Association the chief difference between nuts and other food staples.
Nearly all of our cultivated vegetables, including maize, beans,
potatoes, sweet potatoes, squashes and pumpkins, are annuals, sensitive
to frost, which must be raised from seed each year, and which differ so
greatly from the primitive plants from which they came that their
ancestral forms cannot be definitely determined. Most of these
vegetables are in all probability of hybrid origin, the result of cross
pollination and selection. In the case of our native nuts the conditions
are quite different. We know the original ancestor of the pecan, our
hickories and our walnuts. The fine varieties now cultivated are not
hybrids but have been selected from wild trees. In connection with nuts
I would also point out that in all probability they were the most
important food-staple of primitive man, as well as of his simian
ancestors. It required no great intelligence to gather them or to store
them after the fashion followed by squirrels. Intelligence, however, is
required to plant nuts and to transplant nut trees. Still greater
intelligence is involved in the process of preparing certain nuts for
food. A delicious creamy emulsion, for instance, was prepared by the
Virginian Indians from hickory nuts. Cracking them and removing the
kernels was too long and tedious an operation; so they developed a
method of gathering them in quantities and crushing them in a hollowed
log, together with water, pounding them to a paste and then straining
out the fragments of shells through a basket sieve. The milky fluid
which was thus formed was allowed to stand until the thick creamy
substance separated from the water. The water was then poured off, and
the delicious cream which remained was used as a component of various
dishes. This substance was called by the Virginian Algonkian Indians
"_Pawcohiccora_," a word which has been abbreviated and modified to
"_Hickory_," the name by which we now designate not only the nuts, but
the tree and its wood.
It is interesting to note that a similar creamy or butter-like substance
was derived by a similar process from various palm nuts in Central and
South America. Cieza de Leon describes such a process in his Chronicle
of Peru, in connection with a nut which was described as _Cocos
butyraceæ_, but which was not a true _Cocos_, or coconut. Long before
the discovery of America, a somewhat similar process was used in the
Nicobar Islands for extracting a creamy substance from the grated kernel
of the true coconut, _Cocos nucifera_, which in early times was called
_Nux indica_. This process is still followed throughout Polynesia. Some
of the most savory dishes of the Samoans and the natives of Guam are
enriched and flavored with this coconut cream, which is a substance
quite distinct from the water, or so-called milk, contained in the
hollow kernel of the nut, which is so commonly used for drinking.
Coming back to America, I would call attention to the value of some of
our native pine nuts and acorns as food staples. Certain Indian tribes
of the Southwest live upon pine nuts at certain seasons when they are
ripe. Dr. C. Hart Merriam has told of the utilization of acorns by
various tribes of Indians in a beautifully illustrated article published
in the National Geographic Magazine, 1918, entitled "The Acorn, a
Possibly Neglected Source of Food." "To the native Indians of
California," he says, "the acorn is, and always has been, the staff of
life, furnishing the material for their daily mush and bread." He
describes the process of gathering and storing them, shelling, drying,
grinding the kernels, leaching out the bitter tannic acid, and preparing
the acorn meal in various ways for food. In eastern North America,
several species of acorns were somewhat similarly used, including those
of the live oaks of our southern states. The Spaniards of Florida
sometimes toasted them and used them as a substitute for chocolate or
coffee. Chinkapins were used for food by the earliest English colonists.
They are mentioned by Herriot, the historian of Sir Walter Raleigh's
colony at Roanoke. In addition to these, the early colonists learned to
eat the so-called "water-chinkapins", which are fruits of the beautiful
golden-flowered American lotus, _Nelumbo lutea_, a plant closely allied
to the sacred lotus of India, China and Japan, whose nuts are even now
used as a food staple. The split kernels of the latter may be bought in
the Chinese shops on Pennsylvania Avenue in this city. The rootstocks of
both the American and the Oriental lotus are also used for food. They
resemble bananas joined together end to end, with several hollow
longitudinal tubes running through them.
