The Northern Nut Growers Association visited Echo Valley, Islington,
Ontario, September 5th on the field trip following their annual
convention at Guelph. Some 15 species of nuts and nearly 400 varieties
are growing there. The filberts drew a lot of attention, as the most of
them were seedlings and quite large, some larger than the largest Oregon
varieties. The seeds planted were: Italian Red. Du Chilly, Giant de
Halle, Brixnut, Bollwyller, Cosford, Daviana, and Jones No. 1 Hybrid.
The policy followed has been not to discard a plant because it bears
small nuts or no nuts at all, because such trees may bear hardy catkins
that live through the winter. The female blossoms of filberts are very
hardy but many male blossoms may be killed during cold winters.
Years ago the Dominion Department of Agriculture declared that filberts,
chestnuts and Persian (English) walnuts could not be grown north of Lake
Ontario. I would grant that they grow better south of the lake.
However, the filbert crop this fall south of the lake was very poor and
scanty, whereas mine was large and in fact the largest I ever had. My
Winkler and Rush hazelnuts are crowded on the branches. And the same
with the English walnuts. My crop on the larger trees could not be
better. The Thomas black walnut, as well as other black walnuts, Jap
heartnuts, hybrid butternut x Japanese heartnut cross, chestnuts and
hickories are very large.
Hicans and northern pecans do not develop north of Lake Ontario. Down in
the very southwest corner of Ontario, north of Lake Erie, some small
pecans have cropped well on trees. As a curiosity pecan trees are quite
hardy here, but we lack length of season to mature the nuts properly. No
Weiker hickory hybrid crops and ripens well here. This nut is one of the
very few crosses between shellbark and shagbark hickories, (=Carya
laciniosa=) western and (=Carya ovata=) eastern, hickories.
I have some crosses between the Chinese and Japanese chestnuts that I am
watching. I have one European x American cross chestnut, the Gibbons,
and one native (=Castanea dentata=) that have escaped the blight. So far
this year I have found only one blighted chestnut limb and I promptly
cut it off and tarred the cut well.
At least I have persimmons hardy enough to stand the winters north of
Lake Ontario, but I am not sure about the pawpaw. This fruit seems to
require shade from the winter's sun.
Many but not all of the Crath importations of Persian walnuts from the
Carpathians are hardy and much more so than the Pomeroy varieties. Even
the Broadview is not hardy as many of the Crath varieties. Rev. Crath
did an immense service to us by his importations which far exceeded our
highest expectations. I have here nearly half a hundred varieties of
=Juglans regia= that are doing well, especially the three Rumanian giants
that ripen so well here.
List of Some of the Larger and More Important Trees at Echo Valley,
Islington, Ontario
=Black Walnut=
Stambaugh 1926--1st prize.
Thomas from J. F. Jones, late ripener.
Troup, cracks out whole in spring.
Hepler, from Miss Riehl, a long nut.
Elmer Myers, excellent flavor, the thinest shell.
Snyder, medium size, large kernel.
Tasterite, a small nut, origin New York State.
Clark, origin Iowa, very large nut.
Gifford, bears very heavy crop every second year, ripens before
Thomas.
=Persian (English) Walnut=
David Fairchild, seedling Rumanian giant.
Senator Pepper, seedling Rumanian giant.
Paul de Kruif, seedling Rumanian giant.
Chinese, very hardy, medium size.
Broadview, from British Columbia but originally from Russia.
=Hickory=
Neilson, a true shagbark, nut large flat and very thin shell, flavor
is wonderful. A big tree on highway 24 not far south of where
Alexander Graham Bell perfected the telephone.
Hagen, a true shagbark, a fast grower.
Hand, a shagbark.
Weiker, a shellbark and shagbark cross, a large, heavy bearing nut
that ripens here north of Lake Ontario. Excellent flavor, grafted
on pecan.
Papple, a small good shagbark, cracks out whole.
Anthony No. 1 shagbark.
Glover, from Miss Riehl.
=Heartnut=
Wright, a good bearer and excellent cracker.
Stranger, very heavy bearer, excellent cracker.
Gellatly.
=Filbert=
Italian Red, medium long with wide base.
