Part 9
Mr. Reed, I was saying that Mr. Bixby's collection of nut trees had been sold to the Government and that it was through your help that this sale was made. Now I'd like to ask you if there is any information that you could properly release to the meeting about the sale of those trees. I am sure everyone of us would be interested to know where they are going.
MR. REED:
The trees have been bought by the Interior Department with funds placed at their disposal for the purpose of planting trees for the national forests. Their attitude has been rather liberal in this case. They have felt that if they could get trees planted, regardless of whether they were planted on Interior Department land or not, it would be justified expense. When the matter was laid before them, they at once thought of the arboretum which is now being developed within the District of Columbia. The final purchase was made largely in order that the arboretum might be able to start off with the Bixby collection as a nucleus. A complete list of all varieties that are in the collection will go there. Another part of the purchase comes to the branch of the Agricultural Department which I represent, and practically all of the varieties in the Bixby collection which are not now in the plant at Beltsville will be sent there.
It was the original plan of the Interior Department that all of the trees which neither the arboretum nor the branch of the department which I represent needed, should go to the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and it was with that understanding that the deal was closed. After the deal was closed and a notice was sent to the authorities in charge at the park that a certain number of seedlings of different species and a certain number of grafted trees would be delivered there sometime this fall, the Shenandoah authorities took the strange attitude that they couldn't use grafted trees. In other words, they preferred mongrels to thoroughbreds. We chuckled in our sleeves. But nevertheless they threw back upon us several grafted trees to find some place for. We immediately took it up with the Forest Service. They have land in North Carolina where all of the trees can be planted fifty feet apart, not cultivated, but nursed and cared for, and available for study by our own department and the state of North Carolina and any individuals.
I have omitted mentioning that there are certain limitations on the ability of the Interior officials to buy trees for Interior Department planting. It is a definite policy of the Interior Department that in all national parks they plant only American species. That automatically eliminated many trees of the Bixby collection. But the arboretum wanted a good many of those trees and so did we.
There are still in the Bixby collection several fine Persian walnut trees. We haven't been able to trace their source, but it is my impression that they are of Chinese origin.
DR. DEMING:
He had a row of Pomeroy trees.
PROF. SLATE:
He also had some trees from Chinese seed, because he sent some of them to Geneva.
MR. REED:
We have the Bixby correspondence. By the terms of the purchase Mrs. Bixby was to deliver to the Interior Department all of Mr. Bixby's records pertaining to those trees, and as far as she has been able to get things together they have been turned over to me.
DR. DEMING:
In addition to our annual reports I want to say a word about the reports of the National Pecan Growers' Association. Twenty-five years ago I took out a life membership in that association for $10.00, and I have been getting annual reports ever since. While they relate almost exclusively to the southern pecan they have also many scientific articles on the development of twigs, blossoms and fruit, on pruning and grafting and on fertilizing and cultivating, which are of importance to all nut growers.
I think perhaps I won't go into the subject which has been talked of so much today, the severe winter and summer we have had. But J. G. Rush in our third annual report has a paper which is entitled, "The Persian Walnut, Its Disaster, Etc.," which describes events twenty-two years ago very similar to those that have taken place in the last winter.
Nut Growing in Vermont
_By_ ZENAS H. ELLIS, _Fair Haven_
In all my life of over seventy years I have never seen a time like the present. We have passed through the coldest winter and the dryest summer ever known.
I raise on my place in old Vermont every kind of tree that will grow there, and try many that will not, or only with more or less protection. I have apples, pears, plums, cherries, peaches and figs, with berries of all kinds. I have nut trees of many different varieties, hickories, black and English walnuts, filberts, hazel-filberts, pecans, almonds and butternuts.
Which have stood the cold and drought the best? Strange as it may seem, my nut trees have stood the extreme temperatures the best. My hardiest apples like the Wealthy, Yellow Transparent, Wolf River, and Pewaukee have gone down to their death, or so near thereto that I never expect to see any fruit from them again. Whereas, on the other hand, my hickories, black walnuts, butternuts and hazel-filberts have not even lost a leaf. Wonderful to relate and almost unbelievable my large pecan tree, over forty feet in height, and a foot in diameter, is as hale and hearty as ever.
