logical question, why topworking. Possibly this should come first. If an
individual is dissatisfied with his friends and neighbors, he must put
up with them; he cannot change them. But if he is dissatisfied with a
nut tree, it is his own fault if he does not change it. It can be top
worked. He does not care to top work maples or oaks. We only top work to
get something better than we have. The trees, of course, that interest
us specially in top working are the nut trees. We have seedling pecans,
seedling walnuts, seedling hickories, and seedling chestnuts. Down at
the mouth of Green River in Kentucky are nearly two hundred acres of
wild pecan trees. So far as we know there are only two trees in that
orchard worthy of propagation. Of thousands of trees there we have
propagated only two varieties. These trees are now too large to top
work, but had it been possible 150 years ago to go in there and select
the desirable nuts, and topwork all the other trees with these, there
could have been a great orchard there now of the highest quality nuts.
Topworking consists in cutting off the top of some undesirable seedling
and replacing it with scions or buds from some desirable variety. It is
just the same as any other grafting or budding process. Almost any size
tree can be topworked but, of course, the larger the tree the more
difficult the operation. A young tree, from two to five inches in
diameter, can be sawed off four or five feet above the ground and
topworked by grafting from two to four scions on it, by the slip bark
process. If the tree is larger than five inches in diameter, it is
better to go up to the first branches, saw off part of them and proceed
just as if each branch were itself a small tree. If the tree is a large
tree, with a number of branches or prongs, it is best to work part of
them one year and leave the remaining branches to maintain the root
system. It would probably kill a large tree to cut the whole top off at
one time. I have seen trees, two feet in diameter, successfully
topworked. It sometimes happens that the scions placed in the tree, in
the spring, for some reason or other, do not grow. The tree then sends
up nice green shoots that later in the season can be budded into just as
if they were small seedlings. The wild black walnut trees, growing
around the fields and hills, can all be very easily topworked to the
English walnut by the slip bark method. The scions must be dormant and
the tree starting into active growth.
The wild hickory, wild pecan and wild black walnut trees, offer the best
field for profitable work along this line. We have topworked a great
many hickories to pecan, but we do not expect permanent satisfactory
results. The experience of the pecan on the hickory is not very
satisfactory. The hickory is a dense, hard wood, that has a short
growing season, and matures its nuts early; the pecan is of the coarser,
faster growing wood, whose nuts grow until late in the fall. This
inconsistency of the growing habits of the two trees prevents the pecan
top on the hickory from producing normal crops of nuts. The pecan
topworked to the pecan, however, is a perfect success and there is no
reason why the wild hickories of all descriptions cannot be successfully
and profitably topworked to the better varieties of the good shagbark
hickories. I believe that there are great opportunities in the state of
New York for successful nut culture by utilizing the wild black walnut
trees and the hickories. I have seen hundreds of English walnut trees
growing around Rochester, some of them bearing perfectly wonderful crops
of walnuts. I am surprised that the people in this section have not
availed themselves more of the opportunities along this line. If the
farmers in this section would take up nut growing as a side proposition
and set five or ten acres of nut trees on each farm, they would soon
find that these nut trees would be producing them more than all the
balance of their farms. We hear a great deal today about the back to the
farm movement, but my opinion is that for everyone who is going to the
farm, ten are leaving it, and the reason for this is that the heavy
operating expense of the annual crops, such as corn, wheat and potatoes,
etc., lay such a heavy toll on the farmer that farming is not
profitable. The requirements of time, labor and money in producing these
crops are so great that it discourages many farmers. I have made the
statement to some of the farmers in my part of the country that they
must produce alfalfa or go broke. I believe that alfalfa and tree crops
will be two of the greatest factors in the rehabilitation of the farm,
especially the nut trees, for the reason that nut trees do not require
the same high degree of care, spraying, pruning, as do apple and peach
trees, nor are the products as perishable. A crop of nuts can be
harvested and stacked up in barrels, and boxes, in the smoke house, the
barn or in a flat car and go to the market tomorrow, next week or next
month.
Recurring to the advantage of topworking, however, it meets the
objection that is often raised by those who say they have not time to
wait for the nut trees to grow. Of course, this is a perfectly foolish
statement; they are going to wait anyhow; it is simply a question as to
whether they wait for something or nothing, and trees grow into maturity
in a surprisingly short time. A few years ago, when I was setting out an
orchard of nut trees, a neighbor of mine came over and looked very
doubtfully with a trace of pity in his expression and said, "When do you
expect all those trees that you are setting to bear?" I replied, "I am
not sure, but I do know that they will bear a long time before those
trees that you are not setting." Topworking, however, gives quick
results and enables one to take advantage of the long-established
thrifty root systems of the wild black walnuts, hickories and pecans
growing in economic spots, around the fences, corners, creeks and
hillsides.
