satisfactory we could never think of introducing a variety. And so the staff at the college, as soon, as the show is over, goes out and locates each of these trees individually and puts a tag on it. We visit each of those trees a sufficient number of times during the year to properly evaluate the tree.

The things that we are looking for, of course, are productiveness, freedom from disease and other characteristics of that type. If, after five years of observation, the tree characteristics are satisfactory, then the nut will be certified as worthy of propagation.

We are getting some place with this program, as evidenced by the data on last year's cracking contest. Normal seedling pecans yield about 33 per cent kernel to the packing plant. In last year's contest, as I say, there were over 200 entries, and I was just looking to see what the low was. I really haven't paid enough attention. The lowest entry apparently was about 33 per cent, and the highest entry was 59 per cent kernel. Over 30 of these seedling nuts yielded better than 50 per cent kernel, and that is better than most popular varieties.

These nuts are relatively small. The cracker doesn't care how small they are, he wants a nut that handles well in the cracker, a nut that is the shape of a football. A miniature football is an ideal cracking type of nut. The cracking docks come together from the ends. We cannot use a round nut. About two-thirds of these good nuts which yielded over 50 per cent kernel were so round that the machinery in cracking would not place the docks on the ends, but they were apt to hit anyplace. So they had to be discounted.

It is quite a job to evaluate these nuts. We have been arbitrary about it. We haven't developed any scoring system, because there are so many variable factors that it seems to be almost impossible to do so. In our general plan of operation in the state we expect this native grove improvement program that I described to continue, and as the trees get larger the growers will topwork sprouts which develop from the trees which have been removed so that the thing goes on and on with a constant improvement in the quality of the nut.

We also have many, many acres of nuts being propagated by topworking to varieties rather than by letting the seedling continue to produce. That is the reason why we are so much interested in getting a better type of pecan.

One man who makes it a commercial practice puts on thousands of scions every year. We in Oklahoma can't understand why you all seem to have so much trouble propagating nut trees. It is just as easy to propagate pecans and walnuts—not quite as easy—as apples, but then it isn't too difficult. I think it is the attitude and frame of mind in which you go about it.

Thank you very much, I appreciate the time.

President Davidson: Thank you. Now, then, Mr. Magill of the University of Kentucky, will give us "A Planned Program for Improving the Pecan Industry in Southwestern Kentucky."

A Pecan Improvement Program for Southwestern Kentucky

W. W. MAGILL, Extension Horticulturist, University of Kentucky

The production and marketing of seedling pecans in extreme southwestern
Kentucky has been of major importance for many years.

This industry naturally extends into northwestern Tennessee and parts of Missouri directly across the state line in the Mississippi River bottom. It might be said that this industry was developed by nature, because in the Mississippi River bottoms we find seedling pecan trees which undoubtedly are more than 100 years old. Some native seedling pecan trees in this area are five feet or more in diameter; some have a spread of branches covering a radius of 60 feet, and are more than 100 feet in height.

This industry took on considerable momentum about seven years ago when a group of local business men at Hickman, the county seat of Fulton County, developed a cracking plant known as the Roper Pecan Company. They now have thirty modern cracking machines, with sorting belts, grading machines, and other complete equipment, so that they are in a position to receive and process a large tonnage of native seedling pecans, merchandise the kernels and other by-products and, therefore, are able to purchase a large quantity of seedling nuts and operate their plant for eight months each year. Not having sufficient local nuts ("Kentucky Kernels") to take care of their business, they also buy not only Kentucky nuts but also from Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas.

+Young Native Trees Top-Grafted+

Realizing that this industry is here to stay and that many farmers of that district have many young seedling pecans growing on their farms, the Kentucky Agricultural Extension Service, cooperating with some of the leading farmers of the district, has launched a program of top-working these native seedling pecans with some of the known, improved varieties that have a reputation for producing good yields of high quality nuts. The beginning of this top-grafting program was in late April of 1948, when some 200 trees were top-worked mostly on the farm of the late Roscoe Stone, a farmer in this area who had considerable land holdings. It is highly pleasing to our Extension workers to observe what we think is an outstanding success in this first year of development, for we find that over 90% of the five to ten year old trees that were top-grafted have developed a new growth from the spring grafting, to the extent of from two to eight feet of new growth. John Watts, County Farm Agent of Fulton County, who pioneered this pecan improvement development, tells me that we already have requests for top-working over 500 other trees in this area for the spring of 1949.

+Northern Varieties Preferred+

The best information available was sought from such pecan authorities as Ford Wilkinson of Rockport, Indiana, Dr. A. S. Colby, chief in nut culture, Horticulture Department of the University of Illinois, Bob Endicott of Villa Ridge, Illinois, and others. They are of the opinion that this southwestern Kentucky area approaches the northern limit of successful production of known southern varieties of pecans, and that our success in our pecan grafting program can best be assured by top-working to the hardy northern varieties of pecans such as the Major, Greenriver, Niblack, Giles, Goforth, and others.

Thanks to our pioneers of this generation who located some outstanding seedling pecans in the Ohio Valley, such trees as the original Major, Greenriver, and others have proved their worth as hardy northern pecans and they have been used for propagating purposes rather than being destroyed by farm hands who burned piles of debris left by high water around many of these early trees.

+Some Superior Local Nuts+

We are of the opinion that other seedling varieties are now growing in this Reelfoot Lake area, maybe in Kentucky, maybe in Tennessee, or across the line in Missouri, that are equally as good pecans, and, we hope, better, than the already named seedlings which have been mentioned above.

During early August it was my pleasure to spend a day in the Hickman bottoms with County Agent Watts and Mr. Ernest Fields, manager of the local nut cracking factory, together with Mr. C. B. Toombs, of Hickman, at which time we inspected a number of recognized successful native pecan groves. Mr. Toombs knows that whole area and is familiar with the pecan trees of outstanding quality and yield history, just as you and I knew where every tree stood in the old home apple orchard or that of grandfather, where as boys we made frequent trips to get a pocketful of those outstanding local variety apples.

Mr. Toombs pointed out to me a tree on his own farm that he said bears a crop every year of from 300 to 400 pounds of nuts. In his own language he described the tree in detail but the thing which impressed me was the fact that he had developed standing orders for private sales to individuals from the crops of this one tree each year because they are of outstanding value. He showed us another tree on a neighbor's farm, one which produced 700 pounds of nuts one year; another tree on which the nuts were ready to harvest a month ahead of the nuts from other pecan trees in that region. (Mr. Wilkinson, it strikes me that propagation from this early maturing tree might well find a place several miles north of the Mason-Dixon Line where normal fall frosts often injure the crops.)

We are of the opinion that with organized effort we can locate these outstanding individual trees, get enough scion wood from them and put it in the hands of a good pecan grower, and in a few years develop sufficient grafting wood so that we can top-work thousands of these young native trees in the district, thereby increasing not only the number of pounds produced per tree, but have a volume of production of the very best quality of nuts. They tell me that one of the trees I observed has a cracking percentage of above 60 as compared to many of the native seedlings which have a cracking percentage of only 20-30 of nut kernels.

+First Annual Nut Show in 1948+

In an effort to locate these outstanding seedling trees in an organized way, our Kentucky Extension Service, cooperating with the Fulton County Farm Bureau, local civic organizations, the local nut cracking plant, and the Northern Nut Growers Association, through its secretary, Mr. J. C. McDaniel, has made plans for a nut show to be held at the county court house in Hickman, Kentucky, in early December of 1948. The feature of the show with be the cash prizes offered for the best seedling pecans. We request that the owners give us a history of the trees, the age, regularity in bearing, etc., with the nut show management reserving the right to cut a few sticks of grafting wood from the winning trees. Prizes will also be offered for hickory and walnut seedling trees. An educational program is also planned in connection with the day's show, and it will include a visit to the farm of the late Roscoe Stone, where a top-working program was started last spring, as well as a visit to the local nut cracking firm. This nut show is set up to become an annual affair, and we feel that the sky is the limit for the good that can come out of such an organized program as it affects the pecan industry in that area.

There are thousands of acres of excellent pecan land in this southwestern Kentucky area, that can be profitably developed into pecan groves. The land is deep, very fertile, and is already well supplied with moisture. We cannot question its being a natural home for pecan production, for nature proved this point to the public two generations ago.

PRESIDENT DAVIDSON: Pecan Culture in South Carolina by Mr. A. M. Musser, Head of the Department of Horticulture at Clemson Agricultural College is next. Mr. Senn will read the paper because Mr. Musser is not able to be here.

Pecan Production in South Carolina

T. L. SENN, Assistant Professor of Horticulture, Clemson, South Carolina

In the southern colonies on the Atlantic coast, the pecan was first described by Thomas Walter in his publication "Flora Caroliniana" in 1787. He was an Englishman who had a plantation in St. John's Parish on the Santee River, South Carolina, where he made an extensive collection of southern plants. After describing the tree, evidently a nursery specimen, he ended with the words, "The fruit I have never seen." It is known now that the native range of pecan did not extend to the present state of South Carolina. One of the first large pecan plantings in the state dates back to 1890; This was a seedling planting of 1000 trees made by John S. Horlbock at Charleston. Some of these trees are still producing. The planting never proved profitable and has changed ownership several times.

There are several small plantings of black walnuts, Chinese chestnuts, and Persian walnuts in various parts of the state. Persian walnuts do well in the Piedmont soil region and in 1947 the trees there had a good crop.

+Commercial Pecan Plantings+

The pecan, is one of the most popular tree nuts and is the only one grown on a commercial scale in South Carolina. Pecans are grown in every county, although there is a comparatively small number of trees in most of the Piedmont and Mountain counties, and several counties in the lower Coastal Plain. Orangeburg County, with the largest number, had 27,528. Pickens County, with the fewest trees, had 801. The total for the state was reported as 227,027 trees.

Pecans are an important money crop of the state. During the last five years the production of pecans has averaged three million pounds, which brought farmers a yearly average of $500,000. The average yield per tree of bearing age in 1947 was only about 7 pounds, or 100 pounds per acre. Eighteen cents was the average price received for improved varieties, and twelve cents for seedlings, during the ten-year period 1935-1944. With these prices and yields per bearing tree, it is easily seen that there is plenty of room for improvement, for the production of pecans in South Carolina by the average grower has not been very profitable during the past nine or ten years. South Carolina has ranked fifth or sixth in the production of pecans of improved varieties during the past several years. While production from year to year has been up and down, the general trend is up.

There are two general classes of pecan trees grown in South Carolina: seedlings and named or improved varieties. The average crop figures over the ten-year period 1933 to 1942, show that six times as many nuts of improved varieties were produced as of seedlings. South Carolina produces about 6% of the pecan nuts of improved varieties in the United States and less than 1% of the seedlings. The seedling trees are for the most part given very little attention, receiving neither fertilizers nor sprays. They produce nuts of miscellaneous size, shape, and quality, and are usually smaller than the improved varieties. The cost of production of seedling pecans is small for they are usually grown in back yards, in chicken ranges, and in pastures.

