and tropical foliage of the Japanese walnut, _Sieboldiana_. Although the
tree has many characteristics of the butternut the foliage is much more
luxuriant and it is an admirable tree for planting in the open lawn.
The individual fruit of the _Sieboldiana_ walnut is similar in
appearance to that of the butternut and is borne in clusters or racemes,
sometimes as many as twenty or more in a cluster, and is equal in every
way to that of the butternut but the nuts being smaller contain a much
less quantity of meat.
The king of the walnuts, _Juglans regia_, sometimes called Madeira
walnut, Persian walnut, Spanish walnut and English walnut, is the finest
of the nuts as far as the fruit is concerned, and is a handsome tree
growing to immense size with large spreading branches and almost
tropical foliage. For over 150 years this tree has been growing and
thriving in our immediate neighborhood, producing bushels of nuts
annually, yet few people whom we have met will hardly believe that the
English walnut will thrive in this northern latitude. There is one
specimen of this tree today with which I am familiar in Tarry town, N.
Y., which is over 2 feet in diameter, with a spread of 75 feet or more
and nearly 100 feet in height. While the tree has not produced regularly
yet it bears a few nuts each year and sometimes numbers of bushels.
The English walnut always attracts attention on account of its
symmetrical growth and its luxuriant foliage. As a shade tree there are
few better.
Of the nut family the one truly American tree of which we should be duly
proud is the hickory, this tree being found in no other part of the
world, with the exception of China, but North America. As a park or
roadside tree there are few trees that can compare with it,--upright in
growth with a beautifully rounded head, sometimes growing to immense
size and producing nuts almost annually. Of this group of trees we have
the shellbark, shagbark and pignut. The pignut being of little value as
far as the nuts are concerned, yet having smaller and possibly more
luxuriant foliage than the shagbark or shellbark. The shagbark is the
nut most sought for by the younger generations and bids fair to become a
nut of considerable importance.
It seems strange that in the long history of the hickory or shagbark
more has not been done in the improvement of the nuts in the growing of
large thin-shelled and sweeter nuts. Trees bearing such nuts do exist
and I think most of us can recall certain trees in our boyhood days that
produced nuts of far superior quality than are ordinarily found from the
common tree. At least, I can recall one tree from which twenty-five
years ago there was produced a very large fine sweet nut which was
sought by all the children in the neighborhood. This tree, however, has
passed away with hundreds of others, either by the hickory bark beetle
or the axe.
It is well to mention the filbert and hazel. While not really trees the
filbert sometimes reaches a height of 5 ft. or more with very luxuriant
foliage in the summer and in the early spring the catkins are very
prominent and attractive. There is no reason why the filbert should not
be grown more extensively even though it is affected by blight or
canker. We are assured that this can be readily cut away with less
trouble than the ordinary treatment of trees.
Of the hazel there are two kinds, the common hazel and beaked hazel,
both native here. While the nuts of these shrubs are really too small to
be of any commercial value yet I believe we will find nuts growing
somewhere that are as large as our imported filberts.
Of the pines and evergreens there are a number which produce nuts of
which Dr. Morris has told us. Some of them are rapid growing trees and
there seems to be good reason why we should not plant out evergreens
which produce fruit and are just as attractive and fine as those
evergreens which produce shade only.
I have not mentioned one tree which I believe to be the most promising
for this locality--that is the pecan. It has been demonstrated that we
can grow the pecan on our native hickories and from what I have seen of
the wonderful growth of the first year of the bud I am sure we will be
able to produce as fine pecans as can be produced in any section of the
country, and further than that, we have an unlimited number of native
hickories on which we can graft this finest of nuts. The pecan is hardy
in this locality and farther north. I have seen it grown to a fair sized
tree in Connecticut. I have seen it on the south side of Long Island and
have seen one tree planted possibly over 100 years near Oyster Bay, L.
I. which today is more than 3 ft. in diameter and reaches possibly 75
ft. in height. The pecan, too, is fruiting on Long Island and I believe
we will have it fruiting in this locality within the next two or three
years. During the last few years I have talked with numbers of people,
many of them owners of large estates who could hardly believe it is
possible to grow the English walnut and pecan in this latitude.
