NUTS IN NORTH DAKOTA

By Prof. A. F. Yeager

The growing of nuts in North Dakota has hardly been considered as a possibility even by the average amateur up to the present time. Nevertheless, evidence is gradually accumulating that some varieties of nuts can be grown as an addition to the home orchard in nearly all parts of the state.

We have no native nut plants except the hazel and our native hazel seldom produces nuts in any quantity in the wild state, hence the possibility of growing them for profit undoubtedly lies some distance in the future.

Nut bearing plants which have been introduced with success are the butternut and the black walnut. Trees of these two species are to be found in small numbers at various points in the state and have in practically every case been grown from nuts planted where the trees are now standing. In the past many failures have been reported with trees grown from nuts sent up from the South. Such trees as are now standing are the hardy remnants of considerable numbers of seedlings started, most of which have fallen by the wayside because of the rigors of our climate. Black walnut trees raised from seed produced on trees which have reached fruiting age in North Dakota seem to possess the necessary hardiness. As to whether the named varieties of walnuts would be a success in this territory remains a question. Their culture has not been attempted.

Butternuts are naturally a more northerly species than black walnuts but have not been so widely planted in North Dakota. Nevertheless there is a sprinkling of bearing butternut trees in some of the pioneer groves. Seed from these was planted at the experiment station in the fall of 1920. The seedlings prospered and some of them bore nuts in 1925, one tree producing 114 nuts that year. Since then there has been a crop each year and the trees have been making a growth of a foot or more per year. This would seem to indicate that the butternut has possibilities, at least as a producer of nuts for home consumption.

Both the black walnut and butternut are subject to damage by late spring frosts which kill off the opening blossoms. While it is not likely that North Dakota will be a commercial nut growing state, we can look forward with confidence to the time when a group of nut trees will be included in the grove which will surround each North Dakota home.

The President: Butternuts and walnuts grow in Manitoba. I know of 47 trees.

Member: Mr. Gall reports that heartnuts have endured the winter in northwestern Manitoba. The black walnut has grown quite well in Swift Current. That part of Canada is much colder.

The President: Our next paper is a report on the nut contest. Mr. Bixby had planned to be here, but was unable to come. Has Dr. Deming anything to offer?

Dr. Deming: I have no very definite report to make on the nut contest, because it wasn't finished until about two weeks ago and I haven't had time to work on the results. The important part of the report is the result of Mr. Bixby's scientific calculations on the properties of the nuts, and this will be published in the report. The contest this year cannot rank in extent and value with the contest of 1926. One reason for that is that the nut crop last fall seems to have been everywhere very deficient, and in fact many contestants sent in nuts from the year before. The second reason is that we didn't get good advertising. I don't know exactly why we didn't. At first I didn't think we were going to get any nuts at all. But belated notices in the Fruit Grower, and especially in the Farm Journal, finally waked up a lot of contestants. Possibly a third reason why the contest was not as successful as in 1926 was that there were so many kinds of nuts for which prizes were offered. I think that is rather confusing. I think we had better do as in 1926 and offer a prize for a single nut each year, rather than prizes for all the nuts each year. Take one nut one year and another nut the next year, and so on, and then begin over again. At the same time I think we ought to have a standing prize for nuts of each species, that is for any better than those we already have. We have such a prize for the hickory, the Bowditch. At different times other members have offered prizes for other species. I would be glad to offer another standing prize of $25 for some other nut in addition to Mr. Bowditch's for the hickory. Three hundred eighty-eight people sent in nuts. That was many fewer than in 1926. 138 people wrote letters but never sent any nuts. There were 243 different black walnut specimens this year and 1229 in 1926. We had some very valuable black walnuts. Some fully equal to, if not better than, those we already have. Very few came from the South. More came from the northern states. Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan were well represented. We got 94 different specimens of butternuts. Some of these were very good. Most of them were from the North, Vermont and Wisconsin leading. We got 134 specimens of shagbark hickory, 40 shellbarks and 10 others, perhaps hybrids or other species. There was one California black walnut and only 4 beechnuts, very small indeed. Not worthy of propagation at all. There were a few odd nuts. Only 40 chestnuts were sent. I think that was because we did not get our publicity out soon enough. The chestnut crop matures earlier and in many instances the crops were out of the way. Of these chestnuts, 20 were Japanese. When you first tasted them they tasted like potato but later developed a large amount of sweetness. There were 20 American chestnuts. Dr. Zimmerman would call them small because his standards for the American chestnut are larger than my New England ideas. When the chestnuts first came in they were quite green. In a few days they hardened. If I dried them a little and then put them in boxes they began to mold and soon would be a mass of mold. It always seemed to begin at the butt end and would gradually spread over the whole nut and then get inside and spoil it. I washed some in boric acid, others in formaldehyde, and that hardened them. Then I tried packing them in pulverized sugar and in salt. That extracted all the water so that in a few hours you could pour out half a glass of water. I packed them in peat moss and sand and treated them in various ways, and finally packed them in fresh hardwood sawdust. In this they kept in good condition.