There are a number of pecan varieties that are adapted to and grown in
South Carolina. The most popular varieties are Schley, Stuart, Success
and Moneymaker. A number of other varieties, including Teche, Frotscher,
Mahan, Pabst, Delmas, Van Deman, and Moore are grown in some sections.

Schley is very susceptible to scab and should not be planted if a spray program is not carried out. Moneymaker, Stuart, and Success are not so very susceptible to scab and are satisfactory where a complete spray program is not used. Some years ago several growers in one county ordered Stuart trees and these trees, now bearing, turned out to be Teche, so there is some uncertainty as to the variety names in some sections.

The planting distance varies considerably, depending somewhat upon fertility of soil and length of growing season. Most of the plantings are too close, having as many as 20 or more trees per acre. Because of the longer growing season in the lower half of the state, trees grown there will be larger at a given age than those grown in the Piedmont section.

+Cultivation Methods+

Intercrops or cover crops are usually grown to increase the income of the farm. Cultivation programs vary according to the intercrop grown. Pecan trees are grown on various types of soil, which also vary greatly in their fertility. Different fertilizers are recommended for these varying conditions. Fertilizer is usually applied late in February or early in March, several weeks prior to the swelling of the buds. The exact time of application varies according to the area in the state in which the trees are grown. Many of the soils of the state are probably too acid for best growth of pecans and the necessary winter cover crops that should be grown in the plantings. In some soils that have been limed, or where the soil pH is 7.0 or approximately so, the application of zinc, to the soil has not eliminated rosette. Few such conditions exist in South Carolina, but where these conditions do prevail, zinc treatment is being tried in the form of sprays, using commercial spray materials.

Unfavorable weather at blooming time often prevents pollination. Instances of cross-incompatability occurring between the varieties grown in this state are practically unknown. Late spring frosts sometimes kill the male or female flowers or both.

The pecan in South Carolina is subject to attack by numerous insects and diseases, just as it is in other places. Scab is the worst offender. Several species of borers are found attacking the trunks, the twig girdler severing the tips of twigs, the shuck worm and case-bearer affecting the husk, and the pecan weevil affecting the nuts. Many of the trees growing in South Carolina are not planted in sufficiently large groves to justify the expenditure necessary for spray equipment. Contract spraying has been done to some extent and has possibilities in South Carolina. Where the number of trees is small this will be the only way in which growers can afford to obtain the use of high pressure equipment.

+Marketing Conditions+

South Carolina Circular 301 gives the following account of the pecan marketing situation in South Carolina. "Most of the pecans in this state are sold in small lots. The assembling at a number of locations of these small lots into lots large enough to make handling economical has been a great problem. It is believed that three auction markets properly located in the state would be the most satisfactory marketing arrangement. If each of these markets would have one sales day per week so that buyers could attend sales at each place, the cost of marketing could be greatly reduced." There are nine companies in five counties that handle pecans.

This is a rather brief discussion relating facts about the pecan industry in South Carolina, and most of the figures given are average figures. Those plantings receiving good cultural practices give more satisfactory returns. The pecans enterprise can be made a profitable one if the grower will carry out a complete program to overcome the problems of fertilization and control of diseases and insects and not just leave the trees to fight the battle alone.

+References+

Rawl, E. H. and Nettles, W. C.—Pecan Production, S. C. Circ. 183, 1940.

Musser, A. M., et al—Pecan Production and Marketing in S. C., S. C.
Circ. 301, 1947.

President Davidson: Thank you, Mr. Senn. I think this program is just tops. I don't know how you feel, but I think it is a wonderful program.

The Storage of Shelled Pecans will be told to us by Professor Harris of the Department of Horticulture of Alabama Polytechnic Institute of Auburn, Alabama. Professor Harris.

Preservation of Shelled Pecans by Drying and Hermetically Sealing

HUBERT HARRIS, Associate Horticulturist, Alabama Agricultural
Experiment, Station.

Without some special treatment, storage life of pecans at ordinary temperatures is rather short. Nuts held in common storage from fall harvest show noticeable flavor losses by spring. Staleness and rancidity are likely to follow as summer weather approaches.

These facts emphasize the need of a better method that might be used both commercially and in the home for preserving the pecan over a long period at common storage temperatures. A satisfactory method might be used not only for preserving nuts for year-round use, but for carrying them over from heavy crop years to light crop years.

This report presents the results of experiments conducted at the Alabama
Agricultural Experiment Station on methods of preserving pecans.

+Storage Troubles+

Some of the common pecan storage troubles are staleness, rancidity, color changes, molding, and insect injury. Molding occurs only when the product is stored in a moist atmosphere at ordinary temperatures. Insect infestation usually results when the shelled kernels are held in unsealed containers under ordinary storage conditions. Rancidity develops during the summer months when the product is stored by common, methods at ordinary temperatures.

Rancidity is probably the most common of pecan storage troubles; it has been considered the most difficult to control. Rancidity is usually preceded by general loss of flavor followed by staleness of kernels. Color gradually becomes darker as the typical rancid condition develops. These changes are associated with and caused by certain chemical reactions that progress at a slow rate. The oils and fats are slowly oxidized to aldehydes, ketones, and other chemical compounds (10), which cause the undesirable aromas and flavors characteristic of the rancid condition.

+Review of Previous Work+

The period during which pecans will remain free of rancidity and other forms of spoilage varies considerably with storage conditions and other factors. Common storage periods ranging from 3 to 12 months have been reported. Wright (10) placed the common storage life at 3 to 5 months. Blackmon (1) suggested 6 months as the maximum period. Medlock (11) was able to keep them in edible condition for periods up to 12 months. The wide ranges of time as observed by the different investigators are due, no doubt, to storage conditions, variety, quality of the nuts, and seasonal variations.

Cold storage was effective in preserving pecans for periods up to 2-1/2 years. Wright (10) reported effective periods of 13 to 30 months, and Medlock (11) was able to keep them for more than 2 years. Shelled pecans did not keep as long either in common or cold storage as the unshelled nuts.

+Methods and Procedures+

Results of preliminary tests made at the Alabama Station in 1937 indicated that pecans kernels might be kept at common temperatures by drying them in an oven and storing in sealed containers, which prevents absorption of moisture from the air. Since storage tests reported by other workers did not include studies of the relationship of moisture content of kernels to their storage life, it was felt that this phase of the problem should be investigated.

Preliminary tests were made to determine suitable temperatures and periods for the drying process. Temperatures of 200 to 225 deg.F proved to be most satisfactory. These temperatures dried the kernels quite rapidly without appreciable scorching or discoloration. The drying period was varied to give desired moisture contents for the various treatments.

Four methods of sealing the jars were used in the experiments. They were the "cold seal," "steam seal," "hot seal," and "vacuum seal."

The cold seal was accomplished by placing cool kernels in cool jars and sealing without special treatment.

By the steam seal, air was exhausted from the jars with a small blast of steam and the jars sealed immediately. Condensation of the steam resulted in a partial vacuum in the jars and a slight increase in moisture content of the kernels.

By the hot seal, hot kernels were transferred directly from the oven pans to clean, dry, hot jars, and sealed immediately. Contraction of the air as the jars cooled resulted in a partial vacuum.

The vacuum seals were made in clamp-top fruit jars by means of a home pressure cooker. Filled jars, with covers partially clamped, were placed in the cooker. The cooker cover was lubricated at the sealing surface and screwed down tightly. The pressure gauge in the top of the cooker was replaced with a vacuum gauge. The needle valve was removed. An aspirator was attached to the water faucet and connected to the needle valve opening by means of a vacuum hose. After the desired vacuum had been pulled on the cooker, the vacuum hose was removed from the needle valve fitting thus permitting air to rush back into the cooker. The sudden change in pressure automatically sealed the jars.

+Presentation of Data+

Preliminary studies were made to determine the effect of temperature and time of drying on moisture content, color, and toasting of kernels. Results of these studies are given in Table I.

TABLE I.—Effect of Temperature and Time of Drying on Moisture Content,
Color, and Toasting of Pecan Kernels.
=================================================
Oven Time in Moisture Change
temperature oven in in Degree of
kernels color toasting
Minutes Per cent

0 3.7 0.0 0
20 2.6 0.5 0
30 1.4 1 1
37 1.2 2 2
225 deg.F 44 1.0 3 4
51 0.5 6 8
58 0.3 8 10
65 0.2 8 10
72 0.1 9 10
————————————————————————-
10 3.2
20 3.1
203 deg.F 30 2.9
41 2.4
50 2.2
60 1.9
=================================================

[Footnote 25: The numbers 0 to 10 indicate varying amounts of change in color or degree of toasting: 0 represents normal color and/or no toasting. 10 represents considerable intensification of color and/or development of typical flavor of toasted kernels.]

The first series of the processing and storage tests was started in December, 1939. The treatments together with results are given in Table II. The different samples were dried in an electric oven at 225 deg.F to moisture contents ranging from 0.1 to 3.4 per cent. They were sealed in glass jars, both with and without vacuum, and stored in a dark room at ordinary temperatures. Those dried to 2.9 per cent moisture or less were still good after 2 years in storage, whereas those with higher moisture content were rancid after one year in storage. Samples dried to approximately 2 per cent moisture were still good September 1, 1948, which was almost 9 years after processing and storing. The color was preserved somewhat better by vacuum sealing. However, the quality of air-sealed samples was practically as good as those that were vacuum sealed. These tests did not show how long kernels might have been kept by drying and storing in unsealed containers.

Table II.—The Effect of Different Amounts of Drying and Different Methods of Sealing on the Storage Qualities of Pecan Kernels (Tests made at Auburn, beginning December, 1939.)