Bollwyller, large round.
Du Chilly, long smooth.
Many seedlings of named varieties.
=Chestnut=
Gibbons, Miss Riehl, hybrid European American.
Chinese, test not completed.
=Jap Butternut=
Helmick, from Miss Riehl, 14 cluster, regular bearer, very thin shell,
grafted on black walnut.
Report from Beamsville, Ontario
LEVI HOUSSER
About twenty years ago I started to plant nut trees, as I decided nuts
were the solution to good health, which I later found was correct. Most
of my first trees died. I started gathering nuts all over the country
until at last, near my own home, I found a neighbor who had ten trees
and two out of the ten were bearing large size nuts of an excellent
flavor. I also added filberts to my collection.
About this time I learned of Prof. Neilson, so I went to see him in
Guelph. He told me about the Northern Nut Growers Association. I also
learned about Mr. Corsan and his work at Islington so I went to see him.
He also told me about the Association so I went to the next meeting and
joined up. I began to add more varieties to my plantings. My first four
acre planting was seeded with oats the second year. All my tress had a
nice start. I spent some three hundred dollars that year for grafted nut
trees. That second fall I hired a man to watch and stand by each tree as
the binder passed. It was impossible for me to be there. The man who cut
the oats in his own stubborn way went alone and cut everything as he
went, trees and all. My heart was nearly broken! I started again. I
bought nuts of good varieties from all over. I decided to make a little
nursery this time then plant out after the trees got bigger. Just as I
got this started nicely the war came. I also had a fruit farm where I
now live besides also planting some grafted stock here. My nursery,
seventy-eight miles away on my fifty acres, I had to leave as gas was
rationed and I was forced to sell, so remaining there are about one
hundred trees which I shall watch. My best trees died but I kept going
on planting every year. Today, after all the calamities I had, I have
around two hundred trees living.
This year I expect two bushels of heartnuts; about two bushels of
filberts; some extra nice ones that ripened early, large and well
filled; about two bushels of black walnuts, some very promising. Besides
these I have about fifty trees of the Carpathian walnuts from which I
have gathered about two quarts of nuts. My oldest tree is ten years old.
One I grafted on black walnut stock and it is a very large nut. I
gathered five nuts from this. The graft is now five years old. Hundreds
of nuts started; nearly all dropped off. Possibly as the tree gets older
it will do better as I have planted several other nut trees not far away
to help with cross pollination.
I have some good sized butternuts and I gathered about 17 quarts of
these so I expect to have enough nuts to supply my daily needs from now
on from my own plantings. After twenty years of hard work and with an
outlay of at least $1,000, my trees, as they grow up around me, are like
children to me. They supply me with food. My nervousness was cured by
them and my health has returned.
My worst enemy here with filberts is they start to grow too early, then
a frost comes and they are done after a week or two of nice weather.
Even though we have this trouble we gathered nearly two bushels from 25
trees which are eight years old.
Our lowest temperature here was 20 below zero a few years ago. My
Carpathians did not seem to mind that nor did the heartnuts. From now on
I am planning my own little nursery and do my own grafting as well. I
top work my young trees that show poor nuts.
Nut Growing in New Hampshire
L. P. LATIMER, Assistant Horticulturist, University of New Hampshire,
Durham, New Hampshire
At the present time there are no nuts grown commercially in New
Hampshire. Those gathered by the residents of this state for home use or
local consumption are comprised almost entirely of butternuts from wild
seedling trees and nuts of the native hickory. The butternut is the most
highly prized among our native nuts. It grows wild over a large portion
of the state. The hickory nuts take second place, probably because of
their smaller size and the greater difficulty involved in removing the
meat from the shells. Black walnuts are occasionally found but do not
seem generally as popular.
Dr. A. F. Yeager of the Horticultural Department of the University of
New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, has several times called for
specimens of superior butternuts grown in the state. These have been
tested for their cracking ability, and size of kernel and ease of
removal from the shell in halves or as whole meats. Several very fine
specimens have been collected, but progress in the development of these
better types has been impeded by the difficulty involved in trying to
propagate them vegetatively. The New Hampshire Horticultural Department
would gladly welcome any information concerning the propagation of the
butternut that would make grafting or budding successful.
