TUESDAY MORNING SESSION (continued 2)

In tenth place we have three varieties; Berger, Strever, and Triplett.

BERGER, shellbark—While this variety is quite small for a shellbark, it is quite large when compared with the shagbarks. Our graft of the Berger has borne fairly well, cracks well and is of very good quality. Incidentally our graft is the true Berger. There was some mix-up with the Berger wood, and some who thought they had Berger found that they had something else when their trees started to bear.

STREVER, shagbark—The original tree of this variety is growing near Pine Plains here in Dutchess County, on the Old Strever Homestead. This property was later sold to people named Owre, who tried to have the variety named after them. I believe that Strever is the more proper name.

While this variety is of good size and quality, it has not cracked quite well enough to rate it as a top flight hickory.

TRIPLETT, shagbark—This is a large shagbark which cracks well and is of good quality. Our graft bears well. I believe that it was discovered by Dr. Deming and the late Mr. Beeman. This is a variety which can well bear considerable attention in the future. We are propagating some of the trees for sale.

In eleventh place we have nine varieties, namely: Bridgewater, Griffin, Hagen, Harman, Kirtland, Lingenfelter, Manahan, Oliver, and Wampler.

BRIDGEWATER, shagbark—A large fine variety, cracks well, yields well and is of good quality. This is another discovery of Dr. Deming's and Mr. Beeman's. We have started to propagate it for sale.

GRIFFIN, shagbark—I have mislaid my comments on this variety and cannot remember much about it, except that it is of good size and bears well.

HAGEN, shagbark—We have not had enough nuts of this variety to enable us to form an opinion of it.

HARMAN, shagbark—A large nut. We did not think much of our first crop of this variety but the second crop was very good.

KIRTLAND, shagbark—This is a fine large nut, but with the one good crop, we have had, only about half of the nuts were well filled. The other half were floaters, only partly filled.

LINGENFELTER, shagbark—Here again we have had too few nuts to enable us to form an opinion. Mr. Reed thought very well of it.

MANAHAN, shagbark—This nut is of southern origin and I fear that we are too far north for it. However we have had one crop that was very good. All other crops have not been matured. It is evidentally a very good nut where it can be grown.

OLIVER, shagbark—Too few nuts to form an opinion.

WAMPLER, shellbark—Too few nuts to form an opinion.

In twelfth place on our list, in order of ripening, we have Bowman and Redcay. These are both shellbarks and the nuts have not been well filled, as borne on our grafts.

In last place on our list, we have a southern shagbark, Booth, and two hicans, Bixby and Burlington. We have not been able to form an opinion of Booth. Bixby and Burlington have, so far, been very shy bearers and the nuts have not been well filled. They are of very large size and very excellent quality.

The time elapsed between the earliest and latest ripening of these different hickory varieties was 36 days. The time between the different steps were about three days. I do not give the dates because they will vary from year to year. In early years, Anthony has been ripe very early in September.

Summarizing this report shows that our tests so far indicate that the following varieties are good and well worthy of propagation: Anthony (probably No. 1), Weschcke, Bauer, Cedar Rapids, Fox, Clark, Wilcox, Minnie, Davis, Berger, Triplett, Bridgewater, Manahan (farther south). Instead of listing these 13 varieties alphabetically or in order of their merits, I have listed them in order of their ripening, earliest first, and so on. Those varieties in the first half of the list can be grown in locations considerably farther north than our location, which is 41 deg. 45' North Latitude, while those in the last half of the list are not likely to be adapted to locations farther north than ours.

You will note that five of these varieties are not well known, but are good varieties. They are, namely; Bauer, Cedar Rapids, Clark, Triplett, and Bridgewater.[30]

[30] The Bridgewater pollenizes the male-sterile Weschcke variety in Wisconsin. See Mr. Weschcke's discussion, pp. 193-95 in NNGA Report for 1948.—Ed.

This is only a preliminary or progress report, and should not be taken as final in any respect. Neither does it cover all or near all, of the top-rate hickory varieties. For instance, you will note, the variety named Glover has not been mentioned. This is because our grafts of it have not started to bear yet, so we have no comparable basis for including it in this report. Yet there can be no question as to the merits of Glover, for it is one of the very best. There are, no doubt, many other very excellent varieties not mentioned here.

The hickory is the slowest growing, takes the longest to start to bear, is the nurseryman's headache (it taking about five years to grow stocks large enough to graft or bud, during which time they should have been transplanted at least twice to develop a better root system), they are about (the hardest of the nut species to transplant and their nuts are one of the smallest of the nut species only the filbert and the chestnut being as small). Yet because of their delicious flavor and other good qualities, hickories are probably the favorite nut of more people than any other of the nut species that can be grown in the northern part of this country.

(Applause.)

DR. MacDANIELS: I think we need more reports of that kind to get us oriented with our hickory varieties. I think when we get through with the walnut survey that the hickory nut survey would be next.

MR. CORSAN: Hickory was Dr. Charles S. Sargent's favorite tree, and he planted poison ivy under all of them, and it's there yet and they can't get rid of it. He wanted to keep the boys from gathering the nuts.

DR. MacDANIELS: I have poison ivy under some of mine, but not for that purpose.

MR. McDANIEL: It grows under all good trees.

DR. MacDANIELS: The next paper is one which George Slate kind of foisted off on me. He came around and said he thought something more should be said about the butternut and asked if I would get out a report and discuss the standards for evaluation. That is the reason for this paper, which I will read. It will take only about ten minutes.

How About the Butternut?

DR. L. H. MacDANIELS, Ithaca, New York

The purpose in presenting this paper is to summarize what is known about the butternut in the light of my own experience, and to find out from you in discussion what additional facts are available and what some of the problems in the culture of butternuts may be. A good summary by S. H. Graham is to be found in the 34th Annual report of the Northern Nut Growers Association, and short reports appear elsewhere. In general, however, judging from the proceedings of this Association, the butternut has not received much attention through the years. The lack of interest in the butternut indicates unsatisfactory experience with this nut on the part of those who have tried to grow and use it. An analysis of its good and bad characteristics is in order.

Of all the species of nuts with which the Association is concerned, the butternut is the most hardy and the most likely to succeed on poor soil. In general, the trees are easy to transplant, are early bearing, sometimes within two years from the graft, and are easy to grow. The flavor of the butternut is very distinctive and palatable, and usually much more flavorful than similar nuts derived from the Japanese butternut and the heartnut. Some people consider the butternut flavor the best of all nuts.

On the other hand, the butternut has a reputation for being short lived because of susceptibility to various diseases. The seedling trees which are usually sold are slow in bearing. The common wild nuts are hard to crack with a hammer, and the better named varieties are not well known or widely grown. The trees also have a reputation for being difficult to propagate. Of these faults, probably the difficulty of propagation and cracking are the most important in restricting its use.

Botanically the butternut (Juglans cinerea) belongs to a group of species within the genus Juglans that bears its fruit in long clusters or racemes, as contrasted with the walnut group which bears nuts singly or in clusters of two or three. The butternuts also have the fruit and leaves covered with sticky hairs instead of being smooth. The group is further characterized by having a cushion of hairs above the leaf scars and pointed terminal buds on the twigs. Other species within the group are the Japanese butternut J. Sieboldiana, its variety cordiformis, the heartnut, and several less well known species including J. mandshurica and J. cathayensis, both native to central Asia. These closely related species apparently hybridize with each other, but accurate information as to the nature and extent of such hybridization is not available.

The natural geographical range of the butternut covers a broad area of Northeastern North America, extending from New Brunswick southward to the mountains of Georgia and westward to Western Ontario, Dakota, and Arkansas. In this range it is most frequent in calcareous soils, reaching its best development in rich woodland, but persisting on poorer upland soils also. It thus has the most northern range of our native nut species, along with the Pignut, Carya glabra, and one species of hazelnut, Corylus rostrata. The other related species are of variable and uncertain hardiness and are not reliable in this northern range.

It is recognized that the butternut has little commercial value except as it is used in the New England states, particularly in Vermont, where it is combined with maple sugar in making maple-butternut candy. Anyone who has travelled through the New England states is familiar with the roadside advertising of this excellent product. On the general market, butternut kernels are not sold in quantity comparable to those of the black walnut, but are somewhat comparable to the kernels of the hickory which also do not have a commercial outlet except locally.

The greatest use of the butternut is, and will continue to be, for the home grounds and local consumption. I think it is highly probable that if the easy cracking varieties already named were better known, they would be much more widely planted. The common wild butternuts are really difficult to handle. They crack only after considerable hammering with a heavy hammer and then, when cracked, the kernels shatter to such an extent that recovery is very unsatisfactory for the labor expended. After butternuts have been gathered from the wild with some enthusiasm during the fall months, they often remain in the cellar or attic without ever being used. Even the squirrels and the rats will not go to the bother of extracting the kernels if other nuts are available.

For best results the nuts are usually cracked with a heavy hammer, the nut being held vertically against a solid vice or block, so it can be hit on the end. A glove to protect the fingers holding the nut is useful if many are to be cracked. Good results can be secured by holding the nut on its side and tapping it on the suture. This, however is difficult, as it necessitates shucking the nut and even then it is difficult to identify the suture.