Per cent
No. min. moisture
Methods of Sample in oven in dry
sealing No. 225 deg.F kernels

Cold-seal (a) 1 0 8.4
Hot seal (b) 2 20 2.9
3 30 1.6
4 44 1.0
5 51 0.7
Steam-seal (c) 6 0 3.4
7 50 0.2
8 60 0.16
9 65 0.10
Vacuum-seal (d) 10 0 3.4
11 20 2.7
12 30 1.0

When canned After 12 mo. After 24 mo.
______________ _______________ _____________
Methods of Sample
sealing No. Color Flavor Color Flavor Color Flavor

Cold-seal (a) 1 1 Excellent 2 Medium 3 Medium
Hot seal (b) 2 1 Excellent 2 good 3 Very good
3 2 Very good, 2 Very Good, 3 Good,
slightly dry slightly dry slightly dry
4 2 Excellent, 3 Very good, 3 Very good,
slightly slightly slightly
toasted toasted toasted
5 2 Excellent, 2 Very good 2 Very good
toasted toasted toasted
Steam-seal (c) 6 1 Excellent 2 Fair 2 Fair
7 3 Excellent, 3 Very good, 3 Very good,
toasted toasted toasted
8 3 Excellent, 3 Good, 3 Good,
toasted toasted toasted
9 4 Excellent 4 Good, 5 Good,
toasted toasted toasted
Vacuum-seal (d) 10 1 Excellent 1 Very good 1 Good,
slightly
flat
11 1 Excellent 1 Very good 1 Good,
slightly
flat
12 2 Very good, 2 Very good, 2 Medium,
slightly dry slightly dry slightly
flat

[Footnote 26: Color ratings: Nos. 1 to 5 represent different amounts of
discoloration.
1 = Normal bright yellow color of fresh kernels.
5 = Normal brown color of aged kernels.]

[Footnote 27: Flavor ratings: fair means scarcely edible.]

[Footnote 28: Methods of sealing: (a) sealed without heating; (b) hot kernels immediately transferred from oven pans to dry, hot jars and sealed; (c) air exhausted from jars with steam and sealed immediately; (d) sealed under vacuum by method described under "Procedures."]

Table III.—Effect of Moisture Content, Container, and Sealing on
Storage Quality of Schley Pecan Kernels—1940.

Moisture content Flavor
________________ ________________________________

When After 6 After 8 After 12 After 18
stored months months months months

Covered 6.00 7.00 Not edible Not edible Not edible unsealed 4.43 6.85 Not edible Not edible Not edible ice cream 3.50 6.75 Not edible Not edible Not edible cartons 1.71 6.80 Not edible Not edible Not edible ________________________________________________________________

Covered 6.00 10.45 Not edible Not edible Not edible unsealed 4.43 6.70 Rancid Not edible Not edible glass 3.50 5.00 Fair Not edible Not edible jars 1.71 4.50 Good Fair Not edible ________________________________________________________________

6.00 6.15 Rancid Not edible Not edible Sealed 4.43 4.70 Fair Not edible Not edible glass 3.50 3.30 Good Good Rancid jars 1.71 1.85 Very good Very good Very good

[Footnote 29: The cured pecan kernels had a moisture content of 4.43 at the time the tests were made. Samples with moisture contents below 4.43 per cent were oven dried at 200 deg.F for periods necessary to reach the respective moisture levels. Samples with moisture contents above 4.43 were treated in steam to obtain the desired amount of moisture.]

[Footnote 30: Excessive increase in moisture content resulted in heavy molding of product.]

A second series of processing and storage tests was started in December, 1940. These studies included tests of effect of moisture content, type of container, and sealing on storage qualities of Schley pecan kernels. Table III shows a portion of these tests together with the results obtained. It is pointed out that unsealed samples regained moisture and became rancid within 8 months in storage.

+Summary+

Results from the foregoing experiments show that pecan kernels can be kept for nine years by drying them to about 2 per cent moisture and storing them in sealed containers. The best results were obtained by drying the kernels in an oven for about 50 minutes at 200 deg.F. The exact length of the drying period may vary somewhat with the moisture content of the undried kernels and the quantity of kernels dried at one time. The temperature of the oven could probably be reduced without affecting the drying time by using a fan for circulating the air in the oven.

This method will preserve the fresh qualities of pecans for a much longer time and equally as well as such common methods as freezing and canning preserve fresh qualities of other foods. It is felt that the process offers a practical and effective method that might well be used in the home as well as in commercial plants for preserving shelled pecans for year-round use and/or for carrying over surpluses from a heavy crop year to supplement the light crops that usually follow.

+Literature Cited+

1. Blackmon, G. H., 1927, Pecan Growing in Florida. Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 191: 86.

2. Kirkpatrick, S. M., 1924. The Pecan. Alabama Pecan Growers' Association, Proceedings, May, 1924, P. 10.

3. The Encyclopedia Americana. Volume XXI: 461.

4. Bailey, I. H., and Bailey, E. Z., Hortus. Second Edition: 542.

5. The Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume XVI: 647.

6. Skinner, J. J.; Fowler, E. D.; and Alben, A. O.: 1928, Pecan Soils of the Gulf and Southeastern States and Maintenance of their Fertility, USDA Circular 492: 1.

7. United States Agricultural Statistics for 1941: 279.

8. Davis, P. O., 1924, Some Facts About the Pecan. Alabama Pecan Growers' Association Proceedings, May, 1924: 9.

9. Salmon, W. D., 1924, Nutritive Value of the Pecan. Alabama Pecan Growers' Association Proceedings, May, 1924: 38-40

10. Wright, R. C., 1941, Investigations on the Storage of Nuts, USDA Technical Bulletin No. 770: 1-35.

11. Medlock, O. C. 1931, Pecan Storage, Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station Annual Report, Volume XLII: 50-51.

12. Blackmon, G. H., 1932. Cold Storage of Pecans. Florida Agricultural Experiment Station Annual Report, 1932: 102-105.

13. Smith, C. L.; Thor, C. J. B.; and Romberg, L. D.; 1933, Effect of Storage Conditions on the Germination of Seed Pecans. Texas Pecan Growers' Association Proceedings 13: 68-71.

14. Harris, Hubert, 1937, Preservation of Pecan Kernels. Department Annual Report of the Department of Horticulture and Forestry, Alabama Experiment Station, 1937. (Unpublished).

President Davidson: I wonder, Professor Harris, whether those methods could be applied to other nuts in addition to pecans. Would your methods with the pecan be adaptable to other nuts or kernels?

Prof. Harris: I have not tried other nuts, but I have thought quite a bit about the black walnut, and I would like to run some experiments. It seems to me that it would be adaptable to other nuts which have constituents similar to the pecan such as black walnut, and perhaps peanuts. We intend to work some on the peanuts down there. Now, of course, in the case of the chestnut we more or less checked it out on that, because when you dry the chestnut down to low moisture content you have a hard product that is not palatable and is quite undesirable.

President Davidson: Now comes the follow-up studies on the 1946 Ohio black walnut prize winners. Mr. L. Walter Sherman has prepared something on that matter but Mr. Sterling Smith, I believe, is going to read that to us.

Follow-Up Studies on the 1946 Ohio Black Walnut Prize Winners

L. WALTER SHERMAN, Mahoning County Experiment Farm, Canfield, Ohio

In 1946 a black walnut contest was conducted in Ohio that brought out roughly 800 samples of nuts from all sections of the state. Judging on the characters of the nuts only, there were ten selected as prize winners.

Notice that I say on nut characters only. In 1950 a grand prize is to be given to the tree selected from these ten trees that has been the outstanding performer for the five year period. We want to know more about these trees. Do they produce regularly? Do the nuts fill well each year? Are the trees young or old? On what kind of soil are they located? Just what are the factors that cause them to produce such superior nuts?

In order to try to answer some of this type of questions each of the ten trees was visited in 1947 and a careful survey of each was made. This was done in August, at which time the crop prospects for 1947 could be noted. Mimeographed blanks such as the following were used to record the desired data.

Tree Name

Latitude ____________

Name of Owner ______________________ Address _____________

County _______________ State __________ State Route ______

Telephone ___________________

TREE Isolated ; moderately crowded ; dense woods

LOCATION Types of trees in vicinity _____________________
Air drainage ___________________________________

Level ; Slope ; Direction of slope ______

TREE SIZE Circumference 4-1/2 feet from ground ___________

AND SHAPE Probable age ____ ; limb spread ; tall ; short ;

open-branched ; symmetrical ; irregular ;

SOIL Sod ; plowland ; bottom ; upland ; hillside ;

CONDITIONS clay ; alluvial ; loam ; sandy ; pH ;

Distance to subsoil ______ ; kind of subsoil ________

Humus ; lack of humus .

DRAINAGE Nearness to spring ; tile drain ; well ;

lake ; stream .

FERTILITY Fertilized ; manure ; commercial fertilizer ;

lime ; not fertilized .

Performance Chart

Resistance to disease and insects:

Blight______; Witches' Broom______; Caterpillars______;

1947 1948 1949 1950

1947 1948 1949 1950

Bearing: G F S F

Good; Fair; Scattering; Failure.

1947 1948 1949 1950

Season: Date of leafing out

Male: Date of blossoming

Female: Date of blossoming

Date of ripening

Date of killing frost

Last in spring;
first in fall
Rate of growth

Moisture; Rainy,
dry, average

Clusters: Size 1947 1948 1949 1950
Range in number of nuts
per cluster

Production: Size of crop in proportion to size of tree

1947 1948 1949 1950

Percentage of unfilled nuts:
1947 1948 1949 1950
R*H
——————————crop
pounds

* R = 1/2 limb spread.
* H = height; lowest branch to top.

In addition to these data, photographs, both in black and white, and in color, were taken of the trees and often of the surroundings, and a map made so that the trees can be located in the future by any one wishing to do so.

For examination by any one wishing to do so, there are on the secretary's desk copies of the case histories, as written up, of the first and second prize winners, the Duke and the Burson.

A careful study of these ten trees has not revealed any single factor that can be pointed to as essential to the production of a superior walnut variety. They were found on good and on poor soils, on good and poor sites, in soils of a wide range of pH values from very acid to alkaline in reaction. Most of the trees were located in the southern part of the state at 39 deg. to 40 deg. North Latitude, but it is hard to imagine that the latitude has any specific effect on the superior qualities of the nuts.

In all cases where the trees were now standing in impoverished soils, low in humus, fertility, and in pH value, it was quite evident that the soil was probably in far better condition when the trees got their start fifty to a hundred or more years ago.

+Winter Killing 1947-1948+

In 1947 scions of six of these prize winning trees were successfully grafted into established ten year old black walnut seedling trees at the Mahoning County Experiment Farm at Canfield, Ohio, location 41 deg. north latitude. The scions grew nicely in 1947 but all were winter killed during the winter of 1947-1948 with the exception of one scion of Kuhn and one of Davidson. Two scions of Duke, two of Kuhn, one of Athens, one of Orth, seven of Jackson perished during the first winter after grafting. This severe killing of 1947-48 apparently indicates that winter injury to these varieties may be expected some years when they are planted under conditions similar to those at the Mahoning County Experiment Farm. The one scion of the Davidson variety came through in fine shape, so this would be the exception.

The winter of 1947-48 was unusual in the severity of the winter injury to the black walnut trees at the Mahoning County Experiment Farm. Two ten year old Stabler trees and a ten year old Jansen tree killed back to the ground level, and one year old growth of Cowle, Havice, Jansen, Murphy, Mohican, Ohio, Stambaugh, Twin Lakes, and Lisbon was badly damaged although not always completely killed.