* * * * *
MR. JONES: In all our grafting we cut the cleft; we don't split
it. The slip bark method is better in some cases.
MR. PRESIDENT: What is the size limit for the slip bark method?
MR. JONES: Anything less than two inches we would cut.
THE PRESIDENT: Will Mr. Jones tell us about budding with cold
storage wood?
MR. JONES: The cold storage buds would take better, but you
would have more loss in their failing to grow. In other words, a much
larger percentage of buds set with the current season's growth, will
grow in the following spring. I would not recommend either method alone.
By grafting in the spring and then budding, first with cold storage and
later with the season buds, you would have three chances.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you budded any cold storage wood before
this year?
MR. JONES: We have done more or less of it for six or eight
years, and it has been successful. Anyone with very little experience
can use cold storage buds.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. W. C. Reed, have you any additions that we
ought to know?
MR. W. C. REED: Mr. Jones' method and views in regard to cold
storage buds agree with mine exactly. Last year I put in on July 30th
quite a number of English walnut buds that were held in cold storage. In
the fall we seemed to have almost perfect stands from these buds, but
they are still lying dormant. Buds of the season's growth put in about
three or four weeks later gave better results, although our success last
year was very poor. We seemed to have a fair stand on quite a number of
varieties, but this spring they refused to grow. I lay much of this
trouble to the extreme cold we had in November. This killed many peach
trees that were from six to eight years old, and I think it injured many
of the walnut buds. I found the buds that started best were those
nearest the ground, where they were protected by a little grass.
In regard to the topworking of the English walnut, several of you have
seen my trees, the three trees along the highway in a ditch where they
catch the wash where they have made 91/2 feet growth. I am sorry to
report that two of these trees are entirely gone, killed by the cold
spell, and the other is about half alive, but I was not in the least
discouraged by that loss. In September the rains commenced, following
the extreme drouth and started a second growth, and the freeze caught
them November 22d as full of sap then as they were in September, when
you were there.
Other trees that I had topworked had made a moderate growth, and were
not injured in the least. They made a good growth this season, and
should be quite fruitful next year.
The Pomeroy trees in the bluegrass pasture had made only a moderate
growth, and went through the winter in good shape.
I had three trees of the Rush, probably twenty-five feet high. They were
injured a little, some of the growth killing back a third of the way,
and one or two buds were killed entirely.
In regard to topworking pecans, I have not done much of this, but our
success has been very good with what we have tried. I find them much
easier to work, as far as the bud starting in the spring is concerned.
Some varieties, however, do not start readily. With the Major, Green
River, and one or two other varieties, we can use wood five, six and
eight years old, and have it come out all right. I find, however, that
the current season's growth, cut from two-year-old trees, well
developed, will give you at least double the growth in the nursery the
first year that older or dormant wood will.
THE PRESIDENT: Some apple experience of mine is a close match
to the killing that Mr. Reed just reported. The season of 1912 was a
very dry one. All September it rained frequently and heavily. The trees
waked up and grew with such speed that many of them made a sappy growth
where they had been manured, and a very cold spell early in the winter
killed 100 of them. Others across the road were uninjured.
MR. W. C. REED: In regard to grafting in the nursery, this
spring my experience has been somewhat varied. In grafting we started
about April 10th; the first grafting was almost an utter failure. On May
1st it improved. On May 9th we set 900 and have 75 per cent growing
today, some higher than my head. Set with wood some of which would run
three-fourths inches in diameter.
LADY DELEGATE: My sister has on her place 200 or 300 black
walnut seedlings. What would you advise her to do with these? They are
in all ages and stages of growth, from one to ten years.
MR. LITTLEPAGE: That is a very broad question to answer. I
should topwork them to the Persian walnut. I should topwork all of them
on the chance that future developments would leave them the proper
distance apart. The walnut transplants very easily, except that the
larger the tree, the more danger of loss. Trees of that size ought to be
worked very nicely.
Assume that this is your tree, and that you have sawed off the top. Here
is your scion from your desirable tree. It is to be cut on one side
only, and there is considerable art in making that cut true. Then with
the knife split down the bark on the stock a little way and shove the
scion down between the wood and bark, the cut side next to the wood of
the stock (demonstrating), and cover with waxed cloth. Then apply
grafting wax to the cut surface, and cover all with a paper bag for two
or three weeks. There should not be more than two buds on a scion. Don't
leave too many. One bud is better than three, but you may leave two
buds. This scion must be kept entirely dormant until used. Any time
after the bark will slip readily is the proper time to graft, and you
will then get a high percentage of success. Keep your sap circulating to
the top by putting two or three scions around the top of the stock. This
method of grafting is a very simple operation when you know a few little
fundamental facts about it. The kind of wax or cloth is not particularly
important. Mr. Reed and Mr. Jones and Mr. Rush have had much experience
in this work.
