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Title: Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Fourth Annual Meeting - Washington D.C. November 18 and 19, 1913
Author: Northern Nut Growers Association [Editor]
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Fourth Annual Meeting - Washington D.C. November 18 and 19, 1913" ***
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|DISCLAIMER |
| |
|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 |
|trees that might have been successful in one area and at a particular |
|time is not a guarantee that similar results will occur elsewhere. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING
[Illustration]
WASHINGTON, D. C.
NOVEMBER 18 AND 19
1913
NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING
WASHINGTON, D. C.
NOVEMBER 18 AND 19, 1913
CONCORD, N. H.
THE RUMFORD PRESS
1914
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Officers and Committees of the Association 4
Members of the Association 5
Constitution and Rules of the Association 10
Proceedings of the Meeting held at Washington, D. C.,
November 18 and 19, 1913 11
Experiences and Experiments with the Persian Walnut,
A. C. Pomeroy, New York 11
Forage Nuts and the Chestnut and Walnut in Europe,
J. Russell Smith, Virginia 20
Present State of the Chestnut Blight, J. Franklin Collins,
Washington, D. C. 25
Top-Working Seedling Pecan Trees, W. N. Hutt, North Carolina 32
Unusual Methods of Propagating Nut Trees, Dr. Robert T. Morris,
New York City 43
The Possibilities of Nut Culture in Utah, Leon D. Batchelor, Utah 48
The Diseases of Nut Trees, M. B. Waite, Washington, D. C. 50
Insects Injurious to Nut Trees, A. L. Quaintance, Washington, D. C. 62
Demonstrations of Methods of Propagating Nut Trees 64
Appendix:
Report of the Secretary-Treasurer 69
Resolution Concerning Nurserymen Adopted at the Annual
Meeting of the Association, November 18 and 19, 1913 71
Present at the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Northern Nut
Growers Association 72
Exhibits 73
George W. Endicott--The Boone Chestnut, E. A. Riehl,
Alton, Ill. 74
Letters from Members 75
The Late Henry Hales as a Nut Culturist, H. W. Hales,
New Jersey 77
The Filbert Blight. Abstract of Paper by Humphrey 78
The Truth about Tree Planting with Dynamite 79
Correspondents and Others Interested in Nut Culture 81
Authorities and Special Correspondents 89
The Chestnut Blight and Immune Hybrids. Recent Publications 92
OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION
_President_ T. P. LITTLEPAGE Indiana
_Vice-President_ W. N. ROPER Virginia
_Secretary and Treasurer_ W. C. DEMING Georgetown, Conn.
COMMITTEES
_Executive_
ROBERT T. MORRIS
C. A. REED
AND THE OFFICERS
_Membership_
W. C. DEMING
G. H. CORSAN
W. N. ROPER
_Promising Seedlings_
T. P. LITTLEPAGE
C. A. REED
W. C. DEMING
_Nomenclature_
W. C. REED
R. T. MORRIS
W. C. DEMING
_Hybrids_
R. T. MORRIS
J. R. SMITH
C. P. CLOSE
_Press and Publication_
W. N. ROPER
T. P. LITTLEPAGE
W. C. DEMING
STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS
Canada Dr. D. S. Sager Brantford
Colorado Lloyd H. Decker Greeley, R. 5 Box 11
Connecticut Charles H. Plump West Redding
Delaware H. P. Layton Georgetown
Florida H. Harold Hume Glen Saint Mary
Georgia I. B. Wight Cairo
Illinois Norman W. Casper New Burnside
Indiana R. L. McCoy Lake
Iowa Alson Secor Des Moines
Ireland Dr. Augustine Henry 5 Sanford Terrace, Ranelagh, Dublin
Kansas L. L. Powers Dodge City
Kentucky A. L. Moseley Calhoun
Maryland C. P. Close Pomologist, Department of
Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
Massachusetts Bernard Hoffman Stockbridge
Michigan Miss Maud M. Jessup Grand Rapids
Minnesota C. A. Van Duzee Minneapolis
Missouri C. C. Cummings 317 Joplin St., Joplin
New Hampshire Henry N. Gowing Dublin
New Jersey C. S. Ridgway Lumberton
New York A. C. Pomeroy Lockport
North Carolina W. N. Hutt Raleigh
State Horticulturist
Ohio J. H. Dayton Painesville
Oregon G. M. Magruder Medical Building, Portland
Pennsylvania J. G. Rush West Willow
Utah Leon D. Batchelor Logan
Horticulturist, State Agricultural College
Virginia J. Russell Smith Roundhill
West Virginia B. F. Hartzell Shepherdstown
Wisconsin Alfred E. Johnson Iola
MEMBERS OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
CANADA
Arnott, Dr. H. G., 26 Emerald St. South, Hamilton
Corsan, G. H., University of Toronto Gymnasium, Toronto
Dufresne, Dr. A. A., 217 St. Christopher St., Montreal
Fisk, Dr. George, 101 Union Ave., Montreal
Sager, Dr. D. S., Brantford, Ontario
Saunders, W. E., 352 Clarence St., London, Ontario
Stuart, Henderson, Victoria, British Columbia, P. O. Box 77
COLORADO
Decker, Loyd H., Greeley, R. 5, Box 11
CONNECTICUT
Barnes, John R., Yalesville
Browne, Louis L., Bodsbeck Farm, New Canaan
Deming, Dr. W. C, Georgetown
Deming, Imogen Hawthorne, Georgetown
Fisher, Prof. Irving, 460 Prospect St., New Haven
Hale, Mrs. George H., Glastonbury
Hungerford, Newman, 45 Prospect St., Hartford
Ives, Ernest M., Sterling Orchards, Meriden
Miller, Mrs. Charles, 32 Hillside Ave., Waterbury
Morris, Dr. Robert T., Stamford
Nichols, Mrs. F. Gillette, E. Haddam
Plump, Charles H., West Redding
DELAWARE
Layton, H. P., Georgetown
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Close, Prof. C. P., Pomologist, Department of Agriculture, Washington
Lake, Prof. E. R. Assistant Pomologist, Department of Agriculture,
Washington
Reed, C. A., In Charge of Nut Culture Investigations, Department of
Agriculture, Washington
Stabler, Albert, 613 Bond Building, Washington
+Van Deman, Prof. H. E., Washington
FLORIDA
Hume, H. Harold, Glen Saint Mary
Prange, Mrs. N. M. G., Jacksonville
GEORGIA
Crocker, Dr. F. S., Albany
White, H. C., DeWitt
Wight, J. B., Cairo
ILLINOIS
Casper, Norman W., Fairlawn, New Burnside
Heely, Dr. O. J., St. Libory
Potter, Hon. W. O., Marion
Riehl, E. A., Alton
Spencer, Henry D., Room 1, Opera House Block, Decatur
INDIANA
Beardsley, A. H., Elkhart
Burton, Joe A., Mitchell
[+]Littlepage, T. P., Boonville
McCoy, R. L., Lake
Niblack, Mason J., Vincennes
Reed, W. C., of Vincennes Nurseries, Vincennes
Wilkinson, J. F., Rockport
IOWA
Secor, Alson, Editor _Successful Farming_, Des Moines
IRELAND
Henry, Dr. Augustine, 5 Sanford Terrace, Ranelagh, Dublin
KANSAS
Powers, L. L., Dodge City
KENTUCKY
Mathews, Prof. C. W., Horticulturist, State Agricultural Experiment
Station, Lexington
Moseley, A. L., Bank of Calhoun, Calhoun
MARYLAND
Harrison, J. G., representing Harrison's Nurseries, Berlin
Holmes, F. S., M. S., Agricultural Exp. Sta., College Park
MASSACHUSETTS
[+]Bowditch, James H., 903 Tremont Building, Boston
Hoffmann, Bernhard, Overbrook Orchard, Stockbridge
Keely, Royal R., Walpole, Box 485
Markham, Dr. E. W., Lee
Rich, William P., Secretary State Horticultural Society, Horticultural
Hall, 300 Massachusetts Ave., Boston
Vaughan, Horace A., Peacehaven, Assonet
White, Warren, Holliston
MICHIGAN
Jessup, Miss Maud M., 440 Thomas St., Grand Rapids
Murphy, P. J., Wayne and Congress Sts., Detroit
MINNESOTA
Smith, E. K., 213 Phoenix Building, Minneapolis
Van Duzee, Col. C. A., St. Paul
Wyman, Willis L., Park Rapids
MISSOURI
Cummings, Dr. C. C., 317 Joplin St., Joplin
Mosher, H. G., Schell City
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Durgin, Alfred C., Newmarket
Gowing, Henry N., Dublin
NEW JERSEY
Coleman, H. H., Federal Guarantee Company, Newark
Dietrick, Thomas S., 12 West Washington Ave., Washington
Foster, Samuel F., Secretary North Jersey Society for the Promotion of
Agriculture, 100 Broadway, New York City
Jaques, Lee W., 74 Waverly St., Jersey City Heights
Marston, Edwin S., Florham Park, Box 72
Mergler, C. W., Hackensack Road and Mount Vernon St., Ridgefield Park
Putnam, G. H., Vineland
Ridgway, C. S., "Floralia," Lumberton
Roberts, Horace, Moorestown
Walter, Dr. Harry, Hotel Chalfonte, Atlantic City
NEW YORK
Abbott, Frederick B., 419 Ninth St., Brooklyn
Armstrong, A. H., General Electric Company, Schenectady
Brown, Ronald K., 320 Broadway, New York City
Clendenin, Rev. F. M., Westchester, New York City
Ellison, Elmer T., 1272 Jefferson Ave., Brooklyn
Ellwanger, Mrs. W. D., 510 East Ave., Rochester
Fullerton, H. B., Director Long Island Railroad Agricultural Experiment
Station, Medford
Glover, J. Wheeler, Great Kills
Hans, Amedee, Superintendent Hodenpyl Estate, Locust Valley, L. I.
Haywood, Albert, Flushing
Hickox, Ralph, 3832 White Plains Ave., New York City
Hicks, Henry, Westbury Station, L. I.
Holden, E. B., Hilton
[+]Huntington, A. M., 15 W. 81st St., New York City
James, Dr. Walter B., 17 W. 54th St., New York City
Koch, Alphonse, 510 E. 77th St., New York City
Loomis, Charles B., East Greenbush, R. D. 1
Miller, Mrs. Seaman, care of Mr. Seaman Miller, 2 Rector St.,
New York City
McKoon, Morgan L., Long Eddy
Pomeroy, A. C, Lockport
Pomeroy, E. C, Bayside
Reynolds, H. L., 2579 Main St., Buffalo
Rice, Mrs. Lilian McKee, Barnes Cottage, Carmel
Storrs, A. P., 117 Front St., Oswego
Teele, A. W., 30 Broad St., New York City
Teter, Walter C, 10 Wall St., New York City
Tuckerman, Bayard, 118 E. 37th St., New York City
Turner, K. M., 1265 Broadway, New York City
Ulman, Dr. Ira., 213 W. 147th St., New York City
Wile, Th. E., 1012 Park Ave., Rochester
Williams, Dr. Charles Mallory, 48 E. 49th St., New York City
[+]Wissmann, Mrs. F. DeR., 707 Fifth Ave., New York City
NORTH CAROLINA
Barret, Harvey P., 1902 E. 7th St., Charlotte
Hutt, Prof. W. N., State Horticulturist, Raleigh
Van Lindley, J., J. Van Lindley Nursery Company, Pomona
OHIO
Dayton, J. H., representing Storrs and Harrison Company, Painesville
Fickes, W. R., Wooster, R. 6
Ferd, Horatio, South Euclid, Cuyahoga County
Johnson, I. B., Cincinnati, Station K
Miller, H. A., Gypsum
Rector, Dr. J. M., Columbus
Weber, Harry R., 601-4 Gerke Building, 123 E. 6th St., Cincinnati
Yunck, E. G., 710 Central Ave., Sandusky
OREGON
Magruder, G. M., Medical Building, Portland
PENNSYLVANIA
Butler, Henry L., Gwynedd Valley
Chalmers, W. J., Vanport
Doan, J. L., School of Horticulture, Ambler
Druekemiller, W. C, Sunbury
Fagan, Prof. F. N., Department of Horticulture, State College
Hall, L. C., Avonia
Hildebrand, F. B., Duquesne
Hoopes, Wilmer W., of Hoopes Brothers and Thomas Company, Westchester
[+]Jones, J. F., Lancaster
Kinsell, Miss Ida J., Locust Spring Farm, Rochester Mills,
Indiana County, Route 2
Knipe, Irwin P., Norristown
Leas, F. C, Bala
Lovett, Mrs. Joseph L., Emilie, Bucks County
Meehan, S. Mendelson, of Thomas Meehan & Sons, Germantown
McSparren, W. F., Furnice
Moss, James, Johnsville, Bucks County
Preslar, C. F., 524 Grandview Ave., Pittsburgh
Rush, J. G., West Willow
Shoemaker, Seth W., Agricultural Editor, International Correspondence
Schools, Scranton
Smitten, H. W., Borough Hall, Avalon
Twaddell, E. W., Evergreen Nurseries, Westtown
UTAH
Batchelor, Leon D., Horticulturist, Utah Agricultural College, Logan
Pendleton, M. A., 3 Mozart Apartments, Salt Lake City
VIRGINIA
Crockett, E. B., Lynchburg
Parrish, John S., Eastham, Albemarle County
Roper, W. N., of Arrowfield Nurseries, Petersburg
Shackford, Theodore B., Lynehburg, care of Adams Brothers Paynes Company
Smith, Prof. J. Russell, Roundhill
Von Ammon, S., Fontella
WEST VIRGINIA
Hartzell, B. F., Shepherdstown
WISCONSIN
Johnson, Alfred E., Iola
[Footnote +: Life member.] [Footnote +: Life member.]
CONSTITUTION AND RULES OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
_Name._ The society shall be known as the NORTHERN NUT GROWERS
ASSOCIATION.
_Object._ The promotion of interest in nut-producing plants, their
products and their culture.
_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 approval of the committee on membership.
_Officers._ There shall be a president, a vice-president, and a
secretary-treasurer; an executive committee of five persons, of which
the president, vice-president and secretary shall be members; and a
state vice-president from each state represented in the membership of
the association.
_Election of Officers._ A committee of five members shall be elected at
the annual meeting for the purpose of nominating officers for the
subsequent year.
_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.
_Fees._ The fees shall be of two kinds, annual and life. The former
shall be two dollars, the latter twenty dollars.
_Discipline._ The committee on membership may make recommendations to
the association as to the discipline or expulsion of any member.
_Committees._ The association shall appoint standing committees of three
members each to consider and report on the following topics at each
annual meeting: first, on promising seedlings; second, on nomenclature;
third, on hybrids; fourth, on membership; fifth, on press and
publication.
Northern Nut Growers Association
FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING
NOVEMBER 18 AND 19, 1913
AT WASHINGTON, D. C.
The fourth annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association was
held, in conjunction with the meetings of the American Pomological
Society, the Society for Horticultural Science, and the Eastern Fruit
Growers Association, in the new National Museum building at Washington,
D. C, during "Fruit Week," November 17 to 22, 1913, the meeting of the
Association being on the 18th and 19th.
The first session was called to order at 11 A. M. in Room 3. In the
absence of the President the chair was occupied by Professor W. N. Hutt
of North Carolina.
THE CHAIRMAN: Ladies and Gentlemen: If you will come to order, we will
begin the meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association. It is
unfortunate that our president is called away on important business. He
has asked me to take his place and we will do the best we can. I will
ask the secretary to read a communication.
THE SECRETARY: I have this telegram from Mr. Littlepage, our president:
"Please express to the Northern Nut Growers Association my profound
regrets that I cannot be with them. No organization has ever been formed
that contained finer and more sincere men than ours. I invite the
Association to come to Indiana next year. I will take you along the
banks of the Wabash, the Ohio and Green River, where the pecan trees
grow so big that the sun has to go around. I send best wishes for a
successful meeting."
THE CHAIRMAN: Mr. Pomeroy has kindly consented to give us a talk on
walnuts.
EXPERIENCES AND EXPERIMENTS WITH THE PERSIAN WALNUT
A. C. POMEROY, NEW YORK
When our secretary asked me to prepare a paper on this subject, I
thought it would be very simple, but after making a beginning I found
that about all I knew on nut culture was my own experiences--successes
and failures--covering a period of about twenty-five years.
During the past year better data have been kept of the behavior of the
Persian walnut trees under my observation, than in former years.
Hereafter it is my intention to keep a more detailed record of the time
of the appearance of the nutlet blossoms of each tree, which is of the
utmost importance to those interested in the growing of the Persian
walnut in the North and East.
In order to keep a better record of each tree I have numbered the old
original trees, planted by my father, from 1 to 7.
Nuts from each tree are here in jars numbered to correspond with the
trees from which they were gathered and may be compared for variation in
size, shape, thinness of shell and flavor.
It would be impossible to keep an exact record in pounds of the yield of
any one tree per year. One thing against any such record, is that many
visitors come to our farm every year to see the walnut trees and the
pockets of some of them look suspiciously bulky on leaving. (An ordinary
coat pocket will hold a quart, an overcoat pocket more than that and
there are only thirty-two quarts in a bushel.)
The new orchard is just coming into bearing. At one end of it there is
an old black walnut tree, and the young Persians that were planted near
this tree began to bear first. Near the center of this eight-acre
orchard we planted a butternut tree. This will, I think, help to
fertilize the pistillate or nutlet blossoms on many of the trees.
Of the original trees five stand where they can have care and good
cultivation. The other two were put in the lawn very close to some old
shade trees where they can not be cultivated and are kept pretty well in
the shade. The five cultivated trees produced this fall over
twenty-three bushels. The nuts were measured on November 10 when there
were twenty and a half bushels. The snow was so deep the other few
bushels could not be gathered.
Besides the walnut trees mentioned there are perhaps twenty-five more
planted in small plots about the farm. Nuts from some of these young
trees are here and comparisons may be made with the nuts from the old
trees.
To get an idea of how the English walnut has done in some parts of
western New York the following replies to enquiries are quoted.
Wilson, one tree thirteen years old, one and one half bushels.
Sybrandt, has twenty-five or more trees thirteen years old, some trees a
bushel, others over a bushel and a half. Eighme, one tree fifteen or
sixteen years old, one bushel. Trippency, one tree fifteen or sixteen
years old, two bushels.
Nuts from some of the old and young trees were weighed. The results were
somewhat surprising to me.
Tree No. 1 S. R. Long, well-filled nut, 48 to the pound.
Tree No. 1 N. R. Nut slightly pointed, well filled, 40 to the pound.
Tree No. 2 N. R. Nut nearly round, well filled, 37 to the pound.
Tree No. 5. Annual bearer, 64 to the pound.
The weighing was done on a druggist's scales about two weeks after
gathering.
Those of you who have not seen a Persian walnut tree in full foliage,
have something to live for. Imagine a tree, that was a nut in the spring
of 1877, its branches now spreading full fifty feet, its topmost bough
fully that far from the ground, its trunk measuring seventy-six inches
around, well above the earth.
Imagine such a tree in its foliage of dense, dark glossy green, its
branches loaded with fruit, sometimes actually touching the ground.
The question is sometimes asked what is such a tree worth for cabinet
use? I don't know, and I don't care. What I do know is that those five
trees produced well upward of forty dollars each this year.
Our markets in western New York are good. The folks that use nuts as a
daily food have increased greatly in the past few years. Niagara County
has three cities, Erie County, adjoining, also has three cities. The
population of Buffalo is about 450,000; improved highways and gasolene
trucks have put us within an hour and a half of all these six cities.
While there are hundreds of young Persian walnut trees, just coming into
bearing, in some of the counties of western New York, the supply of
home-grown nuts will probably never fill the demand.
Professor Lake paid the farm a short visit this past summer and told of
his grafting. I think he said he had a loss of 90 per cent. We beat that
a little as our loss was 100 per cent.
The failure in grafting was due, I think, to the scions not being cut
early enough.
Budding in August was done by budders expert with fruit trees. A Jones
budding tool was used. Nearly all the buds took.
We do not have much trouble with disease or insects.
We have had no trouble to speak of with worms. About ten years ago a few
nests of the tent caterpillar were cut off and burned.
Some 18 or 20 years ago all, or nearly all, of the nuts dropped in June.
I do not know what was the matter.
In 1906 the ends of some of the branches on the older trees turned brown
and died back a few inches.
These were cut off and burned. We had but few nuts that year.
In fertilizing have used barnyard manure. When it was used it was at
times applied too freely, perhaps, as some of the young trees put forth
a growth of six feet in one season. I do not think it well to force them
too much. The fertilizing should be done in the winter or early spring.
Trimming may be done at any time a branch appears that needs removing.
There is one pretty good sized tree on the farm with black walnut stem
and Persian walnut top. Some horticulturists seem to think that this
kind of a tree is hardier. My observations are that there is not a bit
of difference. This tree and another on a near-by farm are the only two
I know of with a black walnut stem and a Persian top, in my section.
The U. S. Department of Agriculture has issued a bulletin "Soil Survey
of Niagara County, N. Y." By referring to this, I find that the soils
that have produced thrifty, and prolific Persian walnut trees are,
Dunkirk loam, Dunkirk sandy loam, Dunkirk silt loam, Clyde sandy loam
and clay loam.
The winters of western New York are frequently quite severe. The winter
of 1911-12 was a very severe one, zero weather prevailing most of the
time and frequently it was way below zero for days. No injury was done
to the Persian walnut trees and a good crop of nuts was harvested in the
fall of 1912.
In May, 1913, on the nights of the 11th and 12th it was so cold that ice
formed an eighth of an inch, or more, in thickness. The staminate
catkins on the Persian walnut trees were fairly well developed and it
was thought the nuts were gone for this year surely, but the last of May
the pistillate blossoms came out, the staminates matured and the results
have already been told you.
I think that Persian walnut trees pay better than apples, and that there
is no danger of an oversupply.
The cost for labor in caring for the trees and in harvesting the crop is
very much less than for any other fruit crop. No spraying and no picking
are necessary.
The cost of production is slight, yet the demand and prices for this nut
have been steadily increasing for several years.
* * * * *
THE CHAIRMAN: I would like to have a good discussion of this paper,
because it seems to me that in all the activities of the Northern Nut
Growers Association the Persian walnut offers the highest possibilities.
The Pacific coast people and southern people have always thought that
only the hickory or black walnut could be raised in the northern parts
of the country, and now we find that the Persian walnut also does well
there. The Secretary has sent out a letter recently asking for
information about the Persian walnut trees in the vicinity of each
person addressed. This letter was gotten out for the reason that in the
culture of the Persian walnut the Pacific coast people have distanced
us, and it is probable that we have not learned the possibilities of
these splendid nuts in the East. We have a few very fine varieties of
these eastern nuts, and it looks as if, by use of these varieties, the
eastern part of this country can produce these nuts in as large
quantities as the western. Mr. Pomeroy originated the walnut bearing his
name, and we have another nut that offers very good promise, and I
believe the originator is here this morning. Mr. Rush we would like to
hear from you.
