conditions under which breeding experiments may be carried on. We
believe that under eastern conditions the only opportunities for outdoor
breeding work will lie along the line of interbreeding with peaches and
almonds. The feasibility of indoor breeding with almonds is questionable
in view of the difficulty of properly hardening for winter and yet
affording protection during blossoming and providing at the same time
for conditions which will favor the setting of the fruit. We do believe
that there is abundant opportunity for experimentation, with the
possibility that valuable results may be secured by systematic breeding
along the line just mentioned.
Along with this cross breeding simple almond breeding experiments should
be carried on, but these must be done in a locality where almonds can be
brought to fruitage. Of course, the ideal place for this would be in
California in a known almond district, and it is hoped that as time goes
on experiments along this line will be conducted in an effort to secure
later blossoming varieties and earlier ripening varieties. Our guess is
that it would not be possible, at least within the lifetime of one man,
to lengthen the normal resting period of any strain of pure bred almonds
to the point where they would be able to withstand the long eastern
winters and at the same time shorten the ripening period to practical
limits. The development of this work, as far as it can be practically
carried, should result in relatively late blossoming almonds which could
then be used as a basis for breeding with peaches in an effort to still
further approach the desired results and yet maintain the desirable
characteristics of the almond. This simply involves the application of
known breeding methods to these fruits.
To accomplish anything of this kind involves the development of a
long-time plan which must be consistently followed. We would not look
for any results to speak of before ten years, and would not expect any
definite worthwhile results short of twenty years. It appears, however,
that the possibilities are great and well worth striving for, and it is
our sincere hope that some day a variety may be developed which will
prove adaptable to eastern conditions.
The usual summer climatic conditions which prevail in the eastern states
are not favorable to the economical production of almonds in a
commercial way but we see no reason why they should not be eventually
developed to the point where they may prove of considerable value and
satisfaction for home orchards. The very fact that thus far no varieties
of peaches have been developed which are immune year after year to
spring frosts would indicate that it would probably be impossible to
secure an almond which would be better than any peaches now known. On
the other hand, one never knows until he tries and we believe that out
of the effort much good could be accomplished, not only in the possible
production of satisfactory varieties of almonds, but possibly in the
accidental development of new and highly desirable peach varieties.
The possible development of a desirable table or canning peach variety
with a sweet kernel would in itself be well worth the effort.
I had occasion to examine those Illinois almonds on the table here. It
is quite evident that even though dried out somewhat they have some of
the characteristics of the peach. The hull itself is fleshy even though
thin. That is a characteristic that does not appear in the normal, pure
bred almond hull.
I was just talking with Dr. Morris about some efforts he made at
Stamford, Connecticut, to grow almonds. He stated to me, what was a very
great surprise, that almonds there are afflicted with peach leaf curl
and other diseases to which, under our weather conditions, they are not
subject at all. There are undoubtedly other conditions here, due to a
different climate, which we of California do not recognize at all.
I have endeavored to make this paper just as short as I could. I think
that after it comes out in the proceedings there may be opportunity to
study a few of the suggestions made here, and I want to express, on the
part of the people in California, our desire to co-operate with those of
you from the other sections of the country in every way possible for the
development of varieties of almonds, or peach almonds. I can see that it
will be difficult to compete with the sections in which almonds are
naturally produced under semi-arid conditions. But I do believe in being
close to your market if it is possible and in developing an almond which
will be worth while for local consumption, especially for home use.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Taylor, we thank you for the good advice and
suggestions offered in your paper. I believe some attempt has been made
to study the almond here in this vicinity. I know of one instance down
in Forest Lawn by Mr. Baker. I believe that some years ago Mr. Wile
attempted to do something in a commercial way with the almond, but I
have since learned it proved a failure.
As Mrs. Ellwanger was very gracious in giving up her place I am going to
call upon her now to read her paper.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR A WOMAN IN NUT CULTURE
MRS. W. D. ELLWANGER, Rochester
When at Mr. McGlennon's request I agreed to give some of my experiences
in nut growing at this meeting I had no idea such a large and
comprehensive title was to be given to my brief remarks.
