English Walnuts - What You Need to Know about Planting, Cultivating and

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Title: English Walnuts - What You Need to Know about Planting, Cultivating and - Harvesting This Most Delicious of Nuts
Author: Allen, Walter Fox [Compiler]
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.

*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "English Walnuts - What You Need to Know about Planting, Cultivating and - Harvesting This Most Delicious of Nuts" ***

(CHLA), Cornell University)

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ENGLISH
WALNUTS

[Illustration]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
ABOUT PLANTING, CULTIVATING
AND HARVESTING THIS
MOST DELICIOUS OF NUTS

(_Compiled by_ WALTER FOX ALLEN)

_Foreword._

Realizing the tremendous interest that is now being directed by
owners of country estates everywhere to the culture of the
Persian or English Walnut, I have compiled this little book with
the idea of supplying the instruction needed on the planting,
cultivation and harvesting of this most delicious of all nuts.

I have gathered the material herein presented from a large number
of trustworthy sources, using only such portions of each as would
seem to be of prime importance to the intending grower.

I am indebted to the United States Department of Agriculture and
to numerous cultivators of the nut in all sections of the
country.

I have aimed at accuracy and brevity--and hope the following
pages will furnish just that practical information which I have
felt has long been desired.

THE COMPILER.

_English Walnuts._

[Illustration]

Viewed as a comparatively new industry, the culture of the
Persian or English Walnut is making remarkable strides in this
country. Owners of farms and suburban estates everywhere are
becoming interested in the raising of this delicious article of
food, thousands of trees being set out every year.

There are two important reasons for the rapidly growing
enthusiasm that is being manifested toward the English Walnut:
First, its exceptional value as a food property is becoming
widely recognized, one pound of walnut meat being equal in
nutriment to eight pounds of steak. Secondly, its superior worth
as an ornamental shade tree is admitted by everyone who knows the
first thing about trees. For this purpose there is nothing more
beautiful. With their wide-spreading branches and dark-green
foliage, they are a delight to the eye. Unlike the leaves of some
of our shade trees, those of this variety do not drop during the
Summer but adhere until late in the Fall, thus making an
unusually clean tree for lawn or garden. In addition to all this,
the walnut is particularly free from scale and other pests.

Up to the present time, the English Walnut has been more largely
in demand as a shade tree than as a commercial proposition; in
fact, so little attention has been given to the nuts themselves
that there are, comparatively speaking, few large producing
orchards in the United States, the greater portion of the total
yield of walnuts being procured from scattered field and roadside
trees. It is a little difficult to understand why they should
have been so neglected when there are records of single trees
bearing as much as 800 pounds of nuts in one year.

[Illustration: SIX YEAR OLD BEARING ENGLISH WALNUT TREE]

In 1895 this country produced about 4,000,000 pounds, and more
than 16,000,000 pounds of English Walnuts in 1907, with a
proportionate annual increase each year to the present. But, when
it is known that the United States is consuming yearly about
50,000,000 pounds of nuts, with the demand constantly increasing,
thereby necessitating the importation annually of something more
than 25,000,000 pounds, the wonderful possibilities of the
industry in this country, from a purely business view point, will
readily be appreciated. And of course the market price of the
walnut is keeping step with the consumption, having advanced from
15 to 20 cents a pound in the past few years.

[Sidenote: =A Rival of the Orange=]

In California the nut industry is becoming a formidable rival of
the orange; in fact, there are more dollars worth of nuts (all
varieties) shipped from the state now per year than oranges. One
grower is shipping $136,000 worth of English Walnuts a year while
another man, with an orchard just beginning to bear, is getting
about $200 an acre for his crop.

No standard estimate can at present be placed on the yield per
acre of orchards in full bearing, but the growers are confident
that they will soon be deriving from $800 to $1600 per acre, this
figure being based on the number of individual trees which are
already producing from $90 to $120 a year. The success with the
nut in California can be duplicated in the East providing certain
hardy varieties are planted; and in the few instances where
orchards have been started in the East, great things have already
been done and still greater are expected in the next few years.

