I believe I have discovered the best way to market black walnuts. I have
not had much success selling them either husked or unhusked, "too hard
to crack." Then someone remarked, "If you would crack them and put in
some horseshoe nails to pick out the meats, they might sell." There it
is: the secret is discovered. The lowly and almost extinct horseshoe
nail will sell cracked black walnuts. I have the reputation among local
hardware dealers of having more horses than any man in Oklahoma. Black
walnuts and horseshoe nails are reminiscent of the good old days down on
the farm. The big fat meats of improved cracked walnuts peering through
the sides of one or two pound cellophane bags pinned shut with a couple
of horseshoe nails is a temptation few people can resist. Leave a few
packages with your grocer or druggist and try it. I get 25c per pound
for the whole walnuts, and 35c for those cracked. I sell several
thousand pounds every season, and since the black walnut does not become
rancid we sell them all the year. I have a down-town shop window to
display nuts and fruits. We husk our walnuts by running them thru an
ordinary corn-sheller, or by jacking up the rear wheel of an automobile,
put on a mud chain, with a trough underneath, place car in gear and
scoop walnuts into trough in front of the wheel. This will husk them
rapidly and well. We should promote the growing of more improved black
walnuts. Most catalog nurseries still list seedling walnuts. We sold
3000 Thomas and Myers black walnut trees to one mail order nursery, and
they could have used more.