within my experience of 25 years in River Falls, Wisconsin. The main
reason was that we had a long wet fall and all vegetation was in a
succulent green condition when our first snow storm of September 25th
hit us. For other details of this winter and the Armistice Day storm of
1941, the second in its deleterious effect on horticultural varieties,
please write Mr. C. G. Stratton, Coop. Observer, of River Falls,
Wisconsin, who is in charge of the U. S. Government weather bureau
there. Mr. Stratton furnished me with an affidavit showing one of our
very coldest winters in which the temperature went down, in February, to
47 deg. below zero. This was in 1936. This winter of extreme cold did very
little damage to trees, and an apricot on which I had taken out a plant
patent, subsequently called the Harriet apricot, went through this
winter without any damage and bore fruit the next year. This gave me
such confidence in its hardiness that I began to propagate it for sale.
The winter of 1942-43 wiped out practically all of the apricot trees of
this variety and all of the early Richmond cherries that had been
growing on my farm for nearly twenty years. It killed more than half of
the catalpa trees which were nearly as old. It also killed outright a
large Stabler black walnut which had been grafted on a Minnesota
seedling nearly twenty years previous. This was a fine large
flourishing tree that bore each year and I had thought because of this
behavior that Stabler was to be considered one of the hardiest of the
black walnuts. It had stood up better than Thomas many winters. I could
go on enumerating failures of many other varieties and species but it is
a long story and a sad one.
To make this report more concise I will now give you my opinion as to
what is hardy under these severe tests. To begin with, one of your
father's hazel hybrids, of which I have two bushes, stood all of this
very well. These bushes, which are perhaps fifteen years old, are still
flourishing, although the main trunks are decaying rapidly. Several of
the sprouts are blossoming freely. These two bushes have borne only one
crop of nuts, although they blossom freely, and the catkins are about as
hardy as anything in the filbert line that I have seen. The reason for
their not bearing is lack of pollination. I never did find out what was
satisfactory, even at the time that I hand-pollinated them to get a crop
of nuts. The nuts are much more satisfactory than Winkler or Rush
hazels. The Rush is absolutely worthless here; is subject to blight and
is very tender to our winters. The Winkler is a very hardy variety,
bears something every year. The trouble with the Winkler is that it
matures its nuts so late, much later than the Jones' hybrid. I never
have propagated your father's hybrid for sale as I did not know a hardy
pollinizer for it. I have sold a few Winklers, recommending them for
proper locations. I have one Winkler planted by a small lake cottage up
at Delta, Wisconsin. This is about thirty miles west of Ashland,
Wisconsin. This territory is very uncertain for successful corn raising
so the Winkler is quite a hardy bush.
Four hybrid plants that bear worthwhile nuts, which grew from seed
planted in 1933 and 1934, are perfectly hardy, almost as hardy as the
native wild hazel and hardier than any other worthwhile filbert or
hybrid that we have. This hardiness is no doubt due to the fact that the
mother plant was an ordinary wild Wisconsin hazel. These hybrids, from
the native hazels, we call "Hazilberts," and have obtained a United
States trademark on all plants produced after this manner. Here again I
have not recommended nor sold any of these because of my lack of
knowledge as to the correct pollinizer; this has yet to be developed.
They do not pollinize themselves nor do they pollinize each other
satisfactorily. They have all the finest characteristics that you could
ask for except prolificacy which may be due to the lack of a proper
pollinizer. They are the most resistant to the hazel blight of anything
that I have worked with so far in 25 years. Hard winters, such as we
have had recently, have no deleterious effect on them. They blossom and
do not lose any of their wood and apparently there is no injury. They
are very vigorous plants and can be trained to a single tree standard or
they make very tall-growing vigorous bushes. I have placed these
filberts and their hybrids first on my list of recommended trees because
they are going to be the backbone of nut tree production.
I have nearly one hundred experimental European filberts, mostly of wild
varieties, of which about a dozen are hardy both in pistillate and
staminate bloom, even in our most severe winters, although of this dozen
only about two or three have nuts which could possibly be considered
commercial. Practically all of these are being injured in one way or
another by the blight. Many have passed out of existence and only two or
three have been able to resist the blight so that it doesn't seem to
make any headway. I do not do anything for a blighted filbert--it must
take care of itself. I have experimented along these lines, however,
using chemicals and other means of protection. I do not know of anything
adequate except to build resistance in the plant itself through
cross-breeding.