+Winter Killing of Bench Grafts+

Bench grafts that were still in the hot bed and were not transplanted to nursery rows until spring of 1948 fared much better than the grafts growing in the established trees. As they had no winter protection but the side walls of the hot bed it is a little hard to see why they fared so much better.

One bench graft of the Duke, two of Burson, four of Kuhn, two of
Davidson, three of Orth, two of Williamson, two of Penn, and six of
Jackson all came through in good shape.

Indications certainly point to the conclusion that the prize winning varieties of the Ohio 1946 contest are adapted to the southern part of the state rather than to the northern part. The Davidson is a possible exception to this.

Mr. Smith: I asked Mr. Silvis why Mr. Sherman wasn't here, and he said he wasn't able to come because he was doing the same type of work this year, and it is very evidently the reason why he wasn't at the last meeting because he was preparing this work. Instead of coming and enjoying the convention, he stays home and does work that helps the Association, so I think the Association is very much indebted to him.

President Davidson: I think that is true.

That makes it possible for us to close in good time. I think this program is tops. I think it is by far the best program I remember.

Mr. McDaniel: Let's give Mr. Chase, the Program Chairman, a big hand.

(Applause.)

President Davidson: We will now adjourn.

(Whereupon, at 4:30 o'clock, p. m. the meeting was adjourned to reconvene for business session after the banquet.)

+Tuesday Evening Business Session+

President Davidson: There is a little business that remains to be done.
In order to let Mr. Slate get away, we'd like to have a report of the
Committee on Place of Meeting.

Mr. Slate: The committee consisting of Royal Oakes, myself and two others, conferred with each other. We have considered the matter of a meeting place for next year, and we think, and those we have talked with think, that perhaps Beltsville would be the best place. It does not seem feasible to have a meeting in the Middle West. The New York City region will probably be better for us a year later. The other good places we have visited rather recently. So we are recommending that the place of meeting be Beltsville.

Do you wish to consider the time of meeting now, or will we vote on the place?

President Davidson: Let's act on that now. First, may I have a motion?

A Member: I will move we hold our next convention at Beltsville,
Maryland.

(The motion was seconded, vote taken and motion carried unanimously.)

President Davidson: Now, time of meeting.

Mr. Slate: It has been customary for us to have our meeting early in September, about Labor Day. Next Labor Day is the 5th of September. Now, we are not making any recommendations as to time, but if we follow our past custom we will probably meet about the 6th, 7th and 8th. Some of you might like to come later to avoid the Labor Day traffic, but that interferes with some of those who have teaching duties, registration, and so forth, at that time of the year. Personally, I do not think that the Labor Day traffic is insurmountable. It is rather unpleasant in certain areas, but we can make it all right, and we have made it. Perhaps I should recommend the dates the 6th, 7th and 8th, which are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

President Davidson: You have heard the report. What shall you do with it?

Dr. MacDaniels: I move its adoption.

(The motion was seconded, vote taken and motion carried unanimously.)

President Davidson: Next, I should say, we would like to have a report of the nominating committee.

Mr. Weber: The Nominating Committee reports for the consideration of the members the following list of candidates:

For president, H. F. Stoke from Virginia. Vice-president, L. H. MacDaniels from New York. For secretary, J. C. McDaniel from Tennessee, and treasurer, Sterling A. Smith from Ohio.

President Davidson: You have heard the report of this committee. I should say that in this case nominations from the floor would be in order.

A Member: Mr. President, I move that nominations be closed.

(The motion was seconded, vote taken, and motion carried unanimously.)

President Davidson: That was on the motion that nominations be closed.
What is your pleasure, shall we vote by ballot or shall we vote by—

A Member: Mr. President, I move that the secretary be instructed to cast a unanimous ballot for those nominated by the Nominating Committee.

Mr. Fisher: Second.

(A vote was taken on the motion, and it was carried unanimously.)

President Davidson: This gavel I should have called to your attention before. It is called to your attention at the end of our program, and so you know its story. The other one that has been used in our past meetings was sent to me by Mr. Reed. It is "An Historical Gavel, Northern Nut Growers Association." I understand from Mr. Reed that this was a piece of wood sent to Mr. Littlepage and turned by him and made into a gavel, and this little metallic name plate sunk in by Mr. Littlepage, who is one of the very early members of our association. So we have two historic gavels. Rather interesting, I think.

One other matter. The question has come up in view of the fact that the next annual report will be larger than normal and also in view of the fact that the membership dues have been raised to $3.00, whether it should not be wise and fitting to charge $3.00 for the coming 1948 report instead of the old price of $2.

Mr. McDaniel: $2.00 is the current price for the last two issues of the report to non-members. If that is allowed to continue the man who purchases a report without becoming a member will get it for one-third less than the members do.

President Davidson: What is your wish?

Mr. Weber: Mr. President, I say that they should not be given any more preference than the members, so let them pay $3.00 like the rest of us. I make it in the form of a motion.

A Member: Second.

President Davidson: Moved and seconded that the charge for the forth-coming report of this Association be made $3.00 to non-members. Of course, that report goes to all members, as you know. Are there any remarks on this motion?

Mr. Slate: Mr. President, what about the matter of supplying reports to libraries? In the past we supplied libraries at $1.00 a copy. I don't know whether Mr. McDaniel has had any special requests.

Mr. McDaniel: I haven't had any orders from libraries during the past year.

President Davidson: Shall we make a difference for libraries? What is your feeling?

Dr. MacDaniels: Mr. Chairman, if we have had a differential before I think that might be continued. I will propose a motion that libraries be allowed to purchase the proceedings for $2.00.

President Davidson: Do you make that in the form of an amendment?

Dr. MacDaniels: Yes.

Mr. Weber: I accept that amendment.

A Member: It meets the second's approval.

President Davidson: The motion is then that a charge for the forth-coming report shall be $3.00 to non-members, except that the charge shall be $2.00 to libraries and similar organizations, if that is satisfactory.

(A vote was taken on the motion, and it was carried unanimously.)

Mr. McDaniel: I have a report to read, as follows:

+Report of the Auditing Committee+

The Auditing Committee has examined the records of our treasurer, D. C.
Snyder, for the fiscal year just closed and has found them correct as
reported and commends him for his excellent service to our Association.
[Signed] R. P. Allaman, Royal Oakes, Auditing Committee.

President Davidson: You have heard the report. What will you do with it?

A Member: I move that the report be accepted.

A Member: Second.

(A vote on the motion was taken, and it was carried unanimously.)

Dr. Crane: Mr. President, members of the Association: Most of the thunder that the Resolutions Committee had has been taken care of either tonight or at various meetings that we have had. These resolutions have been rather spontaneous at these meetings. However, the Resolutions Committee, for a matter of record, does make the following report:

+Report of the Resolutions Committee+

The Northern Nut Growers Association in its annual meeting assembled at Norris, Tennessee, September 13th to 15th, 1948, adopts the following resolutions:

That, our sincere thanks be extended to Mr. George F. Gant, General Manager of Tennessee Valley Authority, the members of his staff, especially to Mr. Willis G. Baker, Director of the Division of Forest Relations, Mr. Spencer Chase, Mr. Thomas G. Zarger, and others, for the courtesies extended and for making-the necessary arrangements for holding the meetings and caring for the needs of those in attendance.

That we extend thanks and appreciation to Mrs. Willis G. Baker and the other ladies of her committee who provided and served the refreshments on Sunday evening and assisted in arrangements for the banquet.

That we extend thanks to Mr. Spencer Chase and the other members of the committee for the very interesting and instructive program.

May we extend our thanks to those who presented papers and otherwise took part in the program.

We greatly appreciate the very fine work being done by our Secretary, J.
C. McDaniel. Resolutions Committee, Stoke, Silvis, Sterling Smith, and
Crane.

President Davidson: You have heard this report, and I think it is well that we have had it in the form so that it could be a part of our record. What will you do with it?

Dr. MacDaniels: Move the acceptance of the report.

Mr. McDaniel: Second.

(Vote taken on motion, carried unanimously.)

President Davidson: I have here a telegram that I should like to read to you, and this is the way it is worded: "Your generously worded telegram is greatly appreciated. I am grateful beyond all words. My greetings to everyone present tonight. C. A. Reed." We are glad to have the word from Mr. Reed.

Our business meeting is now adjourned.

(Whereupon, the program and business sessions of the Thirty-ninth Annual
Meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association were closed.)

(On September 15, the members were conducted on a tour of the nursery, arboretum, and experimental nut plantings of the Tennessee Valley Authority near Norris.)

Odds and Ends

DR. W. C. DEMING, West Hartford, Connecticut

I would like to suggest, especially to the younger members of the association, three horticultural projects that I believe promise to be of importance, and on which nobody that I know of is doing any work. Only one of these projects has to do with a nut.

1. Utterly neglected and wasted, the fruit of the horsechestnut or buckeye, "said, to have been formerly used as food or medicine for horses," still might become an abundant food for animals, and perhaps for man, if a way could be found to deprive it of its disagreeable bitter taste and reputed, probably exaggerated, poisonous quality.

There is one late flowering horsechestnut, Aesculus parviflora, a dwarf species from the Southeast, and commonly seen in Connecticut as an ornamental on lawns, which bears a nut entirely free from bitterness, and is sometimes known as the edible horsechestnut. The possibilities in crossing this with the bitter horsechestnut tree species are evident and fascinating. [Several hybrid horsechestnuts are cultivated, but none of these apparently involves any A. parviflora parentage.—Ed.]

2. In temperate zones there are, so far as I have learned, no perennial legumes the seeds of which are used as food. All our immensely valuable edible leguminous seed crops are annually planted. The only exception I think of is the honeylocust, the pods of which, under favorable conditions, are sometimes used as fodder for horses and cattle. But there are thousands of leguminous plants and trees, many of them hardy. I mention the herbaceous Baptisia australis, several hardy perennial peas, such as Lathyrus sylvestria, L. maritimus etc., Caragrana the pea tree, and species of Robinia, Cercis; Cymocladus and Wistaria. A collection of these, with as many more as one might wish, would be a fascinating group in which to spend hours with brush and forceps.

3. All over America thousands of "tired business men," and school boys who ought to be tending to their baseball, have to spend weekends and holidays pushing lawn-mowers. If an acceptable ground cover could be found that would have to be mowed only half as often, or one quarter as often, or maybe only once a year, or even (glory be) not at all, what a saving of time it would be for good healthy sport and non-depressing exercise.

There are many promising plants. Pachysandra and Vinca, don't quite fill the bill but have their good points, such as growing in the shade. There is a little round-leafed plant common in Florida and, apparently, found in the north. There are many plants that could be grown experimentally in patches a yard square. Why have we so tamely limited ourselves to grasses and clover? What a chance for a man to immortalize himself by discovering variants for grasses and clover for lawns and thus become a benefactor to millions of lawn-mower slaves!