Before I close, I should like to call attention to a plant, endemic in
eastern North America, whose tubers were called "ground-nuts," or
"Indian potatoes" by the early colonists. The latter name caused the
plant to be mistaken by certain early writers for the white potato,
which was unknown in North America in early colonial days, but which was
confused with the ground nut on account of the resemblance of the
descriptions of the two plants. The white potato, _Solanum tuberosum_,
was discovered in the Andes of South America by Cieza de Leon; it was
quite unknown in North America or in the West Indies in the days of Sir
Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake, both of whom have erroneously been
given the credit of introducing the potato into England. The "potato"
which they observed in the West Indies was not _Solanum tuberosum_,
which we now call the "white potato" or "Irish potato," but a very
distinct plant, _Ipomoea batatas_, which we now call the "sweet potato,"
but which in early days was known as the _batata_ or _potato_. The error
which has become widely spread, can be traced to John Gerarde, the first
author to publish an illustration of _Solanum tuberosum_. In his
celebrated _Herball_ he declares that the potatoes figured by him were
grown in his garden from tubers which came from "Virginia, or
Norembega." It is quite certain that this statement was untrue, and
that, as certain English writers have already suggested, Gerard "wished
to mystify his readers." Whatever may have been his motive, the error
became widely spread. Even Thomas Jefferson was led to believe that
_Solanum tuberosum_ was encountered in Virginia by the early colonists,
and Schoolcraft declared that its tubers were gathered wild in the woods
like other wild roots. The Indian potato of the early colonists is still
abundant in "moist and marish grounds," as described by Herriot. It is a
tuber-bearing plant of the bean family, and is known botanically as
_Glycine apios_.
But I fear my talk has become too discursive, in turning from nuts to
ground nuts, and from ground nuts to potatoes; but the subject, bearing
as it does on the origin and history of cultivated plants, is one which
has great attraction for me, and I hope it may have been of interest to
the members of this association.
Professor C. P. Close, Pomologist, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, spoke as
follows:
MR. CLOSE: The subject I had intended to speak on was "Extension Work in
Nut Growing." Many of you know that I am putting in most of my time on
the fruit end of extension work, but I am also doing some extension nut
work. I was hoping that there would be representatives from many of the
states here, because I wanted to encourage them to get in touch with the
state extension men, to work up interest in nut culture.
My talk will be very brief, but I would like to mention that very few of
the states as yet are doing extension work with nuts, especially in the
North. Some work is being done with pecans in the South.
I have been astounded in talking with the landscape men in the North to
find that they have not considered nut trees as ornamental trees. But
after I mentioned that a walnut or a hickory or a pecan tree is an
ornamental tree, and just as much so as the elm, the oak, or the maple,
they thought it would be a good idea to use them and agreed to recommend
the use of nut trees as shade, lawn and roadside trees. Then I suggested
the filbert for clump planting as an ornamental. I hope in the future
that nut trees and filberts will be used more extensively by the
landscape extension men in their work throughout the country.
In most of the states there are fruit extension specialists but only an
occasional landscape extension specialist; so I try to interest the
fruit men in the planting of nut trees, and a few of them are doing
this, particularly in Indiana, where the fruit extension specialist has
been interested in having pecan and English walnut trees planted in
school yards. It seems difficult to get people to comprehend and
practice nut tree growing and to understand the various uses of nut
trees. We can judge from the small audience at this meeting that there
are not enough people interested in nut growing. In my journey
throughout the country I occasionally run across men interested in
growing a few nut trees, and I try to induce them to become members of
this association; but it seems to be a hard thing to do.
A few days ago I called on a man in New Jersey who said he would have
twenty bushels of hickory nuts and two or three bushels of English
walnuts if the squirrels did not take them. He is up against a state law
which protects the squirrels but does not protect him.
I wish we could send out word with you to the states to get at least a
few people interested in nut culture, and have them write to the
agricultural colleges and the experiment stations and arouse some
interest along this line at those institutions, not only among the fruit
extension men and the teachers, but also among the landscape men as
well. There ought to be more interest taken in this work at our colleges
and universities, and nut culture courses ought to be organized. The
foresters ought to be induced to use nut trees wherever possible.
That is all of the time I care to take at present, Mr. President, but I
wish to say that if there is any way of arousing interest in the states,
I would be glad to carry the word from Washington and to push it just as
hard as possible.
Hon. W. S. Linton, Saginaw, Michigan, spoke on "Roadside Planting vs.