Through the years many varieties of butternut have been named. Mr. R. L. Watts in the 35th annual report of the Association lists 26 names, and I am sure there are others. I personally have had experience with only three or four varieties. One of these, the Crax-ezy, has borne good crops and the nuts crack well. Another one, which I have named the Johnson, coming from Tonawanda, New York, cracks well but is a smaller nut. At one time I had Thill variety topworked on Juglans Sieboldiana stock, but the stock was killed by cold winter. Samples of Kinnyglen and Mandeville were furnished by Mr. Graham for testing. We do not, however, have any comparative rating of many varieties based on comparative tests, nor are there recognized standards of quality.

In order to set up standards of quality for butternuts, the following tentative schedule for judging has been worked out along the same lines as the schedule for judging black walnuts. Twenty-five nuts are used in a sample and the score is made up of the weight in grams of the kernels recovered on the first crack, plus total weight of kernels divided by 2, plus 1/2 point for each whole half kernel recovered. A nut should not be considered worthy of propagation unless practically all of the kernels come out in whole halves.

Proposed Schedule For Testing Butternuts

25 Nut Samples

Score = Wt. kernels first crack + total wt. kernels / 2 + no. whole halves / 2.

Weight Total Kernels Weight 1st crack Kernels No. Variety Grams Grams Halves Score Remarks

Kinnyglen 52.0 57.5 36 98.8 Crax-ezy 48.0 56.0 44 98.0 Mandeville 53.6 66.0 10 91.6 Johnson 38.5 45.5 40 81.3 Seedling No. 1 36.5 45.0 7 62.5 Seedling No. 2 26.0 43.0 22 58.5 Seedling No. 3 20.0 44.5 10 47.3

In this schedule the crackability of the sample is measured by the weight of first crack and the number of halves. The yield of kernels is measured by the total weight of kernels in the sample. The first crack includes only those kernels that either fall out or can be removed easily with the fingers. The remaining kernels are rescued with a pick or by recracking. In my judgment, the score accurately measures the merit of the samples. In the Mandeville, the large size is measured by the weight of kernels which in part offsets poor cracking quality. Poor cracking is usually caused by the edges of the halves being curved so as to be bound in the shell. Much more testing should be done to determine the value of the schedule.

Opinions regarding the ease of propagation of the butternut differ, but mostly it is considered difficult to propagate, with often complete failure. This merely means that the matter is not well understood. In my own experience I have had just about as many failures as successes, and must confess that I do not have much idea of what has been responsible for either success or failure. Best results have been secured by using inlay or bark slot grafts on stubs about 2 inches in diameter. This agrees with the experience of Mr. Burgart, of Michigan, and Mr. Weshcke, of Minnesota, who report that grafts must be made several feet from the ground and not at the crown.

Shield budding has apparently not been satisfactory. Mr. D. C. Snyder writes that chip budding is more successful. It is recommended by others and I agree that grafting should be done early, just as growth starts rather than later when trees are in leaf. Special care must be used in tying the new shoots of the graft to braces to prevent breakage by wind or birds. The butternut wood is very brittle and the grafts are often lost by breakage. The whole matter of butternut propagation merits further careful study.

Butternut varieties may be grafted on black walnut, butternut, or J. Sieboldiana stocks. Mr. Burgart, Mr. Weschcke, and Mr. D. C. Snyder consider black walnut to be better than the others, giving a more vigorous long lived tree. Varieties on butternut stocks are apparently relatively short lived and J. Sieboldiana stocks have a different growth rate and are not hardy. Mr. Burgart uses bark slot grafts on black walnut seedling stocks, 2-3 years old.

Butternut trees on their own roots transplant relatively easily because there is no taproot as with the black walnut and the hickory, and there are many fibrous surface roots that can be lifted when the tree is dug. Black walnut stocks are not difficult to manage, particularly if the taproots are cut on the seedlings. Culture is no special problem. Mulching and supplying nitrogenous fertilizer is good practice.

The butternut has the reputation of being susceptible to disease and hence being short lived as a tree. Whether or not this is actually the case is perhaps questionable. Many butternut trees, particularly those in favorable situations of soil and moisture, live to be of large size and old age. Trees on poorer, thinner soils apparently die off earlier than those under better conditions. In any case, it is well recognized that the butternut has a shorter life span on the average than the black walnut, which frequently lives to a large size and old age. There are two common diseases of the butternut. One is leaf spot caused by the fungus Marsonia, which defoliates the trees fairly early in the season and probably predisposes them to injury from other fungous attack. This is the same leaf spot that attacks the black walnut leaves. The other disease, which may cause trouble, is a fungous walnut blight known more specifically as Melanconis blight. It has not been established that this disease is an active parasite. The evidence indicates rather that it attacks trees that are already somewhat weakened by defoliation or other injury. It is a fact that many of the dead limbs on butternut trees are found to be affected with the disease. It is a matter of observation that trees growing under favorable conditions are less damaged by the disease than those growing under poor conditions of soil and water, therefore, keeping trees vigorous is good practice.

As with other nut tree species, there are troublesome insects. One of these, the butternut snout beetle or curculio, attacks both the butternut and the Japanese walnut. Control has apparently been secured by dusting foliage with DDT. Sometimes the leaves of butternuts are badly distorted with galls caused by mites. The bunchy top or witches'-broom caused by a virus, that is serious on the Japanese walnut, Juglans Sieboldiana, does not appear to be so virulent on butternut. This, however, is a matter of personal observation and is not based on a thorough study.

In conclusion, let me say that in my judgment, the butternut is worthy of more attention than it has had so far received, particularly by home owners in the northern states who would like to have trees in their yards that will bear nuts under conditions that are unfavorable for most other kinds. If it were publicized that varieties are available that will crack out in halves with relatively little effort, the chances are that with these facts in mind those interested in nut trees would give the butternut much more attention. The difficulty at the present time seems to be related to a lack of knowledge as to the relative merit of different varieties and a scarcity of trees because of difficulty of propagation. If we have time and the chairman will permit, I would welcome comments on the propagation problem and would also like to obtain any information on the merit of the named varieties. Let me also state that if any of you have a sample of 30 nuts of any named variety in this or last fall's crop that you can spare, I would be much pleased to have you send it to me for testing.

Discussion

MR. STOKE: It grows in New Brunswick, and I have had specimens from north of Lake of the Woods.

MR. CORSAN: They grow at Brooks, Alberta. I have the Helmick and it grows 14 to the cluster, has a thin shell and heavy meat, and the leaves are persistent. They don't drop off the first of September. That's the Helmick. It's grafted on black walnut stock, and the black walnut stock comes up like that (indicating) and the Helmick recedes.

DR. MacDANIELS: The black walnut overgrows it. There are about 40 varieties, and I would like very much to get hold of any of the samples I can get.

MR. CORSAN: Go up to Silver Bay, Lake George, and on the shore there the Indians have bred the butternut, and it's 10 to the cluster among those trees by Silver Bay, Lake George, New York. Ernest Thompson Seaton and I examined that grove years ago.

DR. MacDANIELS: Wish we had them where we could get at them. Any other comment on the butternut?

MR. McDANIEL: The Helmick is considered to be a "butter-jap" seedling of heartnut, possibly the other parent was a butternut.

DR. MacDANIELS: That is something we will have to decide in the Association, whether or not we are going to throw in these hybrids and the heartnut along with the butternuts in standards or try to keep them separate.

MR. CORSAN: Hybrid heartnut cross is very, very superior in every way to the butternut in my estimation, except for hardiness.

MR. STOKE: That is a hybrid. I have it. The Mitchell hybrid.

DR. MacDANIELS: The ordinary run of seedlings are not worth keeping, no question about that, and it's too much work to recover the kernels.

There are several announcements I'd like to make. One has to do with this hall. It is the American Legion hall, which they do not charge rent for. They do, however, and will expect some sort of a token of appreciation that will be fairly substantial. There is no provision for that in the budget, so any of you who are feeling a little mellow and flush, if you want to approach the treasurer with a contribution towards the use of this hall, that will be appreciated; otherwise, the matter will have to be settled out of the treasury as such.

MR. CORSAN: How about a dance in this hall?

DR. MacDANIELS: If we stay over, we might do something like that.

Then there is the other matter, and that is the prize for the proposed Carpathian walnut contest. There is no prize money available at the present time. If any of you wish to provide a first, second, or third prize, we might even tag it with your name, if that would be possible.

I think probably they will be able to get some publicity backing through farm papers and what not, but still if we have a backlog of prize money, why, that's much to your advantage.

Do you want to say anything further on that, Mr. Chase?

MR. McDANIEL: Mr. Sherman, I believe, has a word.

MR. SHERMAN: Not in this connection.

MR. PATAKY: Do any of the members here have shelled butternuts or hickory nuts that they would sell? If they do, I'd like to get their names and get in touch with them. I do have a demand for some shelled butternuts which I have trouble getting, and I do have trouble getting shelled hickory nuts. It is for the Wideman Company out of Cleveland. I got shelled butternuts before the war, but since the war they don't have the trade, but if they could get them, I think that would be the company that would take them. The Wideman Company of Cleveland, Ohio. They are a big wholesale house. Write to Christ Pataky, Mansfield, Ohio, R.D. 4.

MR. KINTZEL: Do you sell them in the shell?

MR. PATAKY: I do sell them in the shell, too, but there are a lot of people who won't buy them in the shell. We do have a demand for them, not too much on the butternut, but we do have for hickory nuts. I think we could sell a lot more hickory nut meats than hickory nuts even at the difference of the price. I know the price was quite high before the war. They paid somewhere around a dollar a pound before the war for shelled ones, and we even sold them at a profit for that, and we haven't been able to get any since the war. I don't know what happened, whether the kids are too busy playing basketball or football.

