nuts covering the territory of the association and submit it for exhibit
at a meeting of this character, this land show, giving credit to the
donors for material, somewhat as Mr. Reed has done in pecans for the
National Nut Growers Association?
The Secretary: I think I'd have a few minutes to spare to do that.
Mr. Lake: I think it would be an admirable thing.
The Chairman: Yes, it would advertise the organization extensively and
be a constructive step in agriculture.
* * * * *
Mr. Littlepage, have you any report from the Committee on Incorporation?
Mr. Littlepage: That is a matter that will require considerable thought
and attention. It will require attention from several standpoints, as
for example under what laws we might wish to incorporate, so I think the
committee will reserve its report to make to the Executive Committee at
some later meeting.
The Chairman: We have no other business, I believe, and will now retire
to the hall where we will have the lantern slide exhibition. The morning
session closes the meeting and we are to meet at two o'clock at the
Monument and from there go out to see certain trees in the vicinity. Mr.
Rush and Mr. Jones are to show us these and their two nurseries.
Mr. Lake: I would like to offer as a resolution, that the secretary be
instructed to make arrangements with the publishers of the American
Fruit and Nut Journal for the distribution of one copy to each member as
a part of his membership fee. The secretary will then be able to reach
the members in his published notices without special printers' troubles
of his own, and the members will be able to get some live matter right
along.
The motion was seconded and adopted, after which the executive session
closed and the members adjourned in a body to the Scenic Theatre, where
the regular program was resumed as follows:
The Chairman: We will have Mr. Rush's paper first.
THE PERSIAN WALNUT, ITS DISASTER AND LESSONS FOR 1912
J. G. RUSH, PENNSYLVANIA
The year just closing has been full of disasters both on land and sea,
though I do not wish it to be understood that I am inclined to be a
pessimist on account of these occurrences.
I wish to speak of a disaster which overtook the walnut industry in the
northern states. Early in the year we had an arctic cold wave which put
the thermometer from 23 to 33 degrees below zero. This cold wave
apparently did no injury to the walnut trees at the time but late in the
spring it was discovered that the wood cells were ruptured though the
buds and bark were uninjured. In cutting the scions in early April the
bark and buds seemed in good condition for grafting; but as the time
approached to do the work it was readily seen, by its changed color,
that the wood was injured, some scions of course more than others. Those
that were only slightly discolored were used in grafting. But as time
passed the unhappy result came to light that out of about 2,000 nursery
trees grafted only one graft grew. After climbing an 80 foot walnut tree
to get our scions, and paying a good price for them besides, this was
rather discouraging.
This cold wave, which was unprecedented for the time, had wrought other
injuries to the nut industry. That was especially to the young trees
that were transplanted the fall previous and last spring. The
transplanting with a frost injury already was too great a strain on the
feeble life of the trees. The consequence was that some of them died
outright, and others made only a feeble growth. But where low and severe
pruning was practised good results followed and such trees as were
established on the original root system escaped the frost injury
entirely. The young nursery trees with dormant buds were not affected in
the least but made a strong growth of from three to seven feet this last
summer.
The intense cold wave was such that some old and young seedling Persian
walnut trees were killed outright, and not only the Persian walnut but
in a few instances the American black was very much injured; likewise
the Norway maple, magnolia, California privet and roses. Also the peach
both in tree and fruit.
Now in conclusion let me say, what is the lesson to be learned? First,
as to the propagation of the Persian walnut, great care should be taken
that only trees that are hardy should be propagated from, as well as
having good bearing qualities with a first class nut. Second, after a
freeze such as we had last winter, a special effort should be made to
save the newly planted tree by close and severe pruning. As, for
example, I had a very fine two year old Hall Persian walnut which was
referred to me as dead. I cut the tree off about 4 inches above where it
was budded on the black walnut stock. It was not long after that signs
of new life appeared and eventually it made a very fine, handsome tree.
Nature does indeed some wonderful tricks in this respect by which we can
learn valuable lessons; and chief of these is close pruning.