Reforestation," as follows:
As a delegate to the National Tax Association convention at White
Sulphur Springs, it has been my lot to have been named on both federal
and state committees, with the idea of exempting from taxation those who
would produce trees for the future. My experience has been that
exemption from taxation for the purpose of producing our future forests
is a wrong one. The sentiment of the people is against exemption from
taxation, and I do not know how it may be practically applied to the
growing of the forests that our country must have in the future. But the
individual will not carry out the work, and the corporations will not
undertake it, so it devolves upon the government of the state to
reproduce those forests. The government lives for a long period in
between many life-times, and ours should live as long as the earth. It
is therefore up to us to reproduce those forests which we once had and,
as all things come back to the state, then the state should reforest.
Next the roadways are to be considered. Roadways will grow a better
class of timber and trees; they are rich in soil, generally, because
they pass through the most fertile regions of the country and, up to
this time, they have been waste land. I believe that the farmer is right
in his wish that trees which shut in the roadsides should be cut away,
that the sunlight should be let in and the roads hard-surfaced. We saw
in our trip that where the trees shaded the roads they were almost
impassable at times, while in the open places, they were fine.
In Michigan we took up the question of roadside planting, and Senator
Penny fathered the bill, the pioneer measure, that caused our state to
plant roadways. We have a very competent landscape engineer in charge of
one of the departments, and he is planning to grow roadside trees, using
nut-bearing trees, so that the next generation will profit largely by
the work of today. And this is just because of this association.
When I was honored with your presidency, one of the features of the work
we carried on was in getting nut trees from historic places, especially
from Mt. Vernon. The Superintendent of Mt. Vernon very kindly told us
that we could have the walnut crop from trees that were started there
during Washington's time, and the only stipulation was that we should
not commercialize the idea; that those nuts were priceless, and that we
should not receive any money for them, but should distribute them in the
schools and in a public way cause interest in the planting of nut trees.
That very movement brought about wonderful results, and today there are
from five to ten thousand walnut trees growing in our state, about the
height of a man, all of them having come from Mt. Vernon.
On our way through from White Sulphur Springs, we passed through the
home of Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, and we found some magnificent nut
trees planted by Jefferson. Some of our best trees today are from those
given to Washington by Thomas Jefferson; and I arranged at Mt. Vernon to
secure some of the nuts from the trees Jefferson planted there.
Just yesterday Mr. Dodge, the superintendent at Mt. Vernon, again said
that we could have the crop for this year. We will have a number of
bushels from there, although the trees have not been as fruitful this
year as usual, and I leave it to you to judge as to what we should do
with those nuts this year. Some of you have ideas about this, and I
would be glad to adopt them. But when the fact is known that the walnuts
can be secured in that way the entire country will want them. At present
I have letters from Texas and other places asking for some of Mt.
Vernon's nuts. It is a movement that will cause more people, in my
opinion, to have nut trees than any other, and we should push it to the
limit.
I had a letter from Henry Ford's secretary, asking for a dozen trees
which might be planted at Mr. Ford's place in Michigan. Mr. Ford is
doing great good, so far as the saving of the forests is concerned. He
has immense tracts of land where he is caring for every root and branch.
Letter from C. F. Bobler, Landscape Engineer in Michigan:
The laws of Michigan, as you are well aware, encourage the planting of
trees and shrubs by the highway authorities, and protect existing
roadside trees from injury or destruction. Under those laws considerable
planting has already been done, and in such planting a liberal use has
been made of the nut-bearing varieties of trees, especially the black
walnut, which is indigenous to much of Michigan.
Besides the economic value of nut trees, on account of their food
products while growing and their timber products when mature, they are
generally very attractive in appearance, and, therefore, very well
adapted to roadside planting.
Roadside development presents a field for considerable study to produce
plantings which afford a variety of effects in trees and shrubs, by
using varieties best adapted to the soil and climatic conditions, which
best harmonize with the local topography and which to a considerable
extent have an economic value in addition to their ornamental value. Nut
trees admirably fulfill these requirements for roadside planting and
while I believe that such other desirable varieties of trees as the
American elm, the sugar maple, and others, should be used in proper
proportions, I am fully convinced that the varieties of nut trees
adapted to our soil and climate should be used liberally in the planting
of the roadsides of Michigan.
The plans for the future development of the state trunk line highways in
this state, contemplate the planting of the black walnut, butternut,
sweet chestnut, hickory, beech, and other varieties of nut bearing trees
in considerable quantities, and I am confident that their use will add
to man's enjoyment of the highways and that these trees will become an
economic asset to the regions where they are planted.