[Sidenote: =Origin of the English Walnut=]

But where did this walnut originate? What is its history? Juglans
Regia (nut of the gods) Persian Walnut, called also Madeira Nut
and English Walnut, is a native of Western, Central and probably
Eastern Asia, the home of the peach and the apricot. It was known
to the Greeks, who introduced it from Persia into Europe at an
early day, as "Persicon" or "Persian" nut and "Basilicon" or
"Royal" nut. Carried from Greece to Rome, it became "Juglans"
(name derived from Jovis and glans, an acorn; literally
"Jupiter's Acorn", or "the Nut of the Gods"). From Rome it was
distributed throughout Continental Europe, and according to
Loudon, it reached England prior to 1562. In England it is
generally known as the walnut, a term of Anglo-Saxon derivation
signifying "foreign nut". It has been called Madeira Nut,
presumably because the fruit was formerly imported into England
from the Madeira Islands, where it is yet grown to some extent.
In America it has commonly been known as English Walnut to
distinguish it from our native species. From the fact that of all
the names applied to this nut "Persian" seems to have been the
first in common use, and that it indicates approximately the home
of the species, the name "Persian Walnut" is regarded as most
suitable, but inasmuch as "English Walnut" is better known here,
we shall use that name in this treatise.

As a material for the manufacture of gunstocks and furniture the
timber of the nut was long in great demand throughout Europe and
high prices were paid for it. Early in the last century as much
as $3,000 was paid for a single large tree for the making of
gunstocks.

[Sidenote: =Planting and Cultivation=]

Everything depends upon the planting and cultivation of English
Walnuts as indeed it does of all other fruits from which the very
best results are desired. The following general rules should be
thoroughly mastered.

PLANT ENGLISH WALNUT TREES:

On any well-drained land where the sub-soil moisture is not
more than ten or twelve feet from the surface.

Wherever Oaks, Black Walnuts or other tap-root nut trees
will grow.

Forty to sixty feet apart.

In holes eighteen inches in diameter and thirty inches
deep.

Two inches deeper than the earth mark showing on the tree.

AND REMEMBER:

That the trees need plenty of good, rich soil about their
roots.

That the trees should be inclined slightly toward
prevailing winds.

That the trees should not be cut back.

That the ground cannot be packed too hard around the roots
and the tree.

That the trees should be mulched in the Fall.

That the ground should be kept cultivated around the trees
during the Spring and Summer.

That English Walnut trees should be transplanted while
young, as they will often double in size the year the
tap-root reaches the sub-soil moisture (that is, the
moist earth).

That tap-root trees are the easiest of all to transplant if
the work is done while the trees are young and small.

That trees sometimes bear the third year after
transplanting three-year-old trees where the sub-soil
moisture is within six or eight feet of the surface.

That the age of bearing depends largely on the distance the
tap-root has to grow to reach the sub-soil moisture.

[Sidenote: =Peculiarities of Growth=]

The growth of the English Walnut is different from that of most
fruit trees. The small trees grow about six inches the first
year, tap-root the same; the second year they grow about twelve
inches, tap-root the same; the third year they grow about
eighteen inches, tap-root nearly as much. For the first three
years the tap-root seems to gain most of the nourishment, and at
the end of the third year, or about that time, the tree itself
starts its real growth. After the tap-root reaches the sub-soil
moisture, the tree often grows as much in one year as it has in
the preceding three or four. If the trees are transplanted
previous to the time that the tap-root reaches this moisture and
before the tree starts its rapid growth, very few young trees are
lost in the process of transplanting.

[Sidenote: =Orchard Planting=]

For orchard planting the trees should be placed from forty to
sixty feet apart and by staggering the rows a greater distance is
gained between individual trees. Any other small fruits may be
planted in the orchard between the walnut trees or any cultivated
crop can be raised satisfactorily on the same land, many
orchardists gaining triple use of the soil in this way. Besides,
the cultivation of the earth in proximity to the walnuts proves
of great benefit to the trees. Before trees are planted the
tap-root should be trimmed or cut back and most if not all the
lateral branches trimmed from the tree. The tree itself should
not be cut back as is customary with either fruit trees, but by
leaving the terminal bud intact, a much better shaped tree is
developed. It is not necessary to prune English Walnut trees
except in cases where some of the lower branches interfere with
cultivation.