Are not such opportunities wide and open to all? Women are now taking up
so many branches of agriculture, gardening, farming, landscaping, that
specializing in nuts is but one more. A real love for growing things,
perseverance in face of many discouragements, and incidentally a place
to grow the trees, are all that is necessary. I hope before long there
will be classes in nut culture in the women's horticultural schools.
What is more delightful than to plant a tree? Planting flowers is a
pleasure of the present but a tree is a link with the future.
My interest in growing Persian Walnuts in this region was started in
1912 by reading in a newspaper that these nuts could be grown in any
climate suitable for peaches. Then I remembered that when a child I had
picked walnuts from a tree on our lawn here in Rochester. Having a farm
on the shore of Lake Ontario, part of which was a peach orchard, it
seemed worth while to experiment with walnuts. Needless to say I am
still experimenting!
The first trees planted were about one hundred Pomeroy seedlings and
some fifty grafted trees, of the Rush variety. Dynamite was used at this
time with such success that we have used it ever since. The seedlings
are now quite large trees but not over half a dozen of them have borne
any nuts. I early learned from growers in California that seedlings are
a waste of time and money. I own a few acres of land in Southern
California and of course have planted walnuts there. A few years ago I
received word that the crop from my trees was being shipped to me. They
arrived. There were six nuts. If I were a Californian I might say six
bushels.
Three years ago the trees here bore quite a crop and no squirrel ever
hoarded his winter supply with more satisfaction than I had with that
first peck or so of nuts. Last year promised well, and many trees had
nuts set for the first time, but owing to the intensely hot summer, or
some other reason they did not mature.
There is a question as to the adaptability of Persian walnuts to this
climate. The severe winter of 1917-18 with its sudden and extreme
changes of temperature killed scores of my peach trees, while the
established walnuts came through practically uninjured by a temperature
of twenty-three below zero.
The World War did not take all the black walnuts in the country for gun
stocks, for there are many fine trees still in the Genesee Valley. Every
fall I am on the watch for trees bearing an abundance of large nuts
which we use for parent stock.
It would be quite out of place for me to discuss the various methods of
grafting before this audience all of whom know so much more about it
than I do. But after many trials we have had the best results from
grafting in the greenhouse. The black walnut stock is about four years
old when potted, and the scions are cut in January or February and used
immediately. Fifty per cent. is our average of success by this method,
and some of the trees not two years old are bearing nuts.
I have tried planting pecan trees, but so far they have always been
winter killed. Some Indiana trees planted this spring are growing and I
am hoping they may prove hardy.
The Sober Paragon chestnuts have shown wonderful growth and bear nuts
most abundantly. Each year, however, a tree or two is killed by the
blight and I suppose soon my orchard will meet the fate of all the other
chestnuts in the East. It seems as if someone ought to discover a remedy
for this destructive pest. Tomorrow I hope to see you all at my farm
where you can see what use one woman has made of her opportunities for
nut culture.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: On behalf of the association I am certainly very grateful
to you for your paper which contains some very valuable information.
Last week I went up to East avenue here to see the Thompson walnut grove
and met Mr. Thompson and talked with him. The grove is in a very much
run down condition. In fact he is thinking of using dynamite to blow it
up and market the wood in Batavia for gunstocks at the gun factory
there. He told us that in the thirty-six years that he has had it, he
has had only three crops of nuts. One of the crops was an especially
good one, I have forgotten the number of bushels he had, but he sold one
hundred bushels, he said, to Sibley. Lindsay & Curr at nine dollars a
bushel. If he could get a crop every year at that price I think he would
be making pretty good money. I would class that orchard as a failure.
Last week, however, I had the privilege of seeing a walnut orchard that
certainly surprised me greatly. I went to Lockport at the invitation of
our very enthusiastic member, Mr. Pomeroy, to see the Pomeroy orchard,
and I saw several trees heavily loaded with good sized nuts. Mr. Pomeroy
estimates that he will have in the neighborhood of six or seven thousand
pounds of nuts. The trees look healthy and show no evidence of disease.
