miles south of the Twin Cities and it is here that a few acres have been
roped off as a testing site for whatever trees of interest we can
persuade to grow. My job is with field crops and livestock but my golf,
fishing, hunting and bridge are mostly played with a spade and pruning
shears or wandering around in the brush somewhere looking for something
new. Our soil is a heavy clay loam of Clarion type containing plenty of
lime but often poorly drained. It is very rich and productive being at
one time part of Minnesota's big woods. Native trees are basswood, oak,
elm, ash, walnut and their associates.
My ignorance concerning trees is still profound and becomes more
apparent as acquaintance matures, but it has been a lot of fun to start
about 130 varieties of trees and shrubs and watch their development. The
Latin names are mostly a mystery to me, but their habits, methods and
rate of growth along with soil preferences and winter survival have
furnished more entertainment for me than picking shot out of a dead bird
or furrowing the turf on a putting green. It has been a real thrill to
see cypress, sycamore and even a few yellow poplars, survive our rugged
winters.
The project began with an attempt to collect native trees and expanded
to make room for some exotics, just to see what would happen to them.
Detours and by-paths included attempts to grow various conifers from
seed and persuade cuttings to root. Somewhere along the line nut trees
began to enter the picture and now these have an alcove all to
themselves. Perhaps it started when a neighbor offered me $5.00 if I
could tell whether a young sprout in his yard was butternut or walnut.
He died before I found the answer which was probably common knowledge to
most people. The color of the pith did not seem reliable, but at last a
book pointed out the little moustache a butternut wears just above each
leaf scar. It worked, and the thrill was equal to catching a 10 pound
wall eye!
I was raised on the prairie part of southwestern Minnesota and it was a
delightful surprise when I moved 140 miles east to find that one could
gather almost any desired quantity of black walnuts from remnants of the
old forest. After a few years these trips to the woods became less
glamourous and the pickeruppers more critical. Many of the wild nuts
were small and hard to crack. Perhaps a friend's Thomas tree in full
bearing with its heavy crop of huge, tasty nuts inspired a wish to grow
bigger and better producing trees near at home.
It looked easy to transplant vigorous, 6 foot black walnut whips which
could be had for the digging. It took 10 years to learn that nuts
properly planted would make larger trees in a decade than transplants.
Digging 2 deep holes to move one tree seemed a waste of labor when one
planted nut would better serve the purpose. Of course nut planting led
to a contest of wits with the squirrels.
It was a funny sight to watch a helper carefully placing nuts at regular
intervals in an open furrow and a big fox squirrel following 10 feet
behind him, removing the prizes as fast as he could scamper up and down
a nearby hollow oak. Our ideas concerning appropriate locations for
walnut trees did not coincide with those of Mr. Bushytail. We learned
that the simple way to plant walnuts in the woods was to pile a half a
bushel here and there. The tree climbers took their toll, but did a good
job of planting. Survival seemed better than when we placed individual
nuts and "stepped them in."
The desire for bigger, better and more useful nuts led to the planting
of a couple of acres to seed from various trees of known value. These
will not come true of course but it is hoped that some day they may
serve as material for a small nut breeding project in which an attempt
will be made to combine some of the more desirable chromosomes into a
single tree that retains the best of what we have in present selections,
and adds a little more hardiness between growing seasons. Who can tell?
We might find a tree that the walnut worms didn't like!
The squirrels didn't fancy our plans to grow trees in rows according to
parentage, so they tried to improve our technique. We almost called in
the F. B. I. to circumvent their machinations. Jamming an open tin can
over the planted nut seemed to help. When the sprout came up we turned
up the edges of the split can bottom just enough to let the tree
through, but the sharp jagged edges seemed to discourage marauders. A
lot of other methods were also tried.
From the Wisconsin Horticultural Society we obtained a pound of English
or Persian walnuts in 1937. So far we have some 23 seedlings struggling
to keep alive. They range in height from 18 inches to 7 feet and are
definitely out of their range. Some years they grow 4 feet of new wood
and some winters it all kills back. There seem to be differences in
hardiness and--who can tell?--they might even bear a nut some day. Bark
injury, which may be winter sun scald, has damaged some of the trees.
