Part 6

=Carr.= One tree surviving, planted in 1940. Two others, planted in 1943, have died, but I do not believe that winter injury was the cause of their death. Has grown slowly, bearing in 1944 and 1946. The nut is much smaller than that produced by the same variety at more southern latitudes, judging from descriptions of it which I have read. The nut is much smaller than that of Hobson, as grown here. This small tree bore a tremendous crop in 1946, more than I thought any tree of its size could support. The tree was literally covered with burs. The nuts were very small, not larger than a small native chestnut. They ripened early, beginning to drop from the burs by September 25th. I stratified most of the nuts in pots of soil and planted 206 nuts from this little tree, which is only about seven feet high and not at all spreading. Germination was good.

=Zimmerman.= One small tree planted spring of 1945. Not bearing yet. Is not growing fast but appears healthy with good foliage.

=Chinese Sweet No. 3.= Purchased from Mr. Bush in 1938. Planted at the same time as Abundance, which Mr. Bush at that time called Chinese Sweet No. 1. He later named No. 1 Abundance, but did not consider No. 3 worthy of naming. Has grown well, but has borne very few nuts. Mr. Bush discarded it for the same fault. [See comment following.--Ed.]

I have also tried and lost the following varieties: Connecticut Yankee, Austin Japanese and Stoke hybrid.

I have quite a number of young seedlings of Abundance, Carr and a few of Hobson, from seed produced on my own trees, some of which I hope to allow to bear in order to see if anything promising shows up among them. The Abundance seedlings seem to inherit the superior vigour of their female parent.

=Heartnuts.= The Japanese walnut grows vigorously. I have planted a few of Mr. J. U. Gellatly's varieties, as well as the Wright heartnut. All of the ones planted seem perfectly hardy and at home. I have only one tree of each variety.

=O.K.= From J. U. Gellatly, planted in 1942. Transplanted 1944. Bore its first nuts, one cluster, in 1946. Cracking and extraction of kernel were excellent. The flavour was fine. Size of nut about medium.

=Okanda.= From J. U. Gellatly, 1942. Said by Mr. Gellatly to be a hybrid between heartnut and native butternut. Tree vigorous. Nut has a smooth shell like a heartnut. Cracking and extraction good. Flavour excellent. Nut about size and shape of a medium-sized heartnut. Bore its first crop in 1946 and is repeating this year with a fair crop.

=Crofter.= From J. U. Gellatly, 1942. Also said by Mr. Gellatly to be a hybrid between heartnut and butternut. Tree vigorous. Bore its first crop in 1946 and has a few nuts this year. The nut has a comparatively smooth shell like a heartnut, is somewhat larger than that of Okanda but does not crack as well, or rather the kernel does not come out of the cavity nearly so well as that of Okanda. Flavour fine.

=Canoka.= From J. U. Gellatly, 1944. A pure heartnut. Tree very vigorous. Bearing its first crop this year, several clusters.

=Slioka.= A new heartnut from Mr. Gellatly, planted in 1945. Tree growth is vigorous. Is bearing one nut, its first, this year.

=Wright.= From Benton and Smith nurseries 1946. Seems to be hardy. Tree growth has not been very strong but appears healthy.

=New, un-named heartnut.= From J. U. Gellatly, planted in the spring of 1944. A new selection which Mr. Gellatly has not named. The tree has grown vigorously and it is bearing its first crop of several clusters of nuts.

=Butternuts.= I have only one grafted butternut tree, a Crax-ezy, from the Michigan Nut Nurseries in 1940, transplanted in 1942. The tree has been hardy and healthy but has not grown very vigorously. It is bearing its first crop this year.

I had one tree of the Sherwood butternut, planted in 1938, which died last winter as a result, I believe, of a heavy infestation of oyster shell scale which I did not control soon enough. Sherwood bore early and heavily. The nut was extremely large but did not crack at all well.

