In reading the past reports of this Association, I find one thing
lacking. One becomes interested in a report dated, let us say, 10 or 20
years ago, which contains an account of a project then started. It had
great possibilities. What was the outcome? We do not know. No mention of
it has appeared since. Did it fail? Let us say it did. Why? The answer
to this final query is almost, if not quite, as important as would be an
account of the means employed to make it successful--if it succeeded.
I should like to know, for example, whether anything remains of the
Neilson-Post project in Michigan and what its history has been. I should
like to hear more, also, about the outcome of many of Mr. Gerardi's
intensely interesting and original experiments, such as his method,
described in the 29th Annual Report, of asexual propagation of heartnut
trees on their own roots; or his method of artificially creating
beautifully marked burls on black walnut logs by systematically and
repeatedly scoring the bark. These and many others. Which experiments
were successful and which were not? Mr. Gerardi's original and
adventurous mind is the sort that should be probed for the benefit of
those who come after us.
My report today is my own short and tentative contribution to such a
resume.
In the 1938 Report, on page 73, you will find my ambitious and
optimistic "Farm Plan for Nut Tree Planting." In it I tried to outline a
plan which could be used by any practical farmer with but slight
sacrifice of useful land. Its last sentence reads as follows: "Meantime,
I shall have kept practically all my land in profitable use all the
time." Well, that depends upon what is interpreted as "profitable use."
Tree growth is surely profitable.
The plan, in substance, was as follows: First, plant 20 acres in a
modified forest formation to selected seed, mostly black walnut, the
trees to stand 8 feet apart in rows 22 feet apart. Use the space between
the rows first for truck gardening and later for an interplanted row of
some fast-growing species for timber. No grazing permitted. Second,
plant another 20 acres to a nut orchard using grafted trees of named
varieties spaced 80 feet apart. Protect from livestock and permit
grazing. Finally, plant seed in another 30 acres, spaced 80 feet apart,
the seedlings to be eventually topworked to the wood of promising
discoveries from the first plot. Protect and cultivate or graze.
What has been the outcome of this plan to date? The proposed plan worked
very well in a 20-acre plot where a meadow was planted to an orchard of
grafted trees, mostly pecans and Carpathians, which were protected by
cattle guards, but was not completed in the seedling 20-acre plantation
where the trees stood 8 feet apart in rows 22 feet apart. No grazing was
permitted there, but berries and truck crops were put out. I couldn't
keep it up. The reason: a World War, and lack of help for the intensive
type of farming required for the project. Finally, when I attempted to
interplant the rows with fast-growing trees, weeds choked out most of
them in spite of my own efforts. My own physical and time limitations
defeated me in the interplanting undertaking.
This leads up to an enumeration of my mistakes. First, I did not start
early enough in life. The elements of health and strength have their
part in success. Then, too, let us see what might have been the result
if I had started at the age of 20. Remember, in this first tract of 20
acres I planned a forest plantation of selected black walnut seedlings,
some chosen for nut quality and some for large, straight timber growth.
A tract of 20 acres planted 8 x 8 x 22 feet will hold about 4500 trees.
Allow for thinning and other reductions. If only 1250 trees should reach
log size in 50 years, that is, by today for me, at an average of $50
each, they would come to $62,500--a very tidy estate.
Just now there are perhaps 2500 well grown trees in the good portion of
the ground in this 20 acres. Pleasantly enough, they do not now seem to
need the interplanting of faster-growing trees in order to develop
upright growth but are pushing each other up as they stand, 8 x 8 x 22
feet apart. In this planting, then, there is evidence of successful
timber growth in the good ground but of almost complete failure in the
poor ground.
Another failure is to be noted in my original plan for cattle guards.
These guards were 12 feet in diameter, and about 6 feet in height. These
were satisfactory for sheep after I had installed pipe for posts, but
not for cattle. Trees grow horizontally as well as vertically. Cattle,
reaching for these side shoots, reached over the guards and pushed in
and under. I later reduced the guards to a 6-foot diameter of stronger
woven fence-wire with 6-inch stays, not 12-inch, and raised the height
to not less than 10 feet. The cattle may now nibble off the side shoots
if they wish but the vertical growth is protected. Above 10 feet the
trees can spread out without danger.