DR. MacDANIELS: They get too much for mowing lawns.

MR. WEBER: There is a nut crackery at Mitchell, Indiana. The man who cracks them cracks hickory nuts and puts them out in his name, John Eversol. Mr. Wilkinson can tell you exactly what his name is. He was down there last year. He is cracking walnuts, and in addition cracks hickory nuts and puts them in fine shape.

MR. CORSAN: Isn't it true that nuts have more Vitamin E than any other food in the world, and isn't Vitamin E the greatest antidote against anemia?

DR. MacDANIELS: I wouldn't know. You have a medical man here?

DR. WASHICK: I don't think you are right.

MR. CORSAN: In the West they say Vitamin E is a cure for anemia and they are having wonderful success, and they claim there is more vitamin E in nuts than any other food. I don't know, they are keeping me alive.

~Editor's Note~: Green walnuts are rich in Vitamin C. See 1942 Report, page 95.

DR. MacDANIELS: You are Exhibit 1.

I think Mr. Salzer has slides he wanted to show this afternoon.

MR. SALZER: I had a few. Perhaps we can use those blankets and just fix up, perhaps, a few of these windows in front, and I think we could probably show the slides.

DR. MacDANIELS: If you can leave the blankets here for a short time, we will get them later.

Any other questions?

I think our lunch is ready for us downstairs. We will come back up here at one o'clock.

(Whereupon, at 11:50 o'clock, a. m., the meeting was recessed, to reconvene at 1 o'clock of the same day.)

TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION

DR. MacDANIELS: Calling the afternoon session to order.

This afternoon I am going to turn the gavel over to our good friend, Spencer Chase, to carry on.

MR. CHASE: Thank you, thank you.

All of us are interested in the various experiment stations doing more work with nut trees, and we are very fortunate this afternoon in having two experiment stations represented, and we will first hear from Bill Clarke from Penn State, who will talk on, "Progress in nut culture at the Pennsylvania State College." Mr. Clark.

Progress in Nut Culture at the Pennsylvania State College

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

Work in nut growing at the Pennsylvania State College was formally begun in 1946, when a project on this subject was approved by the college authorities. A few acres of land were set aside for this work, and the following spring about half an acre was planted with a few nut trees of different species. At the present time an area of about twenty acres is set aside for nut plantings, although a few spots on this land are not plantable on account of rock outcrops.

We now have out in the field sixty black walnuts, all but three of them named varieties, which were received from Tennessee in 1949. Seventeen varieties are represented in this collection.

In the nursery are more than 200 seedling black walnuts. These were planted from nuts gathered from local trees in the fall of 1946. They were transplanted at the end of their first season and have remained in their present position for three years. They were planted largely for the sake of experience in handling the nuts and the young trees. Some of them have been grafted, and this year a few grafts of Thomas and Stabler were successful. On account of their size, all these trees will have to be taken out at the end of the present growing season.

About twenty Persian walnuts have been received from the United States Department of Agriculture. These are all budded trees, the buds having been taken from special selections with the best nuts from trees originally introduced from northern Europe and central Asia. Three out of four seedling Persian walnuts and one out of two Japanese walnuts planted in 1947 have survived and are included in our planting. One named variety of butternut is in our collection, and a number of seedlings in our nursery.

It has been our experience that walnut trees can be moved rather easily. The percentage of loss in transplanting has been negligible. On account of an emergency, this spring we had to move several walnuts which were already in full leaf. Some of the leaves were trimmed off, and the trees have survived and have even made some additional growth.

On our grounds is one Chinese chestnut left from a planting of eight in 1930. It was killed back to the ground in 1934 after winter temperatures of close to 30 degrees below zero, but it has since grown up to be a tree of moderate size. It suffered considerable injury to buds and twigs in 1948 from temperatures down to 23 degrees below zero, but has since recovered. In several years it has borne a crop of burs, but no other tree is available for cross-pollination, and the nuts have seldom filled.

Twelve seedling Chinese chestnut trees from different sources have been planted, and an area of several acres has been set aside to extend the work on chestnuts.

A start has been made toward a collection of filberts. Five named varieties of European filberts were planted in 1947. All have suffered from winter injury, but only one tree has been killed outright. Very few nuts have been produced. About 25 seedlings of European filberts and 25 of the American were received from Tennessee two years ago. About 90% have survived and are growing nicely.

Several other species of nuts have been tried without success. Two trees of the red hickory were set out several years ago, but they failed to leaf out. Four young trees of the golden chinkapin of the Pacific Coast were planted and grew well the first summer, but all four were killed by the first freeze in the fall. About a pound of nuts of the Turkish tree hazel were planted several years ago; these failed to come up the first year. The next winter the mice and rabbits discovered them and ate up most of the planting. A few germinated, but most of these were lost in transplanting, and today only two are left of the entire lot.

MR. CHASE: Thank you, Mr. Clarke.

(Applause.)

Discussion

MR. SHERMAN: I'd like to say, just before you leave this subject, that the speaker barely mentioned the fertilization experiment that was started in Pennsylvania on black walnuts. I think the members of the nut survey stuck their necks out and got their heads hit a little bit when we said that the black walnut as an orchard industry in Pennsylvania was sick. We hadn't been able to find crops of black walnuts. We found individual trees, but we couldn't find orchards of black walnuts, and as a result of that, this fertilization experiment was started, in a 55-acre black walnut orchard with Ohio, Stabler and Thomas varieties.

The owner, Truman Jones, said, "I don't care what you do with the Stablers, you can't hurt them, anyway; they are no good to begin with." But this orchard, evidently from all outward appearances, has been growing very slowly for quite a number of years. It isn't the size it should be, and we think the main trouble there is lack of fertility, and that's the reason why this fertilization experiment was started.

It's quite an ambitious experiment. It takes in about 93 trees in the center of a 55-acre planting of black walnuts. They haven't had a crop, I think, for five or six or seven years. They don't have a crop this year, but we are hoping that some of them next year will have a crop, but if not then the year following.

They are asking about the cultivation. There has been no cultivation there in the orchard for a number of years. It's down in a pretty heavy bluegrass sod. In a portion of that we put the disc in on the tractor and disced and redisced until we got what we thought was a pretty fair seedbed. They found that vertical profile a mixture, and we are hoping to have clover sod instead of bluegrass sod. That's combined with fertility work. I won't take time to go into that, but I think this group is interested in knowing that there is quite an extensive fertility experiment on black walnuts to see why the large plantings are not producing.

I might say in this connection, Mr. Hostetter isn't here this afternoon, hasn't been here, but he has a dandy bang-up nice crop of nuts this year, and Ohio and Thomas are his main varieties.

MR. CRAIG: Did he use any fertilizers?

MR. SHERMAN: Yes, the fertilizer was disced in, and he tried to disc under that bluegrass sod and get that rotting under there. There are quite a few ramifications to that program.

MR. CORSAN: Did you mention Turkish tree hazel?

MR. CLARKE: Yes, we have two trees of it left.

MR. CORSAN: It takes two years to sprout from the time you plant the seed. Have you tried the European beechnuts in your locality?

MR. CLARKE: No, we haven't.

MR. CORSAN: It will produce far more than the American beechnut and is more successful in every way. They can be gotten from Holland quite cheaply. They sell the European beech, and they are beautiful and loaded with nuts and the Europeans think far more of them than the Americans do. The cut-leaf beech is an European beech, and I have seen the tree in Southern Michigan and at the Old Soldiers' Home at Dayton, Ohio, loaded with nuts. And frequently, not just once in every 13 years, like our beechnut. And they are a bigger nut.

Nut Tree Culture in Missouri

T. J. TALBERT, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.

The wide interest now being shown in the planting of nut trees throughout the State emphasizes the need of information on nut culture. Although nut trees may be grown with less care and attention than fruit trees, yet to be successful in starting plantings a knowledge of successful practices developed by the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station at Columbia should prove of great value.

The information which follows applies particularly to the native black walnuts, butternuts, hardy northern pecans, hickories, chinkapins, and hazelnuts. All these nut plants are native to Missouri and may do well if given proper attention in the various districts of the state to which they are adapted.

NUTRITIVE VALUE OF NUTS

Nuts are now given in the diet a higher rating than ever before. This is true because recent studies in nutrition show that they supply not only the elements needed for health and growth, proteins, oils, and carbohydrates but also an abundance of vitamins A, B1, and G. In fact, the nuts compare very favorable with meats in rankings for the above vitamins. Most of the nuts are especially noteworthy in high vitamin A and B1 content. It is also believed generally that nuts contain nearly all of the mineral essentials demanded for the promotion of healthy nutrition.

Moreover, nuts are usually palatable in the raw stage and are prized most highly for dessert purposes. The black walnut is particularly outstanding because it retains its flavor after cooking. Nuts now have a very extensive use in the preparation of confectioneries, cakes, breads, and salads. They enhance the flavor of many other foods.

The value of nuts as food accessories has long been recognized. They also supply so much body fuel in so compact a form that they are particularly well suited for the use of mountain climbers, "hikers," and even soldiers engaged in long marches and maneuvers.

USES FOR NUT TREES

~As Shade Trees~—If during the past 40 or 50 years, a large portion of the shade trees planted had been nut trees like the native walnut, pecan, hickory, chestnut, and chinkapin of the better varieties, it is easy for anyone to see that great benefits would have resulted.