As I understand some of the trees are fifty years of age and there have
been only two crop failures in that time. My idea is that the Pomeroy
walnut is very hardy and of unusually fine strain. I believe that there
is little hope for the commercial development of the English walnut much
north of the fortieth parallel. I believe there will be some instances
found, like that of the Pomeroy nut, where the seedling will do very
well. It certainly has done very well with him. The Avon orchards are
seedling trees, of course, the nuts having been gotten from a residence
on Lake avenue, Mrs. Cramer's, at the corner of Emerson street.
Evidently that strain is entirely different from the strain of nuts
represented by the Pomeroy orchard which were brought from Philadelphia
by Mr. Pomeroy's father.
I am going to ask Dr. Morris if he will present his paper and make his
demonstration at this time.
DR. ROBERT T. MORRIS: I have had a good many experiences in grafting for
a number of years. I have finally discarded most methods and have gotten
down to rather simple principles. As a matter of fact this is the last
word from my own point of view. During the past thirty or forty years I
have changed my mind so many times on so many subjects that I have no
confidence at all in anybody who puts any trust in me.
I am getting down to the splice graft. The reason why I didn't try it
before was because it didn't seem reasonable to believe that the simple
splice would hold. It was because I was so busy with many other
responsibilities that on one occasion I neglected to brace some large
splice grafts. Thus I learned that the splice graft would hold even
through the very severe storms in our vicinity of Stamford, Connecticut.
We have violent thunder storms and sometimes for a few minutes in
advance of a storm we have a wind velocity of sixty or seventy miles an
hour. If at the time the leaves happen to be wet the battering power of
a seventy-mile wind is so tremendous that it will break out almost any
form of graft. But my splice grafts during the past two years, simple
splice grafts, subjected to this sort of storm, have not given way on a
single occasion so far as I know, much to my surprise.
I will pass about some examples of the simple splice graft first and
then show how we do it.
Here is a Stabler black walnut graft on common black walnut stock last
year. For years I had been in the habit of cutting my scions and
throwing the stubs away. I had a nice lot of hardy looking stubs in the
grass and I said to myself "Why not try some of the stubs?" They made a
very fine growth. I didn't lose one of them. Here is one of the big stub
grafts and here is the growth it made last year. Here is another plain
splice and the growth it made last year. This tree was killed by the ice
in the river on my place last year. Sometimes in the spring we have
great masses of ice come down that run through the orchard and kill some
of my trees. That is the reason I cut off this one. I have only brought
specimens that were injured but they show perfectly well. In this
smaller splice you see I fitted the scion to the diameter of the stock.
In the larger one I took no pains to do that. Furthermore the paraffin
method was used. The scion is covered entirely with paraffin and I think
you will notice, by rubbing your fingers over this stock, that the
paraffin, although two years have elapsed, is all there. It is because I
put it on in such a fine layer that it expanded with the growth of the
scion.
Not always, but in order to make sure that my simple splice graft would
hold, I have sometimes put in screws. I use flat-head, brass, wood
screws, seven-eighths inch long.
I will put in some screws for you. So, if any of you fear that the
simple splice grafts may not hold, put in screws and study Basil King's
book on the "Conquest of Fear." This is a black walnut graft that I put
in late this year with screws. You can see the screws projecting from
the paraffin cover. I do not care if the screw sticks out quite a little
distance. It is covered with a thin layer of paraffin. This graft caught
and started to grow but was killed off by sprouts springing from the
butternut in great masses before it had a chance to assert its own
individuality. The graft, however, is all complete. Here is another one,
where the screws are projecting, which was killed off by the stock
sprouts below, with the repair all complete. In fact it would have gone
on well enough to a successful growth if I hadn't been away and allowed
the stock sprouts to grow. This shows, incidentally, the thin layer of
paraffin. If we use a thick layer of paraffin it will crack and not be
successful.
The simple splice graft is a very simple affair. In the first place it
is well to have a knife with which you can shave. I think, Mr. Chairman,
you could shave with that (handing knife to the President). That is the
sort of edge to use in all our grafting work, the sort of edge that will
bring terror to the heart of the mother of boys. I find very few people
who really can sharpen a knife. I have been surprised at the small
proportion of people who are really able to do it. They put on a feather
edge, or they leave a round edge, or at any rate they are unable
apparently to use the little finesse required to put the finishing touch
on a really good knife. Above all other essentials is this little piece
of carborundum made at Niagara Falls, F F Fine. Moisten it, hold it in
the fingers this way, and then by simply rubbing it back and forth in
this way you can put on the very finest edge. Do not use a knife unless
you can shave with it because it is quite essential to have the cambium
layer very nicely kept.