MR. RUSH: I am satisfied that Persian walnut culture can be made just as
profitable on the Atlantic coast as on the Pacific and in France. We
have varieties that have stood a temperature of twenty-three degrees
below zero.
I have discovered another variety in Lancaster. This tree was brought in
from Germany about thirty-five years ago and it has turned out to be an
extremely valuable variety. I have seen these nuts selling in the open
market at fifty cents a pound. As regards propagation of the Persian
walnut, of course the black walnut is the most common variety on which
to propagate. Another stock is the Japan walnut, in a sense better than
the black for grafting. It has a better lateral root system and is not
so fierce in going down to the center of the earth. Its root system is
magnificent. Several trees budded on this stock a year ago last August
and transplanted in November the same year, had a growth this summer of
over six feet from the bud, showing that there must certainly be
remarkable vitality in the Japanese roots. I have a young tree thirteen
years old budded on black walnut that produced twenty-one nuts this
summer. I have a seedling about ten years old which didn't have one
catkin bloom. But a tree of the Rush variety, so named for me by Mr.
Jones, the first propagator, stood about forty feet away from the first,
and at the end of the season this seedling tree produced sixty finely
developed nuts. This seedling tree, however, had a great many pistillate
blossoms, which received pollen from the neighboring variety that was
prolific in staminate bloom. It would seem to be an advantage for a
seedling Persian walnut to have a good pollenizer in its company.
PROFESSOR SMITH: I was struck by Mr. Pomeroy's statement that after
apparent killing of the staminate bloom by frost the pistillate blossoms
appeared and he had a crop. Evidently he got fertilization from some
outside source. The Persian walnut in the eastern part of the United
States is like many other trees in that its trouble does not arise from
susceptibility to winter cold, for when it is dormant it appears to
stand great cold. The trouble with the Persian walnut is its tendency to
start growing at the first approach of warm weather and if the cold
comes later it may kill the tree. Mr. Pomeroy's farm there near the
shores of the lake has an immunity from sudden changes of temperature
and therefore his trees are not likely to make growth which will be
caught by late fall or early spring frosts. Unquestionably he can grow
Persian walnuts better there than can be done five hundred to a thousand
miles further south. It is also a well-known fact that one of the best
of peach and apple regions is along this lake shore. There are many
other Persian walnut trees growing in different localities east of the
Mississippi, but nobody seems to think them worth propagating because
they winter kill at times. Yet seedlings of the hardiest trees often do
it. A new variety of the tree has been discovered which is wonderful in
that, whereas the ordinary Persian walnut tree comes into leaf rather
early, this tree comes into leaf in June when cherries are ripe. I have
seen similar trees in France. I have no doubt there are ten or fifteen
different varieties of this tree growing unappreciated in this part of
the country. These particular trees we do know about happen to belong to
gentlemen who are propagating them for our benefit and we owe them our
thanks; but I have no doubt there are many other trees equally as
valuable growing in the Eastern States. I have no doubt that the
experience of Mr. Rush could be duplicated, in discovering right near
him in his own town something better than he had ever known before. We
need reports on all these trees.
MR. RUSH: In connection with Mr. Smith's remarks as to late vegetating
varieties, it may be that this feature is not altogether desirable. I
have been in correspondence with a gentleman in Colfax, Washington, who
has some late vegetating varieties and he tells me that he lost his
whole crop. They were caught by a frost at the end of the season before
they had fully matured.
MR. DAVIS: Mr. C. A. Sober has, on his farm in central Pennsylvania,
about five hundred Persian walnut trees and has had them for ten years.
He has not been able to get a nut. Every year they freeze back. The
trees live but they freeze back. I don't know whether this is because
they start too early or not.
PROFESSOR SMITH: I do not know that there is any better nut than these
which we are now propagating, but I think the chances are ninety-nine to
one against our having found the best walnut trees for this region.
THE CHAIRMAN: I think Professor Smith's point is well taken. We are just
starting in this business. I want to get the experiences of men from
different parts of the country. Is Mr. Stabler here?
MR. STABLER: Thirty years ago three trees, probably seedlings were
planted in our neighborhood. One is on my father's farm, one is on my
uncle's farm, and one is on our farm. The one on our farm, I think, has
never borne a nut. My uncle's has borne many times, although an apple
tree and a cedar tree are very near it. This walnut tree comes out so
very late in the spring that no spring frost catches it. It is in
Montgomery County and we often have late spring frosts there. The nuts
are all ripe in the fall too before the frost comes.
PROFESSOR SMITH: Mr. Stabler told me that this is the fifteenth
successive crop from this tree.
THE CHAIRMAN: This is certainly a very important point--the maturity of
these trees. It is the general impression that the Persian walnut will
not mature in certain sections of the country, but as a fact there are
certain varieties that will mature anywhere in the country. We have
similar evidence in the experience of the pecan growers. The Indiana
pecan is dormant later than the southern varieties. This is true of the
hardy peach also which comes out later in the spring and is ripe sooner
in the fall than the southern varieties. These seem to have accommodated
themselves to the climate.
PROFESSOR MCHATTON: In Georgia we are prone to be hurt by the late
spring frosts--that is our great trouble. The other day there was sent
into the office a number of specimens of the Persian walnut, said to be
from a seedling grown at Sharp, Georgia, in the apple country just below
Chattanooga, at an elevation of eight hundred to a thousand feet, and it
gets cold up there--they have heavy freezing every winter. This tree
began bearing at seven or eight years, the owner said, and has borne a
crop every year for the past seven or eight years, and he had several
losses of fruit crops from late spring frosts during that period. The
nut was very well filled and of fair size. If any one is interested
sufficiently and will write to me as soon as I get back to the college I
will send the name of the grower. I do not recommend it as I have never
seen more than a dozen of the nuts. This was of interest to me, because
I have not been recommending the Persian walnut there on account of the
late spring frosts, but now it looks as if there was a chance of our
getting into the walnut game ourselves.
MR. POMEROY: A prominent expert who came to the farm once said to me
that the Persian or English walnut came to this country through two
routes: one through Greece, Italy and Spain, and taken by the Spaniards
to Mexico and southern California, and the other route through Germany
and England into the United States from the north. He said he would
rather have his walnut trees come from the northern route trees than the
southern.
PROFESSOR SMITH: Any one who has a good tree ought to write to our
secretary. I hope everybody will report these trees. The information
will be published in bulletin form and sent out to every member of the
Association. I fully believe that this information gathered and
disseminated will greatly assist in developing the walnut industry in
the eastern part of the United States.
MR. FROST: Mr. Pomeroy said that the pruning might be done at any time
of the year. I pruned a walnut tree one spring and it very nearly bled
to death.
MR. POMEROY: It seems to me that I have always pruned at any time. It
might be that when the sap is just nicely started--just before the tree
starts and the buds swell--it might not be wise to do that. I suppose
that the nut trees might bleed then the same as grape vines and certain
other plants and trees. I thought it never did any harm.
MR. FROST: It very nearly killed mine. They were big trees, too.
THE CHAIRMAN: I had just such an experience as that with grape vines. We
found that if grapes are pruned at a certain time in the spring they
will bleed profusely, and sometimes actually bleed to death. I never had
any experience with walnuts, but with vines we prune in the fall just as
soon as they are dormant. At that time the energies of the plant are at
a minimum and you can prune more safely than at any other time. As we go
on toward spring the moisture becomes greater and the sap starts, so if
you prune late in the spring there is great danger of injury to all
plants. If you prune in the fall you have no trouble.
MR. WILE: I would like to know if any one has had experience with
California varieties here in the East.
PROFESSOR VAN DEMAN: Professor Close has had more than any one else. I
have also heard of some in Florida.
PROFESSOR LAKE: We have had three years' experience; we have had also
the experience of others who have had them a longer time than that. Some
three years ago we grafted a number of California varieties on the
eastern black. In view of the eastern conditions, these are all making
splendid growth--some of them made a three-foot growth last year, some a
five and one-half foot growth this year. They went through last winter
splendidly; they are holding back finely in the spring and we had no
trouble with spring frosts on the grafted portions, even though many of
the seedlings were injured.
THE CHAIRMAN: Will the Persian walnut fertilize itself under eastern
conditions?
PROFESSOR SMITH: I think we will have to trust to outside fertilization
by the black walnut or butternut. They all bloom at the same time. One
fertilizing tree will do, but it is better to have more than one because
sometimes it might turn out that the staminate catkins came a few days
too early or too late to fertilize the nut. The more trees you have, the
better the chances; the more trees in a group the better. The reason a
five or six-year-old Persian walnut tree does not bear many walnuts is
that there are no staminate catkins. It takes old wood to produce them.
There is not enough old wood.
MR. STABLER: The Stabler walnut which I have just mentioned, bloomed
from the tenth to the twenty-fifth of June. The black walnuts of that
neighborhood all came out from a month to six weeks earlier than that,
and not a single black walnut tree had blossoms on in that neighborhood,
nor a single Persian walnut at the time the Stabler tree blossomed. I
believe I am fairly well acquainted there and there was not a single
other tree had catkins on at that time, and yet that tree bore a good
crop of catkins and a large number of pistillate blossoms and later a
good crop of nuts which is fairly good evidence that it must have
fertilized itself.
THE CHAIRMAN: We would like to continue this discussion, but we have
another paper that bears on the subject, and I think it will bring out
some points in connection with it.
FORAGE NUTS AND THE CHESTNUT AND WALNUT IN EUROPE
J. RUSSELL SMITH, VIRGINIA
The great task of American agriculture is to feed our beasts.
Approximately nine tenths of the proceeds of American agriculture goes
to nourish the quadruped, and man eats the remaining one tenth;
therefore, if we want to get clear of the possibility of a crop being
overproduced, let us grow something the beast can eat. To say that we
will never overproduce food crops for man is ridiculous. It is quite
possible, for instance, that we may produce too many Persian walnuts for
man's food, but the tree that will produce nuts to feed the beasts is on
a firm basis. Pigs are going up and they are going to stay up. If we can
get something that will suit Brother Pig we are on a perfectly safe
basis, and that is the basis of the chestnut industry in Europe. In
large sections of France, from Switzerland to the Atlantic, there are
thousands of acres of chestnut trees--a great forage crop. In a few
districts is[**typo ] looks like a forested country, on account of the
heavy chestnut tree groves. The tenant who takes a farm has certain
restrictions placed upon him in the removal and use of the crop. He is
not allowed to remove the chestnuts in France. The tenant who takes the
farm, signs a contract that he will not sell the chestnuts but will feed
them to the pigs so the soil may not be exhausted. They gather them
carefully and use them in a number of ways. They make the main bread
supply of the people. I have eaten chestnut cake. It is not bad. They
treat it exactly as we do corn cake. When they can afford something
better, they do so.
At harvest time the chestnuts are put in drying houses, a fire is built
under them and after they are thoroughly dried they will keep
indefinitely. We find them on the market as dried chestnuts; and I have
seen people eating them raw in June of the year after. Chestnut meal is
a standard article of consumption and the price is regulated by the
price of cornmeal.
I have seen considerable areas planted out regularly in rows of young
trees, and alongside of that older ones. They plant on perfectly fine,
level ground hundreds of acres of chestnut groves and we find these
groves anywhere from twenty-five to one hundred years old. They are very
valuable property for the reason that when old there are many cords of
wood to the acre, and chestnut wood is valuable.
They have a disease over there called inky root consequently new
plantings have largely ceased, though there are some going on. A great
reason for planting is that timber means an increase in the value of
land. A man who has an old chestnut orchard has land that is worth two
hundred dollars an acre for wood alone and the temptation is very strong
to sell off the timber and get the money, which process is going on
faster than the setting of new orchards. These orchards are on high
class agricultural land.
It is quite different in Corsica; the country there is very broken and
rough. Some of the hills range up to 6,000 feet, and for a belt of 2,000
feet the chestnut forests are continuous and villages numerous. This
island supports a dense population. The principal industry consists of
gathering the chestnuts, and for a few weeks the people are very busy
putting them away for the year's supply and sending them to market. I
stopped at the home of the mayor of a little town and he went back in
the barn where he had a bin full of dried chestnuts. He fed some of them
to my horse. It is their one crop. Many people have nothing but twenty
or thirty or forty acres of chestnuts and a little garden--a little
garden made by retaining walls making a terrace that must be tilled by
hand. That is the whole sustenance of the people. The value of the land
is usually estimated on a tree basis, and very seldom put on a land
basis. The value of land covered with trees is from two hundred to three
hundred dollars an acre, and land along side of this without trees may
be worth but ten dollars. The value of the chestnut trees for wood forms
a large part of the sale value. There is some good pasture under these
trees.
The renewing of these groves is perfectly systematic. The old trees,
having attained their full size, meet overhead and right alongside of
them are planted new trees, which under such circumstances make a very
poor growth. The young tree may get as high as this room in ten or
fifteen years, and the old tree being worth ten or fifteen dollars, is
then cut down (in that country if you want money cut down a chestnut
tree). The young tree takes the place very soon, and once established a
chestnut orchard lasts indefinitely. Sometimes they plant the young tree
beside the old one, ten or fifteen years before the old tree is to be
cut down.
The contrast between the populous villages of Corsica and like portions
of the Appalachian hillsides is striking. The inhabitants of the latter
cut down everything, plant corn and in two or three seasons the rain
simply carries the earth away and the farm has to be abandoned. In
contrast to that the orchards of Corsica have been there for many
centuries. I asked one man how long this thing had been going on. He
said "two hundred, three hundred, five hundred, one thousand years,
always." Nobody knows when they began to grow chestnuts. How the land
continues to grow them is more than I can understand. As an example of
permanent agriculture, that has everything I have ever heard of beaten
out. Those people had not fertilized the trees, as it would be a
physical impossibility to carry anything up those slopes; everything
comes down. They have been taking off wood and nuts always, nothing has
gone back. I have not been present at harvest time but I have consulted
with the representatives of the Department of Agriculture in France and
they tell me this land produces a ton to three thousand pounds to the
acre, with the big years doubling that and the little years halving it.
This without taking anything away from the land apparently. The land is
as good as when they began, and is supporting a dense population and has
for centuries.
Another forage nut which struck me as even more important than the
chestnut, because of its much wider possibility in America, is the
acorn. I have been through considerable areas in Portugal where they
didn't care whether they had a cork tree or an oak. Land with such trees
is worth from one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars per acre.
They assured me that the acorn oak forest was as valuable as the cork
forest. Some of this land is wheat land. They will let an oak tree stand
right in the middle of a field where the cultivation of the ground
improves the tree. After the wheat harvest the hogs fatten on the
acorns.
The evergreen oak of southern Europe is highly prized for its acorns. I
have seen large areas of bearing trees. I have been told time and again
that they bear at a comparatively early age. The oak is capable of
grafting, about as easily as the chestnut. I have seen them grafted, all
the way from those of this spring up to three hundred years old. The
number of trees grafted is small, but that in no way affects the
possibilities. Certain varieties are prized as much as chestnuts, or
even more, and the price of acorns is set by the price of chestnuts,
just as the price of cornmeal sets the price for chestnut meal. I never
got crop records for a solid acre of oak trees, but the performance of
individual trees gives rise to the belief that the acorn crop in Europe
and America is worthy of careful study. I saw a tree--a single
tree--that I was assured bore more than twelve hundred quarts in a
single year, thirty-seven bushels. It is hard to get the yield in a
large forest, but this tree was alone. Its sweep was seventeen yards,
its yearly production seemed to average over twenty bushels, which was
worth as much as an acre of corn in any of our states. Wherever I found
an isolated tree, I found its production to be surprisingly large, and I
got my information from a variety of sources. It seemed to be one of the
most important forage trees.
As to the Persian walnut, it is reported to be a small nut of almost no
value in its wild state. It grows around the world between the belt of
the orange and the belt of the white pine. It is unknown as a crop in
large areas in Europe, where it might be grown successfully. In Italy
there is only an occasional tree, and it is not grown much in Portugal
or Spain.
It has centers in Europe as crops have in the United States and for the
same reason--someone started the industry. The activities of Mr. Pomeroy
have stimulated its growth in his immediate locality. When any one
succeeds in a certain line, we find people about him taking up the same
line and they conclude that this product can only be produced in that
particular locality. This is usually not so at all. The thing that
happened was that some one showed them that this soil would produce this
thing. Near Naples there is a walnut boom. The value of the walnut as a
crop is shown by the fact that market gardens producing three crops a
year under irrigation are being planted to English walnuts. I have been
told time and again that this is a very profitable crop. In this walnut
district they have planted whole hillsides to olives and walnuts
alternately, sometimes mixed up, sometimes twenty acres solid. In some
places they can only be cultivated with the hoe, a very distinctly
un-American job, and yet the English walnut seems to pay the people
under those conditions of labor. It is spreading over that peninsula and
you find it spreading in the lowlands. They trim the tree up to
twenty-five feet, so that teams can drive below.
There are two important walnut areas in France; at one place an old
crank named Mayette about two hundred years ago found a good walnut and
he grafted some and planted out an acre or two, and his neighbors
planted some, especially when his acre or two began to grow, with the
result that the territory around that old man's planting is the center
of the production of the Grenoble walnut. A little strip, on the
foothills of the Alps and along the Isère river is sprinkled with walnut
trees. They are now planting these trees in the midst of the best
vineyards. In a field of wheat often-times you will find rows of little
walnut trees. There are some orchards of Persian walnuts in this
locality but I think no orchard has over five acres. They have come to
grief along a line that is common to most people, that of overcrowding.
It takes a great deal of nerve to plant a nut tree sixty or seventy feet
from the next--it looks as if it were wasting the land--and they have
planted them so close that the tops of the trees and the foliage form a
flat level green surface, and the sun shines on a very small part of
each tree instead of all round and over it as it should.
The other walnut district is one more suggestive to me. I doubt if even
those who have trees to sell are justified in advising the farmers to
plant solid fields of walnuts, but we can recommend a row of them around
fence rows and round the barn. I traveled a good many miles through the
western part of France, from Lyons to Bordeaux, and I have seen
thousands of trees, but I have not seen any orchards. They put one tree
by itself and they raise wheat close up to it. The fertilization and
cultivation help the walnut and make it produce a better crop. Those
well-fed trees with plenty of sun, air and plant food are distinctly
superior to the other trees. A good walnut tree rents for as much as an
acre of ground. It is the product that is received without labor that
appeals to me, and as the trees produce well, there is sometimes seven
or eight dollars worth of profit to each tree, and the landlord is in
the position to command most of the seven or eight dollars because he
furnishes the trees. If a 50-acre farm with fifty nut trees stood on one
side of the road and one of equal area without any trees on the other
side, the one with the trees would rent for twice as much. A good tree
will occasionally produce three or four hundred pounds of nuts,
especially a fine tree out by itself. Once in a while we find a grove of
them but more often there are six, seven, eight or more trees scattered
round the house. The combined result of that industry produces millions
of dollars worth of nuts.
If there are any questions, I shall be glad to answer.
* * * * *
MR. EVANS: Can the pecan be used as a forage crop for pigs?
PROFESSOR SMITH: I don't think we are willing to let him have them.
MR. EVANS: Would a pig eat them?
PROFESSOR SMITH: Observations show that the pig will eat them if you
give him a chance; he will eat with great gusto the hickory nuts and a
grown hog will also crack black walnuts; the pecan he simply grinds up.
I suggested the pig as a way out of the problem of overproduction; the
pig wants the products when we don't.
MR. STORRS: I come from a country where we grow the pig on corn, and it
is hard for me to believe that he will get fat on acorns and chestnuts.
MR. LEE: I also would like to ask whether a hog will get fat on acorns.
I had an experience this fall; a man on my farm had some pigs and he
kept them in a pen and fed them corn. I was going to begin to feed my
hogs, but I had a woods and I said let them eat the acorns. At the end
of a month they had eaten the acorns but they were not as fat as they
had been at the beginning. They had worked so hard to get the acorns
that they had worked off all the fat.
PROFESSOR SMITH: There are two hundred thousand hogs on the job in the
federal forests today. The Portugese pig in the spring is a lamentable
looking object. The method is to keep him alive until acorns get ripe
and they count on a pig multiplying himself one hundred to two hundred
per cent in the short season from the beginning of September to the
first of the year. They keep him ordinarily eighteen months; they carry
the spring or fall pigs through one winter, and at the beginning of the
fattening season a pig that weighs fifty or sixty pounds is counted on,
in the short time when acorns can be picked up, to jump up to one
hundred and fifty or two hundred pounds. There is much evidence on both
sides of the Atlantic to the effect that acorns fatten hogs if the
supply is good.
PRESENT STATE OF THE CHESTNUT BLIGHT
J. FRANKLIN COLLINS, WASHINGTON, D. C.
I presume that all of you who have any interest at all in the chestnut
know considerable about the blight which has been killing these trees in
the northeastern part of the country, so I will say nothing whatever
about the general features of the disease but confine my talk to those
points which have assumed, within a year, some special importance from
the point of view of fighting the blight, or related topics.
Perhaps the first thing that I can allude to is the discovery of a
certain disease in China which, at the time, was supposed to be
identical with the chestnut disease in the northeastern part of this
country. I say "supposed" because we had no positive knowledge at the
time that it was the disease. Specimens were sent to this country by the
agricultural expert, Mr. Meyer of the Department of Agriculture, for
examination. Cultures and inoculations were made by the pathologists in
the Bureau of Plant Industry and all of the tests that could be applied
showed it to be identical with our American disease.
Mr. Meyer's report upon this disease, as he found it in China, has some
points which may be of interest to you. He said the disease apparently
had been there for many years, as the lesions of the disease showed if
they were examined carefully. The fact that it has been there for many
years is, I think, questioned by no one at the present time. Its growth
in China seems to be somewhat different, in fact in many cases quite
different, from the growth on the American and the European chestnut
trees. It is rather of the type that we are familiar with on the
resistant Japanese trees. More-over, it appears on some of the trees as
shown in the photographs which I will pass around. The appearance of the
disease more closely resembles, in some ways, what we are familiar with
in the European apple canker as it appears on the apple trees. I think
those who are familiar with the apple canker will notice the
resemblance, in at least one or two of these photographs. Now, I don't
mean by that that it is the same as the apple canker, but I do want to
call your attention to its appearance in these photographs, and at the
same time, to tell you something that Mr. Meyer wrote about this disease
as it appeared in China. He said he found no trees that were absolutely
killed by the disease. This may mean, and probably does, that the
Chinese tree is resistant, to a certain extent, to this disease; that
is, it shows a certain amount of resistance, much in the same way that
the Japanese chestnut tree does to the disease in this country.
For some years (as some of you will remember, I think) there have been
two different views as to the origin of this disease. One is that it is
a native fungus which, for some reason, has assumed a parasitic form;
the other that it is an imported disease. The principal reasons for the
latter view are that it spreads in this country on the American chestnut
in much the same manner that other imported diseases have spread on
other plants. The fact is that this disease (so far as we can find
absolutely identical with the American form) has been found in China;
about this point there is no doubt at all, and I think we can safely
say, although we cannot absolutely prove it at this time, that the
disease in this country was imported from the Orient. What bearing this
will have on the question of control of the disease in this country
remains to be seen.