One tree of the Broadview selection is alive after four years and may
make a go of it.
Hickories grow wild in certain parts of Minnesota, but this doesn't
happen to be one of those parts. They seem to do best where soil is acid
in reaction and here we are amply supplied with lime. That may account
for the slow growth of a grafted Hales hickory tree. It was 3 years old
when set out in 1921. For the first 9 years it had just 2 leaves per
year. Now approaching 30, the tree is 7 to 8 feet high and going up at
the rate of 8 to 12 inches a year.
Nuts from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota wild hickories, have done
better. At 8 years the trees are from 1 to 2 feet high, with a couple of
Shakespeares, (geniuses) towering a foot above them. This may not be
hickory country, but, by gum, they're growing! A couple of years ago,
Dr. Brierley from the Central Station, Division of Horticulture, who has
nut propagation as one of his minor projects, gave us 7 seedlings of
shellbark hickory, (Carya laciniosa), from a tree planted many years ago
by Peter Gideon of Wealthy apple fame. After 2 winters, these 7
seedlings are still with us and seem to grow faster than the shagbarks
(ovata).
Other attempts to vary our diet (if we live long enough) are a few
Chinese chestnut seedlings. A couple secured from the Nut Tree
Nurseries, Downington, Pa., in 1940 are now 3 and 4 feet high and
apparently in a good state of health. They are leisurely growing, which
may be a good thing. Trees like the Manchurian walnut which grow 6 to 8
feet of new wood in a year, seem to freeze back and start over more
frequently than the trees which poke along but harden their wood before
cold weather. In 1946, a few more seedlings from D. C. Snyder, Center
Point, Iowa, were set out and most of them have survived the first
winter. Carl Weschcke reports that chestnuts do best for him at River
Falls, Wisconsin, in sandy soil with an acid reaction. If I ever raise a
chestnut, I'd like to send him one.
Fooling with nuts has led to another activity which has been pleasant
though not very practical so far. Each spring, Dr. Brierley spends a
couple of days with me trying to graft some of the named varieties to
our available wild trees. We have raised nuts on some of the hickory
scions grafted to the plentiful native bitternuts, but in general our
grafts have failed. We have had good advice from many sources and have
tried most everything but our successes have not been numerous enough to
cause any inflation of the ego. We're inclined to think that the sudden
wide variations of temperature which are common here in May, can be the
controlling factor. We've made a few walnuts, hickories, and hicans
grow, but still have too many zeroes for any complacency. This year may
be our bonanza. Most of the grafts on some 40 trees are shooting buds.
Perhaps it's the grafting tape we tried this spring. In 1948 we'll be
able to write it all down in the book--and try again.
Nuts are not the only food crops growing on trees. We have read the
glowing reports of sweet pods of honey locust grown on such varieties as
Millwood and Calhoun, as told by John Hershey and J. Russell Smith. Our
Millwoods all killed the second winter and this year we're trying
Calhoun. Meanwhile, we're hunting for a hardy, northern grown sweet
tree. Miss Jones asked nut growers to tell me what they had and several
interesting replies and samples were received. The quality of the pods
varied all the way from the sweet Millwood to our native honey locusts,
most of which are so bitter and astringent that they remind us of a
combination of green persimmons and red pepper. No sensible animal will
touch them. Cions were received from a tree in Omaha, Nebraska, through
the courtesy of F. J. Adams. These were grafted on local trees this
spring and perhaps they will answer all of our needs.
Our attempts to grow better nuts in southern Minnesota have not caused
even a ripple in the local economic situation, but it has been a lot of
fun. Perhaps the greatest return so far is the interesting
correspondence with like minded people in many localities. Amos Workman
of Hurricane, Utah, sent seed of his best black and Persian walnuts,
pecans and figs. The figs didn't even start (probably my ignorance), but
we have trees coming from all the rest. J. Russell Smith has been most
helpful with suggestions and the "Minnesota Horse Thief" as he calls me,
has enjoyed his letters immensely. John Hershey has passed along some of
his enthusiasm for trees and many others have contributed to the
pleasure of a fascinating hobby.
