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|The articles published in the Annual Reports of the Northern Nut Growers|
|Association are the findings and thoughts solely of the authors and are |
|not to be construed as an endorsement by the Northern Nut Growers |
|Association, its board of directors, or its members. No endorsement is |
|intended for products mentioned, nor is criticism meant for products not|
|mentioned. The laws and recommendations for pesticide application may |
|have changed since the articles were written. It is always the pesticide|
|applicator's responsibility, by law, to read and follow all current |
|label directions for the specific pesticide being used. The discussion |
|of specific nut tree cultivars and of specific techniques to grow nut |
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NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING
WASHINGTON, D. C. SEPTEMBER 8 AND 9, 1916.
PRESS OF The Advertiser-republican, ANNAPOLIS, MD.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Officers and Committees of the Association 4
Members of the Association 5
Constitution and By-Laws 10
Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Meeting 13
Report of the Secretary-Treasurer 14
Notes on the Chinquapins, Dr. Robert T. Morris, New York 15
The Black Walnut, T. P. Littlepage, Washington, D. C. 25
Discussion on the Almond 33
Discussion on the Hazel 37
The Chestnut Bark Disease, Dr. Haven Metcalf, Washington, D. C. 41
Discussion on Quarantine for Chestnut Nursery Stock 49
Hybrids and Other New Chestnuts for Blight Districts, Dr. Walter
Van Fleet, Washington, D. C. 54
President's Address, Dr. J. Russell Smith, Roundhill, Va. 58
Diseases of the Persian Walnut, S. M. McMurran, Washington, D. C. 67
Discussion on Winter Killing 72
Address of Col. C. A. Van Duzee, Cairo, Georgia 75
Resolutions on Chestnut Blight Quarantine 80
Resolution on Investigations in Nut Tree Propagation 84
Discussion on the Growth and Fruiting of Pecans in the North 86
Top Working Pecans on Other Hickories 91
Appendix:
Letter from W. C. Reed, Vice-President 98
The Food Value of Nuts, Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Battle Creek, Mich. 101
Letter from J. C. Cooper, McMinnville, Oregon 114
List of those present at the meeting 117
OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION
_President_ W. C. REED Vincennes, Indiana
_Vice-President_ W. N. HUTT Raleigh, North Carolina
_Secretary and Treasurer_ W. C. DEMING Georgetown, Connecticut
COMMITTEES
_Auditing_--C. P. CLOSE, C. A. REED
_Executive_--T. P. LITTLEPAGE, J. RUSSELL SMITH AND THE OFFICERS
_Finance_--T. P. LITTLEPAGE, WILLARD G. BIXBY, W. C. DEMING
_Hybrids_--R. T. MORRIS, C. P. CLOSE, W. C. DEMING, J. G. RUSH
_Membership_--HARRY R. WEBER, R. T. OLCOTT, F. N. FAGAN, W. O. POTTER,
W. C. DEMING, WENDELL P. WILLIAMS, J. RUSSELL SMITH
_Nomenclature_--C. A. REED, R. T. MORRIS, R. L. MCCOY, J. F. JONES
_Press and Publication_--RALPH T. OLCOTT, J. RUSSELL SMITH,
W. C. DEMING
_Programme_--W. C. DEMING, J. RUSSELL SMITH, C. A. REED, W. N. HUTT,
R. T. MORRIS
_Promising Seedlings_--C. A. REED, J. F. JONES, PAUL WHITE
STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS
California T. C. Tucker 311 California St., San Francisco
Canada G. H. Corsan 63 Avenue Road, Toronto
Connecticut Charles H. Plump West Redding
Delaware E. R. Angst 527 Dupont Building, Wilmington
Georgia J. B. Wight Cairo
Illinois H. A. Riehl Alton
Indiana J. F. Wilkinson Rockport
Iowa Wendell P. Williams Danville
Kentucky A. L. Moseley Calhoun
Maryland C. P. Close College Park
Massachusetts James II. Bowditch 903 Tremont Building, Boston
Michigan. Miss Maude M. Jessup 440 Thomas St., Grand Rapids
Minnesota L. L. Powers 1018 Hudson Ave., St. Paul
Missouri P. C. Stark Louisiana
New Jersey C. S. Ridgway Lumberton
New York M. E. Wile 37 Calumet St., Rochester
North Carolina W. N. Hutt Raleigh
Ohio Harry R. Weber 601 Gerke Building, Cincinnati
Pennsylvania J. G. Rush West Willow
Texas R. S. Trumbull M. S. R. R. Co., El Paso
Virginia John S. Parish Eastham
Washington A. E. Baldwin Kettle Falls
West Virginia B. F. Hartzell Shepherdstown
MEMBERS OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
CALIFORNIA
Dawson, L. H., Llano
Johnson, Chet, R. D. 1, Biggs
Tucker, T. C., Manager California Almond Growers' Exchange,
311 California St., San Francisco
CANADA
Corsan, G. H., University of Toronto
Dufresne, Dr. A. A., 1872 Cartier St., Montreal
Sager, Dr. D. S., Brantford
CONNECTICUT
Barnes, John R., Yalesville
Deming, Dr. W. C., Georgetown
Deming, Mrs. W. C., Georgetown.
Goodwin, James L., Box 447, Hartford
Hungerford, Newman, Torrington, R. 2, Box 76, for circulars, Box 1082,
Hartford, for letters
Ives, Ernest M., Sterling Orchards, Meriden
Lay, Charles Downing, Wellesmere, Stratford
Lewis, Henry Leroy, Stratford
Mikkelsen, Mrs. M. A., Georgetown
*Morris, Dr. Robert T., Cos Cob, R. 28, Box 95
Plump, Charles II., West Redding
Sessions, Albert L., Bristol
Staunton, Gray, R. D. 30, Stamford
White, Gerrard, North Granby
Williams, W. W., Milldale
DELAWARE
Augst, E. R., 527 DuPont Building, Wilmington, Del.