Dr. Smith: Did you try sphagnum moss?

Dr. Deming: No. Another writer says an excellent thing is ground limestone.

The President: Did you get any Japanese walnuts?

Dr. Deming: We got only three, of no merit.

Member: The value of the nut tree is going to be determined by its vigor and its bearing qualities. If it doesn't produce any nuts it isn't going to be any good. Mr. Bixby and Dr. Deming have allowed nothing for the bearing qualities.

Dr. Zimmerman: I am wondering whether it might be possible in some way to get these different factors together and judge the nuts from all angles.

Dr. Deming: That, I think, is absolutely necessary. That is, to combine these two scales of judging, the tree characteristics and those of the nuts. Ultimately we have got to allow a large factor for adaptation and productiveness.

Dr. Zimmerman: A nut may crack well at one time and not so well later on. The moisture of the nuts is a factor.

Dr. Deming: I don't agree with Dr. Smith that we should not use the mechanical cracker.

Dr. Smith: We also want the hammer. We must crack them in the most favorable way.

Dr. Deming: I think the hammer is of very little value. I think we should crack them all with a mechanical cracker. If you crack with a mechanical cracker, the two plungers come together by compression, which crushes the ends in and makes the sides burst out, thereby releasing the kernel.

Mr. Hershey: With the mechanical cracker the shells burst away from the kernel.

Mr. Frey: My experience is that the mechanical cracker outclasses the hammer. The walls of the nut shatter outwards and save the kernel, whereas with a hammer you mash the nut. I can't see the value of the contest in 1929 when the scion wood for those nuts can't be secured until 1931. There is too much delay. I think if we would establish a permanent award for a better nut of any variety that is sent in we will make better progress. One nut that I know was put in the contest last year. The tree was cut down before they could even write for the scion wood.

Member: I got a shipment of chestnuts at one time. I took a ten-gallon milk can and put two inches of sawdust in it. I originally had 50 pounds of nuts but sold some of them. I had 8 or 10 pounds left. I sealed them up tight, put the lid on, and a year from the next April I opened the can. The ones on the bottom had started to grow, they had tops of 4 or 5 inches long and they had a network of roots. But on top of those the nuts were in perfect condition. I shipped some of them to Washington. I planted some of them. Perhaps 9 out of 10 were in perfect condition and they grew.

Dr. Smith: I would like to suggest another method of keeping chestnuts. Pack them in sphagnum moss, put them in cold storage and freeze them solid.

Mr. Hershey: Mr. Bixby digs a trench, plants the nuts in it, covers them with leaves and then with an inch or two of soil.

The President: One of the officers of the Bureau of Plant Industry, traveling in Asia, took some seeds and dipped them in paraffin wax. I know it is an excellent method of keeping dahlia roots.

We have another item on our program, "New Members' Experience and Questions." Possibly we have some new members here who have had experiences and would like to tell us of them.

Member: My first experience was with Mr. Snyder at Ames. I saw on the program a nut lecture, so I went. For the past two years I have been attending the short course and heard Mr. Snyder lecture. A year ago this spring I got some scions from Mr. Snyder. Four scions out of 7 grew. It was the first time I had ever done any grafting at all. I used paraffin for grafting.

The President: You got very good results indeed. This year I made a miserable failure. I believe I only got about 12% to grow. I hope you always have the same good luck.

Dr. Smith: If he wants to keep his record he better not do any more grafting.

Dr. Zimmerman: Pretty near everybody this year reports a miserable failure. There must be some reason.

Dr. Smith: It may be the drought.

Prof. Drake: I only got three to grow. We had enough rain in the spring.

Dr. Zimmerman: My opinion is that last winter was hard on wood. There was an early freeze in the central states. My observation is that the wood was injured through the winter. I think any scion wood was not very good.

Prof. Drake: In our part of the country the temperature ran from 24 to 26 below zero.

Mr. Hershey: If you notice in making the graft little pin points of black on the scions, you can almost bet on a failure.

Dr. Zimmerman: Some of the worst looking scions at times grow the best. You put them on and they all grow. Another time you have beautiful scions and they all die.

Mr. Harrington: There is injury you can't see with the naked eye. The wood was unripened when our winter set in. We had a very severe winter in our section here. My practice has been to store my scion wood in November.

Mr. Frey: The cold weather in January wouldn't affect that. I am inclined to think the scion wood injury was done before winter set in.

Member: When is the best time to gather scion wood? Mr. Harrington says in the fall. I have been getting mine in February. Is it better to cut the wood when entirely dormant, or would it grow better if cut when the sap starts in the spring?