A couple of years ago hearing of Mr. Biederman's work in the use of the
plane for grafting with his Persian walnuts, it occurred to me to try it
with shagbark hickories. I went out in the barn to look for a block
plane and I found three or four rusty ones. I wondered where they came
from and then it occurred to me that about eight years ago I had thought
to try the plane, and did try the plane, but it was not a success. That
was before we had any success in grafting hickories. Now we may use the
plane almost to the exclusion of the knife in cutting our scions of hard
wood trees. Perhaps the majority of scions are shaped with the plane
rather than with the knife because it gives a much truer surface. The
block plane, then, I believe, is to be used more and more instead of the
knife because of the very true surface that we make on the scion and on
the stock and very quickly.
Of course with a small scion of this sort that would be about the slope
that I would use for my ordinary splice. Fasten the splice together and
simply wrap it with raffia. There is an ordinary splice graft fastened
with raffia. That is the simple form that has given me the best results
and I have tried out all the fantastic forms of grafting.
Now I am going to use the plane on a little larger scion. That is about
the slope that I would use ordinarily. We will say this is to be the
scion and this the stock. In order to make them fit perfectly I will use
a smaller block plane. Now I will pass this about. You see with what
absolute perfection those surfaces fit. You can get absolute perfection
of fit by trimming a scion with a plane instead of with a knife. Even
the best experts, like Mr. Jones, who make beautiful free-hand cuts,
will find that with a plane they may make still better ones. That is one
of the grafts that I would ordinarily fasten just with raffia, but I
will fasten one together with screws to show how it is done. Now we will
say that this is the stock and this is the scion. I am going to prepare
them to fit each other. Some will ask if I ever use a scion as large as
that. Sometimes I use a scion two or three feet long and as large as
that in diameter. They are full of vitality and make wonderful growth.
In order to do this I trim it down roughly with the knife to the general
shape before I use the plane. I will cut as true as possible with the
knife in order to simplify my work later.
MR. WEBER: In a large scion don't you have to have a larger exposed
surface?
DR. MORRIS: I do not think that really counts.
MR. SMEDLEY: Isn't the tree in the ground when you graft it?
DR. MORRIS: This is supposed to be in the ground.
MR. JONES: You couldn't do a thousand of those a day?
DR. MORRIS: If you have something special, where you want to use up some
big scions. But you can use the plane on little grafts just as well. Now
this is the stock and Dr. Deming is going to represent Mother Earth.
MR. SMEDLEY: Are the scion and stock necessarily of the same diameter?
DR. MORRIS: Not necessarily, but preferably so. One's sense of nicety
might demand that they be just alike, but you will find it doesn't make
any difference. It takes a little longer to put in a big scion of his
sort but it is very sure to grow. Your tree is already made by the time
you have done this.
MR. SMEDLEY: Should you have bark contact all around?
DR. MORRIS: I could do it with contact on one side.
MR. CORSAN: What time of the year do you do it?
DR. MORRIS: Almost any time of the year, preferably May or June.
MR. CORSAN: Do you wax that before you put the raffia on?
DR. MORRIS: After everything is all complete that is my final touch.
MR. WEBER: When the stock is sappy wouldn't the sap jam the edges of the
plane and roughen the bark?
DR. MORRIS: Not if you make it shave. I get the edge of my plane so it
will shave. Then it will not roughen it. I can screw in a scion two feet
long. I have tried it and had it start into growth. Thus I have got half
my tree under way. Now I cover the whole thing with melted paraffin.
MR. CORSAN; How do you apply the paraffin, paint it on?
DR. MORRIS: Yes, with a soft brush.
MR. CORSAN: Do you use the stuff you buy at Woolworth's by the pound?
DR. MORRIS: Yes, I buy what they call parawax.
QUESTION: It is not necessary to wrap a scion with raffia if it is
fastened with screws?