~For Highway Planting~—No other native trees lend themselves so admirably to highway use as the so-called northern or native pecan, the black walnut, and the hickories. These nut trees are all generally well-shaped, reach considerable heights particularly on fertile soils, are stately in appearance, and add beauty and attractiveness to the landscape wherever they are grown.

SOILS AND FERTILIZERS

~Soils Needed for Good Growth~—The nut trees adapt themselves to a very wide range of soil conditions. In fact, few other trees are capable of such a wide range of adaptability to soil types. The uplands usually planted to corn and wheat and the flood plains of the river basins may both be well suited to nut growing.

For good growth and production deep well-drained soils are required. Under proper conditions the trees develop rapidly, have an extensive root system, and eventually may reach a great age. Furthermore, nut trees cannot grow successfully on wet poorly-drained land where water stands on or just beneath the surface a considerable portion of the year. Lowlands which may be found well adapted to the growth of willow and gum trees, may be too wet and sour for the growth of nut trees. It would also be well to avoid dry, very thin, and very sandy soils.

In their native range the pecan, hickory, and walnut thrive on the alluvial soils of the Missouri and Mississippi River Valleys. They grow well also on the upland sandy loam soils adapted to the growth of corn, oats, and wheat. All of these nut trees are usually influenced more by the fertility, humus, and moisture content of the soil, than by any particular soil type.

~Fertilizers for Nut Trees~—The deep rich alluvial soils of river and creek valleys do not present the same fertilizer problems as light and heavy upland soils. Manure supplemented with superphosphate at the rate of about 20 to 30 pounds to a ton should prove to be a satisfactory fertilizer on depleted soils. It is spread in a circle around the trees extending out about twice the spread of the branches and plowed or harrowed into the soil. A moderate application would range from 8 to 12 tons to the acre.

Leguminous cover crops are particularly valuable for building up the nitrogen and humus content of the soil when plowed under. Their judicious use with non-leguminous cover crops and supplemented with commercial fertilizers to increase the tonnage for plowing under, will usually bring good returns in growth and production.

CARE OF THE PERMANENT PLANTINGS

Since but few diseases and insects attack nut trees in Missouri, very little if any spraying work will be required while the trees are young. As the trees grow older, however, it may be necessary to give pest control more attention. Caterpillars that infest the foliage of the trees in late summer and early fall can usually be destroyed by cutting off the comparatively few branches on which the worms have clustered and burning them. The pest may also be destroyed on high branches by means of torches. If the trees can be sprayed thoroughly, arsenicals and other insecticides used in spraying apple orchards will be found very effective while the worms are small.

As in the care of a young apple or peach orchard, it is important that the young trees for at least the first two or three years be given cultivation and some fertilization on lands of lower fertility if a good growth is not being made. A heavy mulch of straw or litter around the trees may prove very satisfactory.

Moreover, livestock should be kept away from the trees until they are established and the branches of sufficient height to be out of danger of injury. It is a serious mistake to plant or grow from seed small nut trees and leave them unprotected from farm animals. If the land is to be grazed, each tree may be guarded with strong posts and barbed or woven wire spaced about 8 to 10 feet from the trees.

Once the young nut orchard is thoroughly established and growing thriftily, grass may be grown beneath the trees and furnish nearly as much hay or pasture as though the trees were not present. If livestock is allowed to graze in the orchard, which is a questionable practice while the trees are young, the trees should be pruned and trained to fairly high heads.

~Spacing for Nut Trees~—The growing of nut trees for timber alone requires a spacing of about 25 to 35 feet apart with other species of trees common to the area growing up later between the nut trees to facilitate the development of tall clean trunks. Under such conditions nut production is inhibited and harvests may be comparatively small. Nut trees grown mainly for nut production rather than for timber may be planted 60 to 80 feet apart on the square plan.

The Thomas black walnut may bear a few nuts the second year following transplanting. Different varieties and species of grafted walnuts, pecans, and hickories often begin bearing from two to four years after setting. Chestnut seedlings may also bear in the second or third year. Black walnuts from seed sometimes bear a few nuts at 8 to 10 years of age. Profitable bearing, however, may not be expected in the average nut orchard until the trees are at least 10 to 12 years old.

PRUNING WALNUT, PECAN AND HICKORY NUT TREES

For the most part these nut trees do not require heavy pruning. Superfluous branches, dead limbs, and unsymmetrical ones, should be removed from time to time while the trees are young and becoming established. A uniform top is desirable. The pruning is begun when the trees are 2 or three years old by removing the lowest branches. The rule is to cut away only one branch a year. But trees making a very strong growth may stand more pruning and those making a poor growth may need none.

Cultivation and other orchard practices may be greatly simplified in commercial plantings by pruning and training the tree heads to heights of six or eight feet. Even then the lower branches will ultimately be pressed downward by the weight of nuts and foliage when bearing begins.

Regular annual pruning is required generally to prevent the limbs from interfering with orchard practices. Furthermore, branches lower than six or eight feet high, should be subdued by cutting back while the trees are young. These limbs should be removed ~only~ when the trees have become anchored strongly enough in the soil to prevent the directions of the trunk being influenced by the prevailing winds.

THE BLACK WALNUT

There is something about the distinctive flavor of our native black walnut kernels that appeals to the American people. And there is much about the black walnut tree itself that makes it much admired and respected.

It grows rapidly, and yet it is one of our most valuable timber trees. It is an excellent tree for the grounds about the home. Not only does it yield an annual crop, but it is a lovely shade tree—beautiful to look at—and has the further advantage that the lawn grasses grow well beneath it.

~Has Wide Distribution~—It is a very cosmopolitan tree in that it will thrive almost anywhere if given half a chance. From lower Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast, it may be found in various states of production. On the fertile lands, however, of the Mississippi and Ohio River basins it reaches perhaps its highest development. The 10 high ranking states in walnut lumber production are as follows, in order of their importance: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Iowa, Tennessee, Arkansas, Indiana, and Texas.

~Valuable Timber Tree~—Some of the main or principal uses of the wood may be enumerated as follows: For the making of gun stocks, it stands supreme. Since walnut does not warp or swell when wet it does not interfere with the action of the gunlock in gun stocks. The wood also may be made into a sharp edge and fit snugly against the metal parts, while the dark color and beautiful grain produces an attractive implement. It is a standard and a favorite for musical instruments notably pianos and organs; sewing machine tables, cases, small airplane propellers, picture frames, caskets, cabinet work, moldings and many forms of ornaments. The shells of the nuts were, during World War I, manufactured into carbon and used for gas masks.

The wood possesses unusual and rare combinations of qualities which make it superior in the manufacturing of the articles mentioned above. Its freedom from warping, checking, or splitting when subjected to alternate wetting and drying is an unusual quality. It works easily with all kinds of tools, has remarkable durability in the presence of wood-decaying fungi and insects. Moreover, it is hard, durable, heavy, stiff and strong. The dark color of the wood does not allow soiling stains to show and the grain of the wood and its texture make it easy to grip.

~Produces a Nutritious Food~—The kernels of the black walnut are now used not only in candy making but to a large extent in breads, cakes, salads, waffles, and other forms of food. In the cities the kernels are sold yearly in increasing amounts not only from wholesale and retail grocers but by street venders as well. One may often find the kernels for sale at food stands and in other places where fruits and vegetables are sold.

~Changing Seedling Trees to Named Varieties~—On nearly every farm, walnut trees are growing along ravines, fence rows, and on rough land which is more or less out of the way and inaccessible. Most of these may be top-worked by one or more methods to the named and more desirable kinds of black walnuts without imparing the value of the timber. In 5 to 7 years seedling trees ranging in age from 15 to 40, if topworked, may produce crops equal to untreated trees. Still younger and smaller trees from one to 10 or 12 years old, may generally be top-worked with less difficulty than older trees.

~Results from Top-working Experiments~—Cleft grafting work performed at the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station has been very successful. In fact, walnut top-working has been but little if any more difficult than apple or pear top-working. With reasonable care and fairly good technique the grafting operation is not difficult to perform. It is believed, however, that the common practice in top-working pecan, hickory, and walnut has been to dehorn too severely. This may induce insect and disease injury which often results in a very poor tree after 10 or 12 years. For good results, six inches in diameter should be the maximum size of the limb for top-working.

~Encourages New Industry~—A wider interest in black walnut kernels has caused a new industry to spring up. This consists of nut cracking or shelling establishments which have been located in the walnut growing districts. The plants in many instances buy walnuts in large quantities. The nut meats are removed and sold at wholesale, usually in barrel lots containing 180 pounds of nut meats. In most districts the new industry is in operation for most of the year.

Power driven machines feeding from large hoppers are used for cracking the nuts. Nearly all the workers pick the meats from the cracked nuts. Women are generally employed and are paid on a piece-work basis or by the pound. Moreover, employees are often given a premium for nut meats removed from the shells with the "halves" unbroken.

This new black walnut industry has increased and heightened the interest in planting the trees for both nut and timber production. Consequently, in the districts where these nut cracking mills have been established, many producers are planting either small or large blocks of black walnut trees. In some cases the plantings are made up of grafted or budded trees of named varieties, while in others the nuts are planted and the seedlings later top-worked to the kinds desired.

The named varieties and better seedling sorts bring the highest price in the form of nuts and as kernels. In fact, the nuts of the named varieties usually sell for twice the price paid for the average seedling nuts. Some of the chief varieties most highly prized for their thin shells, weight of kernels, cracking quality, and flavor are Thomas, Stabler, Tucker, Ohio, and Miller.