The next really successful plant is the Weschcke butternut. This is a
native butternut which I discovered on my own farm. Every local woods
has butternut trees in it. We must have at least five hundred butternut
trees in our woods; they are subject to some kind of a bark disease but
this seems to encroach on the life of the tree very slowly since trees
that I remember showing signs of this disease nearly twenty years ago
are still living. They are awful looking sights, however, by this time.
Such large trees that have developed this blight are possibly in the
neighborhood of fifty years old. The Weschcke butternut is a medium size
to small butternut. Its great value lies in the fact that it splits
exactly in half and the shell structure is so shallow that by merely
turning the nut upside down the kernel falls out--nothing to hold it in
the shell. Very frequently the kernel stays absolutely intact, its wings
being held together by the little tender neck joining them at the point
of the nut. The nut kernel is tender and light colored. The difficulty
here is grafting them on black walnut roots; after they are grafted they
grow very rapidly and bear at once. I have had them bear the first year
grafted.
Next in line of hardiness and reliability is the Weschcke hickory. This
is now an old-timer; since its successful grafting in 1934 it has borne
an ever-increasing crop every year. This is not to be measured in
bushels, however, but in pounds. No other hickory nut has begun to touch
it, in its regularity, reliability and its quality: that is, no hickory
so far north. It is the thinnest shelled hickory of any that I have ever
tested out, and releases its kernels about the best of any. It has one
fault, however; the staminate blossom is abortive, never produces any
pollen. It needs a pollinizer and we have been recommending the
Bridgewater and the Kirtland which we know by actual experiments have
produced pollen in large amounts, sufficient for pollinization of this
tree. Even before Kirtland and Bridgewater pollens were available those
trees, grafted to the Weschcke, bore hickory nuts every year, but in
very small quantities. I am now quite sure that they borrowed pollen
from the wild bitternut trees which are in abundance nearby. There is
also the other possibility, which has not been conclusively proved, that
this variety is a parthenogen. Innumerable hard frosts in early springs
have destroyed butternut crops and walnut crops, but these hickory nuts
invariably come through such seasons and escape the early fall frosts,
which come in September, for the reason that the nuts are matured
usually the second week in September. We therefore can recommend the
Weschcke hickory freely. We have not determined how far north it can
live, but I believe the 45th parallel is very safe, and as far west as
the Dakota line. It originated at Fayette, Iowa, and probably would
thrive far into the south. It grafts extremely well on the wild
bitternut hickory root which is about the hardiest known. Your father
was very partial toward it as a stock. This root system does not handle
all hickories by any means. In all my trials using pecan scions the only
pecan which grafts well on it and survives indefinitely, is the Hope.
This is also a very hardy tree but we cannot recommend it as a nut tree
because we have never seen the parent tree bear any nuts. The parent
tree is now twenty years old. Quite a large tree but no nuts. It is
growing in an unfavorable location for bearing since it is shaded by
much larger trees. It is growing right here in St. Paul.
The Bridgewater and the Beeman are two more hickories which are very
hardy and which come into bearing quickly, also are successfully grafted
on bitternut root. They do not mature their nuts so reliably nor so
early by any means as the Weschcke. For a little further south they
might be very reliable. They are fully as hardy and satisfactory in
every other respect. The hickories that have proved to be fairly hardy
but have produced very few nuts are the Cedarapids and the Kirtland. The
Beaver hybrid hickory is probably next for nut production satisfaction,
grafts well on bitternut root but does not seem to have a long life. The
trees that I bought from your father nearly twenty years ago are now
dead although they lived to become large fine trees and bore in some
seasons very nice crops of nuts. The Fairbanks hickories, grafted some
seventeen or eighteen years ago, are still surviving, but bear very few
nuts, some seasons practically nothing at all. They very seldom ripen as
they mature very much later than the natives or the other varieties
mentioned above. I do not consider the Fairbanks a very edible nut
anyway as they become very rancid after a couple of months. The Beaver
is not a good keeper either. This is rather an important characteristic
in a nut and one in which the Weschcke excels, as in ordinary office
temperature it usually keeps two or three years. I believe that this is
partly due to the thin shell. My theory is that the thin shell expands
and contracts with heat and moisture conditions without cracking. This
prevents air from getting at the kernel, and since it is the oxygen
which is mostly responsible for rancidity, this exclusion of air
probably accounts for the fresh state that these nuts maintain for a
long time. I have noticed that thick-shelled shellbarks and, to a lesser
degree the shagbarks, crack open, in minute hairline cracks, and these
nuts which split like this invariably soon become rancid.