[Footnote 31: (See letter from the American Medical Association on next page.—Ed.)]

Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

of the

AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Office of the Secretary, 535 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago 10, Illinois

January 5, 1949

Doctor W. C. Deming 31 South Highland Street West Hartford, Connecticut

Dear Doctor Deming:

This is in reply to your inquiry of December 28, 1948, regarding the toxicity of horse chestnuts.

All six of the species of Aesculus which are native to the United States have been reported as poisonous, but specific references in the literature are infrequent. The species Aesculus hippocastanum has been studied and has been found to contain saponin, tannin, and the glycoside, esculin. Esculin is used in patent remedies in the form of ointments and pastes to protect the skin from sunburn. The saponin seems to be the toxic component.

Fruit of the horse chestnut is rich in starch and oil and is a valuable food for livestock. The bitter taste of the nut is removed by alcohol extraction which removes the saponin, thus rendering the nut harmless. Certain domestic animals, however, seem to be able to eat the untreated nut without suffering ill effects. [Italics are by Dr. Deming.—Ed.]

Most of the saponins are markedly irritant to the mucous membranes. They have an acrid taste and provoke a flow of saliva, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. If injected directly into the circulation they produce hemolysis, diuresis and direct actions on the central nervous system which may be rapidly fatal. Absorption after oral administration is so poor that saponins produce only local effects. The toxicity of various saponins is ten to a thousand times higher by vein than by mouth and is generally proportional to the hemolytic action. Some saponins have a different toxicity for different species.

In experiments with rats Hindemith found that the saponin from Aesculus hippocastanum is not toxic in daily oral doses of 87.5 mg. per kg. Nonhemolytic doses injected intravenously in cats have no effect on respiration or blood pressure; hemolytic doses produce a sudden drop in pressure owing to liberation of potassium from the erythrocytes. The saponin increases the activity of the isolated frog heart, then stops it in systole. In frog nerve muscle preparations of this saponin reversibly interrupt stimulus transmission; recovery occurs upon washing.

For a general review of the literature you are referred to Bull. Sc.
Pharmacol. 47:290 (November-December) 1940, which is available at the
New York Academy of Medicine Library, 2 East 103rd Street, New York
City.

Sincerely yours,

[Signed]
BERNARD E. CONLEY, R. Ph.
Administrative Assistant.

BEC:nr

The Birth of a New Walnut Cracker

B. H. Thompson

The home of the Thompson walnut cracker is the home of the maker, on the farm, five and a half miles northwest of Harrisonburg, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I live in the upland area, 1,500 to 1,700 feet up in the hills.

A man once said he killed two birds with one stone. I went him one better in one instance. I went to the back end of the farm and picked up all the walnuts and placed them on a pile, not too far from the house. Then the squirrels came to help themselves. I got all the squirrels I wanted to eat and those that got away retreated so fast they dropped their walnut. Then I cracked what walnuts were left for cakes and candy, which we all enjoy so much.

It was while cracking these nuts with a hammer that the thought came to me: Why should there not be a faster and better way to crack nuts? Later I happened to see a walnut cracker made by a blacksmith which did a very good job of cracking, but was entirely too slow for me.

Being mechanically inclined, I have always entertained a desire to invent something worth while. I set out to perfect a cracker that would be fool-proof, easy to work, fast, simple, and strong enough to last a lifetime. This I accomplished in the Model 6. Before reaching this point, I had designed and tested five different models, made five different ways, to see which would be best. They all worked, some good, some I did not like so well. It was discouraging at times but something seemed to tell me I had the right principle.

This No. 6 walnut cracker is a success, now in its 11th season and going
stronger all the time. You will find it in 37 states, from Florida to
Washington State, from New Hampshire to California, from Minnesota to
Texas.

Most of the crackers are sent by mail, and some of the customers mention the fact that they are members of the N.N.G.A. Others do not have trees on their premises, but collect walnuts by the roadside. One I know of has 2,000 walnut trees on his 1,200 acre farm.

Marketing of Black Walnuts in Arkansas

T. A. WINKLEMAN, Rogers, Arkansas

The Benton County Produce Company has been in the walnut business for 38 years. For the first few years we dealt only in hulled nuts, shipping carloads of them to Omaha, Chicago, several points in Nebraska, and the West Coast. About twenty years ago, as I recall, there was a large cracking plant at Kansas City and we shipped several carloads there.

Eventually we began to receive small orders for kernels. We filled them and the number of orders increased. This led us finally to the decision that we should get out of the hulled nut business and sell only kernels, and with few exceptions, that's what we have been doing for the past 25 years. During this time the production of kernels throughout the walnut region has gone up tremendously. As you know, many plants using mechanical cracking machines have become established. We have stuck to hand-operated crackers; but even so, we were able one year to turn out 13,000 pounds of kernels. At present we ship kernels to practically every state in the Union.

Millions of pounds of walnuts are available from Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee. Here the walnut tree seems to make its best growth. It has been our experience that the better nuts come from upland trees. Those produced in the bottomlands along the larger streams lack the rich flavor typical of those coming from higher elevations. This means we get our best nuts from the Ozarks in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri. So far, few walnut trees are grown commercially. Practically all of the nuts come from wild trees. But recently there seems to be a trend toward planting grafted walnut trees and grafting native seedlings to improved varieties. The nurseries in this area now have walnut seedlings for sale and some landowners are setting out considerable acreages. It seems like a good investment. The trees grow fast, bear nuts at an early age, and eventually yield additional income in the form of logs. We believe walnut offers better prospects for commercial production than pecan, owing mainly to the value of the walnut wood for cabinet uses.

Not much has been done here with improved varieties. There are some Thomas trees in the region and they yield very well. You get about 20 pounds of kernels from 100 pounds of hulled Thomas nuts as against an average of 12 pounds from our wild native nuts. We anticipate that within three or four years the Thomas will attain commercial importance here. In my opinion, however, Thomas kernels do not have the flavor that the wild nuts have; the percentage of oil seems to be less. I have also been told that wood from the Thomas trees has little value in the furniture trade. Why this should be true, or whether it is true, I don't know.

Shells are a problem with us as they are with most concerns in the walnut cracking business. We sent some samples to Iowa State College for testing and got a pretty favorable report. If available in sufficient quantity, the shells apparently can be used for gas production, oils and for other purposes.

Walnut in this region has few enemies; but one, the walnut Datana caterpillar, does considerable damage. We need federal or state aid in controlling this dangerous pest.

Further Notes on Nut Tree Guards for Pasture Plantings

OLIVER D. DILLER, project Supervisor, Hillculture Research, Soil
Conservation Service, Wooster, Ohio

In an article entitled, "Nut Trees for Ohio Pastures," which appeared in the 37th annual report of the Northern Nut Growers Association, the writer called attention to the advantages of nut trees planted in fence rows and in the interior of permanent pastures and the need for a more satisfactory cattle guard to protect the trees during their period of establishment.

The writer has for several years studied various types of cattle guards and in 1946 suggested the possible use of an electric guard along permanent fence lines. This set-up worked fairly well during the first growing season, but it was found that a considerable amount of maintenance is necessary and therefore electric guards may not be practicable over a period of years.

During the summer of 1947 a prominent wire fence manufacturing company was contacted concerning the availability of a welded wire fabric which might be used as a substantial yet economical tree guard. The company made available for test purposes two 150-foot rolls 72 inches high. One roll was galvanized, 11 gauge wire, with 2 x 4 inch staves, while the other was ungalvanized 10 gauge, with 4 x 4 inch spacing between the staves. These rolls were cut into lengths of 13.7 feet, resulting in a circular guard 4.36 feet in diameter (shown in picture). The guards were installed along a permanent fence on the pasture research farm of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station at Wooster during the summer of 1947. Observations made during July, 1948, indicate that these guards have not been damaged in any way by the dairy cattle on this farm during the current season, and that the trees are being adequately protected. No guards have as yet been installed in the interior of the pasture, but it would seem that only one standard fence post would be required to support such a guard.

The wire company was not able to give the exact cost of this material to the farmer, but suggested a quotation of $3.90 per hundred square feet for the galvanized wire, 2 x 4 inch spacing, 11 gauge, as compared to $3.00 per hundred square feet for the ungalvanized wire, 4 x 4 inch spacing, 10 gauge.

Assuming that the ungalvanized wire would serve the purpose for a period of ten years, the cost would be approximately $2.50 per guard if it were attached to a line fence; If placed in the interior of a field, the cost of a standard fence post would have to be added. While this cost may appear to be rather high, it is believed that it will compare favorably with another type guard which will provide equal service. The chief advantages of this guard seem to be its apparent sturdiness and ease of installation.

[Footnote 32: Diller, O. D. "Nut Trees for Ohio Pastures," Northern Nut
Growers Association, Inc., 37th Annual Report. 1946, pp. 62-64.]

A Pecan Orchard in Gloucester County, Virginia

MRS. SELINA L. HOPKINS, River's Edge Flower Farm, Nuttall, Virginia

Mr. Reed has asked me to tell you of our experience with pecans in Gloucester County, very near Chesapeake Bay, on North River, a tidewater estuary of Mobjack Bay. Our house is about 20 feet from the shore, so we call it "River's Edge," which describes it very well. The pecan trees are on the lawn, in the barnyard, and in an adjoining field.

The orchard was planted by my late husband about 1915. The trees came from at least two nurseries as there are two distinct sets of varieties. There are eight varieties from the North and eight from the South. Of the northern sorts there are Busseron, Butterick, Indiana, Kentucky, Major, Niblack, Posey, and Warrick. These came from the nursery of R. L. McCoy, Lake, Spencer County, Indiana.

The southern varieties are Delmas, Frotscher, Georgia (Georgia Giant),
Hale, Schley, Stuart, Teche, and Van Deman. Hale trees have been the
slowest to come into bearing, and there are several which appear to be
Hale which are not yet in fruit.

+Nut Crops Scanty+

The trees near the house, both on the lawn and in the barnyard are set irregularly but those in the orchard are in rows, 65 feet each way. They are beautiful in appearance, being from 40 to 55 feet tall, and are very healthy.

However, they do not bear well. We had a pretty good crop in 1943, about 500 pounds, which we sold for 30 and 35 cents per pound. Since then we have had very few nuts, as the flowers have evidently been killed each year by frost.

Most of the nuts we have had have come from trees near the river, where the air is tempered by salt air coming in at high tide. At this writing, early August, there seems to be more nuts than at any time since 1943. There was no frost that I could detect after the trees flowered, but there are few nuts on the trees farthest from the river.