The best possibility in developing commercial nut crops in New
Hampshire apparently lies first in the use of the hazel or filbert.
Although the European filbert has not been very successful, such
varieties of the American hazel as Winkler and Rush look promising. The
Winkler has borne heavy crops but in a short summer season the nuts do
not always mature fully in the fall. Although we have had much less
experience with the Rush variety, this does mature earlier in the fall
and seems promising. Some of the Jones hybrids have been tested at the
Experiment Station in Durham, a few of which have done quite well. Of
these Jones hybrids No. 1181, 1154, and 1094 have made quite vigorous
growth. Seedling No. 1094 has been outstanding, producing good sized
nuts which mature well and shell out easily from the husks. In type and
flavor of nut it resembles the European hazel quite strongly under our
conditions.
So far, none of the chestnuts, including the Chinese species, have shown
great enough resistance to chestnut blight to warrant their
recommendation. We still hope that we may discover a good chestnut for
this section. The hardy Persian or English walnuts have not been tested
long enough to warrant any conclusion as to their promise for New
Hampshire; one difficulty will probably lie in the fact that the nuts of
some do not ripen properly under our cool, short summer conditions.
Mr. Matthew Lahti of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, has been experimenting
with various species and varieties of nuts for that section. His
location on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee undoubtedly presents a more
favorable site for growing certain types of nut plants than exists here
in Durham, or most other parts of New Hampshire. At the present moment I
have on my desk a parcel received from Mr. Lahti containing some fine
specimens of one of the hardy Persian walnuts which he is growing in
Wolfeboro. The unusually warm and dry late summer and fall of this year
have favored the maturity of this walnut. (For a detailed description of
Mr. Lahti's experience with nut varieties, please refer to his paper
printed below.)
Nut Notes from New Hampshire
MATTHEW LAHTI
Not being able to attend the annual convention I thought possibly some
of the members might be interested in the following random notes of an
amateur nut grower.
My place is in Wolfeboro, N. H., which is situated in the eastern end of
Lake Winnepesaukee, 43 degrees, 35 minutes north latitude; elevation
above sea level, 687'. The elevation of the lake is 504'. Wolfeboro is
just about at the northern fringe of the climate where peaches will
ripen, that is during favorable years in favored locations. Improved
varieties of field corn will ripen during favorable seasons. It also
happens to be the northern fringe of the American chestnut, in favored
location. I have discovered a number of saplings that are still alive.
As a matter of fact, three or four years ago I was fortunate in finding
some ripened nuts, but the trees that bore those nuts have since died of
the blight. While a certain variety of old fashioned sweet cherry will
live and bear fruit, some of the recent improved varieties will not
live. Every one that I have planted was winter-killed. The Montmorency
cherry, however, does well. It is also the northern limit of the pignut.
Butternuts do very well.
DDT Dust versus Butternut Curculio
I was prompted to write this note by reading Mr. S. H. Graham's article
entitled "An Experiment with DDT" appearing on page 101 of the 1945
annual report, in which he states that the butternut curculio did not
survive DDT powder.
In the past four or five years the butternut curculio (identified as
such by Prof. Conklin of the University of N. H.) has all but ruined my
Crath Persian walnuts and heartnuts, so, acting on the basis of Mr.
Graham's experiment, I had my trees dusted early in the morning when the
dew was on the leaves, using a 10% DDT powder, the first time about May
30 and again two weeks later, and I am happy to say that this dusting
has been very effective. I have been unable to find any sign of curculio
injury this year, although I have seen it nearby on some native
butternut trees.
My Gellatly heartnut was riddled by the curculio last year. This year,
when the dusting was done, this tree was overlooked, so I undertook to
dust it myself, and not realizing that the Niagara duster which I used
was set in the closed position, I dusted the tree with considerable
effort. In spite of the small amount of dust that came out, it proved
sufficient to keep the curculios away or else to kill them so that there
is no sign of any damage at this writing.