THE PRESIDENT: There is one thing Mr. Linton mentioned that I wish to
put special emphasis upon; the distribution of trees grown from
Washington's home. Last year Mr. Jones sent out a lot of seedling
walnuts and there are quite a few in Rochester. It was delightful to see
the interest manifested by the people receiving those seedlings and to
hear how the people were succeeding. Some of them have written me.
MR. REED: Possibly it would help if, when any of us here present should
chance to visit historic spots, we would get nuts from such places and
send them to Mr. Linton; from Gettysburg or any of those places. We
should each consider ourselves committees of one to get those nuts and
to deliver them to Mr. Linton.
MR. BIXBY: I will see what I can do about it, and will get some of the
nuts today.
MR. O'CONNOR: I do not know how Mr. Linton would feel about sending to
different schools some of the nuts that were given him by the
superintendent at Monticello, and in letting the children have a little
nursery, and the means to beautify their home towns, but I will say that
if you get the children started in a thing like this, you will have the
parents following up.
MR. LINTON: There is another point I wish to mention. Mr. Dodge sent one
bushel of the walnuts which he said were taken from a particular tree
that he admired. He thought it was the best variety of all of them. That
tree, a year ago, was struck by lightning; so he requests that some of
the trees produced from the nuts of that particular tree, be sent back
to Mt. Vernon, in order that he may have some seedlings from the
original tree. It is a fact that those nuts produced the best yields of
any that we planted in Michigan, showing that the seeds from the best
tree will bring the best results.
ENCOURAGEMENT FROM FAILURES IN GRAFTING
_Dr. G. A. Zimmerman, Piketown, Pa._
After improving from an illness of several years, and feeling tired,
impatient and at times discouraged with progress in my physical
condition, last spring I secured a few bunches of scion wood and turned
to my old boyhood hobby for diversion; this time, however, by working on
nut trees instead of fruit. In presenting the following at the request
of others, I do not claim any originality, but simply draw the attention
of interested parties to some possibilities and probabilities. My
results have been very variable and many of them show as successful a
failure as any one could possibly obtain. The scions referred to in the
following tabulated record were put in from May 20th to July 20th and
were well "mixed together" in the hope of giving better opportunity for
cross pollenization, a few of every variety except the Hales being put
in every day. The Hales were all put in late in July. I have grafted
many other varieties of fruits and nuts but a record of the hickory only
is shown below:
No. Growing Died % Growing % Died
Weiker 46 0 46 0 100 One graft to tree
5 3 2 60 40 T.W.T 1-1/4" diameter
5 1 4 20 80 U.W.T.
23 1 22 4.2 95.8 U.W.T.
Taylor 5 2 3 40 60 U.W.T. 10" diameter
27 7 20 25.9 74.1
Fairbanks 15 11 4 73.3 26.7
Vest 27 1 26 3.7 96.3
Manahan 22 7 15 31.8 68.2
7 0 7 0 100 U.W.T. 3" diameter
Laney 13 6 7 46.1 53.9
15 1 14 6.6 93.4 U.W.T. 6" diameter
Beaver 5 2 3 40 60 Scions poor. But one
grew 7 ft. 4 in.
Kentucky 19 7 12 36.8 67.2
10 1 9 10 90 U.W.T. 5" diameter
Kirtland 12 5 7 41.6 58.4
16 5 11 31.3 68.7 U.W.T. 5" diameter
7 1 6 14.2 85.8 U.W.T. Put on late
as also the Hales
Hales a 6 1 5 16.6 83.4 U.W.T. 3" diameter
b 35 0 35 0 100 U.W.T. 10" diameter
c 2 2 0 100 0 T.W.T. 1-1/2%" diameter
d 4 4 0 100 0 T.W.T. 2" diameter
e 3 3 0 100 0 T.W.T.
f 3 2 1 66.6 33.3 T.W.T.
g 6 4 2 66.6 33.3 T.W.T.
---- -- --- ----- -----
Total 338 75 263 22.2 77.8
The last two series of the Hales made 100% start also but bugs
killed three grafts.
U. W. T. means a tree from which all the lower limbs were cut back
to about a foot or eighteen inches and grafted, a few top limbs
having been left intact.