It's fun to grow trees even though some of the unusual things provide
only exercise and entertainment. Our persimmons grew from seed, were
transplanted and came through the first winter! One pawpaw is still
trying to get ahead of the winter set-backs, and a Macedonian white pine
(said to produce edible nuts) is doing fine. Perhaps I'm the biggest nut
of all, but I'm happy about it!
Report on Nut Trees at Massillon
RAYMOND E. SILVIS, Massillon, Ohio
I will first give an account of plantings observed recently in or near
Massillon, and, secondly, a condensation of my own introduction to nut
growing.
Louis Bromfield in his richly descriptive book "The Farm" writes, "On
the way one passed the big orchard which was Jamie's pride, and beyond
one came to the field where the big hickory stood. It was a memorable
tree, famous in the countryside for bearing enormous nuts with shells so
soft that the faintest tap of a rock or a hammer would lay open the
bisque-colored kernels." He also writes a reference to the ingredients
of candy making at Christmas time in which a good many recipes called
for hickory nuts and walnuts.
In Massillon Mr. Alvin Schott, when he drove by the farm of Mr. Lester
Hawk and read his sign, "Chinese Chestnut Trees for Sale," thought of
the chestnuts he used to eat. Since he, like the rest of us, cannot go
out along the road in the fall and pick up chestnuts as of old, he
declared to plant some nut trees on city park land so that the younger
generation could in a small measure recapture that which now is only a
memory.
After making numerous talks and speeches to all the lodges, civic clubs
and P. T. A.'s, he received donations and publicity to help him in his
project. He enlisted the help of other civic nut-minded personnel to
help him select the trees and locations for planting. Boy Scouts and
school children dug some of the holes. When it rained (it seems to rain
every time a shipment came in) Mr. Schott would call us away from our
work and have us dig holes. We have planted in city parks: 13 Hawk
chestnuts, 10 Thomas black walnuts, 8 hazel, 4 mulberries, 2 Broadview
Persians, 2 Josephine persimmons, 3 pecan seedlings, 1 hican, 9 large
seedling black walnuts and several hickories.
We have additional money for another spring planting. Thus Massillon has
joined the list of cities that own trees that will produce something
else besides leaves.
On August 17th Mr. Gerstenmaier and I drove to Ira, Ohio, to visit Mr.
Cranz and take advantage of his invitation to inspect his nut planting.
At this moment I believe that his invitation was made with the subtle
purpose of bragging about his excellent crop of Thomas black walnuts and
filberts. The trees were originally planted by squirrels and later
grafted by Mr. Cranz. They grow at the bottom of a huge hill or
escarpment 200 feet high at the top of which is his planting of 20
_mollissima_ chestnuts. It's a long climb through his neatly scythed
pathways on a hot day. Afterwards I felt like I needed the can which he
usually carries.
Recently I found a young black walnut which I hope may be a good
selection for further work. It is too early to make any predictions, but
I can assure you that a careful check on the tree's performance will be
interesting. Thin shell, good kernel cavity, etc.
Near Bolivar, Ohio, stands a young shagbark hickory which bears a nut
about the size of a Pleas hican with a very smooth kernel cavity and a
thin shell. Even though small this is another nut which will bear
watching.
I believe the greatest interest in nut trees will develop when a
definite program of controlled crossing is instituted.
When I became a member of this organization in 1939 I was managing
almost 1,000 acres of farm land. My own 90 acre farm was being farmed up
and down the hill because the fences were built that way. My plan was to
change over to a contour operation. After reading "Nut Growing" and
"Tree Crops" I decided to plant nut trees at 100' intervals along the
edges of the contour strips. I had a twofold purpose, to produce more
revenue and preserve the contour method of farming.
I ordered grafted nut trees from Jones Nurseries, Crath seedlings from
Graham and 200 northern pecan nuts from Wilkinson. Homer Jacobs, really
"sold me" on the Nut Growers Association and then sent me scions of the
Wilcox hickory. I was successful in getting two to grow about 100'
apart. Miss Jones sent me Pleas hican wood and one graft grew between
the two Wilcox. All were grafted on shagbark stock, breast high using
the late Mr. Fickes' method. The pecan nuts were stratified and given
the usual nursery care and at three years of age were transplanted to
the farm along with 200 seedling black walnuts and 100 chestnuts. These
seedlings were to be used as stocks for grafting the newer and superior
productive varieties. This was 1943. The farmer became dissatisfied with
my soil conservation tendencies and moved away. The war developed in
earnest and I matriculated at a defense plant. The farm just grew up. I
was not dissatisfied. I was just tired. I couldn't find enough time to
manage 1,000 acres of farm land 20 miles south; work at a defense plant
20 miles north and operate my insurance and real estate business. So I
sold all the farms including mine with the nut trees.