=Persian walnut.= Only one grafted tree, a Broadview, from Mr. Gellatly, planted in 1942, transplanted in 1944. Has been hardy, but has just begun to make really good growth, this year. Has not borne.

=Filberts.= I have planted four of Mr. Gellatly's varieties, namely Craig, Brag, Comet and Holder, as well as Barcelona, Cosford, Medium Long and Buchanan. Craig and Brag are the only ones which have borne. Trees of those varieties planted in 1942 bore their first crop in 1946. They have very few nuts on them this year. All varieties seem to be winter-hardy in the wood. Craig, Brag and Comet, the only ones which have borne staminate flowers do not seem too hardy in the catkins however. Nearly all were killed, last winter, although the temperature scarcely went as low as zero. Mr. Gellatly states that their catkins survive much lower temperatures than that in the west. Some other factor than low temperature probably is accountable. (See paper by H. L. Crane in this report.--Ed.)

Cosford, Medium Long and Buchanan were planted in the fall of 1946, and hence it is too early to have any information on their hardiness. They survived their first winter in good condition and have grown vigorously this summer.

=Hickories.= Only three grafted trees surviving.

=Pleas hybrid.= One tree, planted in 1938, has been perfectly hardy, having come through several severe winters without any sign of injury. It has made good growth and has developed into a fine shade tree for the lawn but has not borne. It has had many staminate catkins for several years.

=Barnes.= One small tree, planted in the spring of 1946, has made slow but healthy growth and appears to be hardy thus far.

=Miller.= One tree, planted in 1946, is still living but very weak.

In addition to these named varieties I have a number of seedling black walnuts, butternuts and heartnuts, which I hope to topwork to named varieties; also two seedling pecans which are making surprisingly good, thrifty growth. The pecan seedlings have been quite hardy.

* * * * *

=Discussion after Mr. Filman's paper.=

Stoke: "Hobson is not as large as Abundance. Abundance is always larger than Hobson. Carr always produced better nuts than Hobson. Mr. Filman finds that Carr has very small nuts. I am surprised to see a reversal of performance between Ontario and Virginia."

McDaniel: "Mr. Bush now reports that his No. 3 chestnut has borne better crops recently. Abundance has not survived in TVA tests at Norris."

Report from Echo Valley, 1947

GEORGE HEBDEN CORSAN, Islington, Ontario

The Northern Nut Growers Association visited Echo Valley, Islington, Ontario, September 5th on the field trip following their annual convention at Guelph. Some 15 species of nuts and nearly 400 varieties are growing there. The filberts drew a lot of attention, as the most of them were seedlings and quite large, some larger than the largest Oregon varieties. The seeds planted were: Italian Red. Du Chilly, Giant de Halle, Brixnut, Bollwyller, Cosford, Daviana, and Jones No. 1 Hybrid. The policy followed has been not to discard a plant because it bears small nuts or no nuts at all, because such trees may bear hardy catkins that live through the winter. The female blossoms of filberts are very hardy but many male blossoms may be killed during cold winters.

Years ago the Dominion Department of Agriculture declared that filberts, chestnuts and Persian (English) walnuts could not be grown north of Lake Ontario. I would grant that they grow better south of the lake. However, the filbert crop this fall south of the lake was very poor and scanty, whereas mine was large and in fact the largest I ever had. My Winkler and Rush hazelnuts are crowded on the branches. And the same with the English walnuts. My crop on the larger trees could not be better. The Thomas black walnut, as well as other black walnuts, Jap heartnuts, hybrid butternut x Japanese heartnut cross, chestnuts and hickories are very large.

Hicans and northern pecans do not develop north of Lake Ontario. Down in the very southwest corner of Ontario, north of Lake Erie, some small pecans have cropped well on trees. As a curiosity pecan trees are quite hardy here, but we lack length of season to mature the nuts properly. No Weiker hickory hybrid crops and ripens well here. This nut is one of the very few crosses between shellbark and shagbark hickories, (=Carya laciniosa=) western and (=Carya ovata=) eastern, hickories.