Persian Walnuts
In the spring of 1938 I planted a number of Crath Persian walnut
seedlings. Out of possibly eight or ten, only two survive. (I gave each
one about three years, and if it showed serious winter injury, I pulled
it up.) I was pleasantly surprised the other day to discover that one of
them has borne a single nut this year. This particular tree is at least
300' from any other Persian walnut, so it looks as if it were
self-fertile. It now remains to be seen whether or not the nut will
ripen.
In the spring of 1940, I planted a Broadview Persian walnut graft on
black walnut stock, and this tree is bearing for the first time with
eighteen nuts showing. Three or four years ago this Broadview suffered
some winter damage by a split trunk and split lower branch. I painted
over the cracks with gasket cement, and they are now healed. The
Broadview has also shown some winter-kill of terminal twigs, but not
enough to affect its bearing this year. There has been no splitting of
the trunks or branches of the two surviving Crath Persian walnut trees
and no winter injury to terminal twigs. The Crath walnut trees are now
18" in circumference a foot from the ground and about 12 to 15' tall.
The Broadview on the black walnut stock has a circumference of 16" above
the graft and 15-1/4" below the graft, tending to show that the
Broadview grows faster than the black walnut.
It is interesting to note that the Broadview blooms a week or ten days
later than the Crath Persian walnut, and at the same time as the native
butternut.
Black Walnuts
I have planted a few Thomas black walnut seedlings, two grafts, and a
Tasterite black walnut graft. A Thomas black walnut graft has borne nuts
in three different years, including this year. The graft was sent out in
the spring of 1939, and the seedlings were set out in the spring of
1940. The seedlings have not yet borne. The Thomas black walnut graft
last bore three years ago, when the nuts on the whole ripened and were
well filled. We had a very cold spring in 1945, so much so that apples
were almost a total failure.
I also planted a Tasterite black walnut in the spring of 1939, and this
is the first year that it has borne any nuts. It remains to be seen
whether they will be filled out or not. There is, however, an important
difference between the Thomas and the Tasterite, which are growing only
50' apart, namely that the Thomas suffers from winter injury to the
terminal twigs each year, whereas there has not been any sign of such
injury to the Tasterite.
Hickories
I have planted possibly two dozen of a number of varieties of hickories,
of which only nine survive to date, the cause being not winter injury
but what appears to me to have been improper circulation through the
graft union. They would struggle along for three or four years
(producing suckers from the root stock which I broke off), and then die.
None of these has borne any nuts yet except the Weschcke, which was
planted in the fall of 1941, and which is now bearing one nut. This nut
is a mystery to me because the tree bore no catkins. There are no
hickory trees within thirty miles of the vicinity to my knowledge, and
the nearest pignut tree is perhaps three-quarters of a mile distant, in
a direction against the prevailing winds, the intervening space being
forest. Could it be possible that the Weschcke hickory was pollinated by
a butternut or the Broadview Persian walnut? A big butternut tree stands
within 60' and the Broadview is situated about 150' distant.
Heartnuts
I have tried a number of heartnuts, including the Gellatly and the
Wright. Only a single Gellatly survives. Here again the cause was not
winter injury so much as either the butternut curculio or other causes.
The Gellatly, while suffering some terminal twig winter injury and deer
damage by rubbing of horns, has borne and ripened nuts.
Filberts and Hazelnuts
I planted a number of Winkler hazels in the fall of 1940, and this is
the second year of bearing. The nuts hardly have time to ripen in our
climate and a good many of the catkins get winter-killed.
In the spring of 1939 I planted a number of filbert seeds received from
Mr. Slate such as No. 128 Rush Barcelona; Medium Long; and Red Lambert.
These are bearing for the first time this year, and judging from the
size of the nuts now, it looks as if they will mature. Many of the
catkins were winter-killed.
Bixby and Buchanan planted in the spring of 1939: While the plants did
very well, most of the catkins invariably were winter-killed, so I was
obliged to pull them up.
I have a feeling that filberts would do better here if it were not for
the very cold winds that blow off the lake in winter, killing most of
the catkins.
I discovered a wild hazel in Lexington, Mass., (which town is located in
a so-called cold air pocket) the nuts of which are almost equal to the
Winkler. I have transplanted some of these to Wolfeboro and shall know
more about them later. I also discovered some wild hazels in
northeastern Maine, between Lincoln and Vanceboro on the border of New
Brunswick, Canada, which two weeks ago had good sized, well filled nuts
on them. I have also transplanted some of these to Wolfeboro.
In closing I should like to thank all officers, committee members, and
others who are responsible for the annual report. To those of us who do
not get to the conventions very often, the report is the Northern Nut
Growers Association, and a source of very valuable and interesting
information, especially to an amateur like myself.
A Simplified Schedule for Judging Black Walnut Varieties
L. H. MacDANIELS and S. S. ATWOOD, Cornell University
All its members would agree that the Northern Nut Growers Association
should have an officially accepted schedule for judging black walnuts
and the other kinds of nuts with which it is concerned. Some yardstick
is needed to serve as a basis for the comparison of varieties which the
members of the Association will use. Persons familiar with nut varieties
are freqeuntly asked to answer questions about the best varieties to
plant. Of course there is no simple answer to such a question as many
factors besides the nuts themselves determine the value of a variety.
The quality and value of the nuts are, however, the most important
initial consideration in selecting a variety on its merit and there
should be some objective test adopted to aid in evaluating nut samples.
During the many years that the Northern Nut Growers Association has been
operating more than a hundred and fifty varieties of black walnuts have
been named. Yet at the present time we are not certain which are the
better varieties except in a very general way. There is no widely
accepted judging schedule being used as is evident in the tables
published by Seward Berhow in his paper in the 1945 Proceedings (2). In
these tables scores are given but these come from several sources and
are not comparable and hence are of little value in making comparisons.
There have been many schedules for judging black walnuts presented in
the past. One of the first was proposed by the late Willard G. Bixby (3,
4). This was complicated and never came into general use although the
testing done by Mr. Bixby was a valuable contribution to our knowledge
of varieties. The late N. F. Drake tested many varieties through the
years according to a schedule of his own devising (5, 6). Professor
Drake's schedule was related to his concept of a perfect walnut and the
various values were related to this on a percentage basis. This schedule
never had wider acceptance, chiefly because it was too complicated and
required too much figuring.
Mr. C. A. Reed has probably tested more varieties of nuts and is more
familiar with varieties than any other person but he does not have a
definite scoring schedule. Kline and Chase (7) summarized results of the
testing work that had been done and Kline (8) compared varieties
according to a system which he devised in which they were rated in terms
of return per hour of labor spent in cracking and extracting the
kernels. Mr. C. C. Lounsberry has proposed a method of scoring which was
related to kernel cavity measurement (9).
In 1935, a Committee on Varieties and Standards endeavored to formulate
a working schedule that would be adopted as official. This committee set
up a score that represented the best thinking of the group at that time
(1). Twenty-five nut samples were used. The score was the sum of the
weight of an individual nut in grams plus twice the per cent kernel of
the weight of the nuts recovered in the first crack plus the total
percentage of kernel plus 1/10 of a point for each quarter kernel
recovered. Penalties were proposed for shrunken kernels and empty nuts.
Through the years a large number of samples have been tested according
to this scoring schedule (11). In 1943, MacDaniels and Wilde (12)
summarized the previous work done, added many tests and evaluated the
scoring system. This was not considered to be altogether satisfactory.
In the first place, it was somewhat cumbersome and had never been
adopted by the Association nor had it been used much by others. The
figuring of percentages and penalties made a score too involved for wide
aceptance. A very serious difficulty was the problem of shrunken kernels
and empty nuts. Obviously, with a score related to the weight of the
sample before cracking, the inclusion of a number of empty nuts made it
impossible to make any accurate correction in the percentages that were
used in the score. Penalties did not solve the problem. Also the initial
weight of the sample varied with the amount of husk clinging to the
shells. From this work it was evident that an acceptable score would
have to be formulated on some other basis.
The next approach was to analyze data of this type statistically in an
attempt to devise a better scoring system (1). The results from such a
study proved valuable in answering such questions as 1) the size of
sample necessary to obtain significant differences between samples; 2)
the significance of small differences in measurements or in scores and
3) the amount of variation that is normal and without significance in
comparing varieties.
The following qualifications were considered essential to a workable
schedule:
1) The schedule must be easy to use.