MR. PARISH: In doing this, shall we put in a little air hole?
MR. LITTLEPAGE: No. In from ten days to two weeks tear a little
hole in the paper bag. Next time be careful, for it may be full of
wasps. The purpose of that paper sack is to keep the water off the buds.
This is essential.
MR. PHILLIPS: I had about 300 trees planted in 1911, black
walnuts. In 1913 I budded them according to the Oregon method. I failed
to make any of these grow. In 1913 I cleft grafted and a great many of
these started, but they all failed to live. I wonder wherein I failed.
MR. LITTLEPAGE: No one can tell why a particular scion does not
live. I had scions from a very fine hickory and I put them in cold
storage. The wood was in perfect condition. I grafted perhaps 100 of
these scions as I have described. I have four trees growing out of the
100 grafted. In handling the wood I got fungus on it probably. That may
be one reason why it failed. There may be other reasons. If the scions
were not dormant that might explain it.
MR. W. C. REED: I think it is very important that walnut
grafting wood should be cut before severe weather in the winter, though
I don't think it ever grows cold enough to hurt pecan wood. You need not
worry about pecan wood, but in the case of the walnut it should be cut
before extreme cold weather and put in cold storage. I cut some last
year after the extreme cold snap in December and we threw it practically
all away this spring. It is useless. You are throwing away your time to
use it.
MR. JONES: I don't think we had any wood that was not injured
during the cold winter of 1911-12. Out of about 2,600 grafts set we had
two grow.
QUESTION: What do you mean by cold storage?
MR. W. C. REED: I have been storing all of our wood in ordinary
apple cold storage plants. Pack it in damp moss or excelsior. Paper line
your boxes well, and nail them up, and leave them there until you are
ready to use them. I have put wood in in November and taken it out in
good shape in August. Pecan wood can be held the year round.
THE PRESIDENT: What can you tell us, Mr. White, that has not
yet been covered?
MR. PAUL WHITE: About all I would care to say about topworking
would be to ask a question. They claim that the pecan topworked on the
hickory, only bears for a few years, and then stops. What would be the
result in the case of the English and black walnuts? Might there not be
some danger there?
THE PRESIDENT: I have made considerable investigation of this.
I have found several English walnuts topworked on black walnuts, one
done eighty years ago down in Maryland. The tree is reported to have
borne twenty-five bushels of nuts. I think there is good explanation for
the pecan-hickory trouble. A hickory grows for a short time in early
summer and does not grow much, but a pecan grows twice as much.
Therefore the hickory roots cannot feed the pecan top enough to make
both vegetation and fruit. We are, in this city, in a very unusual
place. Not only is it the center of a great wealth of seedling Persian
walnut trees, but we have in the parks a great tree collection under
Superintendent Laney. This is a very fine and notable collection,
including American and foreign trees, some of which we will see this
afternoon.
Adjournment at 12:12 P.M.
Photographs of the convention were then taken on the steps of the City
Hall.
THURSDAY EVENING SESSION.
Convened at 8:20 P.M., Dr. Smith presiding.
Attendance about twenty.
A Nominating Committee was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Littlepage,
C. A. Reed, J. F. Jones, Webber, and Teter.
At this point was given the address by C. A. Reed.
AN APPEAL TO OWNERS OF HARDY NUT TREES
C. A. REED, NUT CULTURIST, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
Ever since the colonists first established themselves in the Western
Hemisphere, nut trees have been planted up and down the Atlantic Coast.
One of the species oftenest included in such planting was a walnut, a
native to Persia which, with Romanism, had spread across Europe and the
channel into England. In the Old World it had variously been known as
Jove's nut, under the supposition that it had once been the food of the
gods; Royal nut, meaning King nut; and by other common names which would
be interesting to discuss but which are not pertinent in this
connection. In England it had been known merely as the "walnut," but in
the New World, in order to distinguish it from the walnut found here, it
was called the "English" walnut. In the trade today it is commonly known
by the Old World name, other walnuts being distinguished from it by
prefixing their common names, as Eastern, California, Mexican or
Japanese black walnut, etc. However, being a native of Persia, it was
long ago decided that the correct name of this nut should be "Persian"
walnut, and not "English" walnut. As such it has now been referred to in
scientific publications for well towards a quarter of a century.
Subsequent to this rather limited and scattered planting on the Atlantic
Coast, by perhaps three hundred years, the Persian walnut put in its
appearance on the Pacific Coast. According to Bulletin No. 231 by the
University of California, it is probable that occasional trees were
planted in that state long before the discovery of gold in 1848.