I have some crosses between the Chinese and Japanese chestnuts that I am watching. I have one European x American cross chestnut, the Gibbons, and one native (=Castanea dentata=) that have escaped the blight. So far this year I have found only one blighted chestnut limb and I promptly cut it off and tarred the cut well.

At least I have persimmons hardy enough to stand the winters north of Lake Ontario, but I am not sure about the pawpaw. This fruit seems to require shade from the winter's sun.

Many but not all of the Crath importations of Persian walnuts from the Carpathians are hardy and much more so than the Pomeroy varieties. Even the Broadview is not hardy as many of the Crath varieties. Rev. Crath did an immense service to us by his importations which far exceeded our highest expectations. I have here nearly half a hundred varieties of =Juglans regia= that are doing well, especially the three Rumanian giants that ripen so well here.

List of Some of the Larger and More Important Trees at Echo Valley, Islington, Ontario

=Black Walnut= Stambaugh 1926--1st prize. Thomas from J. F. Jones, late ripener. Troup, cracks out whole in spring. Hepler, from Miss Riehl, a long nut. Elmer Myers, excellent flavor, the thinest shell. Snyder, medium size, large kernel. Tasterite, a small nut, origin New York State. Clark, origin Iowa, very large nut. Gifford, bears very heavy crop every second year, ripens before Thomas.

=Persian (English) Walnut= David Fairchild, seedling Rumanian giant. Senator Pepper, seedling Rumanian giant. Paul de Kruif, seedling Rumanian giant. Chinese, very hardy, medium size. Broadview, from British Columbia but originally from Russia.

=Hickory= Neilson, a true shagbark, nut large flat and very thin shell, flavor is wonderful. A big tree on highway 24 not far south of where Alexander Graham Bell perfected the telephone. Hagen, a true shagbark, a fast grower. Hand, a shagbark. Weiker, a shellbark and shagbark cross, a large, heavy bearing nut that ripens here north of Lake Ontario. Excellent flavor, grafted on pecan. Papple, a small good shagbark, cracks out whole. Anthony No. 1 shagbark. Glover, from Miss Riehl.

=Heartnut= Wright, a good bearer and excellent cracker. Stranger, very heavy bearer, excellent cracker. Gellatly.

=Filbert= Italian Red, medium long with wide base. Bollwyller, large round. Du Chilly, long smooth. Many seedlings of named varieties.

=Chestnut= Gibbons, Miss Riehl, hybrid European American. Chinese, test not completed.

=Jap Butternut= Helmick, from Miss Riehl, 14 cluster, regular bearer, very thin shell, grafted on black walnut.

Report from Beamsville, Ontario

LEVI HOUSSER

About twenty years ago I started to plant nut trees, as I decided nuts were the solution to good health, which I later found was correct. Most of my first trees died. I started gathering nuts all over the country until at last, near my own home, I found a neighbor who had ten trees and two out of the ten were bearing large size nuts of an excellent flavor. I also added filberts to my collection.

About this time I learned of Prof. Neilson, so I went to see him in Guelph. He told me about the Northern Nut Growers Association. I also learned about Mr. Corsan and his work at Islington so I went to see him. He also told me about the Association so I went to the next meeting and joined up. I began to add more varieties to my plantings. My first four acre planting was seeded with oats the second year. All my tress had a nice start. I spent some three hundred dollars that year for grafted nut trees. That second fall I hired a man to watch and stand by each tree as the binder passed. It was impossible for me to be there. The man who cut the oats in his own stubborn way went alone and cut everything as he went, trees and all. My heart was nearly broken! I started again. I bought nuts of good varieties from all over. I decided to make a little nursery this time then plant out after the trees got bigger. Just as I got this started nicely the war came. I also had a fruit farm where I now live besides also planting some grafted stock here. My nursery, seventy-eight miles away on my fifty acres, I had to leave as gas was rationed and I was forced to sell, so remaining there are about one hundred trees which I shall watch. My best trees died but I kept going on planting every year. Today, after all the calamities I had, I have around two hundred trees living.