August 15th last I picked and cracked some of my improved butternuts and hazel-filberts, and found the kernels large, full grown and normal in every way. Whereas I have not an apple or pear fit to eat, no, not even a berry either.
I set out my butternut years ago in the position of honor in front of my house, and it has merited it ever since. The kernels came out in halves and often times whole. I have given away many of the nuts for planting, even as far away as Kew Gardens, England. Money could not buy the parent tree. I would not exchange it for the best cattle ranch in Colorado, the best wheat farm in Kansas, or the best cotton plantation in both the Carolinas. It is self-sustaining, does not require any subsidy from Uncle Sam, or any twenty-five thousand dollars a year official to regulate it. It is better than any dollar nowadays, always worth 100 per cent in gold instead of 61 cents, as is our government kind. The reason is, God rules it, instead of a mere man with any combination of the alphabet you can make.
It is the same with my improved hazel-filberts which grow tall and rank and bend down to the ground with their branches heavily laden with large, well-filled nuts.
My Thomas black walnuts are doing well, as also my Sier's hybrid hickories; both are perfectly hardy but not bearing this year as it is the off year for them. The butternut and hazel-filberts have never an off year but, like the "brook," go on forever. My English walnuts with some protection passed the winter in perfect safety. But the almonds, though protected as well, fared very poorly, showing that they are not near so hardy as the former.
The other kinds of nut trees that I have mentioned, even to the pecan, withstood the rigors of the winter with no protection whatever.
My true filberts fared rather poorly but are coming up lustily from below the snow line and will, I think, be as good as ever if the past winter does not repeat itself.
What does this all mean? It means that we should plant more nut trees instead of so many fruit trees, especially the apple, which has proven more liable to cold injury than even the pear, if we would have any of the delectable valuable products of the tree kind. Why, just think of it, a few nut trees planted around every home in the country would do more to relieve the present depression than all the other agencies and remedies put together. Frost does not impair their fruit. Nuts will keep through the year or longer. Insects do not injure them as they do the soft, unprotected fruits. Squirrels may take their toll but they are far easier to destroy than a bug. To hunt them is grand sport for young people, whereas to chase a bug is no fun at all.
The workman, the professional man, the merchant, should especially raise them as they would take no time from their business. Their children would think it no work at all to gather them, that is if they were like the children of my youth who looked forward to gathering nuts as one of the pleasantest pastimes of the year.
If all our city parks, public squares, playgrounds, roadsides, waste places and other like areas were planted with them, all children even to the poorest could have a sufficiency of the healthiest food that would build up their bodies into strong healthy adults who could go out into the country and build it up again as it was years ago, instead of the vast, desolate region it is now.
What makes children so puny and so unwilling to do any real work today? It is because emigration from nut-eating countries being shut off, and our native nut trees cut down or uncared for, there is nothing to keep up the supply of the best food for the body today. The remedy is to raise more nuts so the children and adults as well can again be fed on the most valuable, healthy and strength-giving food God ever made.
Then, too, crime would be greatly reduced, especially of the juvenile kind. The spare time of our youth would be taken up for about three months in a year with a clean, pure, pleasant, agreeable occupation instead of searching for mischief and quasi-vicious adventures. Have no juvenile crime and the adult crime is reduced to a minimum, or obliterated entirely.
God started man on a nut eating diet and kept him thereon for centuries. As long as he stuck to it he was all right. We do not hear much about that era, for happy is the nation that has no history. Then he had no diseases to speak of except extreme old age, no wars and hardly any troubles. But when, in the Garden of Eden, the Devil tempted him to switch off onto some other diet, he has been wrong ever since. So then, let us return to our old diet as far as possible and have something of an Eden again about us today.