Mr. Harrington: I want my scions cut early.

Dr. Smith: How early can you cut them?

Mr. Harrington: When the scars from the leaves have dried up thoroughly. I have known them even in December to be still sappy. They didn't grow well that year. I often cut them the last week in November.

Mr. Hershey: I would advise Dr. Smith not to cut too early in the fall.

Dr. Zimmerman: From my papaws I cut scions in the fall.

The President: From the comments made here this morning I have an opinion that the question certainly needs looking into. We could cut our scions earlier.

Dr. Zimmerman: I wouldn't cut them at that time if I didn't have to.

Mr. Hershey: I think that is a good admission. Another thing, if you paraffin your scions you need cat's paws to hang on to them. Dr. Morris said last year, "Melt your paraffin off with hot water." We tried it, got paraffin all over ourselves and cooked the wood. So then we scraped the paraffin off.

Dr. Deming: Dr. Neilson has said if there are any new members we would like to hear from them. If there are no new members there should be some. Our secretary sits at the table, ready and anxious to receive the dues and names of new members. I have always felt that we never treat new members with sufficient deference. I think we should ask them to talk about their experiences, to tell us what they have done, to tell us what they would like to do, to ask us questions, and that we should make them feel more at home.

The President: That is very much to the point.

Dr. Deming: Why isn't the chestnut more appreciated in this country? Why aren't the farmers acquainted with the possibilities of growing chestnuts here in the middle west? Yesterday Dr. Zimmerman and I were at Mr. Harrington's and there we saw chestnut trees that would make your heart warm to look at. Why can't the people of the middle west, where the chestnut is not native, be awakened to the great possibilities of growing the chestnut commercially? It is easy to grow. It bears early, and abundantly. What can we do to make it better known? I would like to ask Dr. Zimmerman.

Dr. Zimmerman: Chestnut growers say "We can't keep them." Several years ago I got a hundred pounds of chestnuts down in Illinois. I sold them out to friends of mine. In a few weeks those chestnuts were dry enough to use for roller bearings. That is the reason they don't like the chestnut. I think that hurts the chestnut business more than anything else.

Mr. Hershey: I would like to ask why insist on introducing the chestnut when we have the black walnut? I would just as soon eat bran as a chestnut. Now the black walnut you can keep for two years.

Dr. Zimmerman: In the last few years I have been in intimate contact with chestnuts. I don't see why the people here don't take them up. If you don't do it the people on the west coast are going to plant chestnuts and ship them to the eastern market. You people can raise chestnuts. The eastern markets are full of chestnuts from Europe. What we need is chestnuts like the Riehl's. The large European chestnuts are of poor flavor. Take the varieties you can grow around here and send them to the East and you will get 50 cents a pound for them. Authorities tell us the trees will die off. I tell you you will all die off after a while. You aren't going to quit working because you are going to die off. Within three years you will have trees that will bear. You may get from twelve to fifteen crops off of them before they die. So far as the food quality of the chestnut is concerned it is not a balanced diet, mostly sugar, but it is a splendid food. The difficulty is in keeping it soft. But it is not a difficult thing. Cold storage will keep the chestnut in splendid shape for eating purposes. I would plant chestnuts and plant them now. Sooner or later, if they die off, we in the East will be prepared to replace them, but for the present you will have the whole field east of the Rocky Mountains. I do not know of another opportunity as great as the chestnut. I just wish I could take 20 acres of this land with me back to my rocky Pennsylvania farm.

Dr. Colby: In Illinois the chestnut is not native and people don't realize that it can be grown. Some of the speakers have mentioned the Riehls. I want to mention the Endicott place. Mr. Endicott tells me that it is increasingly difficult to supply the demand for his chestnuts. He sells his nuts sometimes a year in advance. Developing of cleaning machinery and sorting machinery is going on apace. Mr. Endicott is interested in a sorting machine such as we use for apples. It is true we are going to get the blight out here sooner or later. Meantime we are going to try to anticipate it by securing hybrids which are resistant and of good quality at the same time.

Mr. Snyder: I would like to say a word as to planting chestnuts here in Iowa, and especially here north. What has been said is true of the southern part of the state. We may grow varieties there that it would not do to plant in the northern part of the state. I think I can show you tomorrow if you visit my place that I have had considerable experience in planting chestnuts just as an experiment. The first planting mostly has gone out because of our climatic conditions. We have severe winters. We must be careful what varieties we plant and what stocks they are worked on when we do plant them. A few years ago a nurseryman wrote me he would like to go out of business and he had chestnut seedlings for sale. I bought his seedlings. I lost them all the next winter. Why? Because of their mixed parentage, European and Japanese. They were not hardy, that was all there was to it. If the nurserymen here and farther north will be careful in the selection of the varieties they use, we can grow them. There are two factors, the stocks you graft on and the varieties you want to grow.