Others say, "Permit no grazing at all." This statement, I think, should
be made with certain qualifications. Where bluegrass bottom is used for
the orchard planting of pecans or black walnuts, there is a possible
slight reduction in growth from lack of cultivation, but this loss will
be nowhere nearly proportionate to a farmer's loss of pasturage. And
even in my 8 x 8 x 22-foot planting of seedlings, though no grazing was
permitted while the trees were young, now the older trees are large and
strong enough in the good soil to take care of themselves. Some lower
branches are rubbed off but they should be off anyhow. Also, thank
heaven, the weeds are at last kept down by grazing, the grass is
utilized and, most important of all, the hazard of grass fires is
entirely wiped out. I know of a neighbor's planting destroyed in this
way and I shall always fear fire. I should not permit grazing in a
general purpose woods lot where young growth is constantly coming on.
Failure three: I have failed completely to interest my tenant in my
project. Each mowing or clean-up job is just a chore to him. I can't
blame him. Why should I expect anything else? With a World War on hand,
and with his son in the army, and with two farms to care for, the
immediate bread-and-butter jobs come first and my mowing suffers.
However, the wonderful trees somehow continue to grow in spite of weeds
and wars, perhaps a bit more slowly than they otherwise might, but I am
in no hurry.
The last war casualty was my original plan to make a further orchard
planting of seedlings in loco, ready to be top-worked to the wood of
some outstanding find among the selected seedlings. It has not been
done--period.
I think I do have one or two rather outstanding nuts among the
seedlings, but this leads up to another casualty which must be faced by
all of us--a temporary one, fortunately, namely, crop failures due to
the weather. The larger trees began to bear at age seven. Then, three
years ago we had a drouth. For the two years since then, we have had
summer in March and winter in May. The catkins were mostly killed and
the pistillate bloom was delayed in growth upon the new wood until most
of it came too late for even such pollination as was so sparingly
available. Thus we have had no generally good nut producing season for
three years in our part of Ohio. As a result, my truly outstanding nut
is still in hiding, and I am waiting for a good season to bring it out.
Another disappointment with me has been the Carpathians. They partially
winter-kill each winter. Their trunks still live and send up shoots. I
let them stand, hoping for an eventual hardening of the wood. I regard
them not as failures but as not yet proven.
For purely experimental purposes I planted apple and peach trees close
up to the walnuts. Whichever won out was to stay. Both are there yet.
There is as yet no sign of the results of toxicity. They stand,
literally, arm in arm.
One success I feel may safely be chalked up. In selecting seed for my
original planting, some were chosen for better nuts, as stated, and some
because of the magnificent growth of the parent trees. One such tree
gave me seedlings that are definitely superior in growth to other trees
which stand in equally good soil--in fact, in adjoining rows. This is
noteworthy.
As for the seed selected for nut quality, because of the three poor
producing seasons now past, the result is not so apparent. I can only
say that, out of some score or more sources, the nuts produced upon such
seedlings as have fruited tend to resemble the qualities of their
parents. They all show some variations. Each nut tree is a new
individual but with a family inheritance strongly enough marked to make
the planting of seedlings, when done in large quantities, from the best
parents, a sort of gamble in which the percentage is in favor of the
gambler--which is, as you should know, unusual.
One utterly complete failure must be noted. I shall never again plant a
black walnut seed or tree in any but good soil. Even the best
inheritance cannot prevail against hardpan or worn-out soil.
I was unfortunate, when I made my first and largest planting of seed, in
not knowing about the Northern Nut Growers Association. So I advertised
for local nuts, paying double for the seed I accepted. So far as the
seed which was selected because of the timber growth of the parent tree
was concerned, I am well satisfied. But nut quality was only fair; far
below the quality of our named varieties. Then, through the fine
missionary work of Harry Weber, I was introduced to the NNGA. All my
replanting since then has been from seed bought from the member's
plantations. Next year I expect some of them to come into bearing.
Most of you are chiefly interested in grafted or budded trees, and this
is as it should be. Where sure results and the best possible nuts are
the aim, one would be utterly foolish to plant a seedling. Upon the
other hand, where plantings are made in great quantities, as is the case
with foresters, state or federal agencies, colleges and other
institutions--and with occasional individuals like myself who find their
greatest interest in this particular exciting gamble, I think it is
fairly well demonstrated that the percentage of success can be turned in
favor of the planter by intelligent selection.
But where can the best seed be found? The answer is as plain as the nose
on your face. The best possible source is in existing plantations of
named, proven varieties. As a farmer, I should not use a cross-roads
maverick when I can use a registered Jersey, Hereford or Angus. As a
planter of black walnuts, or any other nuts, either for timber or wood,
I should not pick up my seed haphazardly from cross-roads trees. Every
nut produced by planters of orchards of the best named varieties should
be in active demand by state and national agencies for their own
plantings, and the seedlings from them should be available for the
widest distribution to the public. This urgent demand for better seed
will make existing plantations of proved varieties more profitable and
will fill our forests and farms with far better trees.