Perhaps you people of Michigan would like to know what my town of Fair Haven is. It gave you James Witherell who, while congressman from Vermont, resigned to accept the supreme judgeship of the great territory of Michigan. In the war of 1812 he had command of the troops thereof and, when ordered by the cowardly General Hull to surrender them to the British, absolutely refused. After that war he laid out anew the war stricken city of Detroit.
His grandson, Thomas Witherell Palmer, the son of a native born Fair Haven girl, became your United States Senator, Minister to Spain and, in 1893, President of the World Fair commission at Chicago. He gave to Detroit that large and beautiful park named after him.
So you see Henry Ford is not the whole architect of that great city, as good Vermont blood had to relay its foundations and get it well under way for that great auto magnate to make it the fourth city in the Union.
A Roll Call of the Nuts
_By_ DR. W. C. DEMING
_Connecticut_
In the report of the proceedings at the eighth annual meeting of this association, held at Stamford, Conn., September 5 and 6, 1917, is an address by the Vice President, Prof. W. N. Hutt of North Carolina, entitled "Reasons for Our Limited Knowledge as to What Varieties of Nut Trees to Plant." I quote from that address:
"In 1847 the American Pomological Society was formed as a national clearing house of horticultural ideas. The first work the society undertook was to determine the varieties of the different classes of fruits suitable for planting in different sections of the country. Patrick Barry of Rochester, one of the pioneers of American horticulture, was for years the chairman of the committee on varietal adaptation and did an immense amount of work on that line. At the meetings of the society he went alphabetically over the variety lists of fruits and called for reports on each one from growers all over the country. This practice was kept up for years and the resulting data were collected and compiled in the society's reports. A similar systematic roll call of classes and varieties of nuts grown by the members of this association would be of immense value to intending planters of nut trees. In northern nut growing, however, it may be questioned if we have yet arrived at the Patrick Barry stage."
These were the words of Prof. Hutt in 1917, seventeen years ago. I believe that nut growing has now arrived at the Patrick Barry stage. It seems right, therefore, that we should begin to have an annual roll call of the nuts. To this end I have prepared a list of nuts of the different genera, species and varieties grown in the northeastern United States. This list is long but by no means complete and this, by the nature of things, it can never be. It is evident that there will not be time enough to go over more than a small part of this list. It is, therefore, proposed to have the list mimeographed and sent to all members for their reports. Members are asked particularly to add to the list the names and performances of any varieties not listed of which they may have knowledge. In this way we shall soon be able to make our lists as nearly complete as possible.
In order to reduce bulk and expense it will be necessary to print the names in compact form. It is suggested that the lists be kept for reference and that any report be made on a separate sheet under the proper heading. I will go as far in it now as you want me to. As I call the names of the nuts on this list I will ask the members present to report, as briefly as possible, any knowledge they may have as to the performance of each nut, such as the earliness of its fruiting, size and regularity of crops, growth and vigor of tree and character of nuts.
HICKORIES
THE ANTHONY:
See Mr. Reed's paper in this report.
THE BARNES (Shag. x Mock.):
Dr. MacDaniels: There are some at Itaca which bear.
Dr. Deming: This is undoubtedly a Shagbark--mockernut hybrid. It is entirely at home when grafted on the mockernut. This makes it of value for there are few of our named hickories that will do well when grafted on the mockernut. In 1933 I top-worked a mockernut with ten grafts of the Barnes. In 1934 it bore 30 fine nuts. It appears to be an excellent nut. There are three other nuts that I know do well on the mockernut. One is the Wampler from Indiana introduced by W. C. Reed. Another is the Minnie raised by Mr. S. W. Snyder. The fourth nut is the Gobble. The Barnes is mentioned in Dr. Zimmerman's report, page 23, 1932 proceedings. Carl Weschcke has it growing at River Falls, Wis.
THE BATES (pecan x Mock.):
Mentioned in Dr. Zimmerman's report, page 23, 1932.
THE BEAM:
See Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report.