Such a cold wave may visit us only once in a lifetime and should not
discourage us from carrying nut culture to its highest development. We
must not think for a moment that other walnut sections are exempt from
similar visitations. They have them in the Pacific Northwest, and in
France and Germany.
As regards the walnut industry for Lancaster county or Pennsylvania in
general, I am safe in saying that a fair percentage of the farmers are
taking hold of it. This is because of the fact that the San Jose scale
has practically destroyed all the old apple trees around the farm
buildings, and, not wishing to have the building denuded of the
customary shade and fruit, nut trees are planted instead. This is in
reality the practice prevalent in France and Germany where they utilize
every foot of ground to profitable account.
The life of an apple tree is from fifty to sixty years whereas a walnut
tree is just in its prime at that age and destined to live for hundreds
of years afterwards. Then again the ravages of the chestnut tree blight
are destroying the cultivated paragons just as freely as the chestnuts
in the forests, which in a few years will be things of the past, thus
giving still more room for walnut and other nut trees.
The Northern Nut Growers Association was organized for a grand and noble
purpose, that is to stand together shoulder to shoulder to devise ways
and means to bring nut culture to a grand and glorious success.
* * * * *
Mr. Corsan: The temperature Mr. Rush spoke of rather surprises me. Last
year at Toronto it did not fall lower than 9 degrees below zero. We had
summer almost until New Year's and then a very severe winter until
April. I didn't notice any evergreen trees killed, but at Detroit, the
Bronx and various other places, I never saw a winter so disastrous for
killing evergreens.
The Chairman: Not only that but nurserymen all over eastern New England
said they suffered greater losses last winter than ever before.
Prof. Smith: I would like to ask Mr. Rush if it would be possible to cut
scions by December 1st, so as to escape danger from such great freezes.
Mr. Rush: I really have little experience in keeping scions. This fall I
put some in the moist cold earth in the cellar. I think the experiment
will be successful because I have known chestnut scions cut in the fall,
to be kept under leaves in the grove till spring.
Prof. Smith: I should like to suggest that you try the following
experiment; bury them, wrapped up in a gunny-sack or something, entirely
underground where they will have absolute moisture and be shut away from
the air. I have found that very successful.
Mr. Rush: Sometimes the trouble is they get too moist.
The Chairman: There is a principle here, and we had better keep down to
principles as much as we can. That principle is that if the cells of the
scions are distended with water a certain chemical process is going on
all the while, because a scion is just as much alive as the red
squirrel; it is a living organism. Now then, if the cells are a very
little below normal dryness the chemical processes mostly cease, and
that is better. We have to use nice judgment in avoiding having a scion
so dry that its cells perish or so moist that its cells are undergoing
chemical processes too rapidly. Our scions are cut, say, the last of
November, then covered with leaves enough to prevent freezing and
thawing. That will carry scions pretty well through the winter and
perhaps is the best way, but we must never forget that in dealing with
scions we are dealing with living red squirrels just as when we are
dealing with pollen.
A Member: Are the leaves moist or dry?
The Chairman: The driest leaves in the woods contain more water than you
think they do. They carry enough to maintain the life of the cells, if
they are packed pretty firmly about your scions, and at the same time
the scions are still allowed to breathe. I keep them above ground. I put
a layer of shingles on the cellar floor, if I've got a bare ground
cellar floor, and then a layer of very fine leaves like locust leaves,
then a single layer of scions and then a good big heap of leaves over
those, packed tight, a good big heap of apple leaves or anything you
have at hand. Try it on the basis of principles. It is a complex
question. You can't settle any of these questions off-hand. Every man
who has had much experience has learned that he needs a whole lot more.
Prof. Smith: Have you had any experience in fixing up a bed of scions
like that and putting it in cold storage?
The Chairman: Yes, but you must tell the cold storage people not to let
them get too dry. Tell them you want them in moist cold storage, and to
keep the temperature about 40.
A Member: We have found with walnuts that if you have the scions too
damp they won't keep very long. If you have them just moist enough to
hold them you can keep them all winter, maybe indefinitely.