I have said that were we to limit our shade trees to those trees alone
which produce edible nuts we would then have a greater assortment than
one could hardly suppose. Each and every one of the trees I have
mentioned were they not to produce a single nut would in themselves
equal or surpass almost any tree in beauty and majesty.
Were we to develop a park and limit the plantings to nut trees alone how
attractive such a park might be--the taller trees in the background to
be of the black walnut and beech. These trees to be banked with the
smaller trees of the butternut and English walnut. Over the rocky places
we could plant the chinkapin and hazel. We could then put in specimen
trees of the hickory and pecans with groups of filberts, dotted here and
there with plantings of nut bearing pines. I believe such a planting
would be as attractive as a planting of an added number of our ordinary
shade trees. Let us imagine what the return from such a planting might
mean to the public or the owners. In fifty years from this time, and in
speaking of nut trees looking forward to fifty years is but a
comparatively short time, our roadside trees could be replaced by nut
bearing trees which are as attractive as any shade tree. I have no doubt
that in this city alone were the roadsides planted with nut trees and
these received reasonable care the returns from these trees would pay
the entire city and town tax.
* * * * *
DR. MORRIS: Mr. Bartlett said that the hickory belonged only to
North America. That was supposed to be the case until very recently Mr.
Meyer, an agricultural explorer, found an open bud hickory in China.
MR. OLCOTT: Mr. Bartlett said he hoped the day would come when
the filbert and hazels would be produced in this country. I saw last
week the report of a crop in Rochester, New York, on five-year old
filbert bushes that had been pronounced as good as imported nuts in
quality and certainly were in size, and finer in coloring. I have some
photographs of the trees on which they grew. These were the trees which
were described in detail in a paper read at the National Nut Growers'
Association at Nashville last year by Mr. McGlennon, of Rochester. He
told me that all he said at that time stands, with the addition that
since then he has had proof regarding the absence of blight and the
extreme hardiness of the trees and their continued bearing. The trees
are grown for propagating purposes and not for fruit, and therefore they
are not in their best condition for bearing. Mr. McGlennon is a business
man of Rochester, with no special experience except that he became
interested in some southern pecan plantings. Afterwards the filbert
planting came up and he worked with Mr. Vollertson, who was experienced
in this work in Germany. He and Mr. McGlennon imported 22 kinds of
filberts from Europe. They are so far blight-proof and extremely hardy
and are bearing.
MRS. IRWIN: I would like to say that I do not think there is
enough publicity given this organization. There are a number of people,
to whom I casually mentioned yesterday, that I had become interested in
this thing, but they had not seen the Advocate and knew nothing about
the meeting. They are interested, I think, and it seems to me that an
organization for growth must have publicity and a lot of it.
A MEMBER: We were discussing this morning why we did not have a
larger number of people here from Stamford and Greenwich. It is the
merest chance I saw the notice. I have been interested for some time. I
think there should be greater publicity because only by large membership
can we get the growth and the standing that we want.
DR. MORRIS: Even a good many people in the vicinity who knew
about this conference and said they would be interested to come, have
not appeared. Our meeting came to Stamford this year because there are
so many wealthy people interested in horticulture in Stamford and
Greenwich. Very large funds are required for development of this
subject, experimental orchards, publication and publicity. We believed
here we would strike the sort of men to further public interest in the
subject. This is by all means the smallest local attendance, however,
that we have ever had since the beginning of the Association in any part
of the country.
THE SECRETARY: We have never had the advertising more
thoroughly done. Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Staunton and Dr. Morris and I have
all worked at it; notices have been in at least three of the New York
papers, clippings of which have been sent me, and articles in Ansonia
and Hartford papers; articles and programs have been sent repeatedly to
Stamford, Greenwich, Darien, Port Chester, Danbury, Ridgefield and New
Canaan papers. Dr. Morris has written personal letters. And then, too,
there are the signs around here. I don't know what other measures could
have been taken.