Following that date, planting became much more general, but usually with
hardshell strains and always with seedling trees. From these early trees
the crops were never of great importance. In 1867 Mr. Joseph Sexton of
Santa Barbara, planted a sack of walnuts bought in the markets of San
Francisco, which he had reason to believe had been grown in Chili. Of
the resulting trees some were very good, others mediocre, and some
worthless. Later on, nuts from the best of these trees were planted, and
second generation seedlings produced. In this way the famous Santa
Barbara Papershell type of walnut was evolved. With it developed an
industry which among the tree products of southern California is now
second only to that of the orange. In 1910, the census takers found that
in the year preceding, the crop of walnuts of southern California,
which, by the way, came almost entirely from four counties, was valued
at more than that of the total crop of all other nuts grown in the
United States put together.
Four years after Mr. Sexton of southern California had planted this sack
of walnuts from San Francisco, Mr. Felix Gillet of Nevada City, in
northern California, began the introduction of French walnuts both by
seed and scions. Out of his efforts and those of others who subsequently
joined him, developed the walnut industry of northern California, which
now bids fair some day to equal that of the lower part of the state. The
famous French varieties of Franquette and Mayette were introduced by Mr.
Gillet, and from seedlings of his growing evolved the Concord, the San
Jose, and no doubt the Chase varieties.[1]
A nut which probably has received equally as much, if not more,
attention at the hands of experimental planters in this part of the
country is the chestnut. Just when the introduction of foreign strains
began, history seems to have failed to make clear; but according to
Powell[2] general dissemination in the Delaware section began with
introductions by Eleuthers Irénée du Pont de Nemours, made at about
1803. It is said that some of the original trees planted at that time
near the present site of the du Pont Powder mills by Mr. du Pont, still
survived when Mr. Powell recorded their history in 1898.
The spread of both European and Japanese chestnuts and their general
trial throughout the Eastern States has been narrated at former meetings
of this association. The chestnut blight, discovered on Long Island in
1904, after it had apparently gained several years' headway, and which
now seems fairly certain to have been introduced from Japan, has so
monopolized the attention of orchardists, foresters, landscape gardeners
and others interested in the chestnut that for the time being little is
being done with it, other than to study and discuss this disease. What
the final outcome will be no one can predict, but it is not improbable
that our pathologists will discover some practical means of control, or
that a natural enemy to the blight will appear. Nor is it unlikely that
immune strains of chestnuts, either native or foreign, will replace our
present groves and orchards, in case other efforts fail.
Another nut which has received a large degree of attention at the hands
of the planters and upon which hopes have been built from time to time
is the hazel, or filbert. Here again, history seems to have failed us,
for as yet the writer has been able to learn but little regarding the
early introductions into this country. In his _Nut Culturist_, published
in 1896, Mr. Fuller (A. S.) reasoned that at that time plants of the
European hazels must have been grown in the gardens of this country for
at least a hundred years. Writers on pomology make little reference to
this nut, but according to Mr. Fuller, nurserymen's catalogs listed
hazel varieties all through the early part of the last century. It was
believed that the hazel promised much for the gardener and the general
planter who wished for early returns. The species seemed capable of
readily adapting itself to cultivation, and being a shrub rather than a
tree, it required little space. It could be cultivated along with other
garden products at little additional expense for labor. Being an early
bearer it doubtless appealed strongly to the normal American demand for
quick returns.
Nevertheless, this nut met with its mortal foe in the way of a native
fungus which in a great many sections has proved entirely too much for
the European species. Where once this species was well represented up
and down the Atlantic Coast, few of its representatives are now to be
found.
Some early attention in these Eastern States has been paid to the
almond, another foreign species. It is supposed that this nut is a
native of the Mediterranean basin. Just when it was first tried on the
Atlantic Coast is not known, but of the nuts thus far mentioned it has
proved to be the least promising for the Eastern section. Sometimes said
to be "as hardy as the peach," it has been found to be the most exacting
in its requirements of soil and climate of any important nut now grown
in this country. Except with certain of the hardshell varieties, no
almonds are now known to be in any sense successful east of the Rocky
Mountains. According to Wickson (E. J.) in his _California Fruits_, the
almond is known to have been introduced into California previous to
1853. At that time efforts to build up an almond industry on the Pacific
Coast began to assume a somewhat serious air. After a half century of
trials and more or less persistent effort by the California planters the
culture of this nut has developed into the third most important nut
industry in the United States. As for the time being, the growing of
Persian walnuts centered in southern California, so did the growing of
almonds in the Sacramento Valley of northern California.