The fruit trees back in the county, on what we call "the highlands," have no fruit this year. Apparently our northern varieties of pecan do not stand the cold any better than the southern sorts. In the last few years, there have been more nuts of the southern varieties. I suppose the flowers of the northern varieties came out at a time when they were more easily frozen.

We have several trees that are evidently seedlings, as they grew up from the ground after the tops died, They usually bear well, producing sweet nuts, well-flavored but small.

We have six Persian walnuts that have had only about ten nuts in all these years. One tree has a black walnut coming up from the root on which it was grafted. It is of the same size as the Persian top. Two years ago, this tree had about 30 nuts on the Persian side and 50 on the black. It is not easily accessible and I have not been to it this year.

+Behavior of Pecans+

The Posey trees are in an east-west row about one-third the distance from the north end of the orchard. Most of the Major and Busseron trees are farther south, some as much as 200 yards. A few trees of both varieties are directly south, within 100 yards, while others are the same distance away off and some farther southwest. It is stated in a recent bulletin of the Virginia Agricultural Extension Service that Posey is needed to pollinate Busseron and Major.

Since reading the bulletin, I have been thinking of our crops in the past. I remember that trees of these two varieties farthest from the Posey, do not bear as well. Until now, I have attributed this to the fact that the soil was less fertile and the trees are smaller and less vigorous. Also the trees are farther from the frost-tempering river. I am not sure yet that this is not the reason.

We are not alone in our experience of an uncertain crop, as other pecan growers in the county tell the same tale. There are a number of large old trees in this general section of Virginia, as well as a good many seedlings. In addition, there are native, bitter, large-growing water hickory (Carya aquatica), which is not uncommon in lowlands. (These hybridize freely with true pecans, producing beautiful trees but astringent nuts. Ed.)

One of the largest orchards was set out a few years before ours, by the late Dr. Wm. C. Stubbs, on a farm that had been in his family for many generations. It is on York River, about 15 miles from our place. It was he who encouraged my husband to set out our orchard. Dr. Stubbs was for many years Director of the Louisiana Experiment Station near New Orleans. He spent his summers at his old home. His trees were probably the best started and cared for during his life, as he knew how to do it. I drove to see the farm recently, and talked with the present owner, who bought it in 1942. The next year, when I also had my good crop, he nearly paid for the place with proceeds from the nuts.

However, like ourselves, he has had practically no nuts since, and is so much discouraged that he plans to take out some of the trees. The varieties there are mostly Moneymaker, Schley and Success. The same varieties are also in a small orchard of another neighbor, who reports that Success does best. The trees owned at one time by Dr. Stubbs seem not to be cultivated at all, but are grazed and mowed, and the orchard is now rather a tangle of briers and weeds.

+We Grow Bulbs with Pecans+

As this is primarily a daffodil farm, and the trees have the best land, it is also used for bulb growing. The daffodils are a much surer crop with us than pecans. We sell both flowers and bulbs. The season for daffodils is in March and April which is well ahead of the pecans. The pecans do not leaf out early enough to shade the daffodils, and I can't see that they injure them in any way except in very dry years. Bulbs near the trees do just as well as those in the open field and sometimes bloom earlier.

All cultivation and fertilization that the trees get is what is accorded the bulbs. As soon as the season is ended for bulbs, we begin cultivating. We go over the bulbs about three times before the tops die back to the ground, in late May. In late July, we mow the weeds, which are high by that time. We frequently mow again later in the fall. We take up the bulbs every two or three years in June, cure them in trays in airy buildings, grade them, sell some, and replant what we need to keep up our supply. When a plot is dug, we plant it with soybeans, turn them under in late summer and replant with a winter cover crop, rye or clover usually. That crop is turned under the following late April when the rye is usually waist high. We replant again with beans which are turned under in July.

If we think the soil needs more humus, we repeat the process another year. During this rotation we apply 0-14-7 at least twice, usually with the first two plantings. The land is limed only at long intervals, as daffodils like a soil rather on the acid side. Of course, during this cultivation and planting, we plow rather close to the trees, within about four feet, and sometimes cut the roots. You may well think that this accounts for their not bearing well, but in this neighborhood there is the same story with trees that are not plowed around. I have wondered at times if they are not too near salt water, and maybe the roots go down to water, yet the trees nearest the river bear best. We have a Teche tree only about 20 feet from high tide line, and it is our surest bearer, having never missed a crop.

Our only varieties that scab to any extent are the one Georgia and the two trees of Delmas, but the man on Dr. Stubbs' place says that both varieties scab although I forgot to ask which variety was worst. (Delmas is one of worst scabbing varieties in the South.—Ed.)

Indiana Nut Shows Have Educational Value

W. B. WARD, Extension Horticulturist, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.

A few days ago I had a letter from Professor George L. Slate, of the Geneva station, requesting that I send you some information concerning our recent nut shows and a couple of pictures to be used in the current report.

I am enclosing two pictures—one showing a display of hicans, shellbark, shagbark, bitternut, mockernut hickories and in the background a few of the miscellaneous sorts, while the other picture shows mostly the black walnuts. (Latter picture printed on next page.—Ed.)

If you will note in the pictures, we have used a saw and cut the nuts in two for display purposes. This has been one means of classifying the seedlings to find out whether or not they were worthy of further propagation, although this alone was not the final classification. It was rather surprising to the number of visitors we have had at our shows to see the difference in the interior of the nut and believe me it has done a lot toward the education of the people when it comes to locating some of the better seedlings.

The purpose of the nut program in the state of Indiana was for the betterment of native nuts and we were in hopes that we could find some very promising seedlings that would be worthy of further work. With the cooperation of the Indiana Horticultural Society and the Student Horticultural Show here at the University, we have had this nut show for the past six or eight years. Sometimes it has been in competition, other times it has been mostly for display. The show served the purpose which we had in mind for thus we have located some very nice walnuts, hickory nuts and a few good seedling pecans. After the show had been visited by some six to eight thousand annually for the past several years, we have further made displays at the annual meeting of the Indiana Horticultural Society in Indianapolis, at the A.P.S. meeting at St. Louis last winter and at the Indiana State Fair in 1948, with a display going to some of the other institutions—particularly to Oklahoma and Texas—for display at their state shows. A new collection was gathered by the students and the writer this year which, in part, will be displayed at the Indiana Horticultural Society meeting on January 19, 20 and 21 and another collection is being shown at Oklahoma A. & M. at this time. The nuts will be returned and placed in cold storage to be exhibited at the State Fair next fall and we have sufficient quantities on hand for individual displays as well as for collections.

Each plate contains from 35 to 40 nuts of seedlings or named varieties and at our recent show we had 66 plates of hickory nuts and allied species. We had 41 plates of walnuts including some very fine Persian walnuts, 16 samples of filbert seedlings, 20 plates of miscellaneous and all told 141 different plates at our show which was held on November 5, 6 and 7, 1948.

Some of our best contributors have been such as Ferd Bolten, Linton, Indiana, who sent five good Persian walnuts and one excellent black walnut. Edward Smith, of Rochester, Indiana, and Henry Buit, of Lafayette, also have found some wonderful walnut seedlings. Donald Sly, Rockport, Indiana, has produced the best seedling filberts, about eight in number, and contributed a wonderful display of the McCallister hican. Mr. J. F. Wilkinson, Proprietor of the Indiana Nut Nursery, has contributed largely to the collection of seedling and named varieties of hardy northern pecan while W. A. Owen, Poseyville, and Clem Seib, Owensville, have been consistent winners in the large shellbark hickories. O. W. Thompson, Owensville, and William Seng, of Jasper, contributed some large size thin-shelled shagbark hickories to our show. James Stall, of Brownstown, is a consistent winner in butternuts.

Each year more interest is being shown in the planting of native nuts and some of our Persian walnuts are rather outstanding. Nolan Fateley, Franklin, Indiana, has a very fine seedling Persian walnut of large size which we are hoping to propagate. (A large Carpathian tree.—Ed.)

The Importance of Stock and Scion Relationship in Hickory and Walnut

CARL WESCHCKE, St. Paul, Minnesota

Twenty-five years of practical study and living with the hickories ought to suffice to make a success in growing these trees for their delicious product. However, it is only in the twenty-eighth year of such work that I have made an important discovery about the particular hickory with which I have had the most success; I refer to the variety known as the Weschcke shagbark hickory.

I began to graft such varieties as Beaver and Fairbanks (bitternut—shagbark hybrid) hickory on Wisconsin native bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis) in 1920, and some grafts are doing very well at this time, 1948, but they are practically barren of fruit. Since then I have accumulated more varieties to test from many different sources, to continue the work down to the present day. During that time I noticed, but did not appreciate, the significance of the relationship of growth between scion and root system. True, I have been very cognizant of the so-called compatibility between stock and scion in the hickory family, and have written about this matter for publication several times, but I was then more concerned with the stock and scion living together in a harmonious state of existence and health without realizing that there was something else necessary to this relationship in order to promote heavy bearing.

+Experiments in Grafting Black Walnuts+

Parallel to these early experiments, I was grafting in the same family as the hickories, known as the walnut, or Juglandaceae family, using wild native butternut (Juglans cinerea) as a stock for grafting to such varieties as the Thomas, Ohio, Stabler and Ten Eyck black walnut (J. nigra). Some of these trees, so grafted, exist today, being more than 25 years old, and they have never borne more than a hatful of walnuts to a tree, even when they became large trees. Most of them are entirely barren year after year. I often remarked to persons who were interested in this phase of my work, that the black walnut was non-productive on the butternut root system, but it was very evident that there was not completecompatibility because the walnut scion greatly outgrew the butternut stock causing a marked difference in their trunk diameters just below and above the union. This great difference, the butternut being so much smaller, was no doubt the cause of a shortage of food supply elaborated through the bark circumference which limited the top to a mere growth of leaves, not leaving sufficient additional supply for the growth of fruit.

My observation among the hickories, with which I did far more experimental work than with the walnuts, was beclouded by the fact that many successful, apparently compatible varieties, grew and throve on the native bitternut stock without bearing fruit, except for just a few nuts occasionally; and yet there was no apparent difference between the scion diameter and the trunk diameter, nothing like the overgrowth of the black walnut when grafted on butternut. So it took many years and a different growth phenomenon to open my eyes as to what was the trouble in getting hickories to bear on foreign root systems.

The final solution of the problem was determined by my observation this year of grafted hickories of several sizes and ages were Weschcke shagbark (C. ovata) scions and other hickory scions, such as Siers, Bridgewater, Deveaux, Beaver, and Fairbanks have been grafted on the same tree to act as pollinators for the Weschcke, which is devoid of pollen. This year particularly, the difference in rate of growth between two varieties grafted on the same stock was very apparent; in every case all other varieties greatly exceeded the growth of the Weschcke hickory, but in many cases, only the Weschcke hickory had any nuts growing on the graft, and if there were any nuts on another graft, there were but a few. In practically all cases, the diameters of the scions of varieties of hickory other than the Weschcke were at least twice the diameters of the Weschcke grafts, and the growth of all varieties so grafted was healthy and vigorous and thoroughly compatible with the native bitternut hickory root system.