DR. MORRIS: My chauffeur, who is in the Naval Reserve, and
doesn't know about nuts at all, dropped in casually yesterday, but
stayed through the whole session. That shows what interest might be
aroused if only you can catch people. No trouble to hold them when
captured.
Every person who has come into this association has done so because of
something from the heart within.
MR. BIXBY: On this subject of publicity, I have done something
in a very humble way that I thought might help, and this year I am
planning to do it to a little larger extent. I have been very much
interested in the butternut. The concern with which I am associated has
a connection with general stores throughout the country, so I sent
circulars calling attention to the butternut prizes to the general
stores in the smaller towns throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. That
circular invited the people who had specimens of butternuts that they
thought superior to send them to Dr. Deming, and in the same circular I
called attention to the fact that there were prizes for other nuts, and
invited them to communicate with Dr. Deming. It was all done in the name
of the Association.
PROF. HUTT: When we started our meeting we announced a question
box.
THE SECRETARY: We expected to have a revised proof of our
question box to be distributed among the audience, but it has not come.
I would like to ask any one who now desires to ask questions relative to
nut culture to do so and I think he will be able to get answers from
members present. I had better begin by propounding a question myself
that has been asked often--what variety of nut trees to plant--and I am
going to make a short answer myself, just to bring about discussion. For
early bearing, and encouragement to the nut grower, plant chinkapins,
hazels, or filberts, many varieties, so that they will pollenize one
another, and plant Japanese walnuts, early bearing and beautiful trees.
For later results plant Persian walnuts, the Franquette and Mayette
varieties, which are old standard ones. If you want to go a little bit
more experimentally, plant pecans, say the Indiana and Busseron
varieties, both from the Indiana district, and both hardy, though
neither of them have fruited here. Plant some black walnuts, say of the
Stabler and the Thomes varieties, which are the best known, and plant a
few shagbark hickories. There are very few varieties to be had in the
shagbark. We don't know much about the Kirtland, although that is one of
the best nuts. We know little of the bearing records of these trees. I
leave this answer for emendation, addition or correction.
DR. MORRIS: Has anybody any Kirtland hickories in stock grafted
for sale?
MR. JONES: 100 to 150.
DR. MORRIS: Have you any Weicker?
MR. JONES: Yes, some are in stock for sale.
DR. MORRIS: Hales's hickories?
MR. JONES: No, not grown.
DR. MORRIS: The Hales' nut is big, too coarse and not very
good.
MR. JONES: The kernel is yellowish.
DR. BRITTON: I would like to ask Dr. Morris what time of the
year he would advise pruning the Persian walnuts here in Stamford.
DR. MORRIS: The editor of a horticultural journal at one time
set out to get opinions about the best time for pruning peaches. There
were opinions from all points as to whether peach trees should be
trimmed in winter, spring, summer or autumn, and summing up all of the
replies, the editor said, "We have come to the conclusion that the right
time to prune peach trees is when your knife is sharp." I presume that
that in a way will apply to almost all trees. Pruning the walnut trees
in the spring when sap is flowing freely would not be desirable, I
should think. Walnut trees need very little pruning. Very few of the nut
trees need pruning, excepting the hazels. These need to be pruned in
order to put them in good head. And possibly some of the hickories, but
for the most part I doubt if pruning is desirable, save for broken
branches. I leave that to Mr. Jones.
DR. BRITTON: The reason why I asked the question is that when
we were carrying on this investigation with the walnut weevil, we found
that when branches were cut early in the spring there was nearly always
a bad wound that did not heal over. It died back around the place. But
when we cut branches later, from the first to the middle of June, when
the growth was taking place, it healed over very smoothly without
leaving any bad scars, and I was wondering whether that happened over
the region where the Persian walnut was grown.
DR. MORRIS: I am glad to have that observation that the wounds
did not granulate and heal well. I have noticed that the shag bark
hickory cannot be cut well for scions in the spring without injuring the
rest of the limb on the tree. I have cut back the Taylor tree's lower
branches, in order to cut off scions, and almost every branch from which
I have cut scions is dead or dying. That is perhaps in line with the
observation of Dr. Britton. Some of the juglandaciae cannot be cut in
the spring.
