My interest in nuts dates back to the turn of the century when, as a boy
in high school, I delighted in gathering wild nuts for my own use. I
knew of several black walnut trees bearing very fine nuts and also one
excellent hickory. These were near my home in northern Ohio.
After my school days were over, I married and went to Oklahoma, where I
found the most miserable wild nuts imaginable. However, I stayed but a
short time and returned to my native state where the wild nuts were
reasonably good. In 1935, I made a trip to California and visited the
Persian walnut orchards at harvest time. As if that were not enough to
convince me that it would be worth my while to do what I could in behalf
of the nut industry, the Agricultural press of the time published
several intriguing accounts of Persian walnuts growing in and near
Toronto, Ontario which had been brought there by Rev. Paul C. Crath from
the Carpathian Mountains of Poland.
My constant talk about hardy strains of Persian walnut prompted friends
to tell me of several plantings already growing in northern Ohio with
more or less success. I promptly obtained scions and undertook to graft
a number of these, but I had the usual ill-success of a beginner. I
failed in attempts to top work trees and had no better results with
bench grafting although I began early in the season and continued my
efforts till the time arrived for planting the trees. I stored the
grafted material in a cool apple storage house from the time they were
grafted until they were planted. Then somehow I learned that walnut
wounds would not callous over except at relatively high temperatures.
Accordingly, I placed my next bench-grafted trees in a warm greenhouse,
where growth started at once. This marked my first successful grafting
of black walnut. Later, Mr. W. R. Fickes of Wooster, explained to me his
technique of "boxing off" or "bleeding." By following his instructions,
I was able successfully to top work some of the seedlings I had grown
for the purpose. My next steps were to procure some of the nuts from
Rev. Crath which he had brought from Poland and to make a personal
importation of seed from an experiment station in Russia. With these two
lots I started out to raise Persian walnut seedlings.
The first grafted trees set out at the Farm were obtained from Homer C.
Jacobs of Kent, Ohio, in 1937. That year we began planting a three-acre
tract. The trees were grown with scions cut from prize winning seedlings
brought out as a result of the Ohio nut contest held in 1934. The trees
were set 25 feet each way in order to conserve room. This distance
allowed for but 69 trees to the acre and available space was quickly
occupied. By 1944, it became necessary to add two more acres. The new
land was from an abandoned berry ground. It was plowed, limed heavily
and fertilized. The alternate rows were used for peach trees as fillers.
The main rows were mostly filled with new varieties of Persian walnut
from northern Ohio which had been grafted on black walnut stocks. Some
of the room was used for growing black walnut seedlings for use in
grafting with scions of prize winners in the next Ohio contest, plans
for which were already under way.
In 1944, four plantings of Persian walnut trees located some distance
from each other in northern Ohio, all had good crops and all produced
superior nuts. A half bushel of the nuts were planted at the Farm during
the following spring. All lots grew remarkably well. The resulting
seedlings, together with grafted trees, which by then were growing in
the Farm nursery, made it necessary to further add to the orchard room.
The increase this time was eight acres, of which five were planted to
trees during the spring of 1946. In all plantings, the distance between
trees has remained the same as at first, not that 25 feet is enough for
bearing trees but because it is expected to do a large amount of
thinning out as bearing begins and many trees prove their inferiority.
The problem of propagating desirable varieties has been our greatest
difficulty. The kinds we wanted were not to be had from nursery sources
as they were entirely new. Commercial nurserymen would not even
undertake the task of grafting. We were forced to rely upon our own
ingenuity. Not only did we have to master the art of grafting but we had
to drive hundreds of miles in order to obtain scions of the various
kinds. We still know too little about grafting. We often raise the
question as to how it happens that surgeons can do almost anything they
wish in the way of cutting and splicing parts of the human body, yet
with nut trees, 75 per cent of success is rarely attained.
Last spring I began a rather elaborate comparison of paraffin with
beeswax--lanolin for use in grafting. Dr. Shelton had demonstrated that
the latter was a good dressing for wounds and I assumed that in
grafting, it would promote callousing. My experiment was partially
frustrated by the loss of my melting pot which burned at about the time
the work was half done. The grafting had to be finished without wax of
any kind. Out of 60 grafts so set, only five grew. The five survivors
had been merely "boxed off" or "bled," none grew which had been treated
with hot wax of any kind.
Research with nuts has but barely begun at the Farm. We feel, however,
much encouraged and that the worst is over. We have a total of 725 trees
in the planting, many of which have already borne a few nuts. Production
should increase rapidly and we will soon have considerable quantities of
nuts and other material with which to work. We have the following
genera, species, varieties, and hybrid forms: Butternut--Craxezy and
Vincamp; Chestnut--Carr, Hobson, Yankee (Syn., Connecticut Yankee), and
Zimmerman; Hickory, including hybrids--Bixby, Bogne, Boor Nos. 1 and 2,
Bowen, Cranz Nos. 1 and 2, Fairbanks, Frank, Haskell, Leach, Lozsdon,
McConkey, Nething, Reynolds, Ridiker, Russell, Stratford, Weschcke, and
Wright; Pecan--Busseron, Greenriver, and Posey; Black Walnut--Barnhart,
Brown, Cowle, Fulton (Syn. Miller of Ohio), Hare, Havice, Horton,
Jansen, Krause, Lisbon, Mintle, Mohican, Murphey, Ohio, Rohwer, Snyder,
Sparrow, Stabler, Stambaugh, Thomas, Tritten, Twin Lakes, and Wanda;
Persian Walnut--Alliance, Baxter, Blosser, Broadview, Diller, Elmore,
Gligor Nos. 1 and 2, Graber, Hall, Lieber, Lopeman, Oehn, and Schafer;
Heartnut--Bellevue, Canoka, Fish, and Keck. In addition there are 55
black walnut seedlings of Brown and Lisbon varieties; 65 seedling black
walnuts of unknown parentage; 280 Persian walnut seedlings of known
percentage; 37 heartnut seedlings; 30 Chinese chestnut seedlings; and 22
seedling filberts.