Have we any chestnuts which show immunity to this disease? The American
chestnut is subject to it in its most virulent form. There are of course
a number of varieties of the American chestnut which have been
cultivated. Of these the two which I have seen most of are the Hathaway
and the Spineless. Both of these are subject to the disease in the
ordinary form. The American varieties which have been originated within
a few years, the Boone and the Rochester, I am not prepared to say
anything about at the present time. The resistance or immunity of these
varieties has not been determined so far as my own work is concerned. Of
the European varieties we have a great many and they produce, as a rule,
the large chestnuts of the market and are known under various names.
Some are scions of named varieties and I will mention some of the more
prominent. The first and best known, perhaps, is the Paragon chestnut.
This is susceptible to the disease and takes it in almost as violent a
form as does the American, and so it is with the Ridgely, a nut which
originated near Dover, Delaware. The Dager and the Scott also take the
disease, and so do many of the so-called French varieties--the Marron,
the Marron Combale, the Early Marron and others--so far as I have been
able to ascertain. I have not seen very many Numbo trees, but of those
which I have seen, some have been diseased. Two varieties, which I have
seen have not had any disease upon them. One of these I saw only once or
twice and was unable to make a thorough examination. This is the
Darlington chestnut which grows near West Chester, Pa. I have no reason
to think this is immune in any way to the disease; all I can say is that
I have not yet seen the disease on this variety. Another variety which I
have heard a great deal about from the point of view of resisting the
disease is the Hannum. I don't know anything about this. I have been
unable to locate any trees which I could examine. Now these are all the
varieties of the European or American sorts that I care to speak about,
and we can say that they are all, so far as we know, with the possible
exception of the one or two last mentioned, subject to the disease.
Now let me turn for a moment to two other types of chestnut. First the
chinquapin, a small dwarf chestnut which grows in the southern Atlantic
states but reaches as far north as New Jersey and perhaps farther for
all I know. The chinquapin in the past has been regarded as a rather
resistant species and my own observations seem to bear out this
supposition. I have seen very few chinquapins which had the disease. It
may be due partly to the fact that they are not so subject to the
attacks of insects and injuries through which the blight might gain
entrance, or it may be due to the resistance in the species--I cannot
say about that. I had an opportunity this fall to see the Rush
chinquapin. I examined these trees--there are two of them--and I think
there is no question but that they are hybrids between the chinquapin
and the American chestnut. One of these trees was diseased, the other
had no disease upon it.
The Japanese chestnuts have been known for a long time to be highly
resistant to the inroads of this disease. Some may be immune, if we use
the word immune in a very loose sense. It has been regarded as of rather
coarse quality and some varieties as entirely unfit for human food. This
is true of many of the Japanese chestnuts, but I have recently seen some
which, so far as I could tell, were nearly as sweet as the American
chestnut and Paragon chestnut which I tested at the same time and which
were growing side by side. I could detect very little difference between
them. The Japanese nuts were very large, considerably larger than the
Paragon. Whether these will retain their sweetness in drying I cannot
say. These Japanese chestnuts are seedlings, and are known as the
Delaware, the Felton, the Kent and the Henlopen. Like all of the
Japanese chestnuts they are highly resistant to the blight.
I wish to call your attention to a few of the standard Japanese
varieties upon which I have made observations. These were all grafted
trees, that is the Japanese variety was grafted on American stock. The
McFarland is a rather well-known variety. Of five trees which I have had
under observation, all of them became diseased below the graft but none
above the graft, showing the resistance of the Japanese scion on
American stock. I think this is given out as a Burbank variety. The Hale
is another one which has the same record exactly. On the Coe I have seen
two cases of the disease on the Japanese part and several cases where
the trees are diseased below the graft. The Alpha, one of the Parry
varieties holds about the same record as the Coe--two cases of disease
on the Japanese part and several below the graft. The Parry Giant has
been considered one of the largest nuts; in four trees observed there
was one case of the disease on the Japanese part and two below the
graft. The Superb had the disease below the graft but not above; the
Reliance just the same way. Then along with these plots were one variety
of European, the Scott, which was quite as susceptible to the disease as
any other European, and another variety, the origin of which I do not
know. This last appears to be something of a hybrid with some chinquapin
blood in it--whether this is so or not I cannot definitely say--I can
say this, however, that it takes the disease not as readily as the
European but more readily than the Japanese.
Just a few words now in regard to the present distribution of the
chestnut disease, or at least its extended distribution. The disease is
now known to occur in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York east of
the Catskills and as far north as Lake George, and generally as far
south as northern Virginia. Farther south there are some scattered
infections, one nursery having been found in North Carolina which had
the disease. The western distribution of the disease, if you take
isolated cases, is now carried to the Pacific coast. We know of an
orchard in Agassiz, British Columbia, in which the disease has been
found. Nobody knows how this was transmitted, but the chestnut trees
upon which the disease occurs were supposed to have been sent to the
owner from the Orient. They apparently are not of the usual Japanese
type, however; that is all I can say about them now.
The chestnut blight has been found on all parts of the branches, twigs,
trunk and the exposed roots. Last year we found the disease on the nuts
themselves and on their burs and we were able to isolate the disease
from the shell of the nut and we were also able to produce the disease
on the bark of a chestnut tree through inoculation from the nut itself.
So that the disease can occur on almost any part of the chestnut tree.
* * * * *
A MEMBER: I saw quite recently that there were two cases of fatal
poisoning in Connecticut from the result of using nuts said to have been
blighted. I would like to know if that has been verified.
MR. COLLINS: There have been, so far as I know, about fifteen cases of
supposed chestnut poisoning in the vicinity of Hartford with five
deaths. We have reports of disease and possible death in other portions
of the country, particularly in the northeast. These reports come in
such a way that it is impossible to say definitely that chestnuts caused
the trouble, but this much can be said: our office here in Washington
has a physician working upon this very point. At the present time all
that I can say is that there is no doubt about the cases of illness and
it is impossible to dissociate the eating of chestnuts from the
possibilities. At the same time it is not possible to show that
chestnuts were the cause of the trouble rather than something else which
was taken at the same time.
THE SECRETARY: I wrote to the physician near Hartford whose wife is
reported to have died, but I have had no answer.
DR. METCALF: After following those cases up and finding that chestnuts
could not be excluded as a possible cause, we have started experiments
with various animals, also some chemical, to determine if there is any
possibility of any definite toxic substance in the nuts; so far results
are negligible. We are not prepared to say whether there is anything in
chestnut poisoning or whether there is not.
THE SECRETARY: I think there are three points in relation to the
chestnut blight of very great importance to the practical nut grower,
and I would like Professor Collins to answer these questions. In the
first place, how far are we justified in recommending planting of
non-immune varieties within the blighted area, in limited quantities,
with the understanding that there is a fair show of keeping them
tolerably free from the blight by watchful care and cutting out? Mr.
Roberts of New Jersey has a large chestnut orchard and he says he is not
afraid of the blight. He has had a large crop of chestnuts this year,
and he says that, while he has cut out, I believe, one orchard of small
trees his large bearing trees are not seriously affected by the blight.
This is the same testimony that we had from Colonel Sober last year.
The second question is, how far are we justified in recommending the
planting of chestnuts outside of the present blighted area? It seems to
me this is a very important point. Can we go so far outside the present
blight area, perhaps beyond the present range of the chestnut tree, that
we can hope to plant them without their being exposed to danger, or much
danger, of contagion from the blight? Can we recommend their being
planted in places where the chestnut does not grow now perhaps within
several hundred miles?
And the third question is in regard to immune varieties. How far has the
immune quality of any varieties been demonstrated?
PROFESSOR COLLINS: With regard to the first question,--planting of
non-immune varieties within the chestnut disease area,--I don't feel
like recommending it except on an experimental basis. Perhaps I am
recommending something that I might feel like changing my mind about a
little later, but, in the present state of our knowledge I would
hesitate to recommend planting within the disease infested area. So far
as the second question is concerned, the planting of non-immune
varieties outside the chestnut growing area, I think there are some
pretty good prospects in sight, provided the stock which is obtained is
carefully inspected to see that it is free from the blight to begin
with, and is watched carefully for at least the first year. The third
question, in regard to immune varieties,--if there are any the immunity
of which has been demonstrated sufficiently to warrant their being
planted,--the Japanese, which are highly resistant, and what some people
might consider immune, are the only possibilities so far in sight. The
great trouble with the Japanese trees which have been grown in the
orchards in parts of the country that have come under my observation,
is that they have been grafted on stock which is very susceptible to the
disease, and I think it is safe to say that 80 per cent at least,
possibly 90 per cent, of the trees that have been killed under these
conditions have been killed by the disease girdling below the graft on
the susceptible American stock. If we can grow Japanese seedlings under
the same conditions, perhaps, that Colonel Sober is raising his
Paragons--two years from the seed and then grafting--I don't see why we
can't have a tree that is going to be reasonably resistant to the
disease; now if we can find some Japanese nuts which are really
palatable, really good and sweet, as these three or four that I have
mentioned appear to be, I don't see why we cannot have a tree which will
be reasonably immune to the disease and at the same time producing an
edible nut. The Japanese stock seems to be able to fight off the disease
to a certain extent in much the same way that the apple tree can fight
off the apple canker, each year the lesion increases a little but each
year the growth of the tree overcomes it to a certain extent, and there
is a fight between the disease and the tree all the time. Very likely
the disease once on the tree will remain on the tree, as far as we can
tell at present, for quite a time, but perhaps not kill the tree
outright.
PROFESSOR VAN DEMAN: Dr. Van Fleet of the Department of Agriculture is
working on what seems to be a very fine prospect for raising chestnuts
that will be immune and that will have good quality. Japanese chestnuts
are the poorest of all in quality but he has taken the chinquapin, which
is of high quality but the very smallest of the whole chestnut family,
quite common in many of the central and southern states and as far west
as Arkansas, has crossed the Japanese chestnut and the chinquapin, and
has obtained seedlings that bear very young--when they are not more than
four or five feet high sometimes. They are loaded with nuts, and nuts of
large size, larger than our ordinary wild chestnut, usually one in a bur
just as the chinquapin is and having the high quality of the chinquapin,
and he has grown many of those in New Jersey right in the very worst of
the disease area and has found some that are exempt. Perhaps some of you
have noticed what was published in regard to this in the _Rural
New-Yorker_ sometime in the past few months. I have seen the nuts from
some of these trees, and while I have never eaten any, I have Dr. Van
Fleet's word for it that they are of excellent quality. Now that is
something that we might feel quite hopeful about.
PROFESSOR COLLINS: Dr. Van Fleet is doing a fine work. I have seen some
of it and gone over the work with him.
PROFESSOR VAN DEMAN: He is one of the government people and he is
carrying on his experiments here at the Arlington plantation, right
across the river.
DR. METCALF: Speaking of breeding material, we have six sorts for
breeding purposes in the shape of seeds of this very species of Chinese
chestnut on which the disease occurs in China. The nut of that tree is
of very high quality and good size, and, so far as I can tell, quite as
sweet as the American chestnut. If there is no more disease on the trees
in this climate than there is in China it would be a very practical tree
to grow, as far as we know.
TOP-WORKING SEEDLING PECAN TREES
W. N. HUTT, NORTH CAROLINA
According to a census we have just completed there are in North Carolina
upwards of 50,000 seedling pecan trees. These trees range in age from
one to thirty years. Seventy-five per cent of them are of bearing age,
but there is probably not one per cent of that number that are
profitable bearing trees. In all parts of the pecan country experience
has shown that seedling pecans are notably slow in coming into bearing
and some trees never bear at all. Those that do bear have nuts that are
almost invariably, small, thick-shelled and of indifferent quality. In
this respect, however, the pecan tree differs in no way from any of our
other classes of fruits. No one would today be so foolish as to try to
get a good peach or apple orchard by planting the seeds of these fruits;
but this is just what a great many people have been trying to do with
pecans.
This attempt to produce pecan orchards from seed has been the origin of
the 50,000 trees noted in the census above. Now that we have these
seedling pecan trees, are they of any value at all? Can we make anything
out of them whatever or must we cut them down and charge up the expenses
to the account of experience, and start over again with standard
varieties of budded and grafted trees? Years of time and quantities of
money have been spent in producing these beautiful but comparatively
valueless seedling trees. However, they are far from being a total loss,
for in those deep roots and stalwart trunks and spreading branches,
there are latent possibilities in abundance. If by some magic power like
that of Aladdin's wonderful lamp told of in the "Tales of the Arabian
Nights," we could transform these seedling trees in a single night to
standard varieties, we would enrich every owner of pecan trees by
hundreds of dollars and the aggregate wealth of the state would be
increased by millions.
For several years I have been in search of Aladdin's wonderful lamp to
enlighten me how to effect this felicitous transformation. Like
Aladdin's quest of old the search has been long and wearisome and has
led me a tedious road through many vexatious disappointments, but at
last I have found the lamp! I have in my power the magic by which a
worthless seedling pecan tree can be transformed into a productive
standard variety. This magic talisman is simply
_Patch-Budding._
Every kind of budding is magical. Is it not wonderful to make a crab
apple tree produce Stayman or Grimes Golden apples or a quince bush
produce luscious Duchess pears? Is it not strange that the sap from the
same root can produce red apples on one branch, yellow ones on another,
and russets on a third? How does it come that one twig can be made to
produce sour apples and the next Paradise Sweets? Strange! Wonderful!!
but True!!! It is all owing to the fact that the sap of a tree is a
homogeneous substance and that it is the bud through which it passes
that stamps the individuality upon it whether it shall be a crab or a
Grimes Golden. If we make all the buds of the tree of the Grimes
character, the apples will all be Grimes Goldens. In the same way if we
make all the buds on a pecan tree Stuarts or Schleys there will be nuts
to be gathered from that tree and they will not be the worthless scrub
seedlings.
When I began my experiments in the top-working of seedling pecan trees I
soon found that there were many things one could _not_ do with pecan
trees. I counted myself a successful propagator of apples, peaches,
plums, grapes and various other kinds of plants, but apple, peach and
general propagation methods failed to give success in the budding and
grafting of pecans. I concluded the method must be all right but that I
should be more exact about my mechanical manipulations. I started out
with the ordinary cleft graft commonly used for top-working most sorts
of trees. I experimented in several different orchards and put in
hundreds of cleft grafts. I took great pains to make my work as
mechanically perfect as possible. All conditions of stock, scions,
weather, etc., seemed to promise the highest degree of success. The
result of that season's work was a world of disappointment, a lot of
experience, and two living grafts. One of these latter, the result of my
skill, was so effectively pruned that fall by the pecan girdler that my
work for the season was a minus quantity in all but experience. The
other living graft, which was put in by an assistant, is now a bearing
Curtis tree, our only monument to the success of cleft grafting the
pecan. Other propagators are said to be able to secure fair results with
cleft grafting of pecans in certain localities, but from my experience,
I am willing to aver that it cannot be done in this latitude.
Next followed a series of trials with shield budding which is so
uniformly successful with peach, but peach methods failed entirely with
pecans. Then followed a succession of trials with whip grafting, veneer
grafting, bark grafting, and chip budding, all with a varyingly large
percentage of failure and a uniformly small percentage of success. Some
propagators in the South report fairly successful results in the chip
budding of pecans, but my results with this method were largely of a
negative character.
After persistent trials of all the known methods of budding and
grafting, through the varying conditions of four successive seasons, I
have narrowed the propagation of the pecan in North Carolina to one
single method, namely, patch-budding. This method has year after year
given us the highest percentage of successful unions. The operation
illustrated by figures 1 to 12, is as follows:
1. _Heading Back._
During the dormant period which is, roughly speaking, from November 1st
to March 1st, the seedling trees are cut back to stubs, the ends of
which may be from one to three inches in diameter. Wounds larger than
this size take years to heal and endanger the life of the tree. Large
trees can be operated on as well as small seedlings, only one has to go
higher up so as not to cut too large limbs. Figure 1 shows a seedling
pecan tree 18 inches in diameter, which was stubbed back in the winter
of 1911-1912 and successfully budded the following summer. The result of
this drastic heading-back is a numerous growth of vigorous, rapidly
growing shoots near the ends of the stubs, by which Nature endeavors to
heal over the wounds. The cambium in these vigorous, sappy shoots is in
the most active condition possible; just the condition most suitable for
the union of stock and scion. This optimum condition cannot be secured
except by the forced growth as the result of the heading back. Our
experiments, year after year, have shown that on the ordinary new
shoots, even on active young seedling trees, the percentage of
living buds was much less than on the forced shoots of the headed-back
trees.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Seedling pecan tree, 18 inches in diameter, cut
back in winter, showing summer's growth of vigorous shoots ready for
budding.]
[Illustration: Fig. 2. First operation. Making parallel cuts on stock.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3. Second operation. Making vertical cut between
parallel cuts on stock.]
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Third operation. Loosening bark on stock.]
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Fourth operation. Making parallel cuts on bud
stick.]
[Illustration: Fig. 6. Fifth operation. Making vertical cut between
parallel cuts on bud stick.]
[Illustration: Fig. 7. Sixth operation. Taking bud from bud stick.]
[Illustration: Fig. 8. Seventh operation. Fitting bud to stick.]
[Illustration: Fig. 9. Eighth operation. Beginning the tie.]
[Illustration: Fig. 10. Ninth operation. Finishing the tie.]
[Illustration: Fig. 11. The tie complete.]
[Illustration: Fig. 12. Bud united.]
[Illustration: Fig. 13. Bud stick of present season's growth. The three
lower, or basal, buds are best.]
[Illustration: Fig. 14. Bud sticks of previous season's growth.]
The different steps in the operation of patch budding are briefly as
follows:
1st operation. Making parallel cuts on stock. See Figure 2.
2d operation. Making vertical cut to remove bark from stock. See Figure
3.
3d operation. Loosening patch on stock. See Figure 4.
4th operation. Making parallel cuts on bud stick. See Figure 5.
5th operation. Making vertical cut to remove bud patch from bud stick.
See Figure 6.
6th operation. Taking bud off bud stick. See Figure 7.
7th operation. Inserting bud on stock. See Figure 8.
8th operation. Beginning the tie. See Figure 9.
9th operation. Wrapping the bud. See Figure 10.
10th operation. The completed operation. See Figure 11.
Figure 12. Bud united.
These illustrations should make the method self-explanatory.
_Knives for Patch-budding._
Two sorts of knives are used for patch-budding, the double one for
making the parallel cuts and the ordinary budding knife for removing the
patch.
_Cambium._
Professor Bailey, in his "Encyclopedia of Horticulture," says, "The ways
and fashions of grafting are legion. There are as many ways as there are
ways of whittling. The operator may fashion the union of stock and scion
to suit himself if only he apply cambium to cambium, make a close joint
and properly protect the work."
The fundamental basis of the whole science of grafting is cambium. What
then is this important substance by means of which one plant may be made
to live and grow and produce on the roots of another? If we strip off
the bark of any actively growing, woody plant we will find just beneath
a soft, colorless substance; this substance is cambium. It feels slimy
to the touch and if scraped with the finger nail a little doughy mass
can be raised. As we examine it it will be seen to quickly darken to
cream color, then to yellow and finally to dark brown. A change has
taken place in it in a few seconds, right under our eyes. When we first
exposed it, it was living, active and capable of building the most
complicated of plant structures; now it is dead, inert and impotent. If
we examine the smallest portion of this doughy mass under a compound
microscope we will find it not merely slime but a highly organized
tissue made up of countless minute cells, each with a delicate wall
about it and containing a thickish liquid (protoplasm). The cambium
cells are brick-shaped, and are placed end to end, with layer
overlapping layer, like bricks in the wall of a building. The
microscopic structure of cambium tissue gives us a clearer conception of
its extreme delicacy. It is one of the most sensitive and delicate
substances in all nature. Exposure to the air will kill it and
completely destroy its functions in a few seconds. It is easily crushed
by slight pressure and quickly killed by exposure to drying, frost,
moisture and sunlight. Nature shows her extreme care of it for in making
bark she has formed for the delicate cambium a perfect protective
covering. Like the cambium the bark is composed of cells, as in fact are
all animal and vegetable structures. But the cells of the bark have
thick walls of a tough, corky substance, and each cell contains air
instead of protoplasm. The corkiness of the bark makes it an impervious,
waterproof covering that does not allow the cambium to be dried out or
to be washed by external moisture. The air in the bark cells being in a
still condition is a non-conductor of heat, and layer of bark
overlapping layer, the cambium is completely covered with a dead-air
blanket. This keeps it from being frozen in winter and from being
overheated in summer, just as a dead-air space in the walls of a
building protects from extremes of heat and cold. From this it is plain
that nature takes great pains to cover and protect the delicate cambium
from all external influences. This stands in striking contrast to the
careless manner in which many propagators and planters handle the
delicate parts of trees. It also explains why some budders get such a
small percentage of living buds and some planters so few living trees.
Cambium is the building material of plants and without it growth is
impossible. It covers every portion of the tree from the topmost
terminal bud to the deepest root tip like a living blanket. During the
growing season the cambium cells divide lengthwise forming new cells.
These divide again and grow, and new cells are formed, until by fall a
complete mantle of bark covers the outer surface of the cambium, while
within it has built up a solid layer of the woody structure of the tree.
A few rows of cambium cells are left in an embryonic condition to carry
on growth the following year. The cambium is thus the only tissue of the
tree that retains from year to year the power of active growth. The
layers of wood and bark, after performing their functions for a few
seasons, gradually die and are overlapped by new layers, but the
cambium remains living throughout the entire life of the tree even if it
be, as in the giant Redwoods, thousands of years.
Besides forming the regular wood of the tree the cambium also grows out
over cut places and builds in woody tissues that heal over the wounds.
It is owing to this fact alone that budding and grafting are possible.
The callus on cuttings and root grafts is another evidence of the same
phenomenon, for the cambium of the roots of a tree is continuous and
identical with that of the branches.
_The Stock._
The whole practice of successful grafting and budding is the proper
handling of active cambium. The cambium is the cementing material that
unites stock and scion and unless there is active cambium there will be
no union. It must be said here that no matter how great the future
growth of the union, the scion never becomes truly united or fused with
the stock. The cambium grows all over and around the cut parts and
cements them together, but if the graft union be split open fifty years
later, the dead wood of the original scion may be found of the original
size and in the original position. Since, then, successful grafting
depends on the union of the cambium of the stock with that of the scion,
theoretically the best time for grafting and budding would be when the
cambium is most active. Actual nursery practice shows that this is
practically correct, at least as regards the stock.
The ideal stock for propagation purposes is the young seedling of one or
two years growth. In such a stock all the tissues are new and fresh and
working to their maximum capacity and the cambium is in its most active
condition. In top-working old trees it will be found that though the
branches may appear vigorous, they are a long way from having anything
like the active circulation found in small seedlings. Buds put in these
branches would give a very small "live," while the same care on nursery
seedlings could be counted on giving a high percentage of living buds.