Lord, George Frank, care of DuPont Powder Company, Wilmington
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Close, Prof. C. P., Pomologist, Department of Agriculture, Washington
Goddard, R. H., States' Relations Service, Washington
*Littlepage, T. P., Union Trust Building, Washington
Reed, C. A., Nut Culturist, Department of Agriculture, Washington
GEORGIA
Bullard, Wm. P., Albany
Van Duzee, C. A., Judson Orchard Farm, Cairo
Wight, J. B., Cairo
ILLINOIS
Casper, O. II., Anna
Poll, Carl J, 1009 Maple St., Danville
Potter, Hon. W. O., Marion
Riehl, E. A., Alton
INDIANA
Hutchings, Miss Lida G., 118 Third St., Madison
Lukens, Mrs. B., Anderson
Reed, M. P., Vincennes
Reed, W. C, Vincennes
Wilkinson, J. F., Rockport
Woolbright, Clarence, R. D. 3, Elnora
IOWA
Snyder, D. C., Center Point
Williams, Wendell P., Danville
KENTUCKY
Matthews, Prof. C. W., Horticulturist, State Agricultural Station,
Lexington
Moseley, A. L., Bank of Calhoun, Calhoun
MARYLAND
Campbell, George D., Lonaconing
Darby, R. U., Suite 804, Continental Building, Baltimore
Hayden, Chas. S., 200 E. Lexington St., Baltimore
Keenan, Dr. John N., Brentwood
King, W. J., 232 Prince George St., Annapolis
Kyner, James H., Bladensburg
Littlepage, Miss Louise, Bowie
Murray, Miss Annie C., Cumberstone
Stabler, Henry, Hancock
White, Paul, Bowie
MASSACHUSETTS
*Bowditch, James II., 903 Tremont Building, Boston
Cleaver, C. Leroy, Hingham Center
Cole, Mrs. George B., 15 Mystic Ave., Winchester
Hoffman, Bernhard, Overbrook Orchard, Stockbridge
Smith, Fred A., 39 Pine St., Danvers
Vaughan, Horace A., Peacehaven, Assonet
White, Warren, Holliston
MICHIGAN
Copland, Alexander W., Strawberry Hill Farm, Birmingham
Jessup, Miss Maud M., 440 Thomas St., Grand Rapids
Johnson, Franklin, Munising
Kellogg, J. H., Battle Creek
Staunton, Gray, Muskegon, Box 233
MINNESOTA
Powers, L. L., 1018 Hudson Ave., St. Paul
MISSOURI
Bauman, X. C., Ste. Genevieve
Darche, J. H., Parkville
Funston, E. S., 1521 Morgan St., St. Louis
Phelps, Howe, Pine Hurst Dairy, Carthage
Stark, P. C., Louisiana (Mo.)
NEBRASKA
Kurtz, John W., 5304 Bedford St., Omaha
NEW JERSEY
Black, Walter C., of Jos. H. Black, Son & Co., Hightstown
Childs, Fred., Morristown, R. D. 2
Jaques, Lee W., 74 Waverly St., Jersey City Heights
Lovett, J. T., Little Silver
Marston, Edwin S., Florham Park, Box 72
Mechling, Edward A., Wonderland Farm, Moorestown
Ridgeway, C. S. Floralia, Lumberton, N. J.
Roberts, Horace, Moorestown
Young, Frederick C., Palmyra, Box 335
NEW YORK
Abbott, Frederick B., 419 Ninth St., Brooklyn
Atwater, C. G., The Barrett Co., 17 Battery Place, New York City
Baker, Dr. Hugh P., Dean of State College of Forestry, Syracuse
Baker, Prof. J. Fred, Director of Forest Investigations, State College
of Forestry, Syracuse
Baker, Wm. A., North Rose
Bixby, Willard G., 46th St. and 2nd Ave., Brooklyn
Brown, Ronald J., 320 Broadway, New York City
Ellwanger, Mrs. W. D., 510 East Ave., Rochester
Fullerton, H. B., Director Long Island Railroad Experiment Station,
Medford, L. I.
Haywood, Albert, Flushing
Hickox, Ralph, 3832 White Plains Ave., New York City
Holden, E. B., Hilton
*Huntington, A. M., 15 W. 81st St., New York City
Jackson, Dr. James H., Dansville
Loomis, C. B., East Greenbush
Miller, Milton R., Batavia, Box 394
Morse, Geo. A., Fruit Acres, Williamson, N. Y.
Nelson, Dr. James Robert, 23 Main St., Kingston-on-Hudson
Olcott, Ralph T., Ellwanger & Barry Building, Rochester
Palmer, A. C., New York Military Academy, Cornwall-on-Hudson
Pannell, W. B., Pittsford
Pomeroy, A. C., Lockport
Rice, Mrs. Lillian McKee, Adelano, Pawling
Simmons, A. L., State Highway Department, Albany
Stuart, C. W., Newark
Teele, A. W., 30 Broad St., New York City
Teter, Walter C., 10 Wall St., New York City
Thomson, Adelbert, East Avon
Tuckerman, Bayard, 118 E. 37th St., New York City
Ulman, Dr. Ira, 213 W. 147th St., New York City
Wile, M. E., 37 Calumet St., Rochester
Williams, Dr. Charles Mallory, 48 E. 49th St., New York City
*Wissman, Mrs. F. de R., Westchester, New York City
NORTH CAROLINA
Glover, J. Wheeler, Morehead City
Hutt, Prof. W. N., State Horticulturist, Raleigh
Van Lindley, J., J. Van Lindley Nursery Company, Pomona
Whitfield, Dr. Wm. Cobb, Grifton
OHIO
Dayton, J. H., Storrs & Harrison Company, Painesville
Evans, Miss Myrta L., Briallen Farm, Oak Hill, Jackson County
Miller, H. A., Gypsum
Thorne, Charles E., Wooster, Agric. Exp. Sta.