DR. MORRIS: No. After it is screwed you don't have to use raffia. I use
either screws or raffia. In a large one like this the screw is
preferable. In a smaller one the raffia would suffice. It is the plain
splice graft that I use almost to the exclusion of anything else.
MR. WEBER: Wouldn't it assist the union, if the graft didn't make a
perfect fit, to wrap it with raffia to hold it together?
DR. MORRIS: Possibly, but I think with the plane one can make a perfect
fit. That is the idea at any rate. After three weeks of growth that will
stand any storm.
QUESTION: How do you tell when the paraffin is the right temperature?
DR. MORRIS: That is very much as a woman does in cooking. You put in so
much of everything. It is a matter of experience. I get it very hot but
not hot enough to scald. The idea is to have it hot enough and to have
it very thin. On one occasion my light went out when I was grafting
walnut trees. It went out when I was grafting the very last tree. I put
in perhaps twenty or thirty grafts in all. All the other grafts caught
but on that tree, after my light went out, only one caught. In examining
into the philosophy of it a week later I found that the paraffin, being
a little too thick, had cracked.
QUESTION: When is the best time to do the grafting?
DR. MORRIS: I think the best time is after the sap season in the spring;
all through the latter part of May and in June and the first half of
July.
QUESTION: Do you use paraffin of a particular melting point?
DR. MORRIS: I have tried many but the one I use the most is the
commonest one. You can buy parawax in all groceries. If you wish to make
the parawax harder for the southern sun put in stearic acid. It may be
bought at any drugstore. Melt it with the paraffin and that will harden
it very much.
QUESTION: What proportion do you use?
DR. MORRIS: It would depend on the degree of heat to be resisted. I
suppose you might use it in the proportion of one to four of parawax,
but very little stearic acid will harden it.
QUESTION: Isn't there a tendency to melt under the high temperature of
the sun?
DR. MORRIS: As a matter of fact I pay no attention to that in the North.
Although we have very hot days and the paraffin does soften, it does not
seem to interfere with the repair on the part of the tree.
QUESTION: In the case of smaller grafts, what would be your objection to
the use of the ordinary whip graft?
DR. MORRIS: It makes one more motion.
QUESTION: It seems to me that it is more quickly done?
DR. MORRIS: It may be; that is a matter of individual technic. My idea
is to do the thing the quickest way. If a man has found that he can put
on one graft more quickly, that he has a technic that gives him speed,
which is one of the essentials of grafting, if you can put on the whip
graft quicker than I can put the other on, do it.
QUESTION: Do you have any trouble with the oxidizing of the cambium?
DR. MORRIS: Yes and no. Of course you free a certain number of enzymes.
I haven't thought of it as an oxidizing process so much as an enzymic
injury, where enzymes are freed from an organic solution.
QUESTION: I think that is correct. That is the common method of
expressing it.
DR. MORRIS: I use sometimes, when the weather is very hot and I am
grafting in the midst of sunshine on a hot day, a solution that I have
described containing salts belonging to the salts of trees. I use that
to dip my graft in and in that way the enzymes that are freed from the
cut surface are removed by the solution in such a way that they do not
interfere. Practically we can get almost one hundred per cent. of
catches of our grafts now by the paraffin method, that is, with perfect
scions, perfect stocks and perfect technic by the operator.
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: Time is pressing and we have with us a member whom I am
very anxious to have you all hear. I refer to our beloved member and my
warm personal friend, the Pecan King, Mr. J. M. Patterson of Putney,
Georgia, who is here this evening with Mrs. Patterson and their two
sons. It affords me great pleasure to introduce Mr. J. M. Patterson.
MR. PATTERSON: Ladies and Gentlemen, your distinguished president has
set a nice pace for me, introducing me as a king! Of course I am not
unmindful of the fact that crowned heads are not any longer in favor in
this democratic world of ours.
THE PRESIDENT: When I introduced Mr. Patterson at the Chamber of
Commerce yesterday to Secretary Woodward, I introduced him as the Pecan
King. He is known as the Pecan King and he is the Pecan King. There is
no question about it. Mr. Woodward responded in what I thought was a
very gracious way. He said he was much happier in meeting a pecan king
than he would be in meeting some of the kings in the old world.