Cultivation in the North should be stopped about the first of
August, thus halting the growth of the trees and giving them a
chance to harden their wood for Winter. This is a good plan to
follow in the cultivation of nearly all the smaller fruit trees.

When planting on the lawn for ornamental purposes a ring from two
to three feet in diameter should be cultivated about the base of
the tree.

[Sidenote: =Selection of Varieties=]

The tender varieties that have been used in Southern California
must not be experimented with in the North, as they bloom too
early and are almost certain to be caught by the frost. These
varieties have been tried in Northern California without success,
and the venture is quite likely to be disastrous in any but the
warmest climates.

[Illustration: MR. E.C. POMEROY, GATHERING ENGLISH WALNUTS ON
HIS FARM IN LOCKPORT, N.Y.]

The uncertainty of a crop is often due to the very early blooming
of the kinds planted. These start to grow at the first warm spell
in the latter part of the Winter or at the first blush of Spring,
and almost invariably become victims of frost and consequently
produce no fruit.

Planting in the Northwest and the East until recently has been
limited to an extremely narrow area. There was need of a variety
possessing strong, distinct characteristics, hardy, late to start
growth, and with the pistillate and staminate blossoms maturing
at the same time and bearing a nut of good quality and flavor
with a full rich meat. This variety has now been found, as will
later be shown.

English Walnuts grown in the North command from three to five
cents more a pound than the other nuts in the markets, as the
meat is plumper and the flavor better. Most fruit is at its best
at the Northern limit of its range.

One experienced grower, in reference to transplanting has said:
"I have transplanted all the way from a year to six and the
trees have grown and done well, but so far as my experience goes,
I prefer to move them at three years of age or about that time.
The best trees I have were transplanted at this age."

[Sidenote: =Fall or Spring Planting?=]

The following extract on tree planting in general, pertaining to
all kinds of trees, is contributed by O.K. White of the Michigan
Experiment Station:

"The advisability of Fall or Spring planting depends upon
several conditions. Fall planting has the advantage over
Spring planting in that the trees become firmly established
in the soil before Winter sets in, and are able to start
growth in the Spring before the ground can be marked and put
in condition for planting. This is important because the
trees get a good growth in the early part of the season
before the Summer droughts occur. On the other hand there is
more or less danger from Winter injury during a severe
season or from the drying out of the trees if the Winter
is long and dry. Fall planting is much more successful with
the hardy apples and pears than it is with the tender plums,
cherries and peaches.

"The convenience of the season will determine in a majority
of cases whether or not the planting shall be done in the
Fall or Spring. Very often the rush of the Spring work
induces the grower to hurry his planting, or to do it
carelessly; and as a result a poor start is secured, with
crooked rows. Others have large crops to harvest in the Fall
and would find it more convenient to do the planting in the
Spring. If there is any doubt as to the best time to plant,
let it be in the Spring."

[Illustration: THIRTY YEAR OLD PARENT ENGLISH WALNUT TREES IN
BACKGROUND, YOUNG BEARING TREE IN FRONT]

[Sidenote: =Fertilizing=]

We now come to the subject of fertilization. Up to the time when
the young trees come into bearing, cultivation and fertilization
will help them enormously, the cultivation keeping the soil in
condition to hold the moisture of the tree. In fertilizing, a
mulch of stable manure in the Fall is considered by most growers
to be the best, but the following preparation is thought to be
exceptionally good for all young orchards:

Dried blood, 1,000 pounds; bone meal, 550 pounds; sulphate of
potash, 350 pounds. Total, 2,000 pounds. This should be applied
close up and about the tree, extending out each year in a circle
somewhat beyond the spread of the branches.

This provides a quickly available plant food, rich in nitrogen
and especially recommended for rapid growth.

After the tap-root reaches the sub-soil moisture it is well able
to take care of the tree; and both cultivation and fertilization
may then be stopped. In fact, by this time practically no further
care is needed in the nut orchard with the exception of that
required at the harvesting time, and this is a pleasant and easy
occupation, especially in the Northern and Eastern states where
the frost opens the shuck and the nuts drop free upon the ground
where they may be picked up and put into sacks of 110 to 120
pounds each, ready for the market.