Weber, Harry E., 601 Gerke Building, Cincinnati
Yunck, E. G., 710 Central Ave., Sandusky
PENNSYLVANIA
Druckemiller, W. C., Sunbury
Fagan, Prof. P. N., Department of Horticulture, State College
Grubbs, H. L., Fairview, R. 1
Hall, Robt. W., 133 Church St., Bethlehem
Harshman, U. W., Waynesboro
Heffner, H., Highland Chestnut Grove, Leeper
Hile, Anthony, Curwensville National Bank, Curwensville
Hoopes, Wilmer W., Hoopes Brothers and Thomas Company, Westchester
Hutchinson, Mahlon, Ashwood Farm, Devon, Chester County
Jenkins, Charles Francis, Farm Journal, Philadelphia
*Jones, J. P., Lancaster, Box 527
Kaufman, M. M., Clarion
Leas, F. C., 882 Drexel Building, Philadelphia, Mountain Brook Orchard
Company, Salem, Va.
Middleton, Fenton H., 1118 Chestnut St., Philadelphia
Murphy, P. J., Vice-President L. & W. R. R. R. Company, Scranton
O'Neill, Wm. C., 1328 Walnut St., Philadelphia
Rheam, J. F., 45 N. Walnut St., Lewistown
Rick, John, 438 Pennsylvania Sq., Reading
Rife, Jacob A., Camp Hill
Rush, J. G., West Willow
*Sober, Col. C. K., Lewisburg
Thomas, Joseph W., Jos. W. Thomas & Sons, King of Prussia P. O.
Weaver, Wm. S., McCungie
Webster, Mrs. Edmund, 1324 S. Broad St., Philadelphia
*Wister, John C, Wister St. and Clarkson Ave., Germantown
Wright, R. P., 235 W. 6th St., Erie
SOUTH CAROLINA
Shanklin, Prof. A. G., Clemson College
TENNESSEE
Marr, Thomas S., 701 Stahlman Building, Nashville
TEXAS
Burkett, J. H., Nut Specialist, State Dept, of Agric., Clyde
Trumbull, R. S., Agricultural Agent, El Paso & S. W. System, Morenci
Southern Railroad Company, El Paso
VIRGINIA
Crockett, E. B., Monroe
Engleby, Thos. L., 1002 Patterson Ave., Roanoke
Lee, Lawrence R., Leesburg
Miller, L. O., Miller & Rhodes, Richmond
Parish, John S., Eastham, Albemarle County
Shackford, Theodore B., care of Adams Brothers-Paynes Company, Lynchburg
Smith, Dr. J. Russell, Roundhill
WASHINGTON
Baldwin, Dr. A. E., Kettle Falls
Rogers, Dr. Albert, Okanogan
WEST VIRGINIA
Hartzell, B. F., Shepherdstown
* Life member.
CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE I
_Name._ This society shall be known as the NORTHERN NUT GROWERS
ASSOCIATION.
ARTICLE II
_Object._ Its object shall be the promotion of interest in nut-bearing
plants, their products and their culture.
ARTICLE III
_Membership._ Membership in the society shall be open to all persons who
desire to further nut culture, without reference to place of residence
or nationality, subject to the rules and regulations of the committee on
membership.
ARTICLE IV
_Officers._ There shall be a president, a vice-president and a
secretary-treasurer, who shall be elected by ballot at the annual
meeting; and an executive committee of five persons, of which the
president, two last retiring presidents, vice-president and
secretary-treasurer shall be members. There shall be a state
vice-president from each state, dependency or country represented in the
membership of the association, who shall be appointed by the president.
ARTICLE V
_Election of Officers._ A committee of five members shall be elected at
the annual meeting for the purpose of nominating officers for the
following year.
ARTICLE VI
_Meetings._ The place and time of the annual meeting shall be selected
by the membership in session or, in the event of no selection being made
at this time, the executive committee shall choose the place and time
for the holding of the annual convention. Such other meetings as may
seem desirable may be called by the president and executive committee.
ARTICLE VII
_Quorum._ Ten members of the association shall constitute a quorum, but
must include a majority of the executive committee or two of the three
elected officers.
ARTICLE VIII
_Amendments._ This constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of
the members present at any annual meeting, notice of such amendment
having been read at the previous annual meeting, or a copy of the
proposed amendment having been mailed by any member to each member
thirty days before the date of the annual meeting.
BY-LAWS
ARTICLE I
_Committees._ The association shall appoint standing committees as
follows: On membership, on finance, on programme, on press and
publication, on nomenclature, on promising seedlings, on hybrids, and an
auditing committee. The committee on membership may make recommendations
to the association as to the discipline or expulsion of any member.
ARTICLE II
_Fees._ The fees shall be of two kinds, annual and life. The former
shall be two dollars, the latter twenty dollars.
ARTICLE III
_Membership._ All annual memberships shall begin with the first day of
the calendar quarter following the date of joining the association.
ARTICLE IV
_Amendments._ By-laws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of members
present at any annual meeting.