T. W. T. means a tree from which the top had been cut, the lower
limbs and stub having been grafted, although a few of the lower
limbs were not sawed off.
A study of the above record is interesting. All of my stocks are of the
mockernut type, varying from three-fourths to two inches in diameter,
except a few trees to which I refer specially as T.W.T. and U.W.T. It
will be noted that the Weiker and the Vest made the poorest catches. It
could not have been due entirely to weather conditions or the condition
of the scions, for the scions of these two varieties were equal to
anything I had. In view of the fact that they are both very desirable
nuts, I always carried a few scions and kept placing them frequently as
I placed other varieties. Many Vests were placed at the same time as the
Fairbanks, which shows 73.3% catches. The one Vest that did catch,
however, made a very thrifty growth, showing that it is possible
apparently to do well on the mockernut.
With the Weiker, about the 15th of July, I put five scions on the limbs
and trunk of a tree about 1-1/4 inches in diameter, the top having been
cut out, with three catches, 60%, against another lot of 46 with 100%
failure and 23 more with 4.2% success. Such antics are difficult to
understand.
Many of the scions were put in the trunks of the trees; others were put
on the small branches with the splice graft. The scions placed on the
trunks, or the larger limbs near the trunk, apparently did somewhat
better than the splice grafts further out on the limbs. In the walnut
and other sappy trees, however, the splice graft out on the small limbs
did better.
It is of peculiar interest that all of the large trees from which the
lower limbs were sawed and the stubs grafted, the topmost limbs having
been left, designated as U.W.T., did badly. While in the case of the
five Hales, three had 100% and two had 66.6% catches. These two also had
100% catches but bugs ate the tender shoots and killed three of them.
These trees had the tops cut off last fall leaving only a few lower
limbs. They were put in on July 20th after the sprouts had well started
on the trees. The sprouts were not taken off but their tops were pinched
out. These grafts made a growth of from one to two feet or more. At the
same time a tree was trimmed (Hales b in the record) and all the lower
limbs grafted with Hales, leaving a few top branches only. Thirty-five
were set and not a single one grew. The location of this tree was better
than any of the five above referred to, because a couple of those trees
were standing on the top of a rock where one would wonder how they could
exist, and it was so hot when I placed the grafts that I had to quit and
get out of the sun. In spite of that 100% grew.
A study of the above record leads to the conclusion that there is very
little difference in plant and animal cells and it seems clear that
certain old, underlying principles must be dealt with. I need not refer
to heredity because, while it is undoubtedly quite possible, perhaps,
to influence heredity tendencies so as to get stocks to accept scions
more readily, it is not the major issue for most of us just now. Next
spring we will take what heredity has given us and be satisfied.
However, it appears certain that our results in grafting the various
stocks we now have will depend largely on our ability to:
1. Regulate plant circulation.
2. Stimulate cellular activity to a point compatible with wound
repair, defensive and growing processes.
3. Control plant cell nutrition.
One of the very first things we physicians do upon seeing a patient is
to investigate his circulation. If the pressure is too low or too high,
for any reason, we immediately take measures to correct it, because we
know that disastrous results will quickly follow if that is not looked
after. Plant circulation, or sap flow, is no less important. Mr. Riehl,
Mr. Jones and Dr. Morris made great strides when they advanced the ideas
of covering the wound and the scion completely to prevent evaporation,
thereby also controlling the sap pressure. With the exception of
shading, pruning and defoliating, this is about the only method we have
of preventing evaporation. Defoliation, of course, interferes with the
tree's power of growth. Controlling the humidity is probably not
practical on a large scale.
A proper and careful cutting of the tree beforehand is important. It
appears that to cut the top completely out while the tree is dormant, so
disrupts the routine circulation that the few lower branches which are
left intact, are well taken care of and, it seems to me, that this,
together with the stimulation of WOUND REPAIR by cutting and allowing
time enough for the cells to get into action, was the prime reason for
the 100% success in the three Hales and the cause of the 100% failure in
the other Hales tree.
Other methods of controlling the circulation are of course drainage,
irrigation, mulching, location of the orchard, placing of condensers of
moisture, such as stones and other hard substances beneath the trees,
and many other contrivances which are in use, and which I shall not
discuss.