In top-working, therefore, it is found necessary in order to get the
cambium sufficiently active, to stub back the branches to mere pollards.
This cutting back should be done in the winter or dormant season. The
following growing season will see a dense growth of very vigorous shoots
trying to repair the injury. See Figure 1. These shoots are ideal stocks
for, on account of their having all the sap from the greater root of the
mature tree, the cambium will be even more active than in the nursery
seedling. Often when nursery seedlings are in partially dormant
condition, owing to unfavorable weather or other conditions, they may be
forced into budding condition by slashing off part of the growth above
where the buds are to be inserted. In our top-working experiments this
fact was further emphasized by a windstorm which broke off many of the
sappy shoots just above where the bud was put on. Every single one of
these buds "took," though some others, just as carefully put on, failed.
The success of all the buds on the wind-broken shoots was undoubtedly
due to the forcing of the cambium growth just at the point where the bud
was inserted.
_The Scion._
Although it is desirable to have the cambium of the stock in an active
growing condition, it is quite the reverse with the scion. The reason of
this is evident, for if the scion were active, it would soon exhaust its
small supply of food and die before the union could be formed and it
could get its permanent supply of nourishment from the root. It is
desirable to have scions fresh and firm but in a quiescent condition
until pushed into activity by the growth of the stock. If, on the other
hand, the scions or buds become too dry the sap will not be able to
revive them and no union will be made.
For patch-budding, the buds may be cut from scions or bud sticks of the
present or the past season's growth. Figure 13 shows a bud stick of the
present season's growth from which the leaves have been cut. Such a bud
stick cannot be obtained until July, for before that time the bark is so
tender that it is impossible to get the bud patch off the stick without
crushing it or peeling off the cuticle of the bark. The basal buds of
the present season's growth, Figure 13, make the best buds because they
are more mature and dormant than the buds above them and as they have
shed the leaf stalk they can be tied in more easily and snugly than
those with the thick, fleshy base of the leaf stalk attached. Some
budders make a practice of cutting off the leaves ten days or two weeks
before they commence budding and leaving the scions on the trees to
ripen the buds and shed off the bases of the petioles. There is in this
way no danger of the thick fleshy leaf base decaying under the wrap and
souring and killing the buds.
Figure 14 shows budwood of the previous season's growth. This budwood
can be cut during the winter and kept over in fresh dormant condition by
being packed in damp sawdust and carried over in ordinary cold storage
or in a refrigerator. It will be ready for use in the spring as soon as
the bark will slip on the stocks. By this method the budding season may
be greatly extended and propagation started at least two months before
any of the present season's buds will be sufficiently mature for use.
_The Kinds of Buds to Select._
As to the buds themselves the most desirable are those at the base of
the season's growth. See Figure 13. These, though not large, are plump
and fully mature. The bark is smoother and firmer about them than higher
up the stem and there is no leaf stalk to interfere with cutting them
accurately and making a close fit and tie. These buds are dormant and
there is little danger of their pushing into growth in the fall and
being cold hurt the following winter. For best success in patch budding
it is not desirable to select very large, overdeveloped buds, or those
that have grown so rapidly as to stand out on a little pedicel or basal
stalk. In removing such a bud from the stick, the central column of the
pedicel will often pull out and remain on the stick. Such a bud will
almost invariably die. An observation of pecan buds in general will show
that they are normally triple in form, the largest above and two smaller
ones beneath it. The largest bud will grow first but if anything happens
to it, the next one will take its place.
_Tying in the Buds._
A good deal of the success in patch-budding depends on the tying in of
the buds. The cambium must be thoroughly protected if a union is to
result. It is necessary to have some kind of tie that will retain the
sap as well as exclude external moisture. After experimenting with
different materials and methods I have finally abandoned all except the
waxed strip tie. This is made by dipping sheet cotton in pure, liquid
beeswax and pressing out all extra wax. The cloth after dipping is
formed into convenient sized rolls. From these rolls the cloth is torn
at budding time into strips a quarter of an inch wide and from six to
eight inches long.
In tying in a bud hold it firmly so that it will not slip and begin at
the top and bind it in very tightly with the waxed strip. Reverse the
tie at the rear of the bud like a surgeon's bandage and cover the patch
completely, leaving only the tip of the bud sticking out. The wax in the
cloth will cause the tie to adhere sufficiently to the wood so that no
other ligature is required. In budding in the spring, when the flow of
sap is very copious, it is well to tie in a small splinter about the
size of a match just below the bud to drain off the excess sap. This
will save many buds from being killed by souring of the sap. In two to
three weeks time the tie should be loosened so that the rapid growth of
the stock will not cause the tie to cut into the bark.
_The Mechanics of Patch-budding._
After all has been said about cambium and stocks and scions and their
relation to each other, there is still volumes to be written on the
mechanics of pecan propagation. I do not want to scare anyone off from
trying, but if there is any plant more difficult to propagate than the
pecan, I have not yet found it. Even experienced propagators of general
nursery stock have given up pecan budding as a bad job. On the other
hand, a novice or "pecan crank" who is handy with tools and has the
patience to study out the causes of his failures, may acquire the skill
to obtain almost a perfect "live" of buds. This all goes to show that
extreme precision is the password in the mechanics of patch-budding. In
the first place, the knives should be of the finest quality so that they
will hold a clean, fine edge. All cuts should be made with accuracy and
precision, so that there are no rough edges and bias corners. The number
of living buds will, under ordinary circumstances, be in exact
proportion to the accuracy with which the bud patch fits the place made
for it on the stock. The experienced pecan budder as he takes the bud
off the stick can tell whether or not they will grow. If he tears the
bark in cutting the patch, he drops that bud and cuts another; if the
bud patch splits, he discards it; if his fingers touch the cambium or
the bud patch falls to the ground, he wastes no time with it, but cuts
another and another until he gets the conditions perfect. There is
little use in tying in any bud that does not fit perfectly. For this
reason it is desirable to have the bud stick of the same diameter as the
stock. The bud patches from thin or small scions have to be stretched to
fit and generally give a poor "live"; likewise, the buds from the more
or less ridged portion at the top of the bud stick. The transfer of the
bud patch should also be made quickly so that the cambium will have the
shortest possible exposure to the air.
_After Treatment._
The process of patch-budding is not complete even after a good "live" of
buds is secured. It still requires some judicious after-treatment to get
them into good normal growth. On account of the drastic heading back the
tree has received, practically every dormant bud will be forced into
active growth. These will push out so vigorously in spring that if not
held in check, they may completely overgrow and crowd out the buds put
in. Attention should be given during the early growing period to see
that the buds put in have sufficient room for proper development. If all
or too many of the seedling buds are rubbed off, the inserted buds will
not be able to carry all of the heavy flow of sap and so may be drowned
and killed. On the other hand, the inserted buds may not start unless
forced by the extra sap obtained by rubbing off a portion of the
seedling buds. A good deal of horticultural judgment is required to
adjust the proper balance between the seedling and the inserted buds so
as to get the best development of the latter. When the inserted buds are
able to carry all the sap of the tree, all seedling shoots should be cut
out and attention directed towards forming the new growth into a strong
symmetrical top.
If conditions are favorable, there will generally be some nuts the
second season. By the third year the transformation from the seedling to
the named variety should be complete, and a good crop of high class nuts
should be expected.
* * * * *
MR. POMEROY: Would it not be an advantage if two persons worked at the
budding? After the cuts are made, one could be taking the part from the
stock and the other taking the bud from the budding stick.
THE CHAIRMAN: That is a very good plan. One man could put in the buds
and another man could tie--a boy handy with his fingers in making ties.
PROFESSOR SMITH: Why the superiority of beeswax to grafting wax?
THE CHAIRMAN: A good many budders object to grafting wax, on account of
the oil therein contained being injurious to the trees. A great many
people have dead trees as a result. Trees don't like oil, and for that
reason we use beeswax and only the purest kind of beeswax. In fact,
these pecan cranks who want to do things as they should be, like to
examine the wax to see if there is pollen or bee bread or anything
foreign in it.
PROFESSOR SMITH: Is there any particular time that is best for grafting?
PRESIDENT HUTT: Yes; in the early part of the season there is a very
vigorous flow of sap and we find we lose more buds then than in the
later grafting. In early grafting we put in drainage, just like the
physicians, little tubes or something to drain out the moisture. We put
in a little chip and tie over it very carefully so if there is any
drainage it may escape. In the fall and late summer drainage is not
necessary at all, and we really get better unions then when the trees
are slowing down than we do in the spring when they are full of sap.
MR. STORRS: In selecting your buds, do you take them from trees that
have borne, or from young trees, or indiscriminately?
PRESIDENT HUTT: We take them either from bearing or young trees. It is
not important which, just so you get the right kind.
The important thing is to select good fresh active stuff, and
particularly good sized scions and not small ones.
In budding we fit one side perfectly, and on the other side we leave a
space of one sixteenth of an inch like a door. We didn't do that at
first and we lost a good many buds because the active growth began on
both sides. We had to leave a place there at the side, an expansion
joint, to take care of that.
MR. STORRS: Then you fit them at the top and bottom and at one side?
THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, that's it.
THE SECRETARY: This is one of the most important papers ever read before
this Association, and that is because the success of nut growing
anywhere is absolutely conditioned on our knowledge of propagation. If
the propagation of nut trees were as easy as the propagation of apple
and peach trees, we would probably now have in the north as many
orchards of good nut trees as of apple and peach trees. Any one who has
tried this budding of nut trees will, I am sure, appreciate the
difficulties that Professor Hutt has described and the pains he has
taken in telling us about them. This is the beginning of the
demonstrations in propagating. They will be continued tomorrow; we will
have then three or four of the most expert grafters and budders in the
country, perhaps, who will give further demonstrations.
I would like to ask Professor Hutt a question. I noticed that in putting
in some Persian walnut buds this summer, all died except a couple where
the tops accidentally broke off.
THE CHAIRMAN: That is explained by the illustration I gave of the wind
blowing off all the shoots. Every one that was blown off lived even
though some were badly torn. It was simply forcing the cambium at that
point where it was needed. Mr. Roper had an experience of that kind.
[Illustration: W. N. ROPER
Vice-President Northern Nut Growers Association]
MR. ROPER: We put buds on stock that was not very active, so the trees
were cut back to six inches above the bud, forcing all the growth
into the bud, and I suppose 95 per cent of those buds lived; on the
trees not cut back the buds did not live.
THE SECRETARY: You have spoken about soaking the scions in cold water;
does not that injure the buds? We have been told heretofore that keeping
the scions in water started the cells into activity and rendered them
less likely to grow; but perhaps that referred particularly to scions
for grafting rather than budding.
THE CHAIRMAN: I would like to ask Mr. Wiggins that question, he is a
specialist.
MR. WIGGINS: One of the dangers in keeping bud wood is that of keeping
it in too much moisture. It does not require much to keep the bud plump.
THE SECRETARY: I understand the reason for soaking is simply to allow
the bud to be taken off.
THE CHAIRMAN: Yes.
MR. JONES: In our experience the soaking of wood does not injure it for
budding, but it does for grafting. You can soak the wood for budding all
you want to, we have soaked it until the top bud came out.
THE SECRETARY: I am interested in knowing about this special wax cloth.
Can it be used also in grafting?
THE CHAIRMAN: The other is much cheaper for that purpose. To just cover
the thing up and exclude the air is all that is necessary in grafting.
Liquid wax--four of rosin, four of tallow and two of beeswax--gives
excellent results, but for budding purposes it is absolutely essential
to have good clean wax, and for our purposes we have never found
anything but pure beeswax would answer.
THE SECRETARY: There is a substance called "white wax" which pharmacists
use in making toilet preparations--purified beeswax. It is pure white.
Is that any advantage?
THE CHAIRMAN: I would not use it. It contains some paraffine.
THE SECRETARY: It should consist of purified and bleached beeswax only.
It is more expensive than the ordinary beeswax.
[Read by title.]
UNUSUAL METHODS OF PROPAGATING NUT TREES
DR. ROBERT T. MORRIS, NEW YORK CITY
With the exception of the chestnut and the almond, much difficulty has
been experienced in propagating most of the nut trees of temperate
latitudes by budding or by grafting. This appears to be largely due to
the slow formation of callus which is to make new cell connection
between the cambium layers of host and of guest. In southern regions of
the United States the union occurs much more readily than in the north.
My experiments have been made chiefly with reference to developing
methods of propagating nut trees in the north. All of the usual methods
common among nurserymen have been practically failures, but certain
unusual methods seem to promise success.
One unusual method which was suggested at last year's meeting by our
member Mr. J. F. Jones, has given a good proportion of catches. This
consists in using wood which is more than one year old for scions. Some
of the scions of shagbark hickory from wood four, five, and even six
years of age have caught. The chief difficulty has consisted in starting
the buds of this old wood (latent buds) before vigorous sprouts from the
stock diverted all the sap. It has been necessary to give much attention
to the removal of these vigorous stock sprouts. I seem to have made the
observation that if a small side branch from old wood carries a large
terminal bud, this bud will start promptly when old wood constitutes the
rest of the scion.
A method which I employed for the first time this year, which appears to
have resulted in securing union between stock and scion, has been
employed between different species of hickory trees. It belongs among
the inarching methods in classification. It seemed probable that if a
scion were to be supplied with sufficient water to prevent drying out,
in advance of granulation-cell connection, we might meet with success.
The first line of experimentation with this idea in mind was conducted
last year. The scion when grafted upon the stock was deprived of its top
bud, and a small test tube filled with water and fitted with a rubber
cap was adjusted over the site previously occupied by the top bud. This
in practical working really did keep the cells of the scion alive and in
good condition for a long time, but there was always a tendency for the
water to become impure because of the growth of various algae and other
microbes. Evidently the water when used in this way helped to furnish a
balance between the negative and the positive sap pressures which occur
under changing conditions of barometer and temperature, and which are
influential in the matter of cellular repair. The introduction of
germicides into the water of the test tube prevented the development of
adventitious organic life, but at the same time seemed to interfere with
normal cell activity at the junction of stock and scion.
[Illustration: Dr. Morris's march method of grafting with balanced
aquarium. 1. Point of union to be covered with grafting wax after
binding with raffia. 2. Loose plug of moss to lessen evaporation. 3. A
living water plant.
The "aquarium" is made out of an ordinary large test tube. Any small
bottle would do as well.]
This method served a purpose in advancing our knowledge of the subject,
but not enough grafts caught to encourage me greatly. Following out the
same line of thought, I began this year by making union between stock
and scion according to inarch principles. The scion instead of remaining
attached to its parent plant, according to former inarching method, had
been transferred to the stock, leaving two or three inches of scion free
below the point of grafting, as illustrated in the drawing. The proximal
part of the scion was then inserted into a test tube containing water.
In this case, as with placing the test tube at the top of the scion,
difficulty was found in preventing the growth of microörganisms in the
water. The addition of benzoate of soda, borax, boracic acid, and
sulphate of copper, while preventing the development of microörganisms,
seemed also to be objectionable to the physiologic processes of the
plant. It occurred to me that the principle of the balanced aquarium
might be applied, and acting upon this idea specimens of a pond weed
(Utricularia) were introduced into the test tubes. This seemed to settle
the water question completely, but it was well along in the summer
before I made grafts and applied this principle. From one to four
leaves, or parts of leaves, were left upon grafts which were applied to
stocks according to this new inarching method. All of these leaves
remained green until autumn, and fell with other autumn leaves of the
stock. Two specimens which I have cut away for examination seemed to
show a very good union between stock and scion.
I am presenting a description of the new inarching method promptly,
before obtaining more extensive statistics, in order that members of
this society may apply it experimentally next spring. Should it succeed
according to present promise, it will allow nurserymen at least two
months of grafting season, and they will not have to rush their work. In
addition it will perhaps open up a method of grafting which may be
employed freely with nut trees in the northern states.
Another unusual method for propagating nut trees consists in
facilitating the development of adventitious buds from the roots of some
particularly desirable tree. I do not know at the present time how many
species of nut trees will develop adventitious root buds, as my
experiments have been confined to roots of the shagbark hickory, beech,
and hazel. Segments of roots of these three species when placed in sand,
allowing an inch or so to protrude, will develop adventitious buds if
they are kept warm and moist. Various lengths of root segments have been
employed, ranging from two or three inches up to two or three feet. The
beech and hazel will apparently start adventitious buds from almost any
sort of root segment; but in the shagbark hickory, adventitious buds
started best upon root segments which were more than six inches in
length and more than half an inch in diameter.
Hazels may be propagated in an unusual way from the cuttings of
branches, very much like roses, if these cuttings are placed in sand and
kept warm and moist, although they do not strike nearly so readily as
rose cuttings. I have not given much attention to this experiment in its
practical bearing, but have simply observed that hazel cuttings will
strike roots if they are particularly well cared for.
Experiments with hickories and with walnuts from branch cuttings were a
failure, but they remained alive so well and formed such good callus,
that I believe someone with steam-heated hot-house beds at his disposal
may by experimentation succeed in propagating some of these trees by
cuttings, particularly from herbaceous growth of the year, in August. As
an amateur plant physiologist I foresee what the more scientific plant
physiologists may do for this subject.
One unusual method for propagating nut trees may perhaps be described
more correctly as a method for propagating unusual nut trees, and it
opens a vista of distant horizon in horticulture. The discovery was due
to an accident, and I claim no credit beyond recognizing the
significance of an odd phenomenon.
Three years ago some pistillate chinkapin flowers which had been covered
with paper bags, were left unpollenized because I did not have pollen
enough to go round. The bags were left in place because I was busy with
other things. When these bags were removed at the end of about three
weeks, it was found that the flowers had set a full complement of nuts
without having received pollen. These nuts continued to develop and were
fertile. Some of them presented a peculiarity in growth of the
cotyledons and germ, both of which grew and protruded beyond the
involuere before the nuts were ripe, indicating that the germ had not
come to a state of rest during its usual period in the nut. This freak
appeared in only eight of the nuts, a larger number having normally
resting germs.
In all of these nuts it seemed to me we were probably dealing with
parthenogenesis. In order to make sure that no pollen had been carried
in by any sort of insect, I made check experiments last year, covering
pistillate flowers so carefully that there could be no question about
their having received no pollen. It was found that the chinkapin would
develop nuts freely in this way, and that the bitternut hickory,
shagbark hickory, and pignut (Hicoria glabra) would develop nuts
sparingly in this way.
I speak of the matter as parthenogenesis in advance of microscopic
examination of the ovules,--which will be made next year; but
parthenogenesis seems to be the most likely explanation. If this is the
case, the embryo has not been formed by the conjugation of two gametes,
as generally occurs in the algae and higher plants. It is possible that
the embryo in the unpollenized chinkapins does not originate from the
female gamete at all, but that it originates from a formative budding of
other cells in the ovule. We can speak of parthenogenesis only when the
embryo originates from a female gamete alone, _i. e._, without fusing of
protoplasmic mass of the female gamete with protoplasmic mass of the
male gamete.
Some of the nuts which I am calling parthenogens have developed plants
this year. The chief peculiarity to be observed is great disparity in
size between plants of the same age from the same parent tree. Some of
them grow very much more rapidly than the average plant of the species,
and others less rapidly when subjected to similar conditions of soil,
temperature and moisture.
We assume in biology that one of nature's objects in having two sexes is
to prevent early senescence of the allotment of protoplasm for a
species, and to avoid undue intensification of characteristics of one
parent. This is apparently nature's device for maintaining a mean type.
For man's purposes we may now make artificial selection of individual
plants which represent intensification of desirable characteristics of
one parent. The growing of trees from unfertilized ovules will
apparently open an entirely new field in horticulture, and no one can
prophesy the result of selection of trees which present intensification
of desirable characteristics of a single parent through several
successive generations.
THE POSSIBILITIES OF NUT CULTURE IN UTAH
LEON D. BATCHELOR, UTAH
I suppose the majority of you have very little or no idea of
agricultural conditions in Utah. Perhaps some think it is a desert. When
I went to Utah, three or four years ago, the first thing that struck my
mind forcibly in traveling around through the state was the absolute
lack of any nuts. Being born and brought up in Massachusetts, I
naturally noticed this, as one of the pleasures of my boyhood days
consisted in gathering chestnuts, hickory nuts, hazelnuts and
beechnuts. We found them all around the fence corners and pastures and
in the woods, and I missed this in Utah, and it occurred to me
immediately to look up the cause of the lack of nuts in the state and I
found no good reason except that nature has not seen fit to plant nuts
there. There is no reason in climatic or soil conditions which will make
it impossible to grow many of the hardier nuts, and even, in the
southern part of the state, to grow almonds and the tenderest walnuts.
Climatic conditions are not unlike some of the best fruit sections in
New York. Peaches and apples are grown successfully and as soon as you
get down to the central and southern part of the state, many of the
hardier European grapes are grown. In the extreme southern part you can
grow any of the European grapes grown in California, so nothing in the
way of climatic conditions exists which would prevent the development of
nut growing in this state. The soil conditions vary widely, all the way
from the sandy loams to the deep soils and gravels, and it is possible
to find thousands of acres of deep, rich loam soil. Some of it is five
to twenty-five feet deep. Of course the rainfall in that semi-arid
region is insufficient for nuts but that can be supplemented by
irrigation water, so that is practically no disadvantage. Since I have
been there I have tried to interest some of the fruit growers in the
planting of a few different varieties of the hardier nuts, and I have
distributed among them some of the walnuts and this year I am bringing
in some of the old shagbark hickory nuts from Massachusetts, and I am
going to distribute them among my friends and acquaintances there to be
used to raise shade trees--trees around the home and pastures--and I
find there is considerable interest manifested in the last few years in
nut planting. The nut industry has a little mite of a start there in a
way--that is, there are a few seedling trees distributed from Logan on
the north to Arizona on the south. Seedling Persian walnuts fruit from
Brigham City on through Salt Lake and Provo, and practically all of the
nuts that are produced there in the state are of seedling origin. It is
reasonable to expect that some of the best grafted varieties will be
very much better. It seems to me that the state has every natural
condition for success in the production of nuts. If not in a commercial
way we can do a great deal to our advantage in planting nut trees as
shade trees. I simply want to let you know that there is a man out there
in the mountain section who is interested in nuts and going to help the
cause along.
THE DISEASES OF NUT TREES
M. B. WAITE, WASHINGTON, D. C.
In taking up the question of nut diseases it is hardly proper, perhaps,
to take too narrow a view of it and I will, therefore, mention some of
the other work being done here in Washington that is of interest to the
Northern Nut Growers Association.
You all know of the pomological work being done on nuts, and I hardly
need mention the work now being carried on by Mr. C. A. Reed, a member
of this association. It might be well to remind you that the work was
started by Mr. Van Deman some twenty-five years ago, and continued by
Mr. Corsa, and a report was issued some fifteen years ago. It was taken
up later by Mr. William A. Taylor.
The plant introduction work of Mr. D. G. Fairchild should be mentioned.