Now the black walnuts are next in order. For many years I considered the
Ohio a worthless variety. They would seldom mature any of the nuts, and
although they were regular bearers the thick hull was a nuisance. I have
had twenty years' experience with this variety and they are the hardiest
of all the old ones. They stand up very well and each year the nuts
become a little more satisfactory. Evidently the trees have the ability
to acclimatize themselves and they stand up better than Thomas, Stabler
or Ten Eyck of the old varieties that I have tested.
More recent varieties which I have tested and have proved satisfactory,
are the Paterson and the Rohwer; I recommend these two above all other
black walnuts. I have two seedlings which I am watching with a great
deal of interest. One is from Minnesota and the other is a failed
grafted tree which sprang up from the root and so far is beginning to
bear prolifically a medium sized nut with a rather thick shell which
does not crack out very well but the quality is superb. It has a thin
hull which you can pop off by merely pressing your thumb against it
after it is thoroughly dry, coming off very clean leaving a good looking
nut. The kernel is very light straw-colored and you can generally get
them out in good pieces, about one-quarter of the whole kernel. Above
all it matures very early, about the middle of September or sooner, and
this is the deciding factor for any nut, because, no matter how well It
cracks, how prolific it may be, or hardy, if you do not get a ripe nut
you have nothing for here in the north. I feel quite certain that this
is going to be the standard black walnut for the north. For want of a
better name I have been calling it the "Ruffy" because the hull, when
green, has a pimply surface and a rough appearance.
The other black walnut that I am watching is a seedling resulting from
ten bushels planted nearly twenty years ago, the only tree to bear
because of the crowded condition of all these walnuts planted so close
together. I have been watching it for six or seven years and was never
able to get a mature nut until this year. Reason was that in most of the
seasons the nuts were empty; other times I did not wait until they were
fully ripe, being too anxious to find out what was inside. This tree I
have named the "Walbut" because it seemed to me it might be a cross
between a butternut and a walnut. The kernel is very light colored. It
cracks out the best of any walnut I have ever tested. It is difficult to
graft, so far in my experience. I have no living grafts from it although
I have tried again and again to graft it on other large isolated stocks
in the orchard. It has a square shape, with deep indentations near the
point. It is something to watch, and work with although it does not seem
to be extra hardy in spite of the fact that it is a native tree. At
present it is merely an interesting variety to experiment with and it
may possibly be of some use later on. The branches have shown curious
little birdseye markings--it has a habit of developing buds which die
and form little brown structures in the wood and it is possible that the
tree may be a fancy timber tree. The shell has only one structure down
the center, thereby insuring that the halves come out whole.
An ornamental known as the lace-leaf walnut is very hardy here, doesn't
winter kill at all but so far has not borne any nuts. The Deming Purple
is not hardy; the Stabler is very unreliable considering the last few
years; the Thomas is still one of the best except it suffers from winter
injury occasionally; the Ten Eyck very seldom bears any nuts although we
have several very large trees now. The Elmer Myers possibly has a
chance; it is still living. The Snyder has survived the last few winters
and in my opinion it is one of the best nuts I have ever seen. The
grafts have borne a few nuts already in the second year of grafting.
They set a couple of nuts even after a severe winter last year, but they
fell off during the summer, much the same as the Thomas and many of the
Ohio did. The same thing happened to practically all of my hybrid
hazels, also the Winkler and even the wild hazel kept continually
dropping the nuts until there was practically nothing left. No doubt
this effect was produced by a peculiar season. We should not hold it
against the nut trees since it was a universal condition.
Last summer about one-half dozen of the pecan trees which I had been
playing around with for twenty years, started to blossom but only had
staminate bloom, There might possibly be a crop of pecans this coming
year--I do not have any hopes that any of these seedlings will be able
to mature their nuts, but there is always a possibility and they are
certainly hardy. None of them that I have tried to graft will live on
bitternut roots.