This year I expect two bushels of heartnuts; about two bushels of filberts; some extra nice ones that ripened early, large and well filled; about two bushels of black walnuts, some very promising. Besides these I have about fifty trees of the Carpathian walnuts from which I have gathered about two quarts of nuts. My oldest tree is ten years old. One I grafted on black walnut stock and it is a very large nut. I gathered five nuts from this. The graft is now five years old. Hundreds of nuts started; nearly all dropped off. Possibly as the tree gets older it will do better as I have planted several other nut trees not far away to help with cross pollination.

I have some good sized butternuts and I gathered about 17 quarts of these so I expect to have enough nuts to supply my daily needs from now on from my own plantings. After twenty years of hard work and with an outlay of at least $1,000, my trees, as they grow up around me, are like children to me. They supply me with food. My nervousness was cured by them and my health has returned.

My worst enemy here with filberts is they start to grow too early, then a frost comes and they are done after a week or two of nice weather. Even though we have this trouble we gathered nearly two bushels from 25 trees which are eight years old.

Our lowest temperature here was 20 below zero a few years ago. My Carpathians did not seem to mind that nor did the heartnuts. From now on I am planning my own little nursery and do my own grafting as well. I top work my young trees that show poor nuts.

Nut Growing in New Hampshire

L. P. LATIMER, Assistant Horticulturist, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire

At the present time there are no nuts grown commercially in New Hampshire. Those gathered by the residents of this state for home use or local consumption are comprised almost entirely of butternuts from wild seedling trees and nuts of the native hickory. The butternut is the most highly prized among our native nuts. It grows wild over a large portion of the state. The hickory nuts take second place, probably because of their smaller size and the greater difficulty involved in removing the meat from the shells. Black walnuts are occasionally found but do not seem generally as popular.

Dr. A. F. Yeager of the Horticultural Department of the University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, has several times called for specimens of superior butternuts grown in the state. These have been tested for their cracking ability, and size of kernel and ease of removal from the shell in halves or as whole meats. Several very fine specimens have been collected, but progress in the development of these better types has been impeded by the difficulty involved in trying to propagate them vegetatively. The New Hampshire Horticultural Department would gladly welcome any information concerning the propagation of the butternut that would make grafting or budding successful.

The best possibility in developing commercial nut crops in New Hampshire apparently lies first in the use of the hazel or filbert. Although the European filbert has not been very successful, such varieties of the American hazel as Winkler and Rush look promising. The Winkler has borne heavy crops but in a short summer season the nuts do not always mature fully in the fall. Although we have had much less experience with the Rush variety, this does mature earlier in the fall and seems promising. Some of the Jones hybrids have been tested at the Experiment Station in Durham, a few of which have done quite well. Of these Jones hybrids No. 1181, 1154, and 1094 have made quite vigorous growth. Seedling No. 1094 has been outstanding, producing good sized nuts which mature well and shell out easily from the husks. In type and flavor of nut it resembles the European hazel quite strongly under our conditions.

So far, none of the chestnuts, including the Chinese species, have shown great enough resistance to chestnut blight to warrant their recommendation. We still hope that we may discover a good chestnut for this section. The hardy Persian or English walnuts have not been tested long enough to warrant any conclusion as to their promise for New Hampshire; one difficulty will probably lie in the fact that the nuts of some do not ripen properly under our cool, short summer conditions.

Mr. Matthew Lahti of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, has been experimenting with various species and varieties of nuts for that section. His location on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee undoubtedly presents a more favorable site for growing certain types of nut plants than exists here in Durham, or most other parts of New Hampshire. At the present moment I have on my desk a parcel received from Mr. Lahti containing some fine specimens of one of the hardy Persian walnuts which he is growing in Wolfeboro. The unusually warm and dry late summer and fall of this year have favored the maturity of this walnut. (For a detailed description of Mr. Lahti's experience with nut varieties, please refer to his paper printed below.)