Northern Nut Growers Association
SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 8 AND 9, 1916
WASHINGTON, D. C.
The seventh annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association was
called to order in rooms 42-43 of the new building of the National
Museum at Washington, D. C., on Friday, September 8th, at 10 a. m., the
president, Dr. J. Russell Smith, presiding.
THE PRESIDENT: It is often customary to start meetings of this sort with
a considerable amount of eloquence, such as an address of welcome by
some high city or state official, a response to the address of welcome
by some one else high in authority, and so on, during which the visitors
are told of the many privileges they may enjoy, "the keys of the town"
are handed over to them, and a good deal of high-flown oratory is
indulged in. We suppose that the people in attendance at this meeting
are so well acquainted with Washington that those preliminaries are
unnecessary, and I have been informed by the members of the local
committee that we can dispense with the frills in this case and proceed
with the business of the meeting, which we think is going to rather
crowd our time if we get said all that we want to say. We are going to
devote this morning's programme first to a paper by Dr. Robert T. Morris
on the chinquapin, and then to the discussion of a comparatively newly
considered member of our nut family, namely, the American black walnut.
We have been heretofore much interested in sundry exotics and talking
far too little about this great tree nearer home.
Before taking up the technical programme we have a few matters of
business to put through. First, we will have the report of the secretary
and treasurer.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-TREASURER
Balance on hand date of last report $ 140.24
Receipts:
Dues 292.75
Advertisements 21.00
Contributions 5.50
Sale of report 34.75
Contributions for prizes 10.00
Miscellaneous .65
-------
$504.89
Expenses:
Printing report $ 142.56
Envelopes for report 9.00
Miscellaneous printing 32.50
Postage and stationery 49.26
Stenographer 26.35
Express and freight 2.77
Prizes 18.00
Checks, J. R. S. expenses and circulars 180.00
Lantern operator 3.00
Litchfield Savings Society 20.00
-------
$483.44
-------
Balance on hand $21.45
Receipts from all sources, except sale of reports, have fallen off
markedly, as have new members, 31 less than last year, though we have
now 154 paid up members, one more than last year. 10 members have
resigned and 42 have been dropped for non-payment of dues. We have lost
one member by death, Herbert R. Orr, of Washington.
The committees on membership and on finance should be more active.
Our annual report constitutes the minutes of the last meeting. Our nut
contest and other matters of interest have been reported through the
columns of the American Nut Journal, our official organ.
[Accepted.]
THE PRESIDENT: Next in order of business is the first step toward the
election of officers for the ensuing year. It is our custom to have a
nominating committee elected at an early session. They deliberate and
bring forward a slate which is voted on at a later session. This morning
is a suitable time for the election of a committee, and tomorrow morning
will be a suitable time for their report. Are there any nominations for
the Nominating Committee?
MR. M. P. REED: Mr. President, I move that Dr. Morris, Mr. C. P. Close,
Mr. C. A. Reed, Prof. Stabler and Dr. Ira Ulman be appointed as the
Nominating Committee.
THE PRESIDENT: Are there any other nominations?
MR. C. A. REED: Mr. President, I would like to ask that Mr. Littlepage's
name replace my name on that committee.
THE PRESIDENT: Will the nominating member accept that amendment?
MR. M. P. REED: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Are there any other nominations? Do I hear a second to
the nominations?
A MEMBER: Second it.
[Carried.]
THE PRESIDENT: Are there any other committees to report at this time?
THE SECRETARY: There is a Committee on Incorporation.
MR. T. P. LITTLEPAGE: Mr. President, the Committee on Incorporation has
done some investigating as to the desirability of incorporating the
Association, and also, if desirable, under what laws, but that committee
has not yet made any final report nor come to any final conclusion, and
I would suggest, as a member of the committee, that the committee be
continued and instructed to report the following year.
THE PRESIDENT: I think that it is unnecessary to vote on the continuance
of the committee, as it was appointed with indefinite tenure. We will
proceed with the programme and first have the pleasure of listening to
Dr. Morris.
NOTES ON THE CHINQUAPINS.
DR. ROBERT T. MORRIS, NEW YORK
According to Sargent the chinquapin (_Castanea pumila_) occupies dry
sandy ridges, rich hillsides and the borders of swamps from southern
Pennsylvania to northern Florida and the valley of the Neches River in
Texas. He states that this chestnut is usually shrubby in the region
east of the Alleghany Mountains, and assuming the tree form west of the
Mississippi River. Most abundant and of largest size in southern
Arkansas and eastern Texas.
Curiously enough there are chinquapins also in northeastern Asia which
occur as understudies of the larger chestnuts, very much as they do in
America.
The indigenous range of the chinquapin in America is limited northward
by a plan of nature for checking distribution of the species. This plan
is manifested in a habit which the nuts have of sprouting immediately
upon falling in the early autumn. They proceed busily to make a tap root
which may become several inches in length before frost calls a halt. In
the north where the warm season is not long enough to allow the autumn
sprout to lignify sufficiently for bearing the rigors of winter it is
killed. If we protect the small autumn plants, or if we transplant older
seedlings from their natural habitat, they may be grown easily far north
of their indigenous range. Thrifty chinquapins are happy in the Arnold
Arboretum at Jamaica Plain in Massachusetts, and no one knows but they
might be cultivated in Nova Scotia and Minnesota.
The American chinquapin is one of the many beautiful and valuable plants
which have not as yet been taken up by horticulturists for extensive
development. It promises to become one of our important sources of food
supply for tomorrow. If we were to develop all of our plant resources at
once it would be an unkindness to the horticulturists of two thousand
years from now, who would be left moping around with nothing to do.