THE BEAVER (Shag. x Bitter.):
Dr. Deming: It grows rapidly. The nuts are not of very good quality, like most bitternut hybrids.
The Beaver is growing in the Kellogg plantings at Battle Creek and is mentioned in Dr. Zimmerman's report, page 19, 1932. Carl Weschcke has it growing at River Falls, Wis. E. C. Rice, Absher, Ky., has one one-year graft on bitternut, height 5 feet. J. H. Gage, Hamilton, Ont., has one Beaver tree planted in 1924 and moved in 1925 growing in light sandy soil on north shore at west end Lake Ontario. Diameter of the trunk is about three inches, tree fifteen feet high, bore first time in 1934. It is growing at the Riehl Farm, Godfrey, Ill., and in the Jones Nursery, Lancaster, Pa.
THE BEAM:
Is mentioned in Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report.
THE BILLAU:
Is mentioned in Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report.
THE BONTRAGER (Shag.):
Won third prize in 1929 contest, page 53, 1931. Tree owned by John D. Bontrager, Middlebury, Ind.
THE BROOKS (Shag.):
Is mentioned in Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report. It won ninth prize in 1929 contest, page 53, 1931, to Mrs. John Brooks, Ottumwa, Iowa. Carl Weschcke has it growing at River Falls, Wis.
THE BURLINGTON (Pecan x shell.):
Dr. Deming: The true name of the nut we call Marquardt. The Michigan Nut Nursery have trees bearing.
Miss Jones: A characteristic of all shellbark x pecan hybrids is that they don't fill well.
Mr. Corsan: Are they in exceedingly rich soil or just ordinary? I find that nuts respond to rich soil.
Miss Jones: They are in ordinary soil.
Dr. MacDaniels: We have two trees at Ithaca about ten years old which have borne but the nuts have not filled very well.
Dr. Deming: Is the Burlington worth growing? Does it fill so badly that it is not a success?
Miss Jones: The kernel fills out about three-fourths of the way. It fills better than the McCallister.
Mr. Corsan: I have never seen such a fine nut in my life.
Mr. Wilkinson: It is a good hybrid and a wonderful bearer.
Dr. Deming: Every year?
Mr. Wilkinson: Yes, and matures unusually early.
The Burlington is in the Riehl plantings at Godfrey, Ill. It is mentioned in Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report. Carl Weschcke has young trees growing at River Falls, Wis. Sargeant H. Wellman has some young trees at Topsfield, Mass. F. H. Frey has young tree in yard at Chicago, but it has not borne nuts as yet. Foliage is beautiful, leaves being rather broad but some kind of blight seems to turn them dark and they curl up about middle of the summer.
J. W. Hershey: Of the hybrid hickories the Burlington should be eliminated from the list and a great many others of the hickories should be thrown out as rapidly as possible.
THE BURTON (pecan x shell.):
Mentioned in Dr. Zimmerman's report, page 20, 1932. It is growing in Riehl plantings at Godfrey, Ill., and on Kellogg farm, Michigan.
THE CALDWELL:
It is growing in the Riehl plantings at Godfrey, Ill.
THE CASPER:
Mentioned in Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report. Parent tree in Illinois.
THE CEDAR RAPIDS:
See Mr. Reed's paper in this report, also Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report. It is growing on the Riehl farm at Godfrey, Ill., the Kellogg farm at Battle Creek, Mich., and in the Carl Weschcke plantings at River Falls, Wis.
THE CLARK (shag.):
See Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report and Mr. Reed's in 1931 report.
This hickory is growing on the Carl Weschcke place at River Falls, Wis., and in Sargeant H. Wellman's nut orchard at Topsfield, Mass.
THE COMINS:
See Mr. Reed's paper in this report.
THE COOK (shag.):
See Mr. Reed's paper in 1931 report.
THE CREAGER:
See Mr. Reed's paper in this report. This hickory is growing in the Kellogg farm plantings at Battle Creek, Mich.