To obtain a marketable and paying product, care in the gathering, husking and extracting of kernels, is necessary. Culling the nuts and cracking none but the good ones are also important. Through such methods, many producers are able to supply city markets and roadside stands with kernels which sell readily and at good prices.

~Returns from Trees~—Walnut trees will give returns in general in proportion to the care given. They are fairly rapid growers under good culture. At an age of 20 years the trees may reach a height of 35 feet with 50 feet at 30 years and about 70 feet at 50 years. In other words, a growth of about 2 feet a year for 20 years is not unusual. After this age the trees slow down gradually to about a foot of growth a year.

It is estimated that walnut trees from 60 to 70 years of age will produce on the average from 100 to 150 board feet of lumber. Trees of such an age may also produce an average of all the way from four or five bushels of nuts per tree each year up to as many as ten to fourteen or more bushels per year.

THE BUTTERNUT

Among our native walnuts the butternut is valued highly especially for home use. On the markets, however, the rough shell and comparatively small size of the kernel have in general tended to keep prices low and the demand limited. There are now prospects for the introduction and growing of superior hybrid varieties. Grafted varieties which bear particularly good nuts are becoming more available through nut nurseries.

The trees may become very large in height, spread and trunk diameter. They are attractive and stately in appearance and it is the hardiest member of the walnut genus as its native range extends well into Canada. The bark is gray in color and the wood is soft. Heartwood decay is common in old trees, although they may reach great age. The species has a rather restricted range within the Eastern states, but it occurs naturally as far west as eastern Kansas and Nebraska. In Missouri, its growth is confined largely to the central and northern areas where black walnuts are plentiful.

The nuts are oblong, sharp-pointed at the apex, cylindrical, bluntly rounded at the base, rough and jagged over the surface, and as a rule thick-shelled. In spite of this, some varieties have good shelling quality, and the kernels possess usually a rich, agreeable flavor. In confections the butternut kernel may compete successfully with the popular flavor of the black walnut kernels. The butternut may be propagated and grown successfully by adopting the practices suggested for the culture of the black walnut. As is true with the black walnut it may be inter-grafted upon other walnuts or used as a stock for them, but its propagation, particularly as an understock, is more difficult.

THE PECAN

The pecan is a member of the hickory group and its range in this continent extends from Iowa to Mexico. Other hickories extend into Canada. The hickories are valuable for both nuts and timber. Fifteen different species of the hickory group have been recorded. Of these only three or four produce nuts of outstanding value. In nut production, the pecan hickory is the most important of all the hickories. For crop value of nuts it rivals the Persian (English) walnut and the tree is one of the largest east of the Rocky Mountains. The pecan tree is native to the south and south central parts of the United States and it is found in the forests as a native tree throughout Missouri.

Commercial production within the state may reach 800,000 pounds or more in good crop years, and according to the State-Federal Crop Reporting Service there are now about 88,000 pecan trees in the State of bearing age. All of these consist of seedling groves except the comparatively recent orchard plantings of the southeastern area. Commercial culture of standard varieties in the United States is confined largely to Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

The natural habitat is along streams and on river bottom lands. At the present time the commercial varieties consist mainly of the large so-called "paper-shell" sorts of southern origin. These require a comparatively long growing season for their development. Consequently the southern types may not be productive in the more northern regions.

The cultural range of the pecan may be divided into two rather large belts, known as southern and northern. In fact, pecan culture is sometimes designated as "southern" and "northern" due to differences in size of nut, thickness of shell, and time required for maturity of nuts. The approximate northern limit of the southern area is near the extreme southeastern boundary line between Missouri and Arkansas. The northern belt extends into Nebraska and Iowa and includes approximately the entire state of Missouri.

The chief difference between these areas is the length of the growing season. In general, the southern or "paper-shell" varieties require from 240 to 250 days to mature their nuts, while the northern varieties which produce usually nuts of smaller size with somewhat thicker shells need from 180 to 200 days.

VARIETIES

There is no factor in pecan growing of greater importance than the proper selection of varieties for planting. Fertile soils and good culture will not make poor varieties profitable or low yielding kinds fruitful.

Only in southeast Missouri are the southern varieties such as Stuart, Pabst, Moneymaker, Success, Schley, and others a success. This is true because the fruit buds of these varieties in other sections of Missouri are generally killed by winter cold. Furthermore even if they escape the winter cold, the growing periods for all sections except southeast Missouri may not be long enough for the full maturity of the nuts.

Since none of the sorts adapted to the southern belt are sufficiently hardy to justify their planting in Missouri except in the southeastern section, growers in other parts of the state should confine their interests and selections to the so-called northern varieties. Some of the best of these are the Major, Niblack, Giles, Indiana, Busseron, Greenriver, and Posey.

Chance seedlings which have not been named are now and then found that may be equally as worthy or better for planting locally than any of the named varieties listed above. In fact, these suggested sorts were derived from chance seedling trees. Producers generally, therefore, should be on the lookout for seedling trees of merit. When so discovered, the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station at Columbia will be glad to make tests free of charge and report upon the cracking percent, amount of kernel, appearance, flavor, texture, quality, oil content, etc.

The nuts produced by the hardy varieties adapted generally to Missouri conditions are usually smaller in size and have somewhat thicker shells but may possess equally as high or even higher oil content and kernel quality than the southern sorts. The better varieties of this group, however, rank high enough to compete favorably on the markets of the country in both shelled and unshelled state with the southern varieties.

A full crop of pecans would run from 30 to 35 carloads, the majority of which are produced along the Mississippi river in the bottom lands from Ste. Genevieve southward. Heavy shipments are made in a good year especially from Ste. Genevieve, St. Mary's, Menfro, Caruthersville and Hornersville, and in these sections are some of the largest and best nuts.

Pecans are found along the Mississippi river from St. Charles north to Hannibal, but too generally in that area the trees are scarce and the production smaller, with nuts of thicker shells.

Pecan trees are also found growing wild along the Missouri river bottom as far west as Lexington, and up the Grand river bottoms to Chillicothe, and the nuts in this area are about the size of those in the north Mississippi valley section, but are sweet with high oil content.

There is a pecan production district along the Osage river and the Kansas border, with heavy shipping section at Rockville and Schell City.

Missouri pecans are classed as Westerns in the commercial market. They are favored by the confectionery trade. A great many native trees are found in the south Mississippi section, but there is a growing interest in budded pecan trees, especially around Caruthersville.

The total of the budded varieties of pecan trees in Missouri does not constitute more than approximately one per cent of the total of growing trees.

Many years ago a large acreage of the bottom lands along the Mississippi river were thick with immense, heavy-producing pecan trees—but most of this pecan timber was cut down either for fuel wood or saw timber. Short-sighted people have been known to chop down trees simply to secure the nuts.

THE HICKORIES

The native hickories of Missouri have been held in high esteem since early settlements were established. They are notorious on account of their slow rate of growth yet they offer greater possibilities to nut growers than is usually believed. As shade trees they have a high ranking.

Promising varieties may now be had by obtaining scions from superior bearing seedling trees and from young named and grafted trees in the nurseries of commercial concerns. Grafted trees may come into bearing in three or four years after the operation.

Perhaps as many as five species are native of Missouri. The big shellbark or kingnut is common to the south and southwest regions, but its range is not as wide as others. The shagbark which is the most valuable nut producer of all the hickories, is rather widely distributed particularly in northern and central Missouri. Numerous varieties have been described and named because of their particular merits. Shellbark nuts may be large and attractive, but are often poorly filled.

The pignut, mockernut, and bitternut have a rather general distribution especially in the central and northern parts of the state. These nuts are not considered of great value except for their hybrids with other species. Perhaps the most natural type of hybrid occurring among the hickories is crosses between the shagbark and shellbark, one of the best varieties of which is Weiker.

The pecan and shellbark hybrids include McAllister, Nussbaumer, and Rockville, while the Burton is believed to be a pecan-shagbark cross. The natural crosses of the pecan and hickory found in the wild have not been entirely satisfactory. The trees vary greatly in fruitfulness and the nuts in thickness of shells, size, shape, and kernel quality. A strong tendency to produce nuts with imperfect kernels is common among the pecan-shellbark crosses.

Local varieties selected from the wild may have merit for use in top-working hickories or pecans. The pecan is suggested because it makes a good stock for the hickories and as it grows more rapidly. Some of the best of the older named sorts for planting or for use in top-working appear to be the following: Barnes, Fairbanks, Stanley, Weiker, Kentucky, Swain, Laney, Kirtland, and Rieke.

THE CHINKAPINS

The chinkapin is related closely to the chestnut and resembles it strikingly in most of the important characteristics. It occurs in two well known forms. West of the Mississippi River, the Ozark chinkapin tree may reach a height of sixty feet in good soil, while the other form (Allegany chinkapin) in the eastern range grows to a height of about 15 feet. Each may be grafted or budded upon the other without difficulty. Named varieties of the chinkapin are not available at this time. The Japanese, Chinese, and European chestnuts are introduced species.

The blight disease has almost wiped out the great American chestnut forests of the East. As yet, however, the malady has not been introduced into Missouri. (The oak wilt, however, has been found there.—Ed.) The chinkapin of this area is highly resistant to the blight and some of the hybrids carry the resistant quality and bear nuts of good size and high quality. The native chinkapin forests especially of southwest Missouri are valued highly not only for their nuts but particularly for post timber.