He is scouring the world for new nuts of all kinds for the northern and
southern, eastern and western United States, and introducing them into
this country. The diseases of those nuts are studied by Mr. Orton in the
Cotton Truck Division of our department.
Outside of the Bureau of Plant Industry also there is some work being
done on nut trees. The insects attacking cultivated nuts are studied by
Professor A. L. Quaintance, of the Bureau of Entomology, along with the
deciduous fruit insects. The insects attacking forest nut trees are
studied by Dr. Hopkins of the same Bureau in the laboratory that studies
the forest insects. Of course the nut trees, as forest trees, are
studied in the Forest Service about which you all know.
One thing more that I would like to say, in way of explanation or
apology, is in regard to criticism of the Department for not more
thoroughly attacking the filbert blight. Only forty-five thousand
dollars are appropriated by Congress for the investigation of the entire
fruit disease problem of the United States. That includes the great
citrus industry; everything, in fact, from cranberries on Cape Cod and
the mouth of the Columbia River to grape fruit in Florida or apples in
New York. It includes the subject of all the nut diseases, and that
means the problem of the diseases of the pecan, of walnut
bacteriosis--that is a big problem--in southern California, and more or
less in other parts of California, our great apple industry, the peach
yellows, the pear blight, etc. When it comes to parceling that out it
only leaves about three thousand dollars for nut diseases, and
thirty-five hundred dollars for studying diseases of citrus fruits, so
you must not be surprised that we cannot put a group of men on this
problem and study it as it should be studied. It is a question of men
and means.
Perhaps now some general information might be of interest and set you to
thinking.
In the first place in every disease problem, conspicuously so with our
fruit and nut diseases, there are two main classes of plants to be
considered, our native plants and the foreign plants. The pathologist is
always looking to the native origin of a plant in studying its
adaptation to the environment in which it is attempted to be grown. A
foreign plant may not necessarily be unadapted to another locality. The
vinifera grape is thoroughly adapted to California and to much of the
Pacific slope beyond the Rocky Mountains, but you know the vinifera
grape has a hard struggle in other parts of the United States. This is
not only a pathological problem but a physiological one. It cannot stand
a soaking rain for two weeks at a time; it cannot stand so much water
and humidity but it wants dry, hot sunshine continuously from the time
it puts out its leaves in the spring.
Another phase still more interesting is the question of foreign
parasites. Many of the worst diseases with which we have to contend are
either native diseases attacking introduced plants, or foreign diseases
attacking native plants. I will take that up in detail. Nature has
fought the battle all out with the native parasites against the native
host plants, so we don't have to do it. It's a case of the survival of
the fittest. They have won, so when we are dealing with native plants
against our native diseases, we have a condition that has been fought
out in nature for nobody knows how many thousand years. The result is
that unless we disturb the balance too much by cultivating great
orchards of a thing that has been grown as scattered individuals, or
overforcing it or selecting and breeding towards larger fruit without
any regard to foliage and other characters we can go ahead with our
breeding and selection and cultivation and trust nature to keep the
balance to some extent. We have this natural balance in our favor in
dealing with the problem of cultivating native plants. As an example
take the pear and apple blight. The pear blight problem is one in which
a native parasite on wild crab apples, which occasionally kills a few
twigs here and there, attacks the juicy, tender, susceptible, introduced
European pear and makes a very serious disease. It is a fight indeed to
grow it in so much of the country that pear culture has been very
largely suppressed over the eastern half of the United States and part
of the Pacific coast. All this trouble has been caused by one little
native microbe. Apple culture also, with certain varieties, has been
seriously interfered with in some sections.
The apple cedar rust is probably the most striking example of a native
parasite attacking a foreign host that we know of, and particularly so
as the remarkable evolution in which the parasite has adjusted itself to
the new host is taking place right now every year. The apple cedar rust
is becoming a more difficult problem clear across the eastern United
States to Nebraska. It has occurred as a serious disease since 1905 to
1907. As a botanical curiosity we have known it a long time, but as a
serious disease, it is very recent, and nobody knows yet how serious it
is going to be.
We have a very striking example of this introduction of a foreign plant
and the plant being attacked by a native parasite, in the case of the
filbert blight, and I am going to take that up later. The trouble is
that we have brought into the United States a European filbert and it
has been attacked by a parasite of our wild hazelnuts. The disease is
very rare and is seldom seen on the wild hazelnut,--so rare that it was
hardly known by scientific botanists, and yet it interferes with filbert
culture in the eastern United States and is the one thing more than
anything else to make filbert culture unprofitable. We have practically
the same proposition in the walnut bacteriosis, not only in the
northeastern United States, but in the best walnut districts of
California. This bacterial disease which is undoubtedly a disease of our
native walnuts--probably the native black walnut--occurs rather rarely,
and so feebly developed as to be difficult to find at all on its native
host yet it becomes the great serious disease of the Old World
cultivated walnut.
Now, there again, it is not so much a lack of physiological
adaptability, because the walnut is thoroughly adapted to our Pacific
coast. I suppose most of you know that east of the Rocky Mountains, east
of the Great Plains, we have a humid climate and winters more or less
cold which corresponds, not with western Europe, not with Germany,
England, Spain, France and Italy, but with China and Japan, with Asia,
in its climatic conditions. The result is the Chinese and Japanese trees
brought to the eastern United States grow well but may grow
indifferently in California. On the other hand, the plants of the
Mediterranean, France, Germany, Italy and Spain do not, as a rule,
thrive when introduced into the eastern United States. There are a few
exceptions, like the apple and perhaps the peach. These are not really
natives of western Europe, but have been brought from the interior. They
are more like the Japanese and Chinese plants which came in by way of
Persia and which have been slowly adjusted to the conditions of western
Europe. That adjustment has gone so far that the Persian type of peach
does better on the Pacific coast than in the East. We are breeding a
race of these fruits from China, the Chinese cling group, which does
well in the eastern part of the United States, and we have from there a
peach that is better for the country east of the Rocky Mountains than
the ones that have been modified in Europe.
Now take the other side of this question, the foreign parasite--that is
very unfortunate thing--over which we do not always have the control
that we do with the foreign host. An equal disturbance of nature takes
place when we introduce a foreign parasite, whether it is from a similar
climatic region or one not so similar. The chestnut blight is a
tremendous example of that sort of thing. This has come into prominence
within a decade and it is one of the greatest problems in the pathology
of the chestnut. That has turned out to be a Chinese parasite. It was
found last summer by the agricultural explorer, Mr. Myers, but the
fungus was studied out by Dr. Shear.
The three great American parasites of our native grapes are the black
rot, the downy mildew and the Phylloxera, an insect pest, and they
caused a great amount of study and work and investigation and great
expense when they were introduced into France and South Germany and
Italian vineyards, and were fought out only by what might be considered
a magnificent effort on the part of the European governments, especially
France. On our native wild grapes those diseases are almost trivial, and
the wild seedlings in the woods are practically immune, but when we
cultivate them and select the tenderer varieties, the black rot is
pretty bad, especially on the Concord, and particularly when that is
hybridized with grapes of European blood. Nevertheless, we have
cultivated them in order to get the large juicy fruits. There are many
more examples of this sort.
Now about the cultivated nuts. I wish I could tell you how much I think
of the native nuts. I grew up in Northern Illinois and could go out on a
day like this and gather two or three bushels of hickory nuts. How I
enjoyed the black walnut, especially when it was just shriveled so it
would leave the shell--it got rather too rich when it was dried and
stale in the winter time--but how delicious it was when just wilted!
Also there was the butternut and the wild hazelnut. I used to take a
one-horse wagon into the woods on a Saturday and gather enough hazelnuts
in the shucks to fill it; then we had hazelnuts all winter. So I am in
full sympathy with the Northern Nut Growers Association and I would
like to see those nuts grown, if not wild in the woods, at least in
cultivation.
There might be a few things of interest to you about the wild hickory
nut. According to Farlow's Index of North American fungi of twenty-five
years ago, there have been thirty-seven species of fungi collected on
that tree. Probably there are twice that number as a matter of fact, but
mycologists have collected, described and named thirty-seven species on
the _Hickoria ovata_, the plain shagbark, and the other hickories have
similar numbers. The pecan has only three named species in Farlow's
Index, but Mr. Rand has got together three times as many I think--I am
not sure of the number.
Of the pecan diseases, the pecan scab is probably the most conspicuous
fungus trouble. The pecan scab is the most typical fungus parasite of
the pecan. It attacks the leaves, fruit, etc. It attacks the vessels or
veins of the leaves and frequently enters by means of aphis punctures
which break the skin so that there is no doubt but that this particular
disease is favored by an aphis. We have investigated this disease quite
carefully and carried on a series of spraying experiments for some three
years and there is no doubt about our ability to control it. It can be
prevented by spraying with Bordeaux mixture. You never can tell how many
sprayings will be required. It may take three to ten sprayings to
protect the nuts. The leaves are grown mostly within a month--the leaves
are pushed out within thirty days and you can spray those leaves and
protect them. The weak point in the treatment is that the nut of the
pecan grows steadily from the time it starts to way into September. This
makes a hard problem in spraying as the nut keeps expanding and forming
a new and unprotected surface for an unreasonably long season and they
are susceptible to scab attacks all the time, so you have the problem of
spraying the nuts all summer. The spray does not stick very well on the
nuts. The result is that we advise dodging that parasite by planting the
non-susceptible kinds; it is much better and cheaper. It is certainly an
encouraging thing that you can plant good varieties, that do not scab
badly, and which at the very most require but two or three sprayings to
protect them entirely, and in a great majority of cases, no spraying at
all. Those already are the great nuts in cultivation, like the Stuart,
the Schley and the Frotscher. Most of those good varieties will be
occasionally attacked by scab because of a wet season, just as a variety
of apple which is very resistant to apple scab is occasionally attacked
by that disease.
The pecan has quite a number of leaf-spot fungi and most of those we
have tested by spraying. These experiments have been made in the
nursery where it is more convenient to spray and where the necessity is,
perhaps, a little more pronounced, and there it is, undoubtedly, a
proper practice to spray and fight out the pecan leaf diseases. Bordeaux
mixture is the thing to be used on all occasions. The pecan resists
copper poisoning almost as well as the grape and can be sprayed with
safety.
If a pecan tree has crown gall don't plant it. All nursery trees should
be rejected in planting if they show signs of this disease. The pecan
has fungus root-rot and various wood rot fungi besides the leaf
diseases. It also has several other troubles more or less serious.
Occasionally in the pecan groves you will find these remarkably white
mildewed nuts. That gives way to spraying. Another disease is an
internal spot on the kernel which Mr. Rand has been working on and which
seems to be due to a fungus. We don't know how to prevent that yet. The
pecan has a fungus attacking it that is very similar to the bitter rot
of the apple. The pecan anthracnose looks like the bitter rot, has the
same pink spore masses and you will be able to recognize it. That may be
prevented by spraying, but it is, fortunately, not a serious disease.
The northern nut grower will not have so much trouble with that, as it
is a southern disease. Here is a physiological trouble that causes
blackening of the young nuts on the inside. It appears to me to be due
mainly to wet weather, but I don't know its exact nature. It came
primarily on a pecan raised in the semi-arid section of Texas and
brought into South Carolina, and by the way you can get as much trouble
in adapting trees from the western to the eastern United States as in
bringing in trees from other countries. In parts of semi-arid Texas the
trees are supplied with moisture by sub-irrigation and when we move
those pecans to the humid East we get almost as much non-adjustment as
when we bring in foreign things. I would suggest that these pecans from
western Texas are the very ones to take to Utah and California rather
than those from the eastern part of the United States. They are adjusted
to dry seasons with moisture at their roots and you will get the best
results from them when grown under irrigation.
I will now take up the walnut, _Juglans nigra_, the common black walnut.
There are twenty species of fungi which are known to attack it. Quite a
good many of these attack the twigs and cause them to die, and probably
half are leaf diseases. One, commonly called white rust, a disease of
the leaves, attracts mycologists in collecting, but it has never been of
serious economic importance.
Now, as to the butternut, _Juglans cinerea_. It has about nineteen
species of fungi known to attack it, but probably many more will be
found when the nut is thoroughly studied.
_Juglans regia_, the cultivated Persian walnut, has only about twelve
species of fungi recorded from it in this country. There are,
undoubtedly, more to be found. Of these fungi the walnut bacteriosis,
caused by a bacterial germ is more important than all the rest of the
parasites put together we can easily say. The California walnut
bacteriosis has turned up at various points in the East. The twig blight
form of this disease is also prevalent in various states. The walnut
blight or bacteriosis is therefore to be figured with in planting the
Persian walnut in the East.
* * * * *
PROFESSOR SMITH: Is it worse or better here than in California?
PROFESSOR WAITE: There have not been enough walnuts grown here in groves
to allow the disease to accumulate--to have a fair test for that,
Professor Smith. I don't believe we know; but it is, undoubtedly, a
parasite of our native black walnuts. It occurs in Texas and Louisiana,
and I think we have it in or near Buffalo, N. Y., and in New Jersey, so
if I were planting extensively I should expect that disease to be
serious. That would be my forecast of the matter. The humidity and the
cloudy weather in the East ought to be more favorable to the disease
than the climate of California.
MR. JONES: For that reason I should think the disease would work fast in
the Gulf Coast.
PROFESSOR WAITE: Yes, those specimens of yours seem to show a very
serious condition.
We must not pass over the chestnut without noting that there are thirty
species of fungi attacking it, and that does not include the new one,
the bad one, the chestnut bark disease.
The filbert blight belongs with the diseases of the European grape and
sweet cherry. The filbert is an example of a European plant introduced
into the eastern United States attacked by a native parasite which
almost drives it out of cultivation. In fact, there are so few filberts
in cultivation even now that if we were trying to plan a spraying
experiment on them we would not know where to find a plantation suitable
for carrying on the experiment. If any of you know of any such
plantations I would like you to let me know about them.
THE CHAIRMAN: We will have some in two or three years.
PROFESSOR WAITE: Here is a sample of the filbert fungus taken from our
pathological collection. It shows the mature fruiting bodies of the
fungus and it also shows that the twigs are killed. This fungus is
known as _Cryptosporella anomala_. It was described as _Diatrype
anomala_ by Peck of Albany, N. Y., but was afterwards found to belong to
another genus. There have been two or three articles published on it,
the best one probably by Humphrey in Massachusetts. I have an abstract
of that which can be copied in the proceedings, if you wish.
(See Appendix.)
The fact that this _Cryptosporella_ is related to the black knot of the
plum is an interesting feature; and that it attacks the growing canes
during the growing season and fruit during the fall and winter. He
suggests the treatment of removing all the infected branches during the
fall and winter. I would add to that, complete eradication of all
diseased branches of the host, and they are rather easily seen, in the
fall as soon as the leaves are off--then a thorough spraying with strong
Bordeaux mixture, at least 5-5-50, preferably stronger than that, of
course burning all the material that you cut out. One is at a
disadvantage if there are wild hazelnuts in the neighborhood. How to
handle that problem I am hardly prepared to state; perhaps, by
eradication of the wild hazelnut in the vicinity.
THE SECRETARY: I think that would be impossible in most regions.
PROFESSOR WAITE: Mr. Kerr had his growing on the eastern shore on an
island where there are no wild hazelnuts and they were not attacked by
the fungus.
A MEMBER: They are all dead now.
PROFESSOR WAITE: The number of sprayings during a season is an
undetermined question. It will be necessary, probably, to spray two or
three times. You can certainly protect the two-year wood in that way by
making a fall spraying and a spring spraying. This will keep them
thoroughly covered with Bordeaux mixture but whether or not three or
four sprayings are necessary remains to be tested.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are any varieties of European hazels immune?
PROFESSOR WAITE: I have not studied them enough to answer that question.
I don't know. They all seem to go down. Perhaps Dr. Deming can answer.
THE SECRETARY: I don't know.
PROFESSOR WAITE: I think that is all I want to say, except one thing,
and that is about the physiological aspect of these, diseases. I touched
upon that phase in discussing the matter of environment in the
introduction of foreigners to places where they are not adapted. In some
particular seasons and circumstances even the native trees suffer. One
type of injury which has caused great trouble with the English walnuts
and pecans, and also with apple trees and has also caused trouble with
our native red oaks, is freezing when the trees are in a non-resistant
condition. There is an example of this within three minutes' walk of
this building. Here are the climatic and temperature conditions that
bring about disaster, particularly if preceded by a dry season. Let us
start with a dry season. The season of 1911 was conspicuously dry in
this locality and the adjacent states of Virginia, West Virginia and
Maryland, but about the first of September the rains came. Up to that
time even the native forest trees such as oaks and chestnuts showed the
stress of lack of moisture very seriously and were somewhat yellow and
pale looking, mainly from water and nitrogen starvation. When the rains
came the wilted trees all greened up, every tree in the parks brightened
up, and we had fine growing conditions until October and no cold weather
up to New Year's. It was warm that fall and even on New Year's day the
warmth was noticeable. On the 12th of January we had the record cold
temperature for this locality in the history of the weather bureau,
except one year. We had fifteen or seventeen below zero and it was as
low as thirty-eight in low spots in the Potomac Valley in West Virginia.
Those trees had never been fully shocked into winter conditions. The
cambium growth and sap flow had not been stopped and the physiological
changes needed to get the trees ready for cold weather had never
occurred. They were not ready, not only as to the bark, but in the trunk
and wood. The result was that the trees were seriously injured, the less
matured twigs died back, and the trees were frozen on the trunks down to
the ground line. In the freeze of 1904 in New York I was surprised to
find that the peach trees were not all killed. They were frozen through
and through and yet the trees did not die. The question of winter injury
hinges not alone on low temperature, but it also depends on the
condition which the tree has reached when the cold strikes it. Now, to
tell you still further about what that cold wave did, I will ask you to
look at that row of red oaks near the Smithsonian which I just alluded
to and see the big ribs of dead bark where the cambium layer has been
shocked, and checked in other places. You will find these trees ribbed
and ridged to about half way down the row. Those trees are subject to
special disadvantages; they lack subsoil drainage and they have an
excess of manure draining down through the paving stones. They have an
excess of nitrogen and lack of drainage. The subsoil is a heavy clay.
That brings up another thing that I want you to notice in regard to
winter injury. Plant not only hardy varieties, but select localities
with good subsoil drainage. The walnuts and hickories, belonging to the
two great families of juglans, and the oaks and chestnuts, want good
subsoil drainage. Where the underlying rocks are vertical the conditions
are ideal. They do not like a heavy clay subsoil, but do best where
water and excess nitrogen can get away.
The general summary I want to make is this: Nut trees have a large
number of fungus parasites. In a few cases the native fungus parasites
attack European or Old World species and varieties to such an extent as
to make very serious problems, so much so that they can not be regarded
as solved, the walnut bacteriorosis and filbert blight being examples of
these. On the other hand, most of the native fungus parasites of our
native trees are not to be feared as enemies of these trees, not only in
the northeastern United States where this body is endeavoring to further
a good cause, but over the whole eastern United States. These parasites
in some cases may be serious enough to justify spraying and other lines
of treatment, especially in the nursery. On the other hand, considering
the nature of nut trees and considering the results of work on the pecan
scab, the object of the nut grower should be to breed and select as far
as possible resistant sorts, to work on and select native species and
hybrids particularly where the native trees will give the necessary
hardiness, immunity and resistance. The outlook, therefore, is promising
for the cultivated varieties of hickory nuts and walnuts that I know you
are all working for. Foreign parasites are always dangerous. This
chestnut blight fungus comes into any such scheme as that like a
bombshell. When it comes to an introduced parasite like that we can not
tell what will happen. I thank you for your attention.
* * * * *
THE CHAIRMAN: I think everybody here will agree with me, when you come
to look over this list of amounts appropriated for work in nut culture
investigation, that there will be no further criticism of the Department
of Agriculture from any member of the association for not doing more in
the interests of the nut grower.
THE SECRETARY: We are all indebted to Professor Waite for his clear way
of stating facts, for resisting the temptation to give a technical talk
and for enunciating principles of wide applicability.
This question of the blight on the hazel is a most important one for the
northern nut growers. Mr. Reed was telling me yesterday about a man from
California who went out near some city there and bought 10 acres of land
at six hundred dollars an acre, planted almonds and in a few years had
the place paid for and was making a good income, two or three thousand
dollars a year from his ten acres of almonds. We can do almost that in
the East, I believe, if we can cultivate the European hazel. If it were
not for this blight, we could have splendid crops of the hazel. If the
government would grant larger appropriations for nut culture
investigations it might enable us to find a way to control this disease.
Dr. Morris is breeding hazels, however, and hopes to get one which will
be immune.
PROFESSOR SMITH: It is a great pleasure to listen to a man who knows
what he is talking about. I figured out some years ago that I was going
to be a teacher and I decided that I would like to have a chestnut farm
also. I got along very nicely, planted my trees and then the chestnut
blight came along, and I regard the business, at least as to profits, as
in abeyance. We are in a period of particular danger from the
importation of foreign plants; we are bringing in perfectly
innocent-looking things from other countries which are causing us great
damage. I want to suggest to any one here who wants to plant an orchard,
to plant two kinds of trees. If my nut orchard had been planted with
something besides chestnuts, I would now have that something else. I
would suggest the possibility of having two things on the same
ground--say chestnuts and English walnuts--so if the planter finds he
cannot raise one he can still have the other. Then he will not be in the
same place I am with my chestnuts.
THE CHAIRMAN: I understand we have Mr. Fullerton of Long Island here,
and we would be pleased to have him give us some of his experiences.
[Illustration: DR. WILLIAM CHAMPION DEMING
Secretary-Treasurer of the Northern Nut Growers Association]
MR. FULLERTON: I just came in to see what you folks are doing and I
don't think I can pose as a nut expert. I live on an island that has a
great many varieties of nuts on it that have become native. We have
quite a plantation of hazelnuts; nobody knows who planted them. They are
used by nurserymen to fill orders. Also quite a plantation of magnolias
which came from the South a couple of hundred years ago. They are
thoroughly acclimated. We have also some of the very largest--and I am
going to catch it here because I have never used a tape line--we have
some of the very largest and oldest of the Persian walnuts in the United
States, which produce annually a big crop of the so-called "English"
walnuts. The trees produce the largest walnut I have ever seen, with the
thinnest shell. They have been there about one hundred and fifty, two
hundred and fifty or three hundred years. They are very large, larger
than the black walnuts. Whether they were planted or not I don't know.
Their history is probably this: Long Island was a sea-faring community a
few hundred years ago. These sailors who went out from the island, some
of them, loved nuts and they would bring back from other countries nuts
or other plants, and now we have a most remarkable mess of trees. We
have planted the Japanese walnut, I don't pretend to know which variety,
and it began yielding the third year and has yielded every year since,
bearing nuts in bunches like grapes.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is it a heart-shaped nut?