Chestnuts are difficult to get started but once they are started they
grow very well although there are only a few surviving out of many
thousands of seeds planted. Every year one or more comes into
bearing--they generally do not mature their nuts, and what I have tasted
of them are not anything to brag about except that they are sweet; the
size is insignificant and they evidently have much of the native
chestnut blood. I am still testing such varieties as the Carr,
Zimmerman, and Connecticut Yankee. So far these have shown themselves to
be quite tender varieties. I do not consider the chestnut worthwhile
because of the constant threat that if a grove should be started it
might soon have the blight in it.
I have several Chinese chestnut seedlings which are making a fairly good
growth and in time may become productive trees.
We have one hybrid white oak which has an edible kernel but out of about
one hundred nuts you might get one wholesome one free from weevils. The
tree is very old and is rapidly declining. The nut is small but the tree
is quite prolific. I merely mention it to show that there are
possibilities in developing the oak. I think our mutual friend, J.
Russell Smith, would probably like to hear this as he advocates the use
of oaks, and I agree with him that there are possibilities for human
food to be used first-hand. I am all out of sympathy with second-hand
food production as pork or beef or any meat products, as you know. One
reason is that it is economically wrong as it takes many times more
acreage to produce meat than vegetables for the same amount of food
energy to be derived. My authority, the Encyclopedia Brittanica, which
says it takes 64 pounds of dry fodder to produce 1 pound of dry beef,
and 32 pounds of dry fodder to produce 1 pound of dry mutton, etc., etc.
Be Thrifty with Nut Trees
_By CARL WESCHCKE, Minnesota_
There has been too much accent put on the profit to be made on nut
production. No matter how much income a man may receive, if he has not
learned to save out of that income he will never be better off for
having received it. Now, nut trees offer a particularly practical way of
saving out of income. If one has a large family to feed the saving may
amount to a hundred dollars or more a year. When this fine food,
contained in the kernels of nuts, is used right in your own family, and
supplies the family's entire requirements of nuts, you will find that
you have made very substantial savings in your family food budget.
First of all, it is different from income from the sale of nuts because
when you sell nuts they must be sold in the competitive market, and
usually to the wholesaler if you have a considerable amount to dispose
of. Therefore you save the profit made by the wholesaler and the
retailer by using your nut crop rather than selling it. This is really
being thrifty. If you have a large crop of nuts you will find that you
can easily increase the uses in combination with other foods so that
less other food has to be purchased in order to meet the family needs.
And with the higher prices of ordinary foods you can easily visualize
what a tremendous saving this might be.
Nuts are a fine luxury food, but in a way they can quickly become a
necessary food by being used as a replacement for meat. I don't like to
use the term "substitute for meat" as it implies that nuts are inferior
to meat, and nothing could be further from the truth. Nuts are more
_NUTricious_ than any meat, pound for pound, and what meat can you store
away that will keep as sweet and edible as a nut for so long a time!
Plant nut trees to save your income not to increase it. You will never
have to pay a tax on that saving.
Report of Season 1943
_By GEORGE HEBDEN, Corsan, Canada_
The winter of 1942-43 was one of the coldest ever known here. One day it
was 33 deg. below zero and another it was 38 deg. below. Filberts did not seem
to take any notice of the severe cold and my Stranger Jap heartnuts that
are said to be tender went through with flying colors. One or two
varieties of Russian walnuts (J. regia) froze to the ground as did all
the Pomeroys. Some of the Crath walnuts froze from a few inches to a
yard, but the majority did not lose a bud. Strange to say all the
extremely large varieties of J. regia came through unscathed as did my
Chinese. Asiatic tree hazels missed cropping but came through unscathed.
Winkler and Rush hazels were not harmed, though the Rush is a bit tender
and succumbed the winter of 1933-34. In fact 1933-34 was a harder winter
on trees than 1942-43 as that winter all but my Daviana filberts were
hit more or less.