The native chinkapin tree in Missouri grows to large size in good soil and it may be found as one of the largest forest trees on the stony ridge lands of southwestern sections of the Ozark Mountains. The nuts are very much like those produced by chestnut trees except they are smaller. In flavor and quality the nuts may be found equal or superior to the chestnuts.

Both the chinkapin and chestnut may be grafted or budded one upon the other. In fact, the western chinkapin may be used successfully as a stock for the chestnut.

The European chestnut is very susceptible to the blight. A very large coarse nut is produced by the Japanese chestnut and it does not blight quite as readily as the American sorts. The Chinese chestnut is the most resistant to blight and it is admired for its beauty as a lawn tree. Promising varieties include Abundance, Nanking and Meiling.

Some desirable varieties of the American and hybrid chestnuts for growing in Missouri are as follows: Boone, Fuller, Paragon, Progress, Rochester, and Champion.

FILBERTS AND HAZELNUTS

The European filbert which is grown so successfully in Oregon and Washington has not been generally successful in Missouri. This has been due mainly to winter injury, resulting either in the killing of the staminate catkins by cold, or of the developing catkins by late spring freezes and frosts. For good fruiting they need cross pollination. Some of the well-known and popular filbert varieties are Barcelona, Du Chilly, Medium Long and Italian Red. Rush, Winkler, and others, are partly or purely American hazelnuts.

The native hazelnut which may be found throughout the State is hardy and generally a fairly regular cropper. Seedling nuts, while not as large usually as the Northwestern filbert, are found now and then that approach them closely in size and cracking quality. Furthermore, the native seedling nut kernels may excel occasionally in flavor and quality.

Interested nut growers are, therefore, urged to perpetuate the most promising hazelnuts of the wild by simple layerage. Until hardier varieties of the filbert are found, the chief attention may be well spent on the propagation and culture of the native seedling sorts of merit. As yet none of the Missouri native seedlings have been described, named and propagated for sale and distribution.

Tip or simple layering seems to be the most satisfactory method of propagating the hazelnut and filbert. Shoots or suckers, one-year old and arising from the base of the plant are used. They are left attached to the mother plant and are bent over until the ends of tips rest upon the soil.

To encourage root growth, the underside of the branch to be covered with soil is frequently notched or ringed. The part of the branch in contact with the moist soil is then covered leaving a small portion of the end protruding. The branches are sometimes pegged down with forked sticks or weighted with stones. After one season's growth, the branch should be established with roots and top. It is then cut from the parent and removed for transplanting to its permanent location.

Well, now, my good friends, I have talked about five or ten minutes longer than I intended to, but you just listened so attentively you encouraged me, so it's your fault. I am happy to be here. Show me an organization like the Northern Nut Growers Association, as full of vim and vigor and vinegar and going ahead, and I will show you a successful organization.

Thank you.

MR. CHASE: Thank you, Professor Talbert, for a very nice message.

I am still a little angry at Professor Talbert because I realize now that if he had accepted my invitation to come to another good southern state two years ago our meeting would have been a much better one at Norris.

Now, we have several papers here which deal with chestnuts, and there seems to be a good deal of interest among the membership concerning chestnuts this year, and perhaps before we get into chestnuts for nut production we might hear a short resume of Dr. Graves' breeding work for timber type chestnut. This problem of chestnut for timber purposes, of course, accounts for the presence of Chinese and Japanese chestnuts in the country today, and yet most of our efforts to establish chestnut plantings for timber purposes have been unsuccessful. You heard from Dr. Diller last year concerning these efforts.

This paper will deal with the breeding work which is now under way by Dr. Graves in Connecticut, and I have asked Dr. McKay to give us a brief digest of this paper.

Chestnut Breeding Work: Report for 1950

ARTHUR HARMOUNT GRAVES Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Conn. and Division of Forest Pathology, U.S.D.A. Plant Industry Station, Beltsville, Maryland

In southern Connecticut the 1950 season for vegetative growth and development was excellent except for the dry period in September. The chief fault lay in much more cloudy weather than usual,[31] and the deficiency in sunlight coupled with a slightly lower average temperature in the spring, and cool nights, combined to delay the chestnut flowering season for as much as ten days. The main body of our cross pollination experiments did not begin until July 4, whereas last year it began on June 23 and 24, and was nearly completed by July 4.

[31] For example, the report of the U. S. Weather Bureau at New Haven, Conn., for May, 1950, says, "The feature of the month was the lack of sunshine which retarded the growth of crops in this area." See also report of the New York City Station for April, 1950.

This year 103 crosses were made, not all different combinations, but each one with either different or reciprocal parents. The principal combination was a cross of Japanese chestnut with Chinese-American or American-Chinese, a mixture that in recent years has given excellent results. This year also, as in the past, our CJA's were crossed with American chestnut.

[Illustration: Fig. 1. Cross pollinating Chinese chestnuts. Sleeping Giant Plantation, Hamden, Conn. Trees near left of center and at left, with drooping catkins, are Japanese-American hybrids. Photo July 13, 1950, by B. W. McFarland.]

~Cooperation with Italy.~ A considerable part of the cross pollination work this year has been undertaken for the benefit of the Italian authorities, namely experiment stations at Florence and Rome. This has been done at the suggestion of the Division of Forest Pathology, Beltsville, Md., which has been working along the same line.

As is now generally known, the chestnut blight was discovered in Italy in 1938, and has been making rapid headway in a country 15 percent of whose forests are in chestnut. To the Italians the chestnut means much as an article of food. They use the timber also, and the various ages of coppice growth in many ways[32]. Particular effort this year has been directed toward the breeding of promising nut-bearing types for them and especially resistant strains that bear large nuts like the cultivated European chestnut.

[32] Graves, Arthur Harmount. Breeding Chestnut Trees: Report for 1946 and 1947. 38th Ann. Rept. Northern Nut Growers Assn. p. 85. 1947.

Now, we have found that many of our Chinese chestnuts are practically immune to the blight. Even if the disease does appear, in most cases it is in the outer bark only, and is soon healed over. Moreover, the Chinese chestnut has a large nut, comparable in size to the cultivated Europeans with pollen from our best Chinese trees, and at the same successful crosses of the European and Chinese are made.

Last fall, as a result of an article in the New Haven Register by Mr. A. V. Sizer, I learned of two European chestnut trees of bearing age in New Haven back yards. So, this summer we have crossed these Europeans with pollen from our best Chinese trees, and at the same time have taken the pollen from one of them (in the other the pollen was sterile) and applied it to the female flowers of our Chinese trees. Most of the resulting nuts have been sent to the Italian scientists in the hope that some of them will develop into desirable nut-producing, disease-resistant hybrids. Some will be retained for testing here. If the resulting trees are not sufficiently blight-resistant, they will be crossed again with the Chinese.

In the summer we received by air mail from Dr. Aldo Pavari, of the Stazione Sperimentale di Selvicoltura in Florence, Italy, two tubes of pollen of the European chestnut, Castanea sativa, of the varieties pistolese and selvatico. These pollens were also applied to our best Chinese trees. They resulted in 12 good nuts which have been shipped to Dr. Pavari.

Further, we have on our Sleeping Giant Plantation, Hamden, Conn., several hybrids, now 16 years old, of the Seguin and the Chinese chestnuts, the former species being also a native of China, but dwarf and everblooming and remarkably prolific. These hybrids are excellent as nut producers, since they inherit the large-sized nut of the mollissima parent, combined with the increased productivity of the Seguin parent. Furthermore they are extremely blight-resistant.[33] These hybrids have therefore been intercrossed among themselves this year, chiefly for the benefit of the Italian people. One hundred and eight nuts from reciprocal crosses of these hybrids were shipped to Italy. Also, in response to a request, we sent nuts of our best Chinese and Japanese trees and of the mollissima-seguini hybrids to M. C. Schad of the Station d'Amelioration du Chataignier, Clermont-Ferrand, France.

[33] These hybrids will shortly be put on the market, under the sponsorship of the Conn. Agr. Expt. Sta. and the Division of Forest Pathology, U.S.D.A. As regards the everblooming habit of the Seguin parent, that character seems to be lost or at least partly suppressed. A second flowering of one of the hybrids usually occurs in August.

~Other crosses.~ Two Chinese-American trees in our plantation at the White Memorial Foundation near Litchfield, Conn., bore a considerable number of female flowers this year for the first time. They have been crossed with the fine Japanese tree of Mr. A. N. Sheriff at Cheshire, Conn., figured in my report for 1948-49. (P. 92, fig. 3, of 40th Rept. of N.N.G.A.) From them, 75 nuts were harvested of the combination CAxJ. Four crosses were made on the trees at Redding Ridge, Conn., in the cooperative plantation of Mr. Archer M. Huntington, resulting in 73 nuts. Also, the resistant Americans on Painter Hill, Roxbury, Conn., were again crossed with CJA's and Chinese from our Sleeping Giant Plantation and from these were obtained 247 nuts. Finally, we have this year succeeded in making a cross between Castanea henryi, the Henry Timber Chinkapin from southern and central China, which is said to attain a height of 90 feet, and C. mollissima, the Chinese chestnut. Since henryi blooms very early, much before our mollissima, the Division of Forest Pathology mailed us pollen of C. mollissima, which reached us just in time to be applied to henryi. Seven good nuts of this cross were gathered.