Several years ago I had to trim some of these other varieties back in order to allow the Weschcke graft to get more growth because it was so backward in development that it looked as though it might be crowded out of existence. It never occurred to me in those years that it was the difference in rate of growth between the two varieties which was really responsible for the difference in the diameter of the scion growth, and not some accident of propagation. Now it is very apparent, from the many examples that I have about me, that the Weschcke hickory is about one-half as fast a grower as such varieties as Bridgewater, Deveaux, Laney, Siers, and many others. This, then, accounts for the heavy bearing of the Weschcke when it starts to bear on the bitternut roots, and it also explains the lack of bearing in such varieties as Beaver, Fairbanks, Laney, Siers, Pleas, Deveaux, Rockville, Green Bay, Hope pecan, Stanley shellbark, Platman, Kirtland, Glover, Barnes, and many others which are hardy and get along well with the native bitternut root system, some of them having lived more than fifteen years grafted in such combination. The Bridgewater is the only variety which bears a fair crop of nuts as compared to the prolific Weschcke, and is the pollinator for the Weschcke when used in orchard planting.

[Footnote 33: See author's added remarks following.—Ed.]

+Are Pecan Stocks Desirable for Hickory Scions?+

It would appear, therefore, that it is necessary for stocks to be at least as vigorous as the variety to which they are grafted, and to insure this it would seem to me that the northern pecan seeds, such as grow around Des Moines, Iowa, would be the proper seedling stock for almost any variety of hickory, as they outgrow bitternuts and shagbarks by quite a margin. I have only one Weschcke grafted on a pecan of this sort, and it makes much greater growth each year than does this variety grafted on the native bitternut stocks. However, it has not started to bear yet and the reason is that it is still very young, and is over-topped by plum brush and apple trees.

Since it requires about ten years here for a native bitternut to acquire the proper size of one-half inch to three-quarter inch diameter, which is about the size necessary for grafting, you have some idea of how slowly this native species grows. The forest trees, of which there seem to be thousands on my property, very seldom exceed a diameter of six inches, yet they appear to be very old trees. Occasionally we find one that reaches the diameter of a foot or more, and generally it is one that is located where it has plenty of space to grow, as in open pasture. The tree is rather easy to graft to many varieties of hickories. No doubt if it were grown in large numbers, in the proper soil, the time for producing seedling stock ready for nursery propagation could be cut down. But it appears more likely that some northern pecan seed can be found which will produce a hardy understock to furnish a seedling of sufficient vigor and size for propagating purposes in five years or less.

+Records of Bearing+

Our first successful grafting of Weschcke hickory on bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis) was in 1927, but these grafts did not bear for about ten years. We know now that this was because there was a lack of pollen of the shagbark species to pollinate its blossoms. Now these trees are bearing profusely.

The second batch of grafts from the original Weschcke hickory, which grew near Fayette, Iowa, was made in 1934. One mature nut from grafts made that spring was gathered from the ground in the same year, about October 1, 1934, but it had been partly consumed by a squirrel. From that year to the present, these grafted trees produced each year and never failed to mature some edible nuts up to and including this year, when there is a very large crop (6-1/2 bushels). This, then, is the 15th consecutive crop of nuts of which I have a record. During two years we had such early fall frosts that the nuts were a little shriveled and not fully mature, but still edible. In other years there were some light crops, but there never has been a crop failure in all this time. The variation in bearing is also due in part to several late frosts which in the spring in some years killed back all the foliage and newly expanding buds. Yet new dormant buds opened, some of which had flowers, and so carried on the unbroken bearing record.

Last winter (1947-48) produced the most severe damage to exotic species of fruit and nut trees as well as ornamentals, including evergreens, ever recorded in this area; yet the grafted Weschcke hickory trees were so loaded down with nuts that I had to support the load by tying up branches to keep them off the ground. This tough winter caused almost every variety of apple tree to be barren, such as Wealthy, Northwestern Greening, Whitney Crab, Haralson and Malinda. Only two varieties, Lowland Raspberry and Hibernal, bore fair crops. Last winter killed outright (to the ground) most of my Thomas black walnuts, some of which were more than 25 years old, and damaged severely such other varieties as Ohio, Vandersloot, and Ten Eyck. The winter was responsible also for the killing of several seedling Chinese chestnuts which had survived ten years of our winters and yet others of these Chinese chestnuts are growing again from sprouts near the ground surface. The mulberries suffered greatly also, but in general the hickories of many varieties came through this winter, with very little damage, and most of them are bearing a few nuts. Even the wild hazels suffered differing amounts of damage and have only partial crops of nuts because of the effects of the winter.

In conclusion, keep in mind that these experiments and tests have been conducted in severe climatic conditions in the 45th parallel at River Falls, Wisconsin, 35 miles east of St. Paul, Minnesota, and that out of more than fifty varieties of hickories and pecans and their hybrids tested, only these two, Bridgewater and Weschcke hickory, (both thin-shelled easy-cracking varieties), have succeeded to a point which can be classed as commercial; the writer can now recommend these two varieties for propagation by nursery firms capable of undertaking the propagation of hickory nut trees, the sale of which to the public is a foregone conclusion.

By request of the secretary, Mr. Weschcke sent the following additional information on the Weschcke hickory:

About ten years ago I noticed that there was no pollen coming from this tree and yet from the very beginning, even when there was no other pollen available except the wild hickory pollen from the Carya cordiformis, the Weschcke hickory produced nuts. Thinking that it was due to parthenogenesis I bagged clusters of pistillate blossoms, and although setting nuts they all dropped off which is typical of non-pollenization. I then bagged groups of pistillate blossoms which I pollinized with different available pollens of the Carya ovata and these set nuts which started to grow, upon which I removed the bags. From this experiment I found that the Bridgewater did a very good job of pollenization and it became the tree that I considered as a compatible mate. Other trees that pollinate well are Kirkland, Deveaux and Glover; Beaver is not a good pollenizer and I have not experimented with Fairbanks to know whether it is satisfactory. The catkins grow vigorously on the Weschcke up to the time that the pollen sacs seem ready to open, then the catkin drops off. No pollen has ever matured that I know of. When dried from this state, they yield no pollen.

I told Dr. J. W. McKay about this nearly seven years ago, and he asked for fresh samples of the catkins at different periods which I mailed to him in receptacles that he furnished. He wrote me a very nice treatise on this subject for inclusion in my book which I expected to be published at that time. The book was never published, however, since Orange Judd turned it down during the war for lack of paper as the excuse. I did not try any further to get it published, and since that time many new things should be added to the hazel hybrid chapter. Dr. McKay said that he is familiar with this action on the part of nut trees. I have felt that it was phenomenal since I have had no other such experience among all the nut trees with which I have experimented. However, this loss of pollen saves vitality apparently for the production of several times the pistillate bloom that I have seen on any other hickory with which I have worked and this apparently accounts for the prolificacy of the Weschcke when grafted on the native Wisconsin hickory. (Male-sterility occurs with chestnut and apple.—Ed.)

At first I considered the Weschcke somewhat of a hybrid nut; later I changed my mind about it and considered it a pure shagbark. I have reversed my opinion again and consider the possibility of its being slightly hybrid with bitternut blood. The parent tree at Fayette, Iowa stood close to big bitternuts. The shell, being the thinnest of all hickories (known to me) leads me to suspect the hybridity with the bitternut. It is quite smooth and the ridges are less prominent than in almost any other hickory except such known hybrids as the Beaver. Its shape is oval to long and it is flat so that whenever you throw a handful down to a smooth surface they all assume the same position, and because of this they would no doubt lend themselves to commercial cracking as they would feed through the mechanism of a cracking machine exactly in the same order.

I have not always had such a high opinion of this nut. Dr. Deming has letters from me which have a disparaging note, and although Dr. Deming considered it a valuable nut, he has letters from me in which I indicated that I was sorry that it was not productive and that it had such a small nut. Both these conditions changed with time and within twenty years this nut sometimes becomes one of the largest hickories of the cultivated varieties and its proficacy then probably depended on correct pollination which I was not aware of in the beginning.

I hope you will pardon me for dwelling so on this hickory, but after working with hickories for nearly thirty years it certainly seems remarkable to me that we have such a productive variety that is hardy this far north and west, that is perfectly at home on the native hickory roots, and that matures its nuts from September 15 to October 1, is self-hulling, that has escaped the attack of all sorts of weevils that infest our native nuts. (I have never found one wormy Weschcke hickory nut although sometimes you find empty nuts.) This variety also escapes the spring frosts so that there have been fourteen consecutive years of bearing without interruption. The foliage is vigorous, has no diseases so far; the young branches are sometimes cut off by oak tree pruners or girdlers. This happens to many kinds of trees, including all the oaks, butternut, black walnut, all the hickories and even the chestnuts. When you take into consideration the fact, that no other hickory has such a fine record it makes me very enthusiastic over this variety in spite of the fact that it bears my name. Were you to classify this hickory from casual observation, you would think it is a pure shagbark, and it is only the extreme thinness of shell and the outside appearance pf the nut shell which indicates some slight hybridity.

Progress with Nuts at Wolfeboro, New Hampshire

Matthew Lahti

Inasmuch as I do not expect to be able to attend the thirty-ninth annual meeting, I thought I would report to you on the progress of my nut trees since my letter of a year ago.

Last winter was a severe one in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire (43 deg. 36' north latitude.) We had more than the usual amount of snow, and although the temperature did not get down much lower than 25 deg. below zero at my place, it remained cold for many days at a time without relief. This, and the fact that last fall was one of the driest seasons on record, plus the fact that this spring it rained almost continuously for more than a month, resulted in considerable damage to my nut trees.

My Broadview Persian walnut graft suffered severe damage, with branches up to two inches in diameter being killed. Whether this was from frost or lack of moisture in the fall I do not know, but two Crath Persian walnuts, one of which is situated within fifty feet of the Broadview, suffered no apparent winter injury at all. Neither Broadview nor Crath bore any nuts this year, whereas last year the Broadview produced eighteen nuts.

My Gellatly heartnut also suffered severe winter injury similar to the Broadview Persian walnut, and after it leafed out it looked as if a fire had gone through it because of the dead wood. However, it is bearing thirteen nuts this year.

Strange to say, the black walnut trees did not suffer any winter injury (the Thomas, set out in the spring of 1939, having been injured in each previous winter), except that the Tasterite is barren of nuts this year against a pretty good crop last year. However, the Thomas is bearing a fair crop, but the nuts are smaller than usual.