MR. FULLERTON: Yes. We have some pecans and some almonds. Against the
advice of everybody we planted some almond trees; they started to bear
in their third year. The trees are one solid mass of glorious big red
blossoms every spring. They bear very heavily and have for three
distinct seasons. Hard winter or easy winter, nothing has affected their
bloom and they have never had a particle of San José scale until this
year. The almond grows all over the island. Also the pecan. I planted
five varieties of pecans and they are still living and growing very
slowly. They have been moved three or four times. Last year we planted
seven varieties including the Van Deman and the Stuart and one Indiana
variety. One of these trees died and the others were killed back, but
they have sent up big shoots.
Two years ago an old fellow came up from the middle of the island to see
if our pecan trees were the same kind as his. His story was very
remarkable. He didn't know anything about trees. He went into town one
day and got interested in pecans and bought all the different kinds he
could find, all the different shapes. He didn't care what they
were--didn't care whether they came from Canada or Mexico--he was the
kind of a man who would plant bananas,--and he planted all those pecans
and he told me that every one of them grew. He said they all produced
nuts.
MR. POMEROY: The first Persian walnut nursery ever established in the
United States was at Flushing, Long Island.
THE SECRETARY: I should like to ask how old and how big are the pecan
trees that are bearing?
MR. FULLERTON: I think he said seven or eight years.
THE CHAIRMAN: The insect question is one of great interest. Professor
Quaintance can give us a good insight into the insects that attack pecan
and other nut trees.
INSECTS INJURIOUS TO NUT TREES
A. L. QUAINTANCE, WASHINGTON, D. C.
I have not very much to say because we have not yet accumulated much
information on the subject of nut insects. I am glad to appear before
you, however, and to assure you that attention is being given to the
insect enemies of nuts by the Department. We are not nearly so far
advanced in the subject, however, as Professor Waite, since our specific
study of nut insects began only, this last spring. At that time we
established a laboratory in the South, especially to study pecan
insects, as the demand for information concerning these pests has been
very strong. The Bureau of Entomology, however, for a number of years,
has published more or less on nut insects, as opportunity offered, and I
think I should call your attention to a few of the papers treating of
nut insects, and which I recommend that you obtain, if possible:
The Nut Feeding Habits of the Codling Moth, Bulletin 80, Part 5, Bureau
of Entomology.
The Fall Webworm, Farmers' Bulletin 99, U. S. Department of Agriculture.
The White-Marked Tussock Moth, Farmers' Bulletin 99, U. S. Department of
Agriculture.
The Bag Worm, Circular 97, Bureau of Entomology.
The Apple-Tree Tent Caterpillar, Circular 98, Bureau of Entomology.
Nut Weevils, Circular 99, Bureau of Entomology.
The Red Spider, Circular 104, Bureau of Entomology.
The Leopard Moth, Circular 109, Bureau of Entomology.
The Walnut Borer, Fifth Report, U. S. Entomological Commission, page
329.
The Oak Pruner, Circular 130, Bureau of Entomology.
Insects Injurious to Pecans, Bulletin 86, Mississippi Agricultural
Experiment Station.
Insects of the Pecan, Bulletin 79, Florida Agricultural Experiment
Station.
The Walnut Weevil or Curculio, Twelfth Report, State Entomologist of
Connecticut, page 240.
The Walnut Bud-Moth, Twelfth Report, State Entomologist of Connecticut,
page 253.
The above list will furnish information on most of the important nut
insects thus far known. Inasmuch, however, as the walnut, pecan, etc.,
are native trees, it is probable that when these nuts are cultivated
they will be attacked by many of the insects which prey upon them in
nature. This we have found to be true to a considerable extent in the
case of the pecan. Many of the pests of hickory, for instance, are
becoming important enemies of the pecan.
We have few requests for information as to the insect enemies of the
hazelnut or filbert, practically none as to the almond. I surmise that
there is comparatively little injury to the two former crops in the
United States, and that in the case of the almond it is largely free
from insect pests. The secretary has suggested that I make reference
particularly to the insect enemies of the walnut. We have had complaints
of severe injury to walnuts in California from the codling moth and
walnut aphids. In this state and in the arid sections where walnuts are
commercially grown, the codling moth, the well-known apple pest, has
turned its attention to the walnut, and under some conditions does
serious injury. If walnuts are growing adjacent to pears, the marketing
of the crop, which occurs about the time the second brood of larvæ is at
its height, deprives these insects of further food and they turn their
attention to the walnut. The walnut plant lice in California have just
been investigated by an agent of the Bureau of Entomology and we now
have a paper in press on these insects. We think it probable that
spraying will be a satisfactory remedy where the trees are not too
large.
In the East injury is confined largely to certain caterpillars infesting
the foliage, as the white-marked tussock moth, the fall webworm, a
species of _Datana_, and occasionally reports of severe injury from red
spider are received. Rather recently a good deal of interest has been
aroused in the so-called walnut curculio by reason of its attacking the
shoots and leaf petioles of the Japanese walnut. It attacks also other
species of walnut, including the English walnut and the butternut. This
pest has been well treated by Doctor Britton in his report as State
Entomologist of Connecticut for 1912.
While pecans are perhaps not of particular interest to growers of nuts
in the Northern States, yet brief reference will be made to some of the
insect enemies of the pecan. There are two excellent publications on
this subject, as indicated in the list of titles above. I should urge
all interested in nut culture to obtain these papers, since some of the
insects treated are quite general feeders and may be expected to occur
on most all varieties of nuts.
The secretary also has asked that reference be made to the hickory bark
beetle. This is essentially a forest insect and has been treated by
Doctor Hopkins in Circular 144 of the Bureau of Entomology.
Attention should be called to an insect rather recently introduced into
the New England States, which will probably attack nut crops, namely,
the so-called leopard moth, already indicated in the list of titles on
nut insects. This pest will prove a difficult one to control, as it
infests the trunk and larger limbs.
The whole question of the control of nut insects is complicated by the
often enormous size of the trees, so that operations, effective in the
control of insects, say affecting the apple, are not entirely practical.
It is a point to be determined whether it will be profitable to spray
large nut trees, such as the pecan. In some instances we believe that it
will be, and the Bureau of Entomology now has in Florida one of the
large power spraying outfits, formerly in use in the gipsy moth
spraying, to determine the cost and benefits of such work.
In concluding these brief remarks I wish again to reiterate my pleasure
in having the opportunity of appearing before you, and to assure you of
the interest of the Department in the insect problems confronting nut
growers. Nut culture is bound to increase enormously and insect injuries
will probably correspondingly increase. I believe, however, that these
injuries will be found controllable, as has been determined to be true
in the case of practically all important native or introduced crops.
* * * * *
THE CHAIRMAN: We are glad that Professor Quaintance has told us about
the different bulletins. The secretary will have a list of these. I am
now going to call for Mr. Rhodes, who is an expert propagator of Persian
walnuts, and he is going to give a demonstration on methods of
propagating the walnut.
MR. RHODES: I am employed over at Arlington and I have been helping
Professor Lake in his work there at the farm. Last year about the 15th
of July we put in about seventy-five grafts using the cleft graft, and
the side graft, and at the same time we put in some chip buds. Professor
Lake has a little instrument which is known as a chip budder. We used an
ordinary bandage, such as surgeons have, which we dipped in a mixture of
about two parts wax, one part tallow and one part rosin. We put the
bandage in when the solution was at a boil--that made it sticky enough
to hold to the bud, and then we cut a hole large enough for the bud to
come out. We found budding at that season, in August, more successful
than grafting. The stocks were about two inches in diameter; we put in
grafts anywhere from two to three feet above the ground, sometimes as
many as three grafts. In a great many cases we lost all, and in some
cases we lost two. I tried also bench or root grafting, and put in about
fifty along about December, and when I took them out in the spring, the
scion had covered up nicely, but we had a very dry spell, and through
lack of attention, as much as anything else, we didn't get a graft to
pull through. I am going to try the same thing this year. Along in July
I took several cuttings and put in, and out of ten I got one to live.
One proved successful in the soft wood and this coming year I hope to
get some of the hard wood kinds to pull through.
In grafting I always try to get the cuts as smooth as possible and to
make them in one cut, because if you make a second cut you are bound to
make some unevenness in it. These cambium layers have to fit right up
flush with the edge of the bark. Then we usually wrap them in raffia. We
used also what Professor Lake called a bark graft.
We got about 10 per cent of those to live. We had better success with
the cleft graft and the side graft. In cutting the scion for this side
graft I usually cut one side a little longer than I do the other which
makes the scion lie closer to the stock. We leave the top on. You can
put several on each of those stocks.
We were pretty successful with that sort of a graft. For my own personal
use, I like this graft for walnuts, and I think we will eventually have
better success with that than with any other type.
We put the majority of the grafts in I think about the latter part of
June or July.
I have been afraid to cut the top off before the scion has started to
grow. There is too great a flow of sap for the small scion to take up
and as a consequence it drowns out the scion.
PROFESSOR SMITH: How far toward the center did you make the cut?
MR. RHODES: About two-thirds of the way through.
THE CHAIRMAN: You go past the middle?
MR. RHODES: Yes. The only thing you have to be careful of is not to cut
too far, as then there is danger of breaking off.
MR. JONES: Do you have any particular length for the cut on the scion?
MR. RHODES: No. A great deal depends on the cut you make into the stock.
I don't like to cut the scion any further up than the depth we go into
the stock wood.
MR. JONES: Any other rule?
MR. RHODES: No, it all depends on the size of the stock. If you get a
large stock you can cut it larger.
THE CHAIRMAN: We thank you for these explanations. Mr. Rush is an
experienced propagator of walnuts and pecans and I want to give him some
time to show his methods. I will ask Mr. Rush to give his demonstration.
MR. RUSH: I am very glad to show you some of my methods. The only
difference between mine and Mr. Hutt's is that he is right-handed and I
am left-handed.
The propagation of the Persian walnut may be divided into three
divisions, the preparative, the operative and the nursery, and one is as
important as the other. Good wood, good weather conditions, good
technique and after this you must nurse them.
(Mr. Rush gives demonstration of budding.)
THE CHAIRMAN: This is the method I outlined yesterday, but I think Mr.
Rush has it better in his hands than I have in my head.
MR. RUSH: It is practically the same. I have a good knife with two
parallel blades that can be taken off, and put on the grindstone, and
got as sharp as a razor. For some things I use a surgeon's knife.
THE CHAIRMAN: We have with us another very expert propagator from a
little farther south. I am going to ask Mr. Wiggins to give us the
benefit of his observations along this line.
MR. WIGGINS: I have not had experience in propagating walnuts, except in
an experimental way. I have had some experience in the propagation of
pecans. Much depends on the condition of the stocks. If they are in a
good healthy, vigorous, growing condition, you will do better.
(Gives demonstration on grafting.)
The best time in South Carolina is in August and early September. I use
but one method of budding and grafting. It is the only one I am
successful with. What you call chip budding, I call bud grafting. I get
95 per cent of chip buds to take in the spring. I get the wood when it
is dormant. I can find dormant wood even in May and June. I usually get
it earlier than this, but this year it was in May. Part of these trees
were in the shade in the orchard and I got the wood from them.
Ninety-nine out of one hundred were dormant, and about that many lived.
The wood was thoroughly dormant and plump. I cut it right out of the
orchard in May or June and got them to live. Of course if you cut scions
from the ends of branches, you haven't a chance at all.
One thing to remember in the chip graft is not to cut your chip too
thin. If you do you will lose a good many. I go right into it. If you do
it right it will hurt your finger so you can only work for two or three
hours at a time. It won't dry out so quickly if you cut it thick and
will stand a better chance to live. I try to get the scion to fit the
first time.
THE SECRETARY: What do you tie it with after you put on the waxed cloth?
MR. WIGGINS: I use a strip of common cloth out of the store. Your
fingers will be waxed enough in working so that the strip does not need
to be waxed. You tie it after wrapping it.
A MEMBER: Would you protect that with a paper bag?
MR. WIGGINS: No.
A MEMBER: Do you place it on the north or south?
MR. WIGGINS: The point that decides the exact place on the stock is the
smoothness and greenness and health of it. I pick out the cleanest and
best places. The whole top of the tree is above the graft.
A MEMBER: When do you cut off the tree?
MR. WIGGINS: According to the weather. It takes two or three or four
weeks for proper healing. I open up a few and if they are all right, I
open all of them. Just as soon as it heals, I cut the top off.
PROFESSOR SMITH: What is your ordinary practice in cutting scions?
MR. WIGGINS: Last year I was sick and got behind with my work so I cut
them each day as I needed them. I usually cut them earlier and bury them
in a shady place to keep the wood dormant. I can get 100 per cent by
chip grafting and in no other way. I don't use the cleft graft at all.
The better fit you get in this method of propagating the higher the
percentage will run. If you make a fit that is not quite a fit, you will
be astonished to lose about 95 per cent. If you are just a little more
careful, you might get 100 per cent to grow. I can tell by the way it
feels when it is right. I use a crude method but succeed with it. I do
four hundred in a half day. What is the use of going to another method
when I get good results with this?
PROFESSOR SMITH: You say a half-inch scion on a four-inch stock?
MR. WIGGINS: Yes, on a four-inch stock you get a cut an inch or one and
a half inch wide. You have a large space that is not covered at all.
PROFESSOR SMITH: They live?
MR. WIGGINS: Yes, of course.
PROFESSOR SMITH: Only touch in spots?
MR. WIGGINS: On top and bottom and on one side. I get cambium together
at top--I am careful about that--and then I get on the left side an
exact fit but not on the other sides.
THE CHAIRMAN: Have you had much experience with walnuts?
MR. WIGGINS: No. I should think the best results with walnut as well as
with pecans would be by cutting the scion wood the year before.
THE CHAIRMAN: This is certainly a very interesting discussion, but I
have another grafter here yet. A demonstration by Mr. Jones will close
this morning's session.
(Mr. Jones gave a demonstration of cleft grafting stating that he used
that method practically altogether.)
APPENDIX
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-TREASURER
Receipts:
Dues $200.00
Gift 200.00
Sale of report 10.00
Advertisement 15.00
Miscellaneous 7.15
________
$432.15
Expenses:
Deficit $17.54
Reporting convention 47.13
Printing 355.74
Postage 66.34
Typewriting 19.14
Advertising 6.79
Expense of secretary to Albany 10.05
Expense of secretary to New York 2.75
Miscellaneous 11.72
________
$537.20
Deficit $105.05
Through the generosity of one of our members the secretary was
enabled to issue the annual report, to have other printing done,
and to represent the Association at Albany at the conference on the
hickory bark borer called by the Commissioner of Agriculture of the
State of New York.
It is not likely that this gift will be repeated and it will be a
great misfortune if the means for publishing the annual report are
not found, as well as for taking up the present deficit of over a
hundred dollars.
Of course our membership is increasing rapidly and, in the years to
come, we should have members enough to pay our annual expenses,
including the publishing of the report. The secretary would like
also to have enough to issue reprints or bulletins from time to
time.
The secretary asks for instructions in the face of this difficulty
and would suggest the appointment of a finance committee, not to
include the secretary, and to be composed of persons who will work.
There might be a similar hard-working committee on programme. The
secretary is willing to be the clearing house for the Association,
but would like to have something to clear besides the cloudy
results of his own labors.
The secretary has a list of over six hundred names of persons
interested in nut culture, which he thinks should be circularized
from time to time with reprints, or bulletins, setting forth the
importance of, and the advances in, the art of nut culture.
The secretary would be pleased if each member would send in a new
member during the year, would send an advertisement of his own, or
some other person's, business for the annual report, and would pay
his own dues promptly on the first intimation from the secretary.
Members whose dues for the year are not paid will not receive the
annual report and, after a decent interval, their names will
automatically drop from the roll of membership and not appear in
the next annual report.
Except from a financial standpoint the Association may fairly
consider that it has had a prosperous year. Our present membership
is 134, an increase of 48 over the number reported at the last
meeting. (At date of going to press the membership is 143.)
Three members have resigned and we have lost two by death, Mr.
George W. Gachwind of Brooklyn, N. Y., and Mr. W. D. Ellwanger of
Rochester, N. Y. (News came during the meeting of the death of
Henry Hales of Ridgewood, N. J., the first honorary member of the
Association. An account of Mr. Hale's work with nuts appears
elsewhere in this report.)
Thirty-one members have failed to pay their dues and have not been
sent copies of the report. The secretary asks permission to drop
the names of these members from the rolls and that a rule be
formulated to guide his action in the future.
That interest in nut growing is increasing is shown by the issuance
this year of three catalogues devoted entirely to nuts for
northern, or northern and middle, planting. One nurseryman grows
nothing else. All are members of this Association and the nuts
propagated have all been shown at our meetings.
The work of the secretary during the year, besides the preparation
and issuing of the annual report, has been given to answering a
large and increasing correspondence, by personal letters and our
various bulletins and circulars. The resolutions introduced by the
Committee on Resolutions at the last meeting, and ordered by the
Association to be printed and distributed as directed in the
resolutions, were sent out by the secretary. A number of very
complimentary letters in reply to this were received.
Arrangements and announcements were made that all members were to
receive a subscription for one year to the _American Fruit and Nut
Journal_ as a part of their membership, and that new members would
receive in addition copies of both the reports that we have issued.
This proved very attractive, but unexpected complications have
arisen that have kept the secretary busy explaining why he has been
unable to fulfil both of these promises.
At the suggestion of Professor Hutt a circular was issued to gather
information about the Persian walnut tree in the North. Replies are
still coming in and the information obtained has not yet been
collated. It shows already, however, that there is a great number
of trees in the North; that there are two large centers so far
shown, one about Rochester, N. Y., and the other in Ontario,
Canada, on the strip of land between. Lakes Erie and Ontario, known
as the Niagara Peninsula. In both localities reporters speak of
hundreds of trees. One grower near Rochester has 225 seedling trees
about 27 years old from which he is marketing nuts.
The original trees in these locations are often spoken of as grown
from seed brought from Philadelphia at the time of the Centennial
Exposition. Another center seems to be about Lancaster, Pa. There
it appears that the original trees were brought in by the Germans.
Perhaps the Philadelphia trees above referred to had the same
origin. This would be a good subject for investigation by some of
our Pennsylvania members.
There is a tree, said to bear good crops of good nuts, at
Newburyport in the extreme northeastern corner of Massachusetts.
(Specimens were shown at the meeting.)
If not already undertaken by the Government agents, I would suggest
the making of a map on which all known bearing trees of the Persian
walnut in the East should be located. If not in the Government plan
the secretary would under-take to make such a map. In any case he
is very anxious to learn as much as possible about these trees and
he urges the members to furnish him any knowledge about them that
they may have. Circulars to be filled out will be sent on
application.
A member has offered to give $25 as a prize to be offered by the
Association for the best shagbark hickory nut sent in. This offer
came too late to make suitable announcement this year, but it is
too valuable not to be accepted and encouraged, and I would suggest
that either a special committee be appointed to devise means of
offering prizes, with the above mentioned sum of $25 as a
foundation, or that the matter be referred to the committee on
promising seedlings.
THE CHAIRMAN: I think we should take some action on the secretary's
report. It is before the association. What shall we do about it?
PROFESSOR SMITH: I move that the situation of the finances be referred
to the executive committee.
A MEMBER: I second the motion.
THE CHAIRMAN: It is moved and seconded that the matter of the financial
standing of the association be placed in the hands of the executive
committee.
(Motion was carried.)
THE SECRETARY: The next is the election of the Nominating Committee.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any nominations for Nominating Committee?
MR. JONES: I place in nomination Professor Smith, Mr. C. A. Reed, Mr.
Rush, Mr. Ridgway and Mr. Albert Stabler.
MR. POMEROY: I second that nomination.
THE CHAIRMAN: It has been moved and seconded that these gentlemen be
appointed as a nominating committee to nominate the officers for the
ensuing year.
(The motion was carried.)
RESOLUTION ADOPTED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION NOVEMBER 18
AND 19, 1913
_Resolved_, That the Secretary of the Northern Nut Growers Association
be instructed to keep "an accredited list of northern nut nurserymen,"
such list to be made up by the Executive Committee of this Association
of such nurserymen as the Executive Committee may feel satisfied make no
misrepresentations as to whether the trees they sell are budded and
grafted varieties or as to the specific varieties which they sell, or
any other statement calculated to mislead the purchaser to his
detriment. The said Executive Committee is to have full authority to
make any necessary inquiries into the reputation or practices of any
nurseryman, and shall take steps as soon as practicable to make up such
an "accredited list," and such list shall consist not only of nurserymen
who belong to this Association, but of any nurserymen engaged in the
sale of northern nut trees. Such accredited list of nurserymen shall be
furnished anyone upon inquiry. The Executive Committee shall have full
power in making up this list of accredited nurserymen and shall add to
the list from time to time such names as in their judgment shall be
entitled to be entered on this list and shall drop from such list any
names of such persons as in their judgment at any time violate the
standard required for admission to such accredited list. Any nurseryman
whose name is to be dropped shall first be notified and permitted to
appear before the Executive Committee and be heard and shall, if he
chooses, have the right to appeal from the action of said Committee to
the Association at any annual meeting, and the majority vote of said
Association shall be binding.
PRESENT AT THE FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NORTHERN NUT GROWERS
ASSOCIATION
AT WASHINGTON, D. C, NOVEMBER 18 AND 19, 1913
Members:
Batchelor, Leon D., Logan, Utah
Close, C. P., Washington, D. C.
Coleman, H. H., Newark, N. J.
Crockett, E. B., Lynchburg, Va.
Deming, Dr. W. C, Georgetown, Ct.
Druckemiller, W. C, Sunbury, Pa.
Fullerton, H. B., Medford, L. I.
Hume, H. H., Glen St. Mary, Fla.
Hutt, W. H., Raleigh, N. C.
Jones, J. F., Willow St., Lancaster, Pa.
Kinsell, Mrs. Ida J., Rock Mills, Pa.
Lake, E. R., Washington, D. C.
Mayo, E. S., Rochester, N. Y.
Pomeroy, A. C, Lockport, N. Y.
Prange, Mrs. N. M. G., Jacksonville, Fla.
Reed, C. A., Washington, D. C.
Ridgeway, C. S., Lumberton, N. J.
Roper, W. N., Petersburg, Va.
Rush, J. G., West Willow, Pa.
Smith, J. R., Roundhill, Va.
Stabler, Albert, Washington, D. C.
Storrs, A. P., Oswego, N. Y.
Wile, Th. E., Rochester, N. Y.
Van Deman, H. E., Washington, D. C.
Others:
Editor _Life and Health_, Washington, D. C.
McHatton, Prof., Georgia
Frost, Mr., Boston, Mass.
Stabler, Mr., Jr., Washington, D. G.
Evans, Mr.
Lee, Mr.
Collins, J. F., Washington
Wiggins, J. B., S. Carolina
Waite, M. B., Washington
Quaintance, A. L., Washington
Sober, C. K., Pennsylvania
Davis, Mr.
Rhodes, Mr., Washington, D. C.
Mittlepage, Mrs. T. P., and friends
Pomeroy, Mrs. A. C.
Reed, Mrs. C. A.
Metcalf, Dr. J. B., Washington
Roberts, Horace, Moorestown, N. J.