Altogether, as the overall result of our cross pollination work, we harvested 1259 nuts, more than twice as many as obtained in any other year since we began this work in 1930.

——————————————————————————— TABLE 1

Heights of Some of Largest Trees, as of Oct. 1, 1950. All at Sleeping Giant Plantation, Hamden, Conn.

Species or Height Hybrid Location Age in yrs. in ft. Remarks ———————————————————————————————————- J x A Row 4 Tree 10 19 30 Repeatedly inarched J x A " 4 " 4 14 33 Grafted on Jap. stock, Apr. 1937 J x A " 4 " 12 19 29 Repeatedly inarched J " 7 " 5 20 23 C " 1 " 4 24 30-3/4 CJA " 60 " 39 13 29 CJA " 61 " 48 13 24 CJA " 8 " 8 4 14 Grafted on Chinese stock, spring, 1947. Fruited this yr. 1st time. ———————————————————————————————————— J=Castanea crenata A=Castanea dentata C=Castanea mollissima

~Nuts, Scions and Pollen Received.~ During the fall of 1949 we received nuts from New Hampshire, Mass., Conn., N. Y., N. J., W. Va., N. C., Ohio, and Ill. Scions were received in March and April from Mr. R. M. Viggars of the Bartlett Tree Expert Co. station at Wilmington, Del. (C. dentata); and from Messieurs Schad and G. A. Solignat, Centre de Recherches Agronomiques, Clermont-Ferrand, France, (C. crenata and sativa.) During June and July, pollen of C. dentata came from Mr. E. J. Grassmann, Elizabeth, N. J., Mr. Paul Maxey, Montcoal, W. Va., Mr. Malcolm G. Edwards, Asheville, N. C.; C. mollissima and dentata from the Division of Pathology, U.S.D.A.; C. sativa, vars. pistolese and selvatico from Dr. Aldo Pavari, Stazione Sperimentale di Selvicolture, Florence, Italy; and C. pumila and dentata from Mr. Alfred Szego, Flushing, N. Y. This list is presented as evidence of the widespread interest in our work. It is a pleasure to acknowledge this cooperation and to thank the many donors. We are especially glad to report that several "catches" have been made with the C. sativa scions from France and those of the tall mollissimas at Mt. Cuba, Del., from Mr. Viggars.

May I again caution those who send us nuts not to allow them to become dried out. The embryos, when dried, are killed. The nuts should be wrapped in moist cotton, peat moss, or something similar, and mailed to me not later than a few days after harvesting, at 255 South Main Street, Wallingford, Conn.

~Insects, bad and good.~ The cankerworms were rather destructive in May at our Sleeping Giant Plantation (not at the others) but fortunately later than usual. The mite, Paratetranychus bicolor, attacked the leaves of some of the trees on the Sleeping Giant Plantation rather late in the season, so that on September 8 we sprayed with the Station's power sprayer, using Aramite effectively. Shade and humidity seem to favor the spread of this pest. Japanese beetles appeared but have never been very destructive with us. As happened last year, we sprayed twice for the weevils, August 14 and September 8, with excellent results.

This spring in early June, four hives of bees were placed in one of our Sleeping Giant Plantations by bee experts of the staff of the Conn. Expt. Station. Improved results in pollination and the resulting nut harvest cannot be affirmed with only one season's trial.

A Method of Controlling the Chestnut Blight on Partially Resistant Species and Hybrids of Castanea

ARTHUR HARMOUNT GRAVES Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven and Division of Forest Pathology, U.S.D.A. Plant Industry Station, Beltsville, Maryland

This method has been in use since 1937 on our chestnut plantations, and has been so remarkably successful that we believe all chestnut growers should be thoroughly acquainted with it.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.]

Whenever chestnut trees are attacked by the blight fungus, suckers arise below the lesion, and if the lesion is at or near the base of the tree, as often happens, these suckers grow from the base of the tree, i.e. at the root collar. It is then a simple matter to cut out the diseased bark of the lesion with a sharp knife, paint over the wound, and graft the tip of one or more of these suckers above the lesion, into the healthy bark. Of course the sucker must be long enough to reach the healthy part of the bark above the lesion. It is measured roughly by the eye and then cut off at a proper length, usually a little longer than seems necessary. The tip is then sharpened into two beveled surfaces coming up to a thin sharp transverse edge like a long wedge. (Fig. 1a.) The tip edge must be very sharp in order to push up easily between the bark and wood. Now, or rather, before trimming the sucker, in the healthy bark above the blight lesion cut an inverted T, making the cut into the bark as far as the wood and then cut a gradual slope from the surface of the bark down to the horizontal part of the inverted T. Next, lift the bark gently from the wood above the horizontal cut and insert the end of the sucker. If the sucker, or scion, is slightly longer than the upper end of the cut, it can be bent outward at the same time that the scion is being inserted and thus a spring is secured making it easier to force the scion up between bark and wood. I should add that if the lesion is not at the base of the tree, suckers usually arise just below it in any case, and these can be inarched in the same way as the basal shoots.

[Illustration: Fig. 2

Fig. 2 Showing inarching method of controlling the chestnut blight a Chinese-Japanese hybrid chestnut, 13 yrs. old, infected toward base with Chinese type of blight, i.e. in outer bark only. Right: sucker inarched in spring of 1946; left, inarched spring of 1950. (The black figure resembling an arrow, about half way up, is accidental, being a cluster of labels.) b. Grafted tree (the large tree of Japanese-American chestnut on Japanese stock); graft made in 1937 where finger is pointing; left: inarch of 1947, itself inarched near base in 1950; right, inarch of 1949. c. Japanese-American hybrid chestnut with principal inarch made in 1943; other later inarchings showing in part. All photos by Louis Buhle, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and loaned courtesy of the Garden.]

The next step is to bind together the parts being grafted, winding strong, cotton string firmly around the cut with its scion enclosed, covering practically all of the vertical cut of the inverted T. Finally, melted paraffin—not too hot—is applied to the union, every part being carefully covered in order to exclude air and thus prevent drying out. We use Clarke's melter which, with adjustment of the flame, will keep the paraffin at a temperature slightly above the melting point and thus will not get too hot. Grafting wax may also be used instead of paraffin. The best time to perform the operation in Connecticut is during April or early May.

Our first scions or inarches, grafted in 1937, are now 6 inches in diameter at ground level and constitute the main tree. If they become blighted, other suckers are inarched into them, and so on. The purpose of the inarching is to restore the communication between leaves and roots, which is so essential to the life and health of the tree, and which the diseased bark of the blight lesion interrupts, eventually causing girdling and death of the trunk or branch attacked. A series of these inarchings of different ages is shown herewith. (Fig. 2.) On our plantations we no longer dread the chestnut blight, since we can usually circumvent it by this method. However, with the American chestnut, because the fungus advances rapidly in this species, the girdling is often completed before the scions can take hold. Therefore, with that species or with the least resistant hybrids the method is often though not always ineffectual.

This method of grafting is not new. It is similar to bridge grafting and has been known and practiced for centuries. The only credit we can claim is for its application to the chestnut blight as a method of control.

MR. CHASE: We will now hear from Mr. George Salzer, Rochester, New York, "Experiences with Chestnuts in Nursery and Orchard in Western New York." Mr. Salzer.

Experiences with Chestnuts in Nursery and Orchard in Western New York

GEORGE SALZER, Rochester, New York

My work with Chinese chestnut trees during the past ten years has been most interesting. The first trees were grown in our back-yard garden; then, when more seed was available locally, a building lot was purchased for use as a nursery. Seed is planted in the spring because when fall planting was tried, the rodents took most of the nuts.

Up until last year, chestnut seed was stratified in perforated cans in the open ground with fairly good results. Last fall, we tried the method used and described by Dr. Crane and Dr. McKay in the 1946 report of this Association. Crimp top cans were used with nail holes in the top and bottom. Instead of using regular storage facilities, the cans were stored in a concrete block storage pit built below the floor of the garage. This proved very successful. Not only were the nuts in excellent condition for eating in the spring, sweet and of good flavor, but a much larger percentage of the seed germinated. This storage pit also serves to hold trees dormant and in good planting condition from digging time in March until early June.

Last year, many young seedlings were lost during the dry weather and hand weeding between the trees was next to impossible. This spring, we tried the method of planting used and described by Mr. Sam Hemming in the 1947 report of this Association. We planted the seed in a narrow trench two inches deep; then filled the trench with saw dust; level with the surface. The saw dust serves as a mulch to hold moisture for the young seedlings and hand weeding between trees is reduced to a minimum. It is also possible to use the wheel cultivator between the saw dust marked rows before the shoots appear. This was a great help in controlling early weed growth.

We were troubled with cutworms cutting off the new seedlings close to the ground, the same as they cut off young tomato plants. We controlled them by using a poison-bran bait as described in Leaflet Number Two issued by the Department of Agriculture.

All trees are grown from seed of trees growing in the Rochester area. These had their origin from north of Pekin, China. Most of the trees are three years old when sold and have been transplanted at least once. This gives us a good sized tree that transplants well and should bear some chestnuts in three or four years. Sales are to people in our locality, although a few mail orders have been filled. So far, we have had no complaints. These are all seedling trees and until grafting or budding of named varieties becomes stabilized, I believe we should concentrate on growing large numbers of seedlings at a price within the reach of all who want chestnut trees.