Now it is 1947. It was only two years ago that I made a decision to
relinquish the 90 acre farm. A short time ago I found all the grafted
trees bearing fruit except the hickories and hican. The grafted
Zimmerman, Stoke and Hobson chestnuts have died and most of the pecan,
walnut and chestnut seedlings planted on the contour strips have
succumbed to the mower, etc. I could find none of the grafted hickories
purchased through the years except one Fairbanks. The present owners are
enthusiastic over the early bearing chestnuts and are taking care of all
the remaining survivor trees.
I have reached the conclusion that any farm in this section of the U. S.
with enough hope to warrant contour farming is usually marginal land.
This is land which barely pays the cost of working or using; land
whereon the costs of labor, coordination and capital approximately equal
the gross income. I believe that a planting of grafted nut trees on the
edges of contour strips will increase the value of that farm and should
have the attention of every county agent and farm owner.
I am no doubt the worst "grafter" in the business. When I get one out of
20 sets to grow I am startled, not so much with the statistical
percentages but because a small stick of wood from Kentucky can make its
home on the roots of an Ohio cousin. I believe that scion storage is
important and I wish to report that the method which Dr. Shelton
explained in the 1945 report is very satisfactory. The next best is John
Gerstenmaier's apple storage cellar, which he and I have used ever since
my interest in nut bearing trees brought us together.
It is still 1947. I'm still in the real estate business. I recently
purchased 160 acres of land in an adjoining county and placed title in
my son's name. He is six years old. I should be free of any inclination
to sell this for fifteen years. Since there are no buildings I won't
have a tenant problem. This spring I purchased and planted grafted
hickories and grafted black walnuts and set them in supposedly
favorable locations where I hope they will maintain themselves. In
addition I planted about 200 Hawk seedling chestnuts spaced about 20 to
30 feet apart. These were planted in three different locations. One
group was planted under the canopy of a locust grove, another on an
exposed hilltop which faces the prevailing westerly winds. The third is
on a broad hilltop field which does not have the best drainage since the
top soil is clay underlaid with sandstone shale. All of these groups
grow on land abandoned some years ago. The soil fertility is generally
low. Volunteer native growth of cheery, ash, dogwood and hawthorn
prevails.
If I can continue to plant for the next fifteen years I should have
quite an orchard, or else my son will have a good hardwood forest. I
hope that all of us here can meet there then.
Discussion after R. E. Silvis' paper.
Mr. MacDaniels: "It is a good idea to have nut trees established in the
parks. In your home town there is usually a park in which nut trees can
be used. Very often it just takes initiative to get these things
started. Boy Scout organization is very good at starting projects like
this. Chestnuts are more difficult to establish than other trees."
Dr. Gravatt: "Nut trees should not be grown along the curbs because
people will gather the nuts that fall on the road. This is very
dangerous where there is much traffic."
Stoke: "Walnuts are much more satisfactory as park trees than Chinese
chestnuts. People are so prone to break off branches bearing immature
chestnuts."
Dr. MacDaniels: "Wire guards are excellent to keep mice, rabbits, etc.,
away from your nut trees."
Planting of Nut Trees on Highways Undesirable
R. P. ALLAMAN, Harrisburg, Pa.
Having always opposed this practice when it was under discussion, I have
been asked to prepare an article on the subject. This paper was prepared
in collaboration with Mr. Wilbur H. Simonson, Senior Landscape
Architect, U. S. Bureau of Public Roads, Washington, D. C.
Since the beginning of the roadside improvement demonstration program in
1933 the policy of the Public Roads Administration has never favored
planting of the showy, garden type of fruit and nut trees on highway
roadsides for several reasons:
1. =Traffic Hazards=--Dropping of fruits and nuts on pavements tends to
make surface conditions slippery and dangerous to traffic.