The Chairman: If your cell is full of water the scion will work as hard
as an Irishman.
A Member: I find that we have to graft them above ground, in the North,
and if they are too moist when grafted they will dry up, but if kept dry
they will grow, because they will remain in good condition until the sap
comes up in the stock.
The Chairman: Yes, you must choose a position midway between too dry and
too moist.
Mr. Littlepage: That is very important; they won't stand dampness.
Mr. Pomeroy: Wouldn't it be well to dip the cut end of the walnut scion
in wax to hold the sap?
The Chairman: I am afraid that would stop its breathing. You are dealing
with a red squirrel all the while, remember that.
Col. Sober: My method is this: I have a little room about six feet wide
with ice packs on both sides and double doors. In that I pack my scions
in this way: I take carbide cans made of iron and put damp sawdust,
about an inch or so, on the bottom and then I pack my scions in the
cans, cut end down, then I put the top on loosely. I have carried them
over the second year in that way.
The Chairman: But you let them breathe all the while?
Col. Sober: Certainly, and they have but very little moisture. They are
kept in a temperature of about 40 degrees.
Prof. Smith: How often do you wet that sawdust?
Col. Sober: Not once.
The Chairman: Well, that's in keeping with our theoretical basis.
Col. Sober: I cut scions any time between now and March. I don't take
them out of storage until we use them. We graft up to the middle of
June.
The Chairman: I found some hickory scions that had been accidentally
overlooked, kept under leaves, and the buds in the cambium were
perfectly good after two years. In regard to winter injury--in the
vicinity of Stamford, Conn., the nurserymen reported greater losses of
all kinds in nursery stock than they had had before in their experience.
I noticed that some small branches of the Persian walnuts had been
injured, and particularly where grafts had started a little late and had
not lignified quite thoroughly I lost whatever grafts had not had time
to lignify. Last winter the injuries in our vicinity consisted chiefly
of two kinds; occasional killing of the small branches--this does little
harm because, where the branch is killed and dies back for a certain
distance, we have three or four more branches starting up, so that
perhaps it is not sophistical to say that it does the tree good. We get
a larger bearing area than if it were not for this occasional freezing
of small branches. Another form of injury occurs in the spring. The sap
will start to ascend when we have warm days in February and March; then
a few cold days come and, if we have absolutely freezing temperature at
night, this sap freezes and when it freezes it expands, as water does
everywhere, and the result is a bursting of the bark. That is an
occasional happening with all trees but particularly with exotics. One
kind of winter injury has been overlooked in connection with the walnut.
The very last thing which the tree does in the autumn is to complete its
buds for female flowers. That is the very last job the tree has on hand
and if the tree cannot complete the buds for female flowers perfectly,
then a very little wood killing will make that a barren tree, although
it appears to be a good strong tree. That covers the kinds of winter
injury I have seen in the vicinity of Stamford, Conn.
(Here Col. C. K. Sober of Pennsylvania showed lantern slide views of his
orchards of paragon chestnuts and his methods.)
The Chairman: We will have now Mr. Reed's address with lantern views.
A 1912 REVIEW OF THE NUT SITUATION IN THE NORTH
C. A. REED, WASHINGTON, D. C.
In taking up the question of the present status of the nut industry of
the Northern States, we have to do more with what has not been
accomplished than with what has been. Very little has been done toward
developing the northern chestnut. What has been done has been mostly
with the European species and so far that has not been very
satisfactory. The European species is quite subject to the blight. The
Japanese nut is not ordinarily of a quality equal to that of the
American. It is thought, too, that with the Japanese chestnut the
chestnut blight has been introduced, which has been so serious to our
native species. The walnut has not become well established in the
eastern states. So far, most of the European nuts that have been
imported have been too tender to adapt themselves to our climatic
conditions, and the filbert, when brought from Europe, proves quite
subject to a blight that prevails everywhere with our native species,
but with them is not so serious. In running over these slides, I will
begin first with the chestnut. That is perhaps the best known species in
this locality. That shows one of our native chestnut trees as it is
familiar to you all in a great part of this territory under discussion,
that is, the part of the United States east of the Mississippi River and
north of the Potomac. That photograph was taken some time last June or
July when the tree was in full bloom. The chestnut is one of the most
beautiful of our native nut trees. This tree has the blight in one of
the earlier stages and it is shown here merely to call attention to the
disease, because no discussion of the chestnut industry at the present
time can be complete without at least calling attention to the
seriousness of that blight. That tree, perhaps, has not been affected
more than two years, possibly one. Is that right, Mr. Pierce?