MR. JONES: I have found that in cutting scions of walnut trees
when the sap is running the tree bleeds and makes a bad wound and
doesn't heal over. It dies back. But if you cut those any time in the
winter when you have say two or three days without freezing, they will
not bleed then nor in the spring when the sap comes up. Also, if cut
after the growth is well started, they won't bleed very much.
MR. WEBER: Are back numbers of the Journal available?
THE SECRETARY: All of our reports.
MR. WEBER: I would suggest for the benefit of uninitiated
persons that they get the back numbers, also send to each of the
accredited nurserymen and get a copy of each, catalogue and then study
the back numbers and the catalogues. They will be pretty well posted, as
all the nut catalogues are well illustrated and contain a great deal of
information, and it will take them out of the realm of hazy knowledge
they now have on the subject.
MR. JONES: The Government has some excellent bulletins in line
with this work.
MR. SMITH: I would like to get some information about spring
and fall planting in Massachusetts.
A MEMBER: I advise planting in the spring. Where the ground
freezes heavily in the winter, plant in the spring. In the South you
don't have any injury from cold.
MR. WEBER: I have planted trees in the fall and the tops
winter-kill down to the grafts. I had them wrapped and still they were
winter-killed, or else the wrapping killed them. Persian walnuts and
Indiana pecans. They threw a good shoot in the spring, however, and made
a very good growth.
I move that a vote of thanks be extended to the local committee for
making this convention a success, and a rising vote of thanks to show
Dr. Morris the appreciation of the convention.
The convention thereupon adjourned.
APPENDIX.
I report on soft shell almonds as follows:
In February, 1914, I ordered from Armstrong Nurseries, Ontario,
California, the following trees:
10 four to six ft. Jordon Almond trees
10 four to six ft. I. X. L. Almond trees
10 four to six ft. Ne Plus Ultra Almond trees
The trees were shipped in March of the same year and healed in until
May. The farm on which these trees were planted is situated on the south
shore of Lake Ontario, in Wayne County, New York. This district is a
large producer of peaches and apples. The trees were planted twenty feet
apart in a sandy loam soil in line with a young apple orchard. This soil
is especially adapted to peach growing. The entire orchard was given
clean cultivation with intercrops until the Spring of 1917. For two
years potatoes were grown among the trees, and for one year cabbage. The
land was limed and fertilized with both natural and chemical
fertilizers. Cultivation of the tree rows stopped about the 1st of
August, the intercrops about the 15th of September. For the year 1917
the trees were grown in sod. The trees were pruned similar to the peach
trees, and have made somewhat less growth than a peach tree would make
under the same conditions.
The lake on the boundary of the farm tempers the climate conditions of
this location so that the opening of the season is about two weeks later
than the average, and the date of the first frost is two to three weeks
later. On this account the trees have had a better opportunity to ripen
the wood for the winter period after cultivation ceases. During these
winters the thermometer has gone as low as four degrees below zero
without winter killing those trees which survived. Six trees of the
thirty originally planted are now living. All others died the first
winter after being set out. Unfortunately, the trees were not labeled at
the time of getting out so I am unable to indicate what varieties lived
through. Of the six trees living, three blossomed scantily this year,
but all the blossoms proved false. I think there is no particular cause
for discouragement on this account, as we have the same experience with
peach trees. That is, they often bear a number of blossoms the first
year, and none of them come to maturity. All the trees appear to have
buds for next year. Some of these should develop into blossoms, and
unless there is a frost after the blossoms come out in the spring of
1918, there may be some nuts produced. The final test as to whether or
not these trees can be brought into bearing, will come next spring. The
site upon which the trees are planted, as mentioned before, on account
of the proximity of the lake, is more favorable than most locations for
peach growing, and if the experience of the peach growers in New York
State is any index, there would be little opportunity for success with
almond trees, except under similar conditions.