EXHIBITS
By George W. Endicott, Villa Ridge, Ill.
The Boone chestnut and unnamed Boone seedlings, Nos. 4, 6, 7, 8, 22 and
24. Staminate parent of Boone. Chinquapin x Boone; Boone x Rochester;
Boone x Ridgeley; Boone x McFarland. Blair, Burrill, best native, Champ
Clark, McFarland, President, Ridgeley, Reliance, Rochester, William P.
Stark.
C. K. Sober, Lewisburg, Pa.
Paragon chestnuts.
Mrs. Annie E. K. Bidwell, Rancho Chico, Chico, Cal.
American sweet chestnut, Italian chestnut, butternuts, black walnuts, I.
X. L. almonds, seedling filbert, Bidwell pecan.
D. H. Hulseman, Lakeside, Wash.
Chelan and Hulseman walnuts.
Fancher Creek Nurseries, Fresno, Cal.
Eureka, Placentia Perfection, Neff's Prolific walnuts.
A. C. Pomeroy, Lockport, N. Y.
Pomeroy walnuts.
C. S. Ridgeway, Lumberton, N. J.
Ridgeway walnut.
E. S. Mayo, Rochester, N. Y.
"Thompson-Avon" walnut. Unnamed seedling.
W. S. Devoe, San Luis Obispo, Cal.
Santa Barbara walnut.
Frank P. Andrus, Almont, Mich.
Unnamed seedling walnut. Butternut.
E. R. Lake, Washington, D. C.
Gingko nut. Pili nuts.
Arlington Farm.
Juglans sieboldiana. Juglans australis, probably from South America.
Twenty-three exhibits of almonds from different California growers.
J. G. Rush, West Willow, Pa.
Lancaster, Nebo, Hall, Rush and Kaghazi walnuts, Barcelona filberts,
Weiker and La Fevre shellbark hickories.
Prof. V. R. Gardner, Experiment Station, Corvallis, Oregon.
Eleven varieties of filberts.
W. C. Reed & Son, Vincennes, Ind.
Beard, Indiana, Kentucky, Letcher, Luce, Major, Niblack, Posey, and
Warrick pecans.
T. P. Littlepage, Boonville, Ind.
Kentucky pecans.
J. F. Jones, Lancaster, Pa.
Lancaster and Holden walnuts, Weiker shellbark and Kirtland shagbark
hickories, Barcelona filberts and photographs of the Lancaster tree.
Ninety-six exhibits of southern grown pecans by various exhibitors.
WILDER MEDAL FOR EXHIBITION OF NUTS
The American Pomological Society awarded the Northern Nut Growers
Association a bronze Wilder Medal for the exhibition of nuts at the
fourth annual meeting of the Association at Washington, D. C, November
18 and 19, 1913.
GEORGE W. ENDICOTT--THE BOONE CHESTNUT
E. A. RIEHL, ALTON, ILLINOIS
George W. Endicott was born in Belmont County, Ohio, July 25, 1837. He
joined the Forty-eighth Illinois Infantry in 1861, serving nearly three
years, when he was discharged owing to wounds received. Then he went to
farming in Wayne County. In 1867 he settled at Villa Ridge, Ill.,
devoting himself to fruit and vegetable growing, in which he was
eminently successful. Mr. Endicott was a man of strong character and a
leader in his community. Energetic and up to date in all his operations,
he procured and tested all kinds of new fruits as fast as introduced. He
died at his home November 14, 1913.
Of the greatest interest to the nut growers of this country was his work
of creating the Boone chestnut. About 1888 Mr. Endicott conceived the
idea of producing a cross between the American and Japan chestnuts and
getting one combining the sweetness of the native with the large size,
early ripening and young bearing habits of the Japan. He encountered an
obstacle in the fact that the Japan blossomed before the native and it
was not until seven years later that he found a native blossoming early
enough to make the cross. In the spring of 1895 he carefully hand
pollinated some Japan Giant with the pollen of this early flowering
native, sacking the same to prevent other pollen reaching them. The seed
so produced was planted in the spring of 1896 in rich soil that had been
used as a vegetable garden. One of the seeds so planted bore six burs in
1897, eighteen months after planting the seed and has produced crops
every year since as follows: 1898, 1 pound of nuts; 1899, 3 pounds of
nuts; 1900, 5 pounds of nuts; 1901, 6 pounds of nuts; 1902, 8 pounds of
nuts; 1903, 12 pounds of nuts; 1904, 17 pounds of nuts; 1905, 25 pounds
of nuts; 1906, 31 pounds of nuts; 1907, 43 pounds of nuts; 1908, 50
pounds of nuts; 1909, 56 pounds of nuts; 1910, 5 pounds of nuts (early
bloom killed by late freeze); 1911, 80 pounds of nuts; 1912, 76 pounds
of nuts; 1913, 140 pounds of nuts--a grand total of 568 pounds from the
time of planting the seed seventeen years ago.
This nut is of very good quality, has large size, ripens early and comes
into bearing very early. Has been well tested and proven to be one of
the best chestnuts we have. It has but one fault, it is very hard to
propagate by either budding or grafting. Mr. Endicott and others have
grown many seedlings of Boone, but none are in all respects as good as
the parent.
Mr. Endicott did a good work in producing the Boone chestnut and
deserves the thanks of the nut growers of this country.
LETTER FROM G. H. CORSAN, TORONTO, CANADA
My place of 15-1/2 acres just west of Toronto, is in a small valley
containing sandy, gravelly and clay soils, while the creek bottom land
is rich black humus. My efforts are purely experimental and the losses
do not worry me as I simply wish to know what will succeed in this
district. Peaches and grapes grow on my place.
Last winter I bought twelve Paragon chestnut trees from Colonel Sober.
All twelve are alive and looking well and this fourth day of November
are just turning color and dropping their leaves. You will probably
remember that of the three samples that Colonel Sober displayed at the
convention last year I took the walking stick. I had to go to Columbia
and other South Carolina points for three weeks afterwards, so that it
was well into January before I finally got the "walking stick" planted.
Well, it is also alive and has that well-known Paragon form, five
fan-shaped shoots above the graft.
I planted seeds from all over the world, in rows, and of ten bushels of
black walnuts only five nuts sprouted. On the other hand, every pecan
came up. Hickories and English cob nuts behaved a little better than the
black walnuts. I slip a little collar of tar paper over each little tree
to protect it against field mice, rabbits and ground hogs. Red squirrels
trouble me the least of all the pests as I cannot keep them out of my
double section wire rat trap, and the pet stock men give my boys 30
cents apiece for them.
I also bought a dozen Pomeroy walnuts last winter for experiment. They
are all alive but the extraordinary late and early frosts were hard on
them and nipped them down three inches from the top where they again
sprouted out. This occurred to all but one tree which positively refused
to take any notice of either the late or the early frost. I consider
this one tree worth _many_ times the money I paid for the dozen.
My experiments are only two years old but I will mention that my English
filberts or Kentish cob nuts are doing well, also my Battle Creek
persimmon seedlings that I planted in an exposed position two years ago.
Seeds from those Battle Creek persimmon trees can be procured from Dr.
J. H. Kellogg by writing him. They are the two most northern persimmon
trees which I have discovered so far. The fruit is good to the taste and
the trees have lived through terribly cold winters. I mention this as
many of you are fruit growers also and want to get persimmon stock in
order to graft the Japanese persimmon on. The female tree every second
year is loaded to the point of breakage and should do well for stock.
Speaking about procuring seeds from dealers, I can get here and there
for one cent as much as I have to pay the dealer a dollar for. For
instance, while passing through Phoebus, Va., I asked a lady what she
wanted for Juglans sieboldiana and she said 5 cents a quart or 35 cents
a peck. She only got 16 bushels from a 20 year-old tree! They were
bigger and better specimens than I got from Japan at about five nuts for
one dollar, postage extra.
Then I wrote to a gentleman who had a small tree of Juglans cordiformis
in Ontario and he said that he only had a bushel which he was expressing
to me and to send him a dollar! Think, and the Japs sent me three nuts
for one dollar!! A lady at Niagara Falls, Ontario, told me that she had
a little tree of J. sieboldiana so I asked her the price and she sent me
half a bushel and said to pay the express charges which were a quarter!
And it is the same way with these forest seed merchants, they send me
for dollars the seeds of pinus edulis and pinus Koriensis that it would
take a powerful microscope to discern, and I afterwards bought of a
fruit merchant in Milwaukee a big glassful for a nickel!
Roadside planting is a failure, for, besides rodents little and big,
there are all kinds of animals from sheep to horses to destroy them, so
that I have to plant all my trees at least four feet within my fence
line.
Juglans Mandshurica seed I find impossible to procure so far. There are
two magnificent trees in Toronto planted by an old man who is dead now.
These trees show no sign of ever having been winter killed and are 13
and 19 feet high but have not fruited yet. The leaves are very long and
the trees resemble the stag horn sumach, except that they are distinctly
Juglans in appearance; but the growth of the year's shoots is thick and
long like a coppice growth.
LETTER FROM W. C. REED, VINCENNES, INDIANA
The Indiana pecan tree bore a splendid crop of about 3-1/2 bushels. The
Busseron also had a good crop on all the old wood and some on the new
wood. The Busseron is just recovering from a severe cutting back by the
owner and should be in shape to give a good crop next year. Other pecans
in the vicinity bore a very light crop.
The Niblack bore only a few nuts this year. Butterick had a very good
crop for an off year, some five bushels as reported to me, and they were
well filled. This tree is very large, 4-1/2 feet in diameter, 90 foot
spread, located near Grayville, Ill.
The writer and my son, M. P. Reed, have top worked quite a number of
large black walnuts, ranging from 3 to 9 inches in diameter. They were
cut back last spring and budded in the new growth this summer, setting
from 20 to 40 buds in some of the trees. Buds of the Hall, Pomeroy and
Rush have taken well and look very promising. Of other varieties only a
limited number have taken. We will top work several large trees this
coming summer and should get results soon from these.
Pecans in the nursery have made a very satisfactory growth. The stand of
buds was only fair, in some cases poor. We still have a limited number
of Indiana and Busseron trees but the supply of other kinds is exhausted
for this year.
We have planted 600 pounds of pecans and 50 bushels of walnuts and with
the seedlings we have on hand in nursery hope to have plenty of stock to
work in the future.
We had a splendid stand of grafts of the Major pecan the past spring and
some of these made 4 feet of growth and calipered 3/4-inch, for grafts
set May 1st.
THE LATE HENRY HALES AS A NUT CULTURIST
H. W. HALES, NEW JERSEY
About 1876 he and the celebrated writer and agriculturist, Andrew S.
Puller, made extensive experiments with the large English
filbert,--mostly of the Kentish cob varieties. These proved unadapted to
the climate as the trees seemed to run all to growth and bore very few
nuts. About this time, also, very extensive plans were laid to propagate
by grafting the Hales Paper Shell Hickory. There is probably no more
difficult tree in existence to graft than the hickory as, owing to the
extreme hardness and close grain of the wood there is always an
uncertainty about their uniting permanently, consequently the percentage
of perfect trees was always small. Mr. Hales tried all kinds and methods
of grafting, some were done on stocks that stood naturally in the
fields, others were grafted in greenhouses, then again, others were
tried in frames or sashes, and large numbers were grown in pots, and
success was only attained after years of time and thousands of dollars
were spent. Mr. Hales was also an enthusiastic grower of the English or
European walnut and one tree which grew on his farm at Ridgewood was
grown from seed given him by ex-Mayor Daniel F. Tieman of New York City
many years ago.
Japanese walnuts were also grown on the farm at Ridgewood and some of
these are now bearing. A large number of Japanese chestnuts were planted
some years ago, and while these bore heavily for a short time they
nearly all succumbed to the chestnut blight. There is some difference of
opinion among nut growers on the subject, but Mr. Hales was always of
the opinion that the chestnut blight was introduced into this country
with the Japanese trees, and that when the Japanese trees were gone the
disease then spread to the native trees. The Hales Paper Shell Hickory,
it may be remarked, still holds the palm as being the largest and
thinnest shell nut, and it was only by the most persistent and
painstaking efforts that Mr. Hales succeeded in propagating them at all.
A large number of chestnuts were grown by Mr. Hales, such as the Numbo
and other varieties. Some of these were said to be purely American
varieties and others hybrids, or crosses. All of the hybrid varieties
seemed to lack the hardy constitution of the American and although some
of the nuts were very large he did not succeed with them in the long run
as well as with the native varieties. Pecans of all kinds were tried by
him and choice specimens were obtained from all parts of the country.
Like the hickories these were grown and grafted in different ways and
the percentage of good results was always much larger than the
hickories. Grafting the hickory on the pecan was of course tried, and
this proved one of the best ways of propagating the hickory. Everything
that he could possibly think of or do was brought to bear in his efforts
at nut culture and it is some satisfaction to know that many nut lovers
will have the benefit of his work and efforts, long years after he has
passed away, the hickory especially being a very slow growing and long
lived tree.
ABSTRACT OF PAPER BY HUMPHREY
Filbert. Black knot, _Cryptosporella anomala_
HUMPHREY, JAMES ELLIS. Mass. Agr. Exp. Sta., 10th an. rept., 1892, p.
242-243.
The author describes this fungus as killing the canes of the European
hazel, _Corylus avellana_, at Palmer, Mass. The fungus appears in the
form of protuberances with elliptical bases that burst the bark and rise
rather thickly from the affected portions of the branch. The diseased
portion is sunk below the surface of the healthy part. The interior of
the protuberance, which is the fruiting part of the fungus, contains
numerous black, flask-like structures whose tips reached the surface.
Within the cavities of these flasks are formed the very numerous
spindle-shaped spore cells, each containing, when ripe, eight colorless
elliptical spores. The author noticed that the inner bark on the part of
the branch occupied by the fungus is reduced to a narrow black line
between the wood and the outer bark. This reduction in the thickness of
the inner bark explains why the surface of the affected parts is sunken.
If the entire circumference of a cane becomes involved, the result is
that it is girdled, and the part beyond necessarily dies. The attacks of
this fungus on the host-plant are essentially similar in their results
to those of the black knot of the plum, though the immediate effect on
the inner bark is here one of atrophy, while in the latter case it is
one of hypertrophy. The fungus is also related to the black-knot fungus
on the plum, but its life-history is not yet known. There may be other
spore forms in its life cycle, and therefore it is impossible to give
any more definite suggestions for avoiding it than to recommend that
infected branches be cut away well below the point of infection and
burned as soon as they are seen to be infected.
THE TRUTH ABOUT TREE PLANTING WITH DYNAMITE.
[Note by the Secretary.--As planting with dynamite has been
especially recommended for nut trees, on account of their long tap
roots which have the habit of growing down until they reach
permanent water; as there has been some difference of opinion among
horticulturists as to the merits of tree planting, in general, with
dynamite; and in order that nut growers may know how to use this
method as advised by the dynamite makers, in case they may wish to
try it in setting their trees, the following description of the
method advised, from the pen of Mr. George Frank Lord of the E. I.
du Pont de Nemours Powder Company, is here printed.]
During the past two years there has been considerable discussion in the
agricultural press on the merits of dynamite in tree planting. The
majority of orchardists who have tried the new method are enthusiastic
over the results, but now and then we hear someone condemning the
practice, and stating that they have tried it with poor results. It
would appear from investigation that the theory of the use of dynamite
in tree planting is a good one, but that the practice is sometimes
incorrect, and hence fails to produce the desired results.
_Purpose of Dynamiting for Tree Planting_:
In the first place, to secure successful results it is necessary to
understand clearly what the dynamiting is to accomplish. Some
orchardists and farmers have the idea that the purpose of the dynamite
is to excavate the hole for the tree and save them the trouble of
shoveling out the soil. This is a wrong theory.
The object of dynamiting for tree planting is to break up the subsoil at
a depth of from three to five feet so as to create a soil sponge or
water-absorbing area twelve or twenty feet in diameter around and
underneath the spot where the tree is to stand, so that the heavy
rainfalls and melting snow of spring may be conserved in the subsoil to
take care of the tree during the long dry summer.
If the force of the dynamite is used merely to blow out the soil and
make digging unnecessary, it is unreasonable to expect the dynamite to
do this underground work. On the other hand, when the charge is properly
placed at a depth of about three feet and tamped in just enough to
confine most of the force of the explosion in the subsoil, the blast
will not only crack and pulverize the subsoil, but will also break up
the ground around the bore hole clear to the surface, and throw it into
the air, possibly a foot. It is then a very easy matter to excavate the
hole for planting.
_Necessary Soil Conditions_:
There is no economy nor advantage in using dynamite in a soil that is
loose and sandy to a depth of three or four feet. The weakness of this
soil is that it allows water to percolate through it too rapidly, hence
dynamite would be harmful rather than helpful under such conditions, but
no matter how loose the top soil or plowed soil may be, if it is
underlaid by more or less impervious clay, or even a heavy loam,
dynamiting under proper conditions will certainly increase its
water-storing capacity, and also make it easier for the roots to grow
downward and deep.
The proper conditions referred to are that the blasting must be done
when the subsoil is relatively dry, otherwise it will not crack or
pulverize. Every farmer knows the disadvantage of plowing wet top soil.
It is equally disadvantageous to blast a wet subsoil. Of course, some
subsoils are always in a more or less damp condition and never get
thoroughly dried out, but they may be safely and advantageously blasted
when they are in their dryest condition.
Water-logged soil should never be blasted except for the purpose of
ditching it or tiling it so as to get it into a proper condition for
blasting. The ditching may be done economically and quickly with
dynamite, and in many cases this will answer just as well as the more
expensive tiling. When the ditching or tiling has drained this subsoil,
it may then be safely blasted.
_Filling the Pot-Holes_:
In any heavy soil the explosion of the dynamite tends to form a cavity
in the immediate vicinity of the cartridge, varying from one to two feet
in diameter. The heavier or the wetter the subsoil, the larger this
cavity is likely to be. After the blast the top soil should be shoveled
out and laid to one side; next shovel out the subsoil and lay it on the
other side of the hole; continue this excavation until the pot-hole is
reached, then be careful to fill this hole reasonably tight with
subsoil, the object being to prevent the possibility of soil falling
away from the roots of a tree after planting, and leaving it suspended
in the air. This is the cause of the death of trees planted in dynamited
holes which some unsuccessful experimenters report. It takes a little
time to fill this pot-hole, but the many advantages of planting trees
properly in dynamited holes more than offset this extra time and trouble
required to properly prepare the hole.
_Planting the Trees_:
After the pot-hole has been filled, continue to shovel in subsoil until
the proper height is reached for planting the tree, then throw in half
the top soil and spread the roots on that in their natural positions,
then throw in the remainder of the top soil, next get in the hole and
walk around the tree several times, tramping the top soil down tight
around the roots so as to remove all large air spaces that surround the
roots, then fill the hole to the surface with subsoil. Planting a tree
in this way costs a few cents more per tree than the old way, but since
the tree can only be planted once and the comparative records as to loss
of trees the first year after planting, show an average advantage of 30
per cent. in favor of dynamited trees, namely, the loss is cut down from
three to five trees per hundred, a dynamited tree grows so much more
vigorously and produces fruit from one to two years earlier, therefore
it pays to take the extra trouble and do the job right.
The editor of _Successful Farming_ was at one time skeptical as to the
use of dynamite in tree planting, but has been convinced from personal
observation of its use in large commercial orchards, and from letters
from various subscribers, that it is an important and valuable
innovation in horticulture, provided it is used with proper care and
discretion.
CORRESPONDENTS AND OTHERS INTERESTED IN NUT CULTURE
ALABAMA
Carver, George W., Director Department Research, Tuskegee Institute
ARIZONA
Karns, H. G., Karns Bros., Inc., Nogales
ARKANSAS
Shadle, E. A., England
Watkins, J. A., Warren
Hamilton, Ed., Wynne
Meek, W. H., Hot Springs
Jones, Herbert A., Plumerville
St. John M., Wrightsville
CALIFORNIA
Payne, George C., Campbell
Fitzgerald, Dr. W. W., Stockton
Thornberry, Lordsburg
Fuller, L. E., 1643 Sunset Blvd., San Diego
Tribble Brothers Nursery Co., Elk Grove
CANADA
Griffith, H. K., Grimsby
Berge, Miss Alice, 251 Queenston Street, St. Catherines
Neller, Louisa, Grimbsy
Book, Beverly, Grimsby East
Fee, J. J., Niagara Street, St. Catherines
Solvyne, F. D., Carlton Street, St. Catherines
Titherington, James, Carlton Street, St. Catherines
COLORADO
Coryell, P. C., Newcastle
CONNECTICUT
Moore, R. D., Colchester
Osborn, George S., Bristol
White, T. P., Wilton
Clingan, Una A., Robertsville
Rockwell, F. P., Rockfall
Bradley, John T., 180 Prospect Street, Bristol
Bradley, Capt. Ralph, 459 W. Main Street, Meriden
Martin, William, Hull Street, Bristol
Brown, Ronald K., Colchester
Hull, George W., Bristol
Sage, Hollister, Waterbury
DELAWARE
Rumford, Dr., Wilmington
Reed, E. B. & J. M., Frederica
Tisdale, J. B., Magnolia
Ellis, G. L., Millsboro
Marks, Walter L., Smyrna
Matthews, W. C, Room 563, duPont Bldg., Wilmington
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Burkholder, 1820 M Street N. W., Washington
Fales, Dr. W. D., 78 T Street N. W., Washington
FLORIDA
Cuzner, A. T., Gilmore
GEORGIA
Fows, J. William, Adjutant Professor of Horticultural, State College
of Agriculture, Athens
Hardman, Dr. L. G., Commerce
IDAHO
Gehman, S. A., Boise
Coventry, Neil S., Box 95, Coeur d'Alene
Temple, C. E., Agricultural Experimental Station, Moscow
Cattermole, Dr. P. F., Lewiston
DeHaven, James, Probate Judge, Grangeville
Reed, P. O. Box 587, Weiser
Konrad, Henry, P. O. Box 136, Boise
ILLINOIS
Burg, F. W., Dallas City
King, Thomas H., 113 North Hazel Street, Danville
Krause, John O., 1341 Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago
McCready, James, 1533 Portland Avenue, Chicago Heights
Ricks, R. L., Staunton
Roth, C. L., R. F. D. 3, Chenoa
Newell, Jesse W., Country Life Club, Drawer 418, Girard
Knapp, William, 854 No. Paulina Street, Chicago
Hoffman, Frank H., 712 Federal Street, Chicago
Voight, H. R., Bonfield
Wells, Oscar, Farina
Bunker, Gerald L., 408 So. Spring Avenue, La Grange
Ernest, Otto M., 4238 Randolph Street, Chicago
Reeves, C. H., Jr., 6453 Iowa Street, Oak Park
Dupont, 2911 W. 39th Street, Chicago
Fletcher, Joe, Zion City
Lunak, Dr. Karel, 1662 Blue Island Avenue, Chicago
Miller, C. Lester, Monmouth
Yost, Z. F., 109-1/2 W. Madison Street, Pontiac
Poll, Carl J., 1009 Maple Street, Danville
Warren, Ezra T., R. F. D. I, Atlanta
Holmes, T. H., 2816 Logan Bldg., Chicago
INDIANA
Payatte, Charles, Columbus
Pershing, Henry A., South Bend
Fife, Earl H., Franklin
Fisher, J. T., Franklin
Stevens, S., New Ross
Officer, William, Madison
Sage, Thomas V., Greencastle
Bone, Mrs. C. W., 140 No. Grant Street, W. Lafayette
Mathers, Frank C, Indiana University, Bloomington
Comstock, C. H., 1605 Talbott Avenue, Indianapolis
(Interior Hardwood Co.)