Chinquapin nuts borne in heavy profusion by the plants are delicious in
quality, but usually too small to attract customers aside from the wood
folk. The wood of the chinquapin of tree form (_C. pumila var.
arboriformis_) is valuable for purposes to which wood of the common
American chestnut is put, and some of the tree chinquapins acquire an
earned increment of two or three feet diameter of trunk, and a height of
more than fifty feet. The bush chinquapin on the other hand feels rather
exclusive when attaining a height of as much as fifteen feet.
I present for inspection a freshly cut branch from an ordinary bush
chinquapin, loaded with burs, indicating the prolific nature of the
variety. The nuts in this particular specimen are small. The next branch
exhibited is from a similar bush, but with nuts quite as large as those
of the average common chestnut. The horticulturist has only to graft or
bud his ordinary run of chinquapin stocks from some one bush which bears
large nuts, and he will then have a valuable graded market product. The
larger the nut the less prolific the plant is a rule which holds good
with the fruiting of almost any plant.
Look at this branch from a tree chinquapin. It is not remarkable in any
way, but the leaves seem to be a little larger than those of the bush
chinquapin. My tree chinquapins came from Stark's nursery in Missouri.
The first two which came into bearing had nuts quite as large as those
of the common chestnut and I imagined that a discovery of value had been
made, but other trees of this variety later bore very small nuts, and
all of the tree chinquapin nuts, large and small, were much duller in
color than those of the bush chinquapin. My final conclusion is that so
far as nuts alone are concerned we may plant and cultivate either the
tree variety or the bush variety of the species and then bud or graft
any number of stocks from some one plant which bears the best product.
DR. AUGUSTUS STABLER: Is it a somewhat finer grained wood than the
ordinary chestnut?
DR. MORRIS: I think it is. All the chestnuts have rather coarse wood. It
is strong, hard, durable, and valuable. This chinquapin wood is somewhat
coarse grained, but, for comparison with the American chestnut, I don't
know. I imagine it is finer grained.
DR. AUGUSTUS STABLER: I know that the chinquapin wood is very much
tougher than the American chestnut.
DR. MORRIS: Oh, yes. You cannot break the branches so easily.
Here is a branch from a hybrid between a chinquapin and a common
American chestnut (_Castanea dentata_). The leaves and bark, you will
observe, are very much like those of the larger parent. The burs are
borne singly or in small groups like those of the common chestnut,
instead of being crowded in dense clusters like chinquapin burs. There
are two or three nuts to the bur, while the chinquapin has normally, but
one nut to the bur. This particular hybrid tree showed an interesting
peculiarity. During the first two seasons of bearing it had but one nut
to the bur, and this was of chinquapin character. In the third year its
nuts were still borne singly, but they were lighter in color than before
and oddly corrugated at the base. As the tree became older its chestnut
parentage influence pre-dominated, and the tree began to bear two or
three nuts to the bur, and more like chestnuts in character, becoming
smooth again at the base.
I have a number of hybrids between chinquapins and various species and
varieties of other chestnuts, but none of these as yet has produced nuts
of marked value. There seems to be a tendency for the coarseness of the
larger nuts to prevail in the hybrids, a certain loss of gentility
beneath a showy exterior.
The next branch which I present for inspection is from a most beautiful
member of the chestnut family, the alder-leaved chestnut (_Castanea
alnifolia_). It is classed among the chinquapins in Georgia where the
plant is nearly if not quite evergreen. At Stamford it is deciduous very
late in the autumn, but sometimes a green leaf will be found in
February, where snow or dead leaves on the ground have furnished a
protecting covering. The notable value of this species is perhaps in its
decorative character for lawns, although the nuts are first rate. The
dark green brilliant leaves are striking in appearance, and the shrub is
inclined toward a trailing habit, much like that of some of the
junipers. This species is one of my pets at Merribrooke, and a perennial
source of wonder that nurserymen have not as yet pounced upon it for
purposes of exaggeration and misstatement in their annual catalogues.
All of these specimens shown today are from my country place at
Stamford, Connecticut, where the mercury in the thermometer leads one to
make quotations relating to the Eve of Saint Agnes; five or ten degrees
below the zero of Fahrenheit occasionally, and once down to twenty
degrees below without injury to any kind of chestnut so far as I could
observe.
I cannot make an exhibit of the golden-leaved chinquapin, from the
Pacific slope, because tragedy came to all of my little trees of this
species, and like most of the Pacific slope plants they are not very
joyous in the east. One lot lived through one winter at Merribrooke, but
they were the first green things that my cows saw in the springtime, and
further comment would be surplus. A single specimen took courage in its
root and grew finely until autumn, but it was near a path and somebody
pulled it up and left it lying stark naked on the ground. Botanists have
recently made two species of the golden-leaved chinquapin, one of the
species attaining a height of more than one hundred feet. If
horticulturists will secure specimens of _Castanopsis chrysophilla_ from
the region of Mount Shasta in California I presume that this beautiful
evergreen chinquapin may be taught to grow in some of our gardens. It is
cultivated in the gardens of temperate Europe. In our north it should be
planted close to a running brook, where the roots of young trees can
carry water in plenty to the evergreen top while the ground is frozen
hard in winter.
Our common chinquapin of the east is perhaps the one that will be
cultivated most profitably in the region between the Rocky Mountains
and the Atlantic coast. The beauty of freshly picked bush chinquapin
nuts is not rivalled by that of any other kind of nut that I have ever
seen. The exquisitely polished mahogany color comes out of a light downy
cloud near the apex of the nut, dark as midnight for a moment and then
shading through glows of lively chestnut until it dawns in a dreamy
cream color at the base, with just enough suggestion of green to temper
the reds.
If any gourmet with a color soul could serve each one of his friends to
a plate of twenty freshly picked bush chinquapins along with two Bennett
persimmons, and all resting upon late September leaves of tupelo or of
sweet gum the friends would remain and live at his expense while the
combination lasted.
Furthermore, the children must always be taken into consideration along
with chinquapin questions. According to authorities on the subject of
decadence, we do not care very much about the children in these days. If
some old-fashioned folks still remain, and if these old-fashioned folks
do not take any particular personal interest in the beautiful garden and
lawn trees that America has held out towards us in the chinquapins, they
may at least plant a few of them because of the social standing that
will follow. How so? Well, you see, it's because the parents of elite
children will run over for a little visit in order to find out why the
children do not come home. Then again, we are kind to dumb animals when
raising chinquapins. Squirrels and white-footed mice, crows and blue
jays are full of enthusiasm for the nuts, and they will assume the
responsibility of gathering the crop if the matter is left in their
charge.
This is really a funny country; something of a joke of a country when
you come to think of it. Instead of setting out trees that will become
both useful and beautiful, in accordance with the old Greek ideal of
combining beauty and utility we set out Norway spruces that will make
people hate evergreens in general. We set out poplars and all sorts of
bunches of leaves in our parks and along the highways, instead of trees
still more beautiful that would yield tons of coupon dollars every
autumn. _De gustibus non est disputandum!_
When experimenting with hybridization of chinquapins, I ran across a
phenomenon of new interest to botanists, and quite accidentally. A
number of clusters of pistillate flowers of the bush chinquapin had been
covered with paper bags, but not pollenized because of a shortage of
pollen. An active man with a good sense of neatness and order would have
removed those bags merely for the sake of appearance, but I was lazy
and allowed the bags to remain for two or three weeks. When they were
finally removed, it was found that the branches had set quite full of
fruit, although not so full as other branches that had been pollenized
from oaks. We were evidently dealing with an instance of
parthenogenesis. The flowers that had received oak pollen did not show
any oak parentage later in their progeny, and it was observed in other
experiments in other years that almost any cupuliferous pollen would
start cells of the chinquapin ovary into division and into the
development of fertile nuts, but without inclusion of the pollen cell in
a gamete. For purposes of convenience in thinking I have temporarily
called this phenomenon "stereochemic parthenogenesis." Apparently the
propinquity of foreign pollen serves to stimulate a female cell into
division, although the pollen cell retains fixed molecular identity, and
does not fuse with the female cell. I need not bring up abstruse
questions of chromatin or of subatomic influence here.
At Stamford the bush chinquapins begin to blossom regularly about the
twelfth of June, irrespective of weather conditions. The tree
chinquapins blossom a little later, but the alder-leaved chestnut may
not blossom until July, later than the common American chestnut. The
bush chinquapins begin to open their burs very regularly about the
fifteenth of September; earlier than any other chestnuts. They bear at
an early age, sometimes in their fifth summer.
Grafting and budding is easily done among all of the chestnuts as a
rule, and this year I employed for the first time a large chinquapin
bush for top-working with the choice Merribrooke variety of the common
chestnut. Every one of the grafts caught, and some of them have grown
tremendously. This introduces an interesting question. May we graft the
common American chestnut upon bush chinquapin stocks and secure
precocious bearing? In that case we shall have trees like the dwarf
apple and pear trees that are readily pruned and sprayed.
The chinquapin is practically immune to the blight (_Endothia
parasitica_.) Easily blighting varieties of choice American chestnuts
may be grafted upon these blight resistant stocks in orchard form if my
experiment proves to be a success. It will not lessen the vulnerability
of the American chestnut, but dwarf trees will be within reach of the
horticulturist's pruning knife and spray outfit. Orchards of fine
varieties of the common chestnut may perhaps be maintained in this way
until the present epidemic of Endothia has expended its protoplasmic
energy, or until it has succumbed to microbic parasites of its own.
THE PRESIDENT: Are there any questions to put to Dr. Morris?
THE SECRETARY: I venture to say that a good many people have tried, in
the north, to raise the chinquapin, and I would like to have Dr. Morris
tell us what to do to get it to grow best, whether to buy the trees from
the nurserymen, or to plant the nuts, and just how to do it.
PROF. C. P. CLOSE: I would like to ask Dr. Morris about those
chinquapins that set without the application of pollen, whether they
fill well and whether they sprout at planting?
MR. LITTLEPAGE: With us out in Maryland it isn't a question of producing
the chinquapin; we cut the bushes down every year by the thousands; we
have nothing at all against it, but we have found that the weevil has
been absolutely unsurmountable with us. It is the only discouraging
thing about it in this part of the country. Around Washington the
chinquapin is a weed tree, and if you gather a peck of chinquapins you
will find that the whole peck, in two weeks, have turned to weevils.
Perhaps Dr. Morris can tell us what to do about that, and put us on the
road to success.
THE PRESIDENT: I should like to ask Dr. Morris two questions, first, as
to the possibility of utilizing the western tree chinquapins as stocks
for the larger eastern chinquapins with nuts of chestnut size. Is there
a possibility thus of getting a larger tree?
The second question is akin to that--utilization of the western tree as
a stock for a hybrid chinquapin which might have arboreal possibilities
and enough chinquapin qualities to be blight-resistant.
DR. STABLER: I am very much interested in Dr. Morris' proposition to
produce dwarf chestnut trees by grafting on chinquapin stocks. Now, the
difficulty I would expect to encounter is the same as when pecans are
grafted on hickory, and when sweet cherries are grafted on Mahaleb,
namely, that the root is not sufficiently vigorous to support the top.