This spring some large chestnut seed received from a southern grower was planted for experimental purposes. I will bring them into bearing to learn whether they will bear as large a nut in our climate as they do in the southern states, and whether the kernel will be as sweet and have as good flavor as those grown in upstate New York. I have yet to see a tree growing in the Rochester area bearing as large a nut as those grown in the southeast, and all the large nuts I have tasted did not seem to be as sweet as ours. Probably the old saying "the smaller the nut, the sweeter the nut" is true. Of course these are all seedling trees, but by this time we should know whether size of nut and sweetness of kernel are determined by climate or individual trees.

Our largest trees are eleven-year old seedlings of unknown origin. One is, I believe, outstanding. It started bearing when four years old and has consistently been a good producer. The nut is real chestnut in color and good size, running about seventy to the pound. I have not found a tree in this area bearing a larger nut. The kernel is sweet and the flavor excellent. The tree has good shape and limb structure, always sending up a central leader. This is the tree I would like to propagate.

Small Nuts Sell Better

Last fall, I tried a selling experiment with chestnuts for eating, and sold small quantities of small and medium sized nuts at the rate of $1.50 a pound. However, no one seemed interested in the larger ones. They thought they were European chestnuts that sold here for $.25 a pound. I did not have many for sale, but I am convinced there is a market for good sweet chestnuts. It seems useless to compete with those imported from Italy. Ours are far superior, and many who remember the American chestnut, will, I believe pay a luxury price for good quality chestnuts.

In 1946, we purchased a 10-1/2 acre piece of land, 16 miles southwest of Rochester for the purpose of planting a chestnut orchard. This land had not been worked for about twelve years. The soil is heavy and fertile, typed as Poygan clay loam. Bed rock is sixty feet below the surface. The following spring, we planted about 300 trees and each year more are set out. There are now about 700 trees from two to five years old, and most of them are growing well.

The rows are twenty feet apart and the trees stand fifteen to twenty feet apart, in the row. I know this will be too close when the trees are full grown, but we have the trees and I want to bring as many into bearing as possible, searching for the ideal tree. We also expect to lose some trees through wild life and other causes.

Many of the first trees planted were lost the following year due to excessive rainfall, poor surface drainage, rabbit and meadow mouse damage. In 1948 two 400 foot drainage ditches were dug across the property. This made it possible to plant trees successfully on most of the land. However, another ditch is needed to eliminate a low spot, then all of the land can be used.

The meadow mouse that girded so many trees could not be controlled by the use of poison bait and the rabbit also did considerable damage. Through the wild life service of the Department of the Interior, we obtained a repellant that was effective. It is distributed in the eastern states by the Rodent Control Fund of the University of Massachusetts. We have used it now for two years and have no more mouse or rabbit damage.

The woodchuck does considerable damage even though we have eliminated all their dens on our land. They come in to feed from the neighboring areas and will have to be controlled by shooting. Deer are also present but have as yet caused no damage. Probably, they are waiting for the trees to grow larger.

Last spring, new growth on the trees was killed by a late freeze—a most unusual occurance for this area. This was caused by an excessively warm April, followed by below-freezing temperature in the middle of May. It was the first time in the memory of the oldest residents that black locust and native black walnut trees were damaged by a spring freeze. However, most of the trees recovered, but their growth was retarded.

This spring several of the trees blossomed, but set no burs. In a few years, I hope to have more to report on this orchard project.

(Here was shown a chestnut tree picture.)

MR. SALZER: If anyone has any comments, if they think it has good limb structure, that's what we are looking for.

MR. SHERMAN: We could tell you better if we could see it when it's dormant.

MR. WEBER: What sort of a cultivator do you use?

MR. SALZER: Wheel cultivator.

MR. WEBER: Why don't you get a Wheelmaster? You may not want to cultivate as often as if you had a power one.

MR. CHASE: We shall now have another chestnut paper by Alfred Szego of Long Island.

Chestnuts in Upper Dutchess County, New York

ALFRED SZEGO 77-15A 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, New York City

Pulvers' Corners, a collection of farmhouses, a gas station and ice cream parlor is located about 8 miles from the northern Connecticut border not too far from the southwestern tip of Massachusetts.

The Berkshire hills roll through here and at this point we find ourselves at approximately the northern limits of the deciduous hardwood forest belt.

Here the American chestnut is native formerly growing in great abundance until stricken a mortal blow by the invincible chestnut blight.

Just a few hundred feet north of here on a hilltop, I started in 1945, a different kind of nut tree plantation.

Placing main emphasis on the chestnut, a start was made on the cultivation of the thousands of sprouts and seedlings on my 43 acre coppice forest.

A cluster of ~Castanea dentata~ seedlings that appeared promising was selected. The following practices proved fairly successful in keeping a few trees healthy, and bringing one into bearing in 1950. For the interest of fellow members working along a similar line, I enumerate the following practices.

1. Clean and thorough tree surgery, cutting out blight cankers immediately upon discovery.

2. Removal of all very blight susceptible nearby sprouts and the burning of all infected branches and material.

3. Artificial watering during drought periods.

4. Application of superphosphate, muriate of potash and trace elements. Es-Min-El was used in our case. Our soil tests high in nitrogen.

5. Removal of all overstory trees and other interfering growth.

It may be noted that the importance of hygiene and sanitation cannot be stressed too strongly.

Our own native chinkapin, ~Castanea pumila~ when brought up north proves itself a delightful subject. Outside of the weevil-infested area, it becomes a hardy producer of superb little chestnuts. This species offers great promise to the plant breeder because of its very early bearing (3-4 years from seed). Perhaps hybridization with ~Castanea mollissima~ varieties may bring something very fine and valuable. This species is tender during its first year but perfectly hardy afterwards. Northern growers require special techniques to grow chinkapins from seed.

The strains of Chinese chestnut, ~Castanea mollissima~ in most cases do not seem extremely happy here. The trees appear to sustain varying degrees of winter injury. The tips of the branches often freeze. Usually the branch comes into leaf on the lower part first and then upwards. However, a few individuals appear perfectly hardy. The outlook is excellent for the discovery of exceptional individuals suitable for the northern zones.

The Japanese chestnut, ~Castanea crenata~ shows very good adaptation to this region. Although my trees of this species are young, very vigorous growth indicates some value here. Unfortunately, the nuts have a bad after-taste when eaten raw thus limiting its commercial possibilities. I have noticed this undesirable characteristic in tasting hybrid nuts derived from trees possessing ~Castanea crenata~ parentage. I was informed at Beltsville that the hybrid known as S8, a cross between ~Castanea pumila~ and ~C. crenata~, was rejected for its poor quality nuts.

I have established many other species of chestnuts and their hybrids. Some of these are from seed obtained from the Bell experimental plot of the U.S.D.A. at Glenn Dale, Maryland. Seed from this source has produced a much better grade of seedlings than those from anywhere else.

A somewhat different version of the tin can planting method is now being used here. Number two size and larger tin cans have a few punctures made with a hammer and nail in the bottom. These have their tops removed, of course, and after being filled with loose soil, are used as pots in which to start chestnuts.

In the early spring germinating chestnuts are removed from jars, kept in my refrigerator. One is planted in each can flat side down, barely beneath the soil level.

After the season has warmed up these "canned plants" are set out in a trench, buried to the rim. Rock wool is placed around the stems of the seedlings covering the soil and the nut. This has acted as a rodent deterrent.

The "canned plants" are then, at leisure, set out in their permanent places. Just before doing this an ordinary beer can opener is used to enlarge the punctures in the bottom of the can to permit the roots to penetrate better. In a few years the can should disintegrate entirely and at no time will interfere with root growth.

By holding the chestnuts under refrigeration and not planting in the fall I have kept my plantings free of the chestnut weevils.

I found that by planting the flat side down, the stem seems to go down very easily, and the sprout coming up from it seems to go up more easily, also.

Discussion

MR. RICK: Are they planted permanently in the can?

MR. SZEGO: Yes, they are planted in the can. The can will disintegrate in two or three years.

MR. RICK: Don't you have those in rows?

MR. SZEGO: No, I sometimes place them on the grass. The morning dew seems to provide enough moisture to carry through the dry spells. But, again, I live in a mountainous area. This may not apply out in Oklahoma.

MR. CHASE: Next on the program is a demonstration of his method of propagating nut trees in pots in the greenhouse by Mr. Bernath, who has been very successful with this method. Mr. Bernath.

Demonstration of Method of Propagating Nut Trees in Greenhouse

STEPHEN BERNATH, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.

Here is the way I handle the nut trees when we propagate under glass in the greenhouse. These are two-year seedlings potted up. That root is cut away and any large lateral roots that are too large to bend well we cut them off, and we take all the fibrous roots we can and put them in this pot. Put your soil around it first, and when you have it nearly full, just the same as if you take your son and lay him on your knee and spank the butt good and put the soil around the roots. Then pack it with your thumb and your potting is done.

(Taking scion) I use only one bud. One bud is good as a dozen. (Cutting-with pruning knife.)

MR. WEBER: How do you cut above the bud that you use above the graft?

MR. BERNATH: If the nodes are far enough apart I put it farther, but I like to put it as short as I can but allow not less than half inch or an inch or more on top, and you cut it away after the union has taken and the growth started. Sometimes some of them may have a growth of two inches before you take them out of the case. They are not uniform. Some of them are way in advance of some of the others. Some of them are tardy, slow.

This is my budding knife, here, which is about 40 years old.

MR. CHASE: The question is asked, this isn't the time of year that you would do this, is it?