Mr. Pierce: About two. That's an 18 or 20 inch tree, isn't it?
Mr. Reed: Yes, sir.
Mr. Pierce: It must be an 18 or 20 inch tree to be so badly blighted at
the top.
Mr. Reed: Two years, but you see it's pretty well gone. We come now to
the Paragon, one of the first trees of that variety ever propagated. It
was planted where it stands, by the introducer, Mr. Henry M. Engel, at
Marietta, where they had quite an orchard at one time, but the blight is
so serious that there are only a few specimens of the trees left. That
tree is probably in the neighborhood of twenty-five years old. The next
slide shows two trees of the same variety that we may possibly see this
afternoon. They are on the farm belonging to Mr. Rush and they are about
twenty years old.
Prof. Smith: What have those trees yielded?
Mr. Rush: They yield four, five, six and seven to eight bushels. You can
see that they are not far from the barn and the roots run under that
barnyard manure pile.
Mr. Reed: What would you consider an average crop?
Mr. Rush: They grow five or six bushels per tree.
Mr. Reed: The greatest attention that has been paid to developing the
paragon chestnut in orchard farming has been on the plan Mr. Sober has
just shown, by clearing away the mountain side and cutting down
everything but the chestnut sprouts. This photograph was taken in a
thicket where the underbrush had not been cleared away. Those are a good
age now or perhaps a little bit older than we usually graft, aren't
they, Mr. Sober?
Mr. Sober: Yes, sir; one or two years old. When they get to be three
years old they are past grafting, according to my method.
Mr. Reed: This photograph was taken at Mr. Sober's a little over a year
ago, taken in the rain and is not very clear, but it shows the distance
between the trees at the time when these trees were four or five years
old--is that right?
Mr. Sober: They are eleven year old trees.
Mr. Reed: Do you thin them out after they get that size?
Mr. Sober: Yes, sir, they should be thinned out more, but I hesitated on
account of the blight; I have thousands that I could spare, but for fear
the blight will take them out.
A Member: Do you cultivate the ground?
Mr. Sober: I don't cultivate it, I just pasture it. The land is
fertilized, but not cultivated.
Mr. Reed: That is a photograph of a large chestnut orchard in this
county. It is not many miles from here. I understand that owing to the
blight and to the weevil, that orchard has not been satisfactory, and I
was told two or three days ago that it was being cleared away.
The Chairman: What varieties?
Mr. Reed: Paragon and native stock.
A Member: Was that the old Furness Grove?
Mr. Reed: Yes, sir. That slide shows the congeniality, ordinarily,
between the stock of the native chestnut and the paragon. The next slide
shows a typical instance of malformation between the Japanese and native
chestnut. I understand that this is not unusual at all. The Japanese,
ordinarily, does not make a good union with the American sweet chestnut.
That slide was taken in Indiana. It is a twenty-five acre paragon
orchard owned by Mr. Littlepage and Senator Bourne of Oregon, planted in
the spring of 1910. The next slide shows one of the trees in the orchard
during its first season. Mr. Littlepage had to have them all gone over
and the burs removed. They were so inclined to fruit during the first
season that they would have exhausted themselves if the burs had not
been removed. They made a very promising start, but I understand from
Mr. Littlepage that a number of the trees have since died. Is there
anything you'd like to add to that, Mr. Littlepage?
Mr. Littlepage: I haven't yet quite determined the cause of the trouble.