Just before the first frost it is a very good idea to remove all
leaves from the ground so that when the nuts fall they can be
readily seen and gathered. An excellent method of accomplishing
this is by means of a horse and rake. The nuts may be left on the
ground to dry or may be removed to any convenient place for that
purpose.

[Sidenote: =The Different Kinds=]

There are three distinct kinds of English Walnuts--hard-shell,
soft-shell and paper-shell, the soft-shell being the best. Each
of these three is divided into a number of varieties, the names
of some of the more popular ones being the Barthere, Chaberte,
Cluster, Drew, Ford, Franquette, Gant or Bijou, Grand Noblesse,
Lanfray, Mammoth, Mayette, Wiltz Mayette, Mesange, Meylan,
Mission, Parisienne, Poorman, Proeparturiens, Santa Barbara,
Pomeroy, Serotina, Sexton, Vourey, Concord, Chase and the Eureka.

The question of the best varieties for planting in the North as
well as in the South is somewhat open to discussion, due largely
to a lack of sufficient information in regard to some of the more
promising kinds. There is but little question that the best
proven variety for the Northwest is the Franquette and for the
East and Northeast, the Pomeroy. Both of these are good producers
bearing a fine nut, well filled with a white meat of excellent
flavor, and of good shape and commanding the highest market
prices. The two varieties are also very late in starting in the
Spring making them safe against the late frosts. Their pistillate
and staminate blossoms mature at the same time.

[Illustration: ENGLISH WALNUTS BEAR IN CLUSTERS OF TWO TO
FIVE]

The white-meated nut is far superior to any other. The browning
or staining is caused by the extremely dry heat and sun in the
far South. In the North or where the tree has an abundant thick
foliage the meat is invariably whiter.

[Sidenote: =The Mission Nut=]

The Mission Nut was introduced by the priests of Los Angeles and
is the pioneer Persian Walnut of California. Most of the bearing
orchards of the state are composed of seedling trees of this
type. The nut is medium-sized with a hard shell of ordinary
thickness. It succeeds admirably in a few favored districts (of
Southern California) but fails in productiveness farther North.
Its most prominent faults are--early blooming, in consequence of
which it is often caught by the late frosts; the irregular and
unequal blooming of its pistillate and staminate blossoms, and
the consequent failure of the former to be fertilized and to
develop nuts; and lateness in ripening its wood in the Fall and
consequent liability to injury by frost at that time.

[Sidenote: =The Santa Barbara Nut=]

The Santa Barbara English Walnut (soft-shell) variety is about
ten days later than the Mission in starting growth and in
blooming in the Spring. It fruits from four to six years from
seed and usually produces a full crop every year. It is not as
strong a grower as the Mission and more trees can be grown to the
acre. The shells are thin and easily broken, therefore the nuts
are sometimes damaged in long shipment. The kernel is white and
of very fine quality.

[Sidenote: =The Pomeroy Nut=]

The Pomeroy variety was started in a most peculiar and
interesting way. The late Norman Pomeroy of Lockport, New York,
made the discovery quite by accident. When he was in Philadelphia
in 1876 visiting the Centennial Exposition, he awoke one morning
to be greeted by the leaves of a gorgeous tree, which just
touched his window and through which the sun shone brightly. He
soon was examining a magnificent English Walnut tree. On the
ground directly under he found the nuts, which had fallen during
the night. Their flavor was more delicious and the meat fuller
than any he had ever before tasted. The shell was unusually thin
and Mr. Pomeroy was astonished, for he never believed the English
Walnut grew in the East.