Nut Notes from New Hampshire

MATTHEW LAHTI

Not being able to attend the annual convention I thought possibly some of the members might be interested in the following random notes of an amateur nut grower.

My place is in Wolfeboro, N. H., which is situated in the eastern end of Lake Winnepesaukee, 43 degrees, 35 minutes north latitude; elevation above sea level, 687'. The elevation of the lake is 504'. Wolfeboro is just about at the northern fringe of the climate where peaches will ripen, that is during favorable years in favored locations. Improved varieties of field corn will ripen during favorable seasons. It also happens to be the northern fringe of the American chestnut, in favored location. I have discovered a number of saplings that are still alive. As a matter of fact, three or four years ago I was fortunate in finding some ripened nuts, but the trees that bore those nuts have since died of the blight. While a certain variety of old fashioned sweet cherry will live and bear fruit, some of the recent improved varieties will not live. Every one that I have planted was winter-killed. The Montmorency cherry, however, does well. It is also the northern limit of the pignut. Butternuts do very well.

DDT Dust versus Butternut Curculio

I was prompted to write this note by reading Mr. S. H. Graham's article entitled "An Experiment with DDT" appearing on page 101 of the 1945 annual report, in which he states that the butternut curculio did not survive DDT powder.

In the past four or five years the butternut curculio (identified as such by Prof. Conklin of the University of N. H.) has all but ruined my Crath Persian walnuts and heartnuts, so, acting on the basis of Mr. Graham's experiment, I had my trees dusted early in the morning when the dew was on the leaves, using a 10% DDT powder, the first time about May 30 and again two weeks later, and I am happy to say that this dusting has been very effective. I have been unable to find any sign of curculio injury this year, although I have seen it nearby on some native butternut trees.

My Gellatly heartnut was riddled by the curculio last year. This year, when the dusting was done, this tree was overlooked, so I undertook to dust it myself, and not realizing that the Niagara duster which I used was set in the closed position, I dusted the tree with considerable effort. In spite of the small amount of dust that came out, it proved sufficient to keep the curculios away or else to kill them so that there is no sign of any damage at this writing.

Persian Walnuts

In the spring of 1938 I planted a number of Crath Persian walnut seedlings. Out of possibly eight or ten, only two survive. (I gave each one about three years, and if it showed serious winter injury, I pulled it up.) I was pleasantly surprised the other day to discover that one of them has borne a single nut this year. This particular tree is at least 300' from any other Persian walnut, so it looks as if it were self-fertile. It now remains to be seen whether or not the nut will ripen.

In the spring of 1940, I planted a Broadview Persian walnut graft on black walnut stock, and this tree is bearing for the first time with eighteen nuts showing. Three or four years ago this Broadview suffered some winter damage by a split trunk and split lower branch. I painted over the cracks with gasket cement, and they are now healed. The Broadview has also shown some winter-kill of terminal twigs, but not enough to affect its bearing this year. There has been no splitting of the trunks or branches of the two surviving Crath Persian walnut trees and no winter injury to terminal twigs. The Crath walnut trees are now 18" in circumference a foot from the ground and about 12 to 15' tall. The Broadview on the black walnut stock has a circumference of 16" above the graft and 15-1/4" below the graft, tending to show that the Broadview grows faster than the black walnut.

It is interesting to note that the Broadview blooms a week or ten days later than the Crath Persian walnut, and at the same time as the native butternut.

Black Walnuts

I have planted a few Thomas black walnut seedlings, two grafts, and a Tasterite black walnut graft. A Thomas black walnut graft has borne nuts in three different years, including this year. The graft was sent out in the spring of 1939, and the seedlings were set out in the spring of 1940. The seedlings have not yet borne. The Thomas black walnut graft last bore three years ago, when the nuts on the whole ripened and were well filled. We had a very cold spring in 1945, so much so that apples were almost a total failure.