Mr. Frey: In my old home place there are native chestnuts over 60 years old.

Mr. Snyder: If we had time I could take you to visit a grove of chestnut trees, planted by one of the oldtimers, possibly seventy years ago. I haven't been able to learn where the seed came from, evidently from some northeastern country. That is where I get my seeds. Any trees that I have grown from seedlings are dependable trees.

Mr. Herrick: One point should be carried in mind. While we think of Des Moines as located in central Iowa, as far as temperature is concerned it is really southern Iowa. The weather at Ames, which is 30 miles north of Des Moines, is far more severe. At Des Moines we can raise Grimes Golden apples. At Ames it is almost impossible. I think that the reason more people are not planting more of these good varieties of walnuts and other species is that they cannot get the trees. And then they are very high priced. Mr. Snyder says that it takes a long time to propagate these trees. People don't like to pay $5.00 or $6.00 for a tree and then maybe not have it grow. As I understand, Mr. Snyder is about the only nurseryman in the state that furnishes nut trees, I mean new varieties.

Mr. Boyce: Would it be a good plan to plant black walnuts and grow the seedlings right where you want your orchard?

Mr. Snyder: I think that is a very good plan.

Dr. Colby: An excellent way if you can get a man to do the grafting.

Mr. Boyce: What would be a reasonable price for grafting?

Dr. Colby: Mr. Wilkinson has done considerable of that kind of work.

Prof. Drake: I have been more successful in budding.

Mr. Hershey: We can't in Pennsylvania. In the winter the buds kill off.

The President: Mr. Hershey's experience is like mine, about $7.00 a graft. I will say that if I give grafting demonstrations, as I have in Michigan, I always tell my audience a little story. Once upon a time there was a wild west show. An old Indian chief on the outside proclaimed the merits of the show. He always finished by saying, "And now, ladies and gentlemen, if you go into this show I positively will not give you your money back." I generally tell my audience I positively will not guarantee anything. If none of the scions grow they can't come back and say, "I told you so."

Dr. Deming: I would like to have our president talk about methods of making the transplanting of nursery grafted trees safer for the purchaser. Dr. Neilson has had a good deal of experience in setting out nursery stock.

The President: Quite naturally in the progress of time we gain some knowledge by experience. Sometimes that experience is very costly. We remember it more clearly. During the past year I made a few observations on transplanting nut trees. Some of you who were at Ontario in 1928 and New York last year, heard me speak of doing it by means of paraffin coating which has been successful in quite a wide area of this country and in Canada. The difficulty was that during very hot weather the wax melted and ran down and did some injury on the south side of the tree. I did notice that if you inclined the tree to the southwest just a little there was very little injury, whereas if they leaned to the northeast there was injury. I would suggest this, that if you are planting on southern slopes and happen to be in localities where there are very high temperatures, you use 1-3 beeswax and 2-3 paraffin. Beeswax has been proven to be quite safe over wounds and trees in general. This treatment has been used over a very wide area, in 18 states and 5 Canadian Provinces. We have information at hand on 130,000 roses, 15,000 pecans, 2,000 apples. We have had very few complaints from the people who have used this treatment. Because of that, I firmly believe that the principle of applying a protective coating to the upper part of the tree and branches is correct. I have made another observation in protecting roots against devitalizing. Certain kinds of trees, hickory, walnut, are very susceptible to injury to the roots. I tried paraffin on the cut roots and got very good healing. I found that wherever I packed moist peat around the roots there was very good response. Last spring I took about 100 seedling black walnuts and put half in good loamy soil, the other half in moist peat. I got very good results from those packed in peat. In the loam in 7 weeks not one scion had grown. I took those pots and took out the dirt. I later planted them in a cold frame in peat and practically every one of those walnut trees grew. I believe that the peat had some beneficial effect.

Mr. Frey: From the time the nut tree is dug until it is planted the nursery should pack it so it will keep moist. The purchaser should not let the wind or sun strike it. I had some trees sent from Texas to Oklahoma. The fellow who did the work heeled them in improperly. Every tree died. Keeping the roots moist is half the problem.

The President: Very important indeed. Mr. Gellatly shipped heartnut trees to Augusta. These trees were packed in moss and paraffined. They arrived in excellent condition. The trip took six weeks and they travelled 3,000 miles.

Dr. Smith: What season?

The President: About the first of April, and arrived about the middle of May.

Dr. Deming: Could you make an artificial ball in which the roots of a plant could be packed? Say peat moss, which is light, and send that to the customer and tell him to plant it just as it is.

The President: I think possibly that can be done. The Wedge Nursery of Albert Lea, Minnesota, have a method of packing roses in sphagnum moss. They soak this material very thoroughly, embed the roots in it, and outside this material they apply some water-proof covering.