While my hickory trees appeared to suffer no winter injury, out of possibly two dozen that I have planted since 1939 I expect to have only three left. The number had dwindled to nine last year, and six of those I am afraid will be dead by the end of next year. These six had done well for six or seven years. The cause appears to be poor circulation through the graft union. This is unfortunate as I believe hickory trees will live and bear fruit in our climate.

I had the usual experience with filberts and hazelnuts, namely that the catkins were, for the most part, Winter killed. There, are no nuts on Rush, Barcelona, Medium Long, or Red Lambert, and the Winkler bushes [self-fertile—Ed.] which bore heavily last year (although the nuts did not fully ripen), are bearing only a few nuts this year.

Native butternut trees last year bore a heavy crop of nuts. This year, the crop is very light.

As an experiment, I planted three Chinese chestnuts this spring: Abundance, Nanking, and a "straight line" seedling. Although I haven't much hope that they will survive many winters, I thought I would try them out.

Several people have inquired about nut growing in New Hampshire, and I have sent them a resume of my experiences.

Breeding Chestnuts in the New York City Area

ALFRED SZEGO, Jackson Heights, New York City

[Part of a letter to the Secretary, October 27, 1948.]

I am one of those members who have not been able to attend annual meetings. In the two or three years that I have been a member, I have derived great enjoyment from reading the annual reports and receiving information through your news bulletin.

Therefore, when I received your improved bulletin, "The Nutshell," I felt that I and others like me should write and tell you how wonderful it is.

There is much that I just want to "get off my chest." My past criticism was that the organization was a bit lethargic. But nut trees are slow in showing results, despite the nurserymen's attractive visions of quick, big harvests of nuts and even timber!!! This slow patience of the black walnut has determined the tempo of much of the membership.

+Chestnut Breeding Efforts+

My main work is to attempt to breed two types of chestnuts: (1) One that is very productive with a low head and will bear nuts like the old American chestnut. (2) Another that will make a good timber stick. It is my theory that present chestnut breeders are crossing inferior material, using any specimens that happen to be in flower at the right time as long as they represent the species to be crossed.

Suppose they intend to cross C. crenata x C. dentata. An average Japanese chestnut is usually pollinated with flowers from a poor struggling sprout on the edge of the woods that has only one thing to recommend it. That is an early bearing characteristic which is inherent, but which, according to experiments and observations I have tediously carried out, is not totally due to ringing by the blight.

The experiment takes place and a few hybrid nuts are produced. They are termed (C. crenata x C. dentata). It is expected that the characteristics of the offspring will be somewhere between those of the two parents in blight resistance and nut size and quality. But what of the grandparents, the many ancestors of the American chestnut sprout that have not even the slight resistance of the sprout? Can they not express their characteristics and hand them, down to their grandchildren? And some individuals of C. crenata are not reputed to be so highly blight resistant.

Of course the scientists engaged in this work are men of the highest calibre and no doubt are aware of this, but it is extremely difficult to obtain, propagate, and care for named varieties of the finest individuals of each chestnut species.

Apple, cherry, and other fruit breeders would not dream of crossing common scrub cull fruit trees and expect any degree of success.

My first task when I began, three years ago, on my coppice growth 35 to 40 year old hardwood forest, was to clear a little land and to begin planting different world species of Castanea.

You would be astonished to find that it was impossible for me to obtain seed or trees, at the time, of C. crenata, C. seguinii, C. pumila, C. henryi and C. alnifolia. I obtained some 24 seeds of C. mollisima from Dr. A. H. Graves, for which I was grateful. At the time he didn't have a good crop, I think. Institutions and government agencies would not or did not like to release their newly developed hybrids for fear that I was a nurseryman or perhaps would sell them for "blight resistant" chestnuts, although they were not yet proven.

+Experiment at Pine Plains+

By diligent search I managed to get a few trees and hybrids of C. crenata and a variety (seedling of) called "Colossal." These thrived and survived about 30 deg. below zero under deep snow at Pine Plains, New York. I also set out 2 bushes (C. pumila) obtained from Harlan P. Kelsey, East Boxford, Massachusetts. Dr. Graves' seed gave fair germination, and I now have seven nice young mollisimas from 8" to 30" high. Of two three year old trees I obtained from a local nursery, one died (my fault) from not reducing the top, and the other died back to the ground from winterkill, but came back again as sprouts. I easily obtained seed of C. sativa, but the severe winter mowed the seedlings down and there are only two survivors. One is smaller this year than last but the other is about 14" high and making slow, straight growth. The chinkapins are perfectly hardy and this year one of them made 3 feet of growth.

I estimate that I have some 3,000 to 4,000 American chestnut sprouts that range anything from 1 to 18 feet in height. But more promising—I have a cluster of fine young seedlings that I have been caring for. All the woods were cleared away from them to give them plenty of light. They are watered by the old hand bucket method in dry spells. I report on them occasionally to Mr. G. F. Gravatt and Mr. Russell B. Clapper of the U.S.D.A. They are a faint ray of hope.

Four of them are about from 18 to 20 feet tall. One is about 9 feet high. One blighted and died two years ago and was removed. Another blighted at the base and I cut the canker out, but I fear it's going. One branch is dead and was removed. The others developed strong blight resistance. Small cankers formed on the lower branches but did not make headway. I cut some of these out and the trees healed nicely. As the trees become older, their resistance diminishes and the proof lies ahead. One tree that I labeled No. 1 has about two dozen, well healed Endothia scars already. The trees have not bloomed for me yet but I may have some results soon. I intend to cross this clonal group with the following:

1. With C. seguinii for greater blight resistance and productivity.

2. With C. mollisima (var. Abundance) for blight resistance, fine nuts of medium size, and a good timber stick with good vigor.

3. With large Japanese like Austin, and their hybrids like "Colossal," for a medium size nut of fair quality and highly prolific for the general market for a cooking or roasting chestnut.

Though many people dislike the Japanese chestnuts, they are at least productive and hardy (at my place). Their chief attribute is their possibility as food for stock and wildlife. Some of the same people who dislike them (among nurserymen) recommend planting oaks which certainly do not compare with C. crenata. When a very "sweet" acorn is found it is proclaimed to be "as good as Japanese chestnut."

The Chinese chestnut has its faults here. It is not very thrifty in growth here and as a rule doesn't bear until late. It is not very productive and the nuts spoil easily. I have since planted much seed from the south and it often doesn't even get here in a viable condition.

+Assistance from Beltsville+

My work has lately been facilitated by Mr. Gravatt and Mr. Clapper. I visited them at Beltsville and Mr. Clapper personally toured the orchard with me at Glenn Dale, showing me the kind of helpful courtesy that one never forgets and that is a tribute to these men.

Some promising material was given to me which will greatly facilitate my work. Mr. Gravatt suggested the use of "Ammate" as an experiment to poison trees that interfere with any American chestnut growth I wish to save. The experiment is intended to eliminate the resulting sprouts that accompany girdling. Incidentally, part of the experiment is to attempt to give light and cultivation and fertilizer to 100 native chestnut sprouts in a four acre area.

I have some information on American chestnut sprouts that may be of interest to the membership. In an endeavor to locate the best American material, I have been combing the woods and thickets on Long Island, in New Jersey, Connecticut, and parts of Dutchess County, New York (the latter not extensively). Many thousands of sprouts were examined to discover the following:

Their present status.

1. Sprouts occur almost always in woodlands.

2. They reach their greatest height and are most luxuriant at the edge of woodlands or in clearings therein.

3. They rarely exceed 15 feet in height and reach a diameter of about three inches.

4. One in many hundreds, and only where there is light in abundance, will bear flowers.

5. One in many thousands bears female or pistillate flowers which sometimes produce "blind" or empty nuts. [Unpollinated—ED.]

6. Rarely, indeed very rarely, are two flowering trees close enough to produce viable seed.

7. There are a few seedlings that are single stem upright trees (no old stump in evidence) that reach up to 20 and rarely 25 or 30 feet in height with a diameter of 6" or so.

(Mr. R. B. Clapper thinks it is probably due to the absence of an old, infected stump that this greater height is reached.)

8. Ringing by the blight does not necessarily force the flowers and nuts. The woodlands abound with chestnut sprouts in all stages of girdling without pollen or fruit.

When I have my trees in bearing, I will be glad to furnish pollen and nuts from them to anyone that pursues the important work of trying to improve what I consider the most promising nut tree we yet know.

Winter Injury to Nut Trees at Ithaca, New York, in the Fall and Winter of 1947-48

L. H. MacDANIELS and DAMON BOYNTON, Ithaca, N. Y.

The winter of 1947-48 caused more damage to nut trees at Ithaca, New York, than any since 1933-34. It was a combination of a series of early freezes followed by sub-zero temperature in mid-winter. Apparently the most injury was done by the fall freezes. These occurred on September 25, 26, and 27. On each successive night the temperature dropped lower than the preceding, and on September 27 was around 20 deg.F. There was considerable variation in temperature related to exposure, air drainage conditions, and other factors.

On West Hill in Ithaca the minimum temperature recorded on September 27 was 23 deg.F. Injury to leaves and nuts was severe. Within a few days the leaves had shrivelled and dried on the trees. It was apparent that this early freeze came before the abscission layers were formed in the leaf bases or growth matured. Ordinarily, a hard freeze late in the season will cause the trees to drop the leaves the next day. The nuts on the trees were frozen solid and mostly turned black within a few days and began to shrivel. Development was stopped, with the result that the nuts on all varieties were very poorly filled. The cavities appeared on first cracking to be full of kernel, but on drying these shrunk so that they were practically valueless. Some of the nuts were planted in a nursery row in the fall and germinated fairly early, showing viable embryos in spite of arrested development.

During the winter the temperature fell to -25 deg.F, a temperature which ordinarily would not damage black walnuts seriously. It is impossible to separate the effect of the low winter temperatures from that of the early freeze in September. In this location the net result of the early freeze and the severe winter was to kill vigorously growing grafts on the walnut trees. Also the cambium in the main crotches of a Stambaugh tree with a trunk about 14 inches in diameter was killed. This tree was destroyed in a windstorm in August, 1948, but it is not clear that the breakage was related to the winter killing in 1947-48. None of the trees now has a good crop, which may be or may not be related to the frost in the fall. It is entirely possible that failure to form blossom buds is caused either by killing of bud primordia or more likely by depletion of carbohydrate reserves due to the loss of leaves in early fall.

One seedling of Carpathian walnut was not damaged seriously except for some slight terminal twig killing. Another tree, however, had most of the smaller branches killed. Hickories and chestnuts were apparently not seriously damaged but some seedlings of the Japanese walnut were killed to the ground.

+Walnut and Hickory Plantings+