The fact that his grafts grew so tremendously when put on the chinquapin
roots would look as though that might occur.
THE PRESIDENT: The audience seems to have run out of questions.
DR. MORRIS: All right, sir. First, how are we to grow chinquapins? Plant
as soon as the nuts have fallen. Put them in a cage. I have wire cages
that are about eight inches high, and about two feet wide and three feet
long. I plant all the nuts there. They have wire mesh tops to keep out
the rodents; that is the important thing. All nuts, I find, are best
planted under conditions which simulate the normal conditions. Our nut
trees are not as yet domesticated. They haven't learned bad habits, and
they depend upon peculiarly favorable conditions of moisture, warmth and
light. You plant a nut two inches below the surface, but nature doesn't
do anything like that. Consequently, that nut is surprised, doesn't know
what to do, and stays down there looking for something to happen. But if
you put that nut so it is about half buried in the sand, so that it is
damp on one side and the sun strikes it on the other side, and the frost
and snow affect it naturally, the nut does just what you want it to do.
It gets out of that uncomfortable condition and begins to grow.
(Laughter.) When planting any nuts, I place them in the sand and leave
one side exposed to light, moisture, frost, and the observation of
visitors. When I have sprouted chinquapins in the north and there is
danger of their not lignifying when the ground begins to freeze, I put a
lot of little sticks upright amongst them, so that my mulch will not
bear too heavily upon the chinquapins, and then cover them with several
inches of oak leaves, or any good, strong leaves that will not pack too
tightly. That mulch of loose leaves will protect the sprouted nuts
perfectly during the winter in Connecticut, so they all start growing in
the next spring.
Another way is to buy chinquapin stocks from any of the nurserymen,
stocks two or three years old, which begin to bear when four or five
years of age.
Professor Close, I think it was, who asked if the nuts were fertile,
both the ones that developed without fertilization by any pollen and the
ones that developed by stereochemic parthenogenesis--by the influence of
neighboring pollen. Both sorts are fertile, and I presume that the
effect of that would be similar to the effect of close inbreeding. In
other words, we would have intensification of characteristics of some
one parent. If you get parthenogenesis through two or three generations
I presume that same peculiar feature of the original parent would become
so intensified as to become a marked feature of the progeny. This offers
a new line of cleavage for horticultural investigation. I am very glad
that you raised that question.
Answering Mr. Littlepage, I have apparently managed to get some crosses
back and forth between chestnuts, and oaks, and beech, this year. I have
a number of those crosses now under way that are apparently good
hybrids.
DR. STABLER: A cross between a chestnut and a beech?
DR. MORRIS: Yes, I think so. You see, I have got to wait a year or so
until the plants develop later characteristics. All of these parent
trees are pretty closely related, you see. The blooming period between
the different ones may be as much as two or three weeks, or three months
apart, in fact. I have cross pollinated hazels and oaks, this year. The
way to do that is to find correspondents at the extreme limit of the
blossoming range of the species, who will send pollen. For instance,
Professor Hume, in Florida, sends me chestnut pollen in time to cross my
oaks, and Professor Conser, of the University of Maine, has some beeches
that blossom in time for me to cross with chinquapins and oak trees.
That is one way to do it.
Another way is to put your pollen in cold storage with some sphagnum
moss, just put a little damp moss in your box with the pollen and put it
in cold storage, and keep it at just about forty, above the freezing
point. Another way is to put branches with dormant flower buds in cold
storage. Hazels, for instance, may be kept for six months in this way.
Put them in water, in the sun, and you soon have flowers furnishing
pollen. I would take up the whole session of two days here if you were
to ask too many questions along that line. (Laughter.)
Mr. Littlepage's question about the weevils. The question may be settled
very easily where there are not many chinquapin trees. That is the case
in Connecticut. Collect all the nuts, and you collect all of the weevil
larvae. Curiously enough, the common chestnut weevil, that had become
very abundant, has disappeared locally with the disappearance of our
American chestnut, and has not attacked our chinquapins. If you have an
orchard of chinquapins and collect all the nuts you will soon dispose of
the weevils. That is the only way that I know of for disposing of the
weevils. Eat them up. (Laughter.) You can pick out the weevil chestnuts
fairly well if you toss all of the nuts into a cup of water and pick
out the ones that float. Pound them up with a mallet and throw them
into the chicken coop.
Dr. Smith asks if the use of the tree chinquapin as a stock for the
American chestnut would give good-sized trees. Undoubtedly, and, besides
that, if it is used for hybridizing purposes, we shall probably find
that we have, now and then, an individual that is very much larger than
the American chestnut or the tree chinquapin. It is a peculiarity of
hybrids to show eccentricities, and many hybrids that occur are very
thrifty and larger than either parent. That is the case with the Royal
walnut that they have said so much about in California. It grows so
rapidly there that even Californians do not dare to tell about it.
(Laughter.)
Another question, the last one--will the effect of using a bush
chinquapin stock for the American chestnut be like that of growing sour
cherries upon stocks which do not carry them well? Now, we have there
what the lawyers call "a question of fact," and we shall have to work
that out. Some tops will exhaust a root. Some tops will grab a root by
the back of the neck and drag it right along. Some tops will adjust
themselves philosophically to almost any sort of unusual conditions, and
go on and bear fruit like true philosophers. We have an instance of that
in the dwarf apple, which is a success. We have an instance of failure
in some of the cherries which exhaust themselves. We have an example of
dragging the smaller stock along when we graft the Royal walnut upon the
common black walnut. The Royal walnut just drags the black walnut along
where it doesn't want to go at all. So there we have three instances of
grafting a foreign visitor upon another stock.