Last fall (1943) all trees went into their winter's sleep in most
excellent condition and the twigs are hard to the top buds. Signs on
twig terminals indicate a large crop of nuts for the fall of 1944. Thus
I hope to be able to have on display for the convention-to-be a most
interesting show. Besides nuts of all the hardy varieties I always have
a real big show of hardy and tropical water lilies and lotus, a complete
collection. Also a complete collection of grapes and many other
horticultural curios rarely seen.
I was many years finding persimmons hardy enough to survive our winters,
but at last I have at least 2 and maybe 3 varieties that passed last
winter in perfect condition. I am north of Lake Ontario and just a mile
west of Toronto. I doubt that northern pecans, big western shellbarks
and hicans will have a long enough season to ripen. The Weiker hickory,
which is a cross between shagbark (Carya ovata) and shellbark (C.
laciniosa) hickories, ripens completely each season. Catawba grapes
won't ripen except in a rather long summer. Just across the lake the
golden muscatel grapes have ripened two or three times in my memory.
Barcelona and Kentish cob seem to be the only two filberts that are
tender with me. Du Chilly and Italian red live and crop regularly. I
have several very large new varieties of seedling filberts. I like to
grow seedling filberts, they show wonderful variations in fruiting. The
same with heartnuts. I never lose a seedling heartnut for if the tree
yields an unsatisfactory nut I promptly bud it to a Stranger which is
the most regular and heaviest cropping heartnut I know of. Yes, every
year a monster crop of nuts whose meats come out whole.
Our hybrid Jap heartnut x native butternut crosses are of three types
and all excellent and will hold their own with any nut that grows. No
nut can beat our butternut for eating. But the shells are too thick, the
trees crop only about every 4 years, are unhealthy and shed their leaves
soon after September 1st. On the other hand, the hybrid outlooks it,
outcrops it and outlives it and our friendly neighbor Russia is very
greatly intrigued with these new nuts developed here at Echo Valley.
They are thin-shelled, very easy to crack, meats come out easily, trees
have a tropical look, crop early, grow fast and very large, leaves hang
on green almost to November and the crop ripens early, just after the
filberts which are the first nuts to ripen with me, while the Winkler
hazels are the last, though the hybrid filbert-hazels are almost as
late.
A very beautiful sight here are the many different nut trees growing on
black walnut stock to be seen all over the 20 acres. They are heartnuts,
Jap walnuts, hybrids, English walnuts and butternuts, as well as
superior named black walnuts.
People don't want beautiful trees nearly as much as they do trees that
grow nuts. For instance, they don't buy pecans from me, because though
they are quite hardy and beautiful, yet the northern pecans don't mature
their crop sufficiently in our short season. Down in extreme
southwestern Ontario the pecan has cropped and ripened.
One mistake we must not make is not to be too sure of the value of a nut
because it is large, thin-shelled and has a fine flavor but is a poor
cropper. The nut that produces a very heavy crop is the valuable nut.
Thus McAllister hican and the Stabler black are worthless because of
their extremely thin crop.
Another nut that looks large and excellent on the tree is the Ohio black
walnut, whose huge dirty hull and small nut condemns it. I like
thin-hulled nuts that come out clean.
American Walnut Manufacturers Association Carries Out Industrial
Forestry Program
_By W. C. FINLEY, Forester_
The forestry program now in operation is ambitious in scope, and has as
its objectives the promotion of forest practices which will encourage
growing and harvesting American Walnut as a permanent crop.
One of the greatest evils which we are attempting to eradicate is the
cutting of small diameter trees. The Walnut Industry has expressed a
desire to conserve small diameter fast growing walnut trees for future
use and is advocating that farmers, timberland owners and log producers
leave these trees in the woodlots to grow into high quality timber. We
are trying to educate the farmer, timber owner and log producer in
forestry practices which will serve not only their best interests, but
which in the final analysis, will serve the lumber industry as a whole.
Trees less than 14 inches d.b.h. if cut constitute a real loss in
potential high quality and more valuable logs because the logs they
produce are too small to be used advantageously. On the other hand,
trees of 14 inch d. b. h. and up are in demand and are playing a
patriotic role in furnishing material for use by the armed forces,
namely gunstocks. The public in general, and tree farmers and timber
owners in particular, must be made aware of the fact that while the
present walnut timber supply is adequate, conservation of immature trees
must be practiced to the full to assure the industry with sufficient raw
materials for future use.