McNamee, H. H., Honeywell Heating Specialty Co., Wabash
Waltermire, Guy, Whisler Block, Marion
Cherry, William, Jr., Clinton, R. F. D. 3, Box 3, Clinton
Shilts, J. H., Columbia City
McGregor, D. R., Marion
Summers, W. R., Georgetown
IOWA
Wilhelm, Roy E., Osage
Haas, Alfred L., Suite 306, Utica Bldg., Des Moines
Garrett, Charles O., Willow Hill Farm, R. F. D. 1, Mitchellville
Rose, Morton L., Box 633, Colfax
Stoddard, Dr. Charles, Boone
KENTUCKY
Ragland, Colby B., Frankford
Pyrne, P. P., 530 Center Street, Henderson
Aspinwall, F. E., Cedar Springs Farm, La Grange
MAINE
Wentworth, Herbert, Skowhegan
Paine, G. S., Winslow
MARYLAND
Onion, J. L., Sharon
Beall, Olin, P. O. Box 19, Frostburg
Landwehr, F. W., Gambrills
Strickland, C. W., Berlin
Myer, E. H., Keedysville
Wooden, Ernest E., 1029 Calvert Bldg., Baltimore
Cox, Mrs. Annie D., Glen Morris
Lankford, Mrs. Ida M., Princess Anne
Bowman, W. E., Snow Hill
Hudson, P. O., Harold
Franklin Davis Nurseries, Baltimore
Evans, H. Cecil, 126 W. 25th Street, Baltimore
Kerr, Dr. Eugene, Monkton
MASSACHUSETTS
Chase, J. S., Maiden
Pressey, C. Park, 8 Beacon Street, Boston
Bridges, Herbert C., Box 246, North Cohasset
Marlborough, James, Topsfield, care of T. E. Proctor Estate
Stevens, Abel T., Wellesley
Smith, Fred A., Director Independent Agricultural School, Hathorne
Wallis, Fred H., 27 Conant Street, Beverly
Schultz, Mrs. Fritz, 335 Cornell Street, Roslindale
Knight, C. F., Rowley
Jenks, Albert R., Hampden County Improvement League, Springfield
Thrasher, Miss Mertia P., Sharon
Crowell, Elkanah, Hyannis
Mason, H. R., Falmouth
Kimball, G. N., 10 Whitlowe Road, West Newton
Graves, Louise B., 8 Chestnut Street, Boston
Jones, Dr. L. A., Falmouth
Bingham, Dr. Russell, Fitchburg
Robbins, A. N., Puritan Fruit Co., 13 Faneuil Hall, Boston
MICHIGAN
Carter, Bert, Middleville
Rhodes, W. E., Maple Street, Albion
Wiegand, Frank J., 970 E. Canfield Avenue, Detroit
Foote, Mrs. W. K., Milford
Miller, Orville I., Augusta
Veith, Alfred C, 56 Haynes Avenue, Detroit
MINNESOTA
Savage, L. H., Red Wing
Guinotte, 653 Lincoln Avenue, St. Paul
Ramer, W. A., 1542 Hillside Avenue, No. Minneapolis
MISSOURI
Cloden, Charles J., Kansas City
James, William H., Lock Box 174, Mountain Grove
Van Realte, C., General Delivery, Sedalia
Black, J. W., Silica
Kirkpatrick, J. H., Richmond
McKinney, J. F., Bolivar
Herter, O. F., 2757 Russell Avenue, St. Louis
Rust, R. S., Hardin
McCrary, Byron B., El Dorado Springs
Stevenson, Marion, 2710 Pine Street, St. Louis
Bennington, W. M., 118 Wabash Avenue, Kansas City
NEBRASKA
Bessey, Charles E., Department of Botany, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Kerr, Leslie, 830 S. 21st Street, Omaha
Stewart, L. L. E., Brown Block, Omaha
Bicknell, Miss Lula, Randolph
NEVADA
Van Derwerker, Jerome L., Washoe County, Bank Bldg., Reno
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Colby, Forest, Enfield
NEW JERSEY
Hervey, Orlanda, Verona
Hale, H. E., Preston
Clark, Herbert H., Crystal Lake
Morris, B. L., 179 Orving Avenue, Bridgeton
Anderson, S., 612 Mt. Prospect Avenue, Newark
Hampton, George, Bridgeton
Pettengill, George T., 25 Essex Avenue, Orange
Stevens, C. W., Jr., 13 Kirkpatrick Street, New Brunswick
Goodwin, A. T., Greenwick, Cumberland County
Brarens, J. E., Martinsville
Sked, N. S., Pennington
NEW YORK
Mulligan, F. I. L., Earlville
Pickering Brothers, Fairport
Warren, G. W., Ilion Hospital, Ilion
Baker, A. A., Hoosick Falls
Towner, A. B., Fillmore
Kinney, H. C, McGraw
Benton, F. M., Northville
Nichols, S. S., Brockport
Bailey, A. L., The Birkett Mills, Penn Yan
Robbins, Mrs. Howard C, 209 Madison Avenue, New York City
Wells, Mrs. J. Harrae, 105 Sound Avenue, Riverhead, L. I.
Whitmore, B. F., 520 Park Avenue, Rochester
Moore, William C. & Co., Newark
Seeley, Col. Charles, Suite 618, 1472 Broadway, New York City
Siddons, H. E., 214 Glenwood Avenue, Rochester
Sleight, David B., Arlington
Klamroth, Wilfred, 11-1/2 W. 37th Street, New York City
Bear, C. E., P. O. Box 192, Madison Square Station, New York City
Champlin, C. A., Hammondsport
Bingle, C. W., 214 Marion Street, Brooklyn
Fiske, Haley, 1 Madison Avenue, New York City
King, John H., P. O. Box 18, Middletown
Curtis, H. D., Manlius
Ireland, J. J., Clarkson
Tack, E. C, Newark
Hyde, Fred W., 201 Main Street, Jamestown
NORTH CAROLINA.
Williamson, I. W., Carthage
Boyce, John P., Morven
Morrison, G. W., Taylorsville
Hanes, F. Francis, Greensboro
Howard, P. Joe, Pomona
Breece, J. S., R. F. D. 6, Fayetteville
Hollingsworth, W. F., Glade Valley, North Carolina School
Harbeck, Dr. E. V., Weaverville
McCleod, John A., Carthage
Pearson, P. M., Charlotte
OHIO
Wilson, W. H., North Oak Street, Marion
Day, William H., Hedge Hill Farm, North Lima
Smith, Fred, Lima
Bancroft, Allen, Garrettsville
Smith, Albert M., Flushing
Cox, U. T., Proctorville
Leonard, Levi, Middletown
Kelch, L. R., Nelsonville
Witte, O. M., Amherst
Sowers, W. L., Cuyahoga Falls
Kircher, Fred, 221 So. McDonough Street, Dayton
Cruickshank, R. B., State University, Columbus
Mann, George, New Burlington, Clinton County
McEndree, A. A., Superintendent Public Schools, Canal Winchester
Frye, R. W., Farmdale
Paulin, W. H., Poland
Meyers, A. E., 14 No. Forge Street, Akron
Carson, R. B., Fruit Cliff Farm, Middleport
Woodmansee, Dr. R. D., 51 E. State Street, Columbus
Blackford, L., Akron, R. F. D. 25, Akron
Hill, George F., R. F. D. 5, Columbus
Compton, William V., Loveland
Denny, Mark E., Middletown
Cromer, F. Gillum, 1314 No. Main Street, Dayton
Stevens, C. E., P. O. Box 60, Cleveland
OKLAHOMA
Howell, Mrs. O. E., Oktaha
OREGON
Lewis, C. I., Chief Division of Horticulture, Agricultural
College and Experiment Station, Corvallis
Prince, Thomas, Dundee
Bond, T. J.
PENNSYLVANIA
Falkenstein, G. N., Elizabethtown
Sellier, W. H., Pequea, Lancaster County
Williams, J. S., Smithton
Herr, Martin, Lancaster
Smith, L. M., Carbondale
Deisher, H. K., Kutztown
Lutes, C. C., Noxen
Scott & Hill, Erie
Gray, Will H., R. F. D. 3, Amity
McBurney, Canonsburg, Pa.
Kocher, Dr. J. F., Walberts
Homer, 6-1/2 South Street, Warren
Spangenberg, Edward, 337 W. 11th Street, Erie
Degelman, William C, 435 Sixth Avenue, Pittsburgh
Scarborough, Henry W., 522 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
Heim, H. G., 508 Pine Street, Williamsport
Zeller, Edwin J. P., 1228 Buttonwood Street, Philadelphia
Burket, Mrs. John W., Tyrone, R. F. D., Blair County
Kleffman, F. T., 1114 Twelfth Street, Altoona
Brinton, William, Glen Rose, Chester County
Johnston, John H., New Wilmington
Dollison, H. C, 210 Spring Street, Meadville
Corbett, S. W., Department International Revenue, Pittsburgh, Box 51
Kraft, H., 758 E. 10th Street, Erie
Treat, Frederick H., Jr., Wayne
Hazel, Boyd E., Madisonburg
Ballou, C. F., Halifax
Barnes, R. G., 1312 Cherry Street, Philadelphia
Lawson, J. H., Kittanning
Smith, Adam, Columbia, Lancaster County, R. F. D. 1
RHODE ISLAND
Warren, R. W., 69 Glenham Street, Providence
SOUTH CAROLINA
Wiggin, J. B., Holly Hill
TENNESSEE
Walker, Robert S., Chattanooga
Miller, I. F., Morristown
Millard, Sam T., Johnson City
Rodcheaver, C. A., Newport
Smith, A. I., Knoxville
Rose, C. E., Nashville
Glasgow, C. M., Gleason
Davis, R. A., Springfield
UTAH
Mabee, C. R., Chief Chemist, Ogden Portland Cement Company, Brigham City
VERMONT
Lewis, Mrs. C. A., Grafton
Ingraham, Mrs. J. P., Windsor
Dutton, Ira Jay, Hilltop Farm, Wardsboro
VIRGINIA
Barr, J. W., Norfolk
Flanagan, William H., "Waddington," Elma Grove
Bailey Orchard Company, Fishersville
Weiss, H. W., Emporia
Shands, William, Courtland
Smith, John M., Middleburg
Hood, W. T., Richmond
Bechtel, J. A., R. F. D. 2, Williamsburg
Jones, J. B., Sec'y, The Peanut Growers Assistant of Virginia, Elberon
Caroer, W. N., Cismont
Nourse, H. O., Lyndehurst
Duke, W. R., Charlottesville
Long, A. R., Krise Bldg., Lynchburg
Fletcher, Dr. S. W., Director Agricultural Experiment Station, Blacksburg
Clevenger, C. C., Stephenson
Purdy, Mrs. R. S., 218 Willard Avenue, Phoebus
Meschendorf, H. H., Piedmont Villa, Forest Depot
Laing, Sam L., Shores
WASHINGTON
Kiesling, F. W., 409 Waverly Place, Spokane
Quarnberg, A. A., District Horticultural Inspector, Vancouver
Reynolds, F. Eliot, Irondale
Beebe, Charles S., Jr., Beebe
Corkery, Dr. John R., Co. Health Officer, 215 Hutton Bldg., Spokane
Bailey, Dr. Edward, Mansfield, Douglas County
Coupe, Mrs. Nora D., Coupeville
WEST VIRGINIA
Smoot, John Thurman, Smoot
Stricklin, L., Cameron
Dennison, William, Bristol
Bacon, Nathaniel, Talcott
Gary, J. R., Cairo
WISCONSIN
Richter, W. A., R. F. D. 9, Box 99, N. Milwaukee
Shipman, Dr. K. W., 402 Jackman Block, Janesville
AUTHORITIES AND SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS
The following list is made up of the names of authorities or
correspondents whose special knowledge of local conditions enables them
to give information or advice of special value. With some of them
arrangements have been made to take charge of inquiries and other local
nut matters. Some of them are connected with state or government
experiment or educational institutions and will answer any inquiries.
The United States Department of Agriculture at Washington, D. C., will
always respond to requests for information, referring them to the best
authority available, many of whom are to be found in the various
bureaus.
The secretary of this Association is always glad to do his best when no
better authority is to be found. He intends in the future to refer many
inquiries to those who have a better knowledge of local conditions.
ALABAMA
Theodore Bechtel, Ocean Springs, Mississippi
ARIZONA
Leon D. Batchelor, Horticulturist State Agricultural College, Logan, Utah
C. R. Biederman, Garces, Cochise County
Robert A. Rogers, Forest Service, United States Department of
Agriculture, Canille
ARKANSAS
S. H. James, Mound, Louisiana
J. F. Jones, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
CALIFORNIA
Ralph E. Smith, Superintendent of Experiment Station, Berkeley
George C. Payne, Campbell
Frank Leib, San José
Dr. W. W. Fitzgerald, Stockton
Harry P. Stabler, Yuba City
C. W. Beers, Santa Barbara
J. B. Neff, Anaheim
CANADA
Enquire of the Secretary of the Northern Nut Growers Association,
Georgetown, Connecticut
COLORADO
Leon D. Batchelor, Horticulturist State Agricultural College, Logan,
Utah. For west of the Rocky Mountains.
CONNECTICUT
Dr. Robert T. Morris, Stamford
Dr. W. C. Deming, Secretary Northern Nut Growers Association, Georgetown
DELAWARE
J. W. Killen, Felton
C. A. McCue, Professor of Horticulture, Newark
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
FLORIDA
H. Harold Hume, Glen Saint Mary
W. W. Carroll, Monticello
GEORGIA
Col. C. A. Van Duzee, President National Nut Growers Association, Cairo
J. B. Wight, Secretary National Nut Growers Association, Cairo
J. W. Firor, Assistant Professor of Horticulture, Athens
H. W. Smithwick, Americus
IDAHO
C. C. Vincent,. Professor of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Moscow
Leon D. Batchelor, Horticulturist, State Agricultural College, Logan,
Utah. for southern part of Idaho.
ILLINOIS
E. A. Riehl. Alton
Norman W. Casper, New Burnside
INDIANA
T. P. Littlepage, President Northern Nut Growers Association, Boonville
C. G. Woodbury, Chief in Horticulture, Purdue University, Lafayette
W. C. Reed, Vincennes
Mason J. Niblack, Vincennes
R. L. McCoy, Lake
IOWA
Dr. A. B. Dennis, Cedar Rapids
KANSAS
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
KENTUCKY
C. W. Matthews, Horticulturist, State Agricultural Experiment
Station, Lexington
LOUISIANA
H. E. Van Deman, Ferriday
S. H. James, Mound
J. F. Jones, Lancaster, Pa.
MAINE
D. H. Knowlton, Farmington
MARYLAND
F. S. Holmes, M. S., Agricultural Experiment Station, College Park
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
MASSACHUSETTS
Secretary Northern Nut Growers Association, Georgetown, Ct.
MICHIGAN
F. A. Wilken, Associate Editor Michigan Farmer, Detroit
MINNESOTA
Col. C. A. Van Duzee, President National Nut Growers Association,
Commercial Club, St. Paul
A. W. Latham, Secretary State Horticultural Society, 207 Kasota
Building, Minneapolis
MISSISSIPPI
Charles E. Pabst, Ocean Springs
Theodore Bechtel, Ocean Springs
MISSOURI
W. L. Howard, Assistant Horticulturist, Columbia
MONTANA
M. L. Dean, Horticulturist, Missoula
NEBRASKA
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
NEVADA
Leon D. Batchelor, Horticulturist State Agricultural College, Logan, Utah
NEW HAMPSHIRE
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
NEW JERSEY
J. T. Lovett, Little Silver
NEW MEXICO
Leon D. Batchelor, Horticulturist State Agricultural College, Logan, Utah
NEW YORK
Robert T. Morris, 616 Madison Ave. New York City
For Long Island
Henry Hicks, Westbury Station
H. B. Fullerton, Director Long Island Railroad Agricultural Station,
Medford
NORTH CAROLINA
W. N. Hutt, State Horticulturist, Raleigh
NORTH DAKOTA
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
OHIO
See Indiana
OKLAHOMA
N. O. Booth, Horticulturist, Stillwell
OREGON
C. I. Lewis, Agricultural College Experiment Station, Corvallis
V. R. Gardner, Associate Professor of Horticulture, Corvallis
J. C. Cooper, Chief Yamhill Walnut Experiment Station, McMinnville
PENNSYLVANIA
J. G. Rush, West Willow
J. F. Jones, Lancaster
F. N. Fagan, Department of Horticulture, State College
RHODE ISLAND
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
SOUTH CAROLINA
W. N. Hutt, State Horticulturist, Raleigh, North Carolina
SOUTH DAKOTA
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
TENNESSEE
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
TEXAS
A. Caswell Ellis, State University, Austin
E. J. Kyle, Professor of Horticulture, College Station
Charles L. Edwards, Dallas, Station A
F. T. Ramsey, Austin
E. W. Kirkpatrick, McKinney
R. E. Blair, United States Experiment Farm, San Antonio
J. W. Canada, Houston
UTAH
Leon D. Batchelor, Horticulturist State Agricultural College, Logan
VERMONT
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
VIRGINIA
W. N. Roper, Petersburg
J. Russell Smith, Roundhill
WASHINGTON
A. A. Quarnberg, District Horticultural Inspector, Vancouver
WEST VIRGINIA
E. D. Sanderson, Director State Experiment Station, Morgantown
WISCONSIN
James G. Moore, Horticulturist, Madison
WYOMING
United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
THE CHESTNUT BLIGHT AND IMMUNE HYBRIDS.
To persons who are interested in growing chestnuts, the following papers
are of importance. They are published in the _Journal of Heredity_ for
January, 1914, Paul B. Popenoe, Editor, 511 Eleventh St., N. W.,
Washington, D. C.
"The Chestnut Bark Disease," by Haven Metcalf, United States Department
of Agriculture.
"Chestnut Breeding Experience," by Walter Van Fleet, United States
Department of Agriculture.
"Chestnut Blight Resistance," by Dr. Robert T. Morris, New York City.
The following important publications are not listed in Circular No. 3:
Walnut Culture in California. Walnut Blight. Bulletin 231, Agricultural
Experiment Station Berkeley, California, August, 1912.
The Persian Walnut Industry in the United States. By E. R. Lake.
Bulletin 254, Bureau Plant Industry United States Department of
Agriculture, February, 1913.
Bulletin No. 1. Yamhill Walnut Experiment Station, McMinnville, Oregon,
January 2, 1914.
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| |
| DISTRIBUTORS OF OVER |
| SEVENTY PER CENT. OF |
| CALIFORNIA'S ANNUAL |
| ALMOND PRODUCTION |
| |
| ALMONDS ON SALE AT |
| ALL OF THE BEST NUT |
| AND FRUIT STANDS |
| THROUGHOUT THE |
| UNITED STATES |
| |
| |
| MAIN OFFICE |
| |
| SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA |
|__________________________|
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| J. G. RUSH |
| Propagator of |
| The Persian Walnut |
| |
| By Grafting and Budding; on Black Walnut Stock such Varieties as the |
| NEBO, HALL, HOLDEN, LANCASTER, FRANQUETTE, MAYETTE, CUT LEAF, Etc. |
| |
| Originator of "RUSH" PERSIAN WALNUT |
| |
| WEST WILLOW, PA. (Lancaster County) |
|______________________________________________________________________|
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| VINCENNES NURSERIES |
| |
| W. C. REED, Prop. VINCENNES, IND. |
| |
| Propagator of Hardy Northern Budded Pecan Trees. Persian |
| or English Walnuts Budded on Native Black Walnut Stocks. |
| |
| Also Budded or Grafted Chestnuts. |
| |
| If Interested, ask for Nut Catalogue. |
|______________________________________________________________________|
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| TREES FOR SUMMER SHADE |
| |
| EVERGREENS that add a tone of warmth and verdure, and impart a |
| charm to landscape,--HARDY FLOWERING SHRUBS that add beautiful |
| bits of color to the garden work,--NUT TREES in variety,--CALIFORNIA |
| PRIVET, the ideal hedge plant, are some of my specialties, and |
| GROWN IN NEW JERSEY under soil and climate advantages, are ready |
| to start growth again anywhere as soon as planted. |
| |
| Beautiful Illustrated catalogue, mailed free. |
| |
| T. E. STEELE, Pomona Nurseries, Palmyra. N. J. |
|______________________________________________________________________|
______________________________________________________________________
| |
| Established 1850 1,200 Acres |
| |
| TREES We are wholesale growers of First-class Nursery Stock of all |
| kinds--Fruit, Shade, Ornamental Trees, Shrubbery, Hedges, Small |
| Fruits, etc. Asparagus, Strawberries and California Privet in large |
| quantities. The BEST is the CHEAPEST. Ours is the CHEAPEST because |
| it is the BEST. Handling dealers' orders a specialty. |
| Catalogue Free. |
| |
| FRANKLIN-DAVIS NURSERY COMPANY |
| BALTIMORE MARYLAND |
|______________________________________________________________________|
SEND FOR
THIS BOOK
______________________ IT'S
| | FREE!
| |
| THE FARMERS' |____________________
| HANDBOOK | |
| HOW TO USE | |
| * RED CROSS * | |
| DYNAMITE | YOUR ADDRESS |
| | ON A POSTAL |
| | GETS IT |
| | |
| [Illustration] | WRITE TODAY |
| | |
|______________________| ASK FOR |
| FARMERS' |
| HANDBOOK |
| 18-F |
| |
| THIS book tells how to use RED CROSS |
| DYNAMITE for TREE PLANTING, STUMPING, |
| BOULDER BLASTING, DITCHING, SUB-SOILING |
| and other farm work which can be done |
| easier, cheaper and quicker than by |
| other ways |
| |
| PROFESSIONAL BLASTERS AVAILABLE IN NEARLY |
| EVERY LOCALITY WE CAN RECOMMEND TO THOSE |
| NOT CARING TO DO THE BLASTING. COMPETENT |
| PROFESSIONAL BLASTERS. Address on request |
| |
| Do not plant Trees in Spaded Holes,--set |
| them in soil dynamited with RED CROSS |
| DYNAMITE. Get the FARMERS' HANDBOOK. Read |
| it and learn how |
| |
| |
| DU PONT POWDER COMPANY |
| |
| WILMINGTON, DEL. |
|___________________________________________|
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Fourth Annual Meeting - Washington D.C. November 18 and 19, 1913" ***
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