Knowing the varieties grown in California could not be raised in
the East or North, he questioned his landlord and found that this
particular tree had been brought from Northern Europe. Mr.
Pomeroy determined at once that possibly this variety would be
hardy enough for cultivation in New York State. He procured some
of the nuts and put them in his satchel which he entrusted to a
neighbor who was about to start home. The neighbor reached home
all right and so did the nuts--but--the neighbor's children found
the rare delicacies and ate all but seven. They would doubtless
have eaten these too but fortunately they had slipped into the
lining of the satchel where Mr. Pomeroy found them on his return
to Lockport. These seven nuts, which had so narrow an escape from
oblivion, are now seven beautiful English Walnut trees, sixty or
more feet high and the progenitors of the Pomeroy orchards, all
of which are now producing nuts like the originals--a very fine
quality.

[Sidenote: =Some uses of English Walnuts=]

English Walnuts to be used for making pickles, catsup, oil and
other culinary products, are gathered when the fruit is about
half mature or when the shell is soft enough to yield to the
influence of cooking. The proper stage can be determined by
piercing the nut with a needle, a certain degree of hardness
being desired. The nut is often utilized for olive oil in some
parts of Europe. It takes one hundred pounds of nuts to make
eighteen pounds of oil.

In England the nuts are preserved fresh for the table where they
are served with wine. They are buried deep in dry soil or sand so
as not to be reached by frost, the sun's rays or rain; or by
placing them in dry cellars and covering with straw. Others seal
them up in tin cans filled with sand.

[Sidenote: =Examples of Hardiness=]

As an illustration of the hardiness of the English Walnut, there
is a tree at Red Hill, Virginia, which was brought from
Edinburgh, Scotland, when six months old, planted in New York,
where it remained three years, then removed to Staunton,
Virginia, and after two years taken to Red Hill. In consequence
of so many changes, the tree at first died back, but is now
thrifty--twenty feet high; trunk, eight inches in diameter at the
ground.

During several severe Winters, the thermometer fell so low that
some peach trees and grape vines growing near English Walnuts on
the Pomeroy farm near Lockport, N.Y. were killed, while the nut
trees were not in the least injured.

[Illustration]

_The English Walnut at its Best._

A smooth, soft-shelled nut.

Meat full, with sweet, hickory-nut flavor.

Nuts fall clean and free from outside shuck.

Frosts harvest the nuts--in October.

They are self-pruning.

Require no care after arrival at bearing age.

An alkali sap keeps scales and pests from the trees.

Blossoms immune from late frosts, as they start late.

Pistillate and Staminate blossoms mature at same time in
the best varieties, insuring perfect fertilization and
productivity.

Bears more regularly than other nut trees.

Bears heavier crops the older it becomes, unlike other
fruit trees the size and quality of whose fruit
degenerates with age.

_Interesting Figures about the English Walnut._

In Spain and Southern France there are trees believed to
be more than 300 years old which bear from fifteen to
eighteen bushels of nuts each, annually.

In Whittier, California, is a famous tree which has been
leased for a term of years at $500.

Orchards seven and eight years old bring all the way from
$1,000 to $2,000 per acre and are a fine investment,
yielding from 15 to 125 per cent. according to age.

The total cost of producing and harvesting an English
Walnut crop is about one and one-half cents a pound.

[Illustration]

_Kernels of Fact about the English Walnut._

The United States consumes more than 50,000,000 pounds a
year.

The United States imports about 27,000,000 pounds a year.

The price is advancing steadily with the demand.

Besides being profitable, the English Walnut is a clean,
highly ornamental shade tree.

The leaves remain on the tree until late in the Fall, not
littering up the ground during the Summer.

English Walnuts are not only a rare table delicacy, but may
be utilized for catsup, pickles and oil.

One pound of walnut meat equals eight pounds of steak in
nutriment--and is a far more healthful food.

_What Luther Burbank has to say:_

"When you plant another tree, why not plant the English Walnut?
Then, besides sentiment, shade and leaves, you may have a
perennial supply of nuts, the improved kind of which furnish the
most delicious, nutritious and healthful food which has ever been
known. The consumption of nuts is probably increasing among all
civilized nations today faster than that of any other food; and
we should keep up with this growing demand and make it still more
rapid by producing nuts of uniform good quality, with a
consequent increase in the health and a permanent increase in the
wealth of ourselves and neighbors."--_From Address at Santa Rosa,
California, in the Fall of 1905._

[Illustration]

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