Last winter I lost perhaps one-third of the trees with a peculiar
condition. The wood under the bark was darkened. I sent some of them to
Washington the year before to see if there was any blight or fungus and
they reported there was none on any of the trees, but this winter
perhaps one-third of the trees died down to the graft. A few, however,
would sprout from the scion, giving me, of course, the grafted top
again. It seemed to indicate, perhaps, a winter killing and yet I would
not undertake to assert that that was the cause, but it was very
serious.
Prof. Smith: Was the land low or high?
Mr. Littlepage: High land along a hillside, very excellent land for
chestnuts.
Mr. Reed: Sandy loam?
Mr. Littlepage: No, it's a hilly clay with a considerable humus and set
in clover.
The Chairman: Which way does it face?
Mr. Littlepage: South.
The Chairman: That is rather bad.
Mr. Littlepage: I don't know. I have some over on the other side of the
hill and I don't know whether the killing was greater on the other side
or not.
Mr. Reed: We have before us a view of the original Rochester and its
originator, Mr. E. A. Reihl, of Alton, Ill. Over in the Court House we
have on exhibition nuts of that variety which most of you have seen. You
are aware, probably, that it is a native chestnut. It is one of the
largest and best of the native chestnuts and originated in southern
Illinois, where so far the blight has not spread. It gives considerable
promise for the future. We come back now to Lancaster county to a
chinkapin tree, a hybrid chinkapin. The original tree stands in a forest
in this county, and as you notice there, it is a very good sized tree.
You might think from the looks of the photograph that that is a
chestnut, but the nuts are small and borne in racemes, so they are
typical chinkapins.
Mr. Lake: One parent was a chestnut?
Mr. Rush: We don't know; it's a native tree; it's a hybrid.
Mr. Lake: It's a supposed hybrid.
Mr. Reed: Yes, the chestnut and chinkapin grow close together.
The Chairman: What is the form of the nuts?
Mr. Rush: Round like a chinkapin. I think it was a chestnut on a
chinkapin.
Mr. Lake: If it is a chinkapin, what is there to indicate that there is
any chestnut blood in it?
Mr. Rush: The size of the tree and the fact that the nut matures with
the chestnut. The chinkapin is about three weeks earlier than this
variety of chinkapin.
Mr. Reed: That photograph is typical of the Rush hybrid chinkapin. We
take up the butternut now. So far as we know, there are no named
varieties of the butternut; there cannot be until some good individual
tree is found which is of sufficient merit to entitle it to propagation
by budding and grafting. It is one of the best known nuts in our field,
especially in New England; it is more common there than it is further
south.
This slide shows the native butternut in the forests of southern Indiana
near the Ohio River. Of course, those trees in forests like that don't
mature many nuts. It is not in the forests, ordinarily, that you will
find individual trees of sufficient merit to entitle them to
propagation. It is the tree in the open that has had greater
opportunities than are afforded in the forest.
Mr. Lake: Are there any coniferous trees in that forest?
Mr. Littlepage: No, that's an alluvial bottom, Mr. Lake. There is quite
a long bottom by the creek where the butternut grows profusely. We have
the same tree on the farm that Senator Bourne and I own. Hundreds of
those trees grow in the woods there. It's rich alluvial soil.
Mr. Lake: The fact that it is rich alluvial soil does not usually bar
coniferous trees; it may in your section.
Mr. Littlepage: There are none there.
Mr. Reed: The slide before us shows typical black walnuts that are
almost as common, perhaps more so, in many parts of the area under
discussion, than the butternut. This photograph was taken in Michigan
where the trees are growing along fence rows without cultivation or
special attention. No one knows whether the nuts of those trees are of
special value or not. It merely shows the starting point for improvement
in the walnut. We come now to the Persian walnut, which Mr. Lake will
discuss more fully in a few minutes. This is one of the trees we will
probably have an opportunity to see this afternoon. It is between Mr.
Rush's nursery and the station, on the right hand side as you are going
out. Just above the top of the fence you will notice a dark line which
indicates the point of union. The Persian walnut was grafted on the
black stock. The Persian is of slightly greater diameter. Now we have
Mr. Rush in his walnut nursery. These are seedling walnuts in their
third year.
Mr. Rush: Second year.