I have taken more than my share of time, Mr. Chairman, but the
discussion has been very interesting, indeed. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: I am going to take the liberty of asking Dr. Morris one
more question, which, perhaps, is of interest to others. In your
experience with the golden-leafed chinquapins, from how far South have
you secured stock, and how far North will the golden-leafed chinquapin
grow?
DR. MORRIS: My specimens I got from a dealer in Portland, Oregon, and
they grew pretty far North. The tree ranges from Oregon and Washington
down through the lower extremities of the Coast range, but we had better
get the northern forms, and there is one man, Carl Purdy, of Ukiah,
California, who has the golden chinquapin for sale.
THE PRESIDENT: The next subject on the programme is the American black
walnut. We have sent to the membership a series of questions about the
black walnut which I will read for the benefit of those who haven't this
programme.
First. What evidence is there to show that the black walnut may become a
valuable nut commercially?
Second. Is quality important with the black walnut, and is there much
difference in the quality of different nuts?
Third. What varieties of black walnut are most promising?
Fourth. Is the Thomas black walnut better than many others that have
been brought to notice?
Fifth. What are the best methods of propagating?
Now, we have no set paper on that subject. I will call on ex-President
Littlepage to make a few sallies concerning the black walnut.
MR. LITTLEPAGE: Mr. President, the black walnut ought to be the easiest
subject in the world to talk about. It is a question of how much one
ought not to say, however, in a limited time. The pecan tree was my
first love. I shall always stick to the pecan. But if I were called upon
today, to point out to this Association or to any prospective grower who
actually wants to make money raising nuts, and who wants something that
will pay the grocery bill and his sixty or ninety day notes, I think I
should tell them to plant the black walnut. And I don't think, either,
that that is treason, because I think, as we go through with this
programme, the pecan will be properly taken care of.
In the first place, the black walnut is a native tree. I have seen it
growing, too, on the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Dominion of Canada. Most
native trees are immune to fungous and bacterial diseases that destroy
so many trees. The black walnut is a hardy tree, and a fine timber
proposition. In the second place, it is a fast growing tree. I don't
knew just how quickly one could actually produce a black walnut orchard,
but, outside of a few trees, such as the black locust and a number of
others that do not produce nuts, the black walnut is one of the fastest
growers. If you will feed a young walnut tree a small application of
wood ashes and some stable manure it will commonly make a growth of six
or seven feet a year. Therefore, you don't have to wait a long time for
walnut trees to come into bearing.
It is easy to propagate the black walnut. Cleft grafting is one of the
simplest methods in the spring. Dormant wood, cut in February or March
and put in cold storage, and cleft grafted in the spring, ought to give
from sixty to seventy per cent of success. I haven't had experience
budding, but those who have say it is easy. Mr. Roper says it is, but
grafting is easy and simple. The walnut, like other nut trees, must be
propagated by budding or grafting in order to come true. It will not
come true from seed.
Up until a few years ago I seldom saw a whole half of a black walnut.
The ordinary black walnut cracks about like this (showing picture). Here
is a black walnut cracked with two halves, and you can't even see the
kernel. The two upper pictures show very beautiful walnuts, but they
defy you to get out a whole kernel.
Now, then, when you come to a black walnut like this (showing picture),
where you can crack out anywhere from fifty to seventy-five per cent of
whole halves, and many entirely whole kernels, the most important
problem is solved, and the black walnut has come into the competition.
This variety was discovered by Henry Stabler, and I named it after him.
Perhaps one out of every ten of these nuts furnishes a whole, solid,
undivided kernel. The other walnut is the ordinary field walnut that has
little commercial value for the reason that you can't get the kernels
out. It wouldn't make any difference if the nuts grew as big as pumpkins
and a million of them on a tree if you couldn't get the meat out of
them. I suppose no one will question that the black walnut will grow and
bear almost anywhere. It is a weed tree in this part of the country. On
President Smith's farm last year I saw them growing everywhere. They
grow and bear all over the fields. And, as I said, the question of
propagation is rather simple. I think the great trouble we are up
against on the farm in America is labor, and that is because you cannot
afford to pay good labor. You want a superabundance of laborers in the
summer time for two or three months, and expect them to loaf all winter.
The farm proposition isn't a profitable one, very largely because of the
question of labor, and the farmers of this country must produce
something profitable enough to enable them to hire and pay high-grade
labor the year round, or they will go broke. They must raise such crops
as Alfalfa that they can feed to their dairy cattle, and tree crops that
they can use their labor on in the winter time. Nine men are leaving the
farm today for every one going there. If you don't believe it, read the
census statistics. The reason is labor and because you can't afford to
pay it. I don't think there is any profit in selling the black walnut as
a nut, but there will be profit in gathering that nut, storing it, and,
when your farm crops are all in and you are ready to discharge the
labor, put up an ordinary cheap cracking shed and let them crack the
nuts for you, and sell the meats. That solves the question of what to do
with farm labor in the winter time. The walnuts return about ten pounds
of meat to a bushel, and a good cracker ought to crack from four to six
bushels of nuts a day. Suppose you get only twenty-five cents a pound
for the meats and your men crack only three bushels a day, each there is
$7.50 a day coming in from each cracker, and, besides, you have made a
valuable employment for your labor through the winter, and you can
afford to pay them for their work. That is why I say the black walnut
is, to my mind, one of the best commercial propositions.
I don't know how soon you can bring a black walnut orchard into bearing.
Here is a picture of a tree probably seven or eight years old, loaded
with nuts. That is a seedling tree. I should think a budded tree would
bear sooner than that.