2. =Police Problems=--Ripening of fruits and nuts tends to invite passing
motorists to stop on side of highway pavements to gather the fruits,
adding to traffic hazard. Also such trees tend to invite vandalism by
boys together with clubbing the trees to get down the fruits with the
possible results of not only injury and damage to the trees themselves,
but throwing sticks, stones and clubs into the tree branches is likely
to result in hitting or striking passing motorists and otherwise cause
loss of control of vehicles by drivers, a very dangerous road condition
especially because it is an unexpected situation to have clubs or fruit
come down on the highway when driving through.
This all means more intensive policing of the highway by the responsible
authorities with added costs in maintenance budgets.
3. =Maintenance Problems=--Not only do dropping of fruits, and the results
of vandalism, cause extra cleanup of pavements and drainageways,
(clogging of pipes and gutters with debris from the trees) all hazardous
to traffic; but also the questions of insects and disease problems are
added. This all complicates public maintenance problems and especially
the proper pruning and spraying of the trees.
It is not considered a proper function of public authorities to carry on
operations that compete with private property developments.
Administrative policy and procedures shall encourage the planting of
shade tree types along public highways, and avoid the above described
difficulties that are =bound= to occur if nut-bearing types of trees are
placed on highway areas.
References: Bennett's book on Roadside Development, 1929, pages 6 and
52, also page 527 of the proceedings for the twentieth annual meeting of
the Highway Research Board in 1940, regarding the selection and use of
trees on highway areas, as recommended by the Committee on Roadside
Development. I quote from these the following extracts:
"Profusely flowering fruit or nut-bearing trees are not desirable, as a
rule; very showy garden types of flowering, fruit or nut-bearing trees
should be avoided in roadside planting. Experience indicates than
vandalism is encouraged by planting any species of tree commonly used in
garden, commercial fruit, or nut orchard planting."
"Trees which drop heavy masses of petals, fruit or nuts on highway
surfaces are not desirable. Horticultural varieties of flowering trees
(particularly those of exotic origin such as the Japanese cherries)
should be avoided in roadside planting because a too garden-like
appearance of planted roadsides will usually indicate excessive annual
maintenance costs, and probably heavy future losses of planted material
because of competition with superior and more rugged native tree
species." _Re:_ Vandalism, parents are responsible for acts of their
children and public plantings should not encourage children towards acts
of a vandalistic nature, with trouble not only for the tree but also for
the parents in keeping the children in order.
Nut Growing for the Farm Owner
H. GLEASON MATTOON
It is with trepidation that I present a paper on nut growing before a
group so much more learned in the subject than I. But two things impel
me to do so. First, the firm conviction that nut trees, carefully
chosen, properly planted and intelligently cared for, have a place on
many farms as a cash crop for the market and a food crop for the farm
family and, second, the poor results from many nut tree plantings on
farms. As may be imagined, my conviction is not based upon results seen
but upon the possibilities I know are inherent in nut trees.
When the first wave of publicity for soil conservation was at its zenith
back in the late 30s, I listened to a talk, the substance of which was
that there are no such things as submarginal land, and problem areas.
There are only submarginal people and problem people. Land does not
destroy itself nor is squalor self-created. Human qualities create both
conditions. Therefore the problem to be tackled is the ignorance,
cupidity or stupidity of those who create such conditions.
This made a profound impression on me. It has influenced my thinking in
all things connected with our renewable resources. Our success in
growing anything, whether it be cotton, corn or nut trees, depends
largely upon ourselves. If we mix three parts of intelligence with one
part of effort, the yield will be manifold.
Much of this intelligence should be of the "green thumb" variety, a
mixture of common sense and keen observation. The one using this kind of
intelligence would plant black walnuts in a deep, rich, well-drained
loam, because he has observed that this species grows best and yields
more heavily in that type of soil. He would plant the trees with top
roots not more than one inch under the surface of the soil because he
has noted that is the way they grow naturally. He would strive to keep
foliage on the tree as long as possible because he knows that the leaves
are the manufacturing part of the tree. Without them the tree could not
grow and would not produce filled nuts. He would do many other things
essential for proper tree growth and yield.