THE DENNIS (shag.):
See Mr. Reed's paper in this report and Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report. This hickory is growing in the Kellogg plantings at Battle Creek, Mich., and in Carl Weschcke nut orchard at River Falls, Wis. W. R. Fickes, Wooster, Ohio, reports the Dennis promises to be a heavy, early bearer of fairly good quality.
THE DES MOINES (pecan x shell.):
Mentioned in Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report and by Dr. Zimmerman, page 20, 1932. Is growing in the Riehl and Kellogg farms plantings.
THE DREW (shag.):
See Mr. Reed's paper in this report and his paper in 1931 report.
THE EDABURN:
Mentioned by Mr. Bixby in his paper in 1926 report. Carl Weschcke has it growing in his orchard at River Falls, Wis.
THE EMERICK:
See Mr. Reed's paper in this report.
THE EUREKA (shell.):
See Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report.
THE EVERSMAN (shell.):
See Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report.
THE FAIRBANKS (shag. x bitter.):
Mr. Corsan: I had eleven nuts on my tree last year. They are very small trees.
Dr. Neilson: A Fairbanks grafted on a pignut in the spring of 1931 at the Kellogg estate has quite a few nuts on it this season.
Miss Jones: They bear well and regularly.
Dr. Deming: Yes, they do at my place, too.
Mr. Corsan: What kind of a flavor has it?
Dr. Deming: It is bitter when you keep it but not when fresh.
Mr. Snyder: Don't judge them by one nut. They get better as you eat them. The more you eat the better you like them.
Miss Jones: People that try them at our place don't notice much difference between those hybrids and the shellbarks. I give them to people any time during the winter, and they don't notice the difference.
Mr. Reed: Mr. Bixby said at one of the conventions that the Fairbanks was a good grower, easy to propagate, bore well, not so good as to size, thin shelled and had all the desirable characteristics of a good nut except that it wasn't good to eat.
See Mr. Reed's paper in this report and Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report. The Fairbanks is mentioned in Dr. Zimmerman's report, page 19, 1932. It is growing in the Riehl orchard at Godfrey, Ill., the Kellogg plantings at Battle Creek, Mich., in the Carl Weschcke orchard at River Falls, Wis., and in the E. C. Rice plantings at Absher, Ky. Sargeant H. Wellman has some young Fairbanks trees at Topsfield, Mass. Mr. W. R. Fickes reports it is a very poor quality hickory at Wooster, Ohio, but may be valuable for double working.
THE FLUHR (shag. x shell.):
Awarded seventh prize in 1929 contest, page 53, 1931 report, to Edgar Fluhr, Kiel, Wis.
THE FREEL (shag.):
Entered in 1929 contest by Mrs. E. W. Freel, Pleasantville, Iowa.
THE FROMAN (shag.):
Awarded ninth prize in 1929 contest to Arlie W. Froman, Bacon, Ind.
THE GALLOWAY:
H. R. Weber: I notice the Galloway is not listed among the hickory hybrids. The parent tree is growing in Hamilton County, Ohio, and, is supposed to be a pecan x bitternut hybrid.
THE GERARDI (pecan x shell.):
A Member: It is like the Nussbaumer.
This hybrid is mentioned in Dr. Zimmerman's report, page 20, 1932. Also see description by Joseph Gerardi, page 45, 1932 report. It is growing in the Riehl plantings at Godfrey, Ill., and the Kellogg plantings at Battle Creek, Mich.
THE GISSEL:
It is growing in the Riehl plantings at Godfrey, Ill., and in orchard of Carl Weschcke at River Falls, Wis.
THE GLOVER (shag.):
It is mentioned in Mr. Bixby's paper in 1926 report and Mr. Reed's paper in 1931 report. It is growing in the Kellogg plantings at Battle Creek, Mich., the Carl Weschcke orchard at River Falls, Wis., and the Sargeant H. Wellman orchard at Topsfield, Mass. E. C. Rice, Absher, Ky., has two-year grafts on shellbark and bitternut stocks. It seems to do better on the shellbark stocks.
THE GOBBLE (shag.):