M. E. WILE.
I am pleased to advise that the hardy soft shell pecan trees I have
planted in Virginia, and the hardy English walnut trees are all growing
finely. I find it just as easy to get a budded pecan tree to grow as it
is to get an apple tree to grow. I am telling my friends about this all
over Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee as well as Virginia. They
have planted a good many trees and all report favorably.
My advice is to plant pecan and English walnut trees as they are just as
beautiful and useful for shade as any other kind, and in addition to
this they will produce a large amount of the healthiest and most
nutritious of food for the human family.
I am very much indebted to the Northern Nut Growers Association for the
knowledge obtained along this line. You can rest assured that I will try
and pass it along as I go.
JOHN S. PARRISH.
ATTENDANCE
R. T. Olcott, Rochester N. Y.
Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Reed, Washington, D. C.
Irwin R. Waite, Stamford, Ct.
Prof. W. O. Filley, State Forester, Connecticut.
Prof. Record, State College of Forestry.
A. C. Pomeroy, Lockport, N. Y.
S. M. McMurran, Washington, D. C.
Harry E. Weber, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Fitch A. Hoyt, Stamford, Conn.
Wm. H. Bump, Stamford, Ct.
Wilber F. Stocking, Stratford, Ct.
J. A. Seitz, Greenwich, Ct.
L. C. Root, Stamford, Ct.
John Rick, Redding, Pa.
F. A. Bartlett, Stamford, Ct.
J. F. Jones, Lancaster, Pa.
R. H. G. Cunningham, Stamford, Ct.
Col. C. A. Van Duzee, Cairo, Ga.
John H. Hohener, Rochester, N. Y.
C. L. Cleaver, Hingham, Mass.
Fred A. Smith, Hathorne, Mass.
Dr. Lewis H. Taylor, Washington, D. C.
W. H. Druckemiller, Sunbury, Pa.
W. G. Bixby, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Mr. and Mrs. C. S. Ridgway, Lumberton, N. J.
Miss Marie Brial, Stamford, Ct.
J. E. Brown, Elmer, N. J.
A. M. Heritage, Elmer, N. J.
Dr. R. T. Morris, N. Y. City.
T. P. Littlepage, Washington, D. C.
Gray Staunton, Stamford, Ct.
J. L. Glover, Shelton, Ct.
Dr. E. F. Bigelow, Stamford, Ct.
Prof. W. N. Hutt, Raleigh, N. C.
Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Lewis, Stratford, Ct.
H. W. Collingwood, New York City.
Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Battle Creek, Mich.
Dr. and Mrs. W. C. Deming, Georgetown, Ct.
Mr. and Mrs. M. A. Mikkelsen, Georgetown, Ct.
Paul M. Barrows, Stamford, Ct.
G. W. Donning, North Stamford.
Mrs. Payson Irwin, Stamford, Ct.
Noble P. Randel, Stamford, Ct.
* * * * *
~Vincennes Nurseries~
W. C. REED, Proprietor.
VINCENNES, INDIANA, U. S. A.
PROPAGATORS AND INTRODUCERS
_Budded and Grafted Pecans, Hardy Northern Varieties_
_English (Persian) Walnut Grafted on Black Walnut_
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_Grafted Persimmons, best sorts_
_Hardy Almonds_
_Filberts and Hazelnuts_
_Also General Line Nursery Stock_
SPECIAL NUT CATALOGUE ON REQUEST
* * * * *
~STABLER~
~BLACK WALNUT TREES~
If you would provide for the future beauty of your lawn or roadside,
plant at least a few trees of the new Stabler Black Walnut. Its
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My trees, if you plant them in a fertile spot, will surprise you by
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HANCOCK, MD.
* * * * *
~CHESTER VALLEY NURSERIES~
ESTABLISHED 1853
Choice Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Cherry Trees on Mazzard Roots, Hardy
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* * * * *
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Best Varieties Grown. Grown in section free from blight. Descriptive
Pricelist.
E. A. RIEHL, GODFREY, ILL.