Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 41st Annual Meeting Part 38

In 1934, 16 years ago, we became interested in chestnuts as a possible commercial crop. We purchased a quant.i.ty from J. Russell Smith, interplanting them in a vineyard we expected to pull out as it was getting too old. Two years later, through the cooperation of Clarence Reed, Dr. Gravatt, also others at Beltsville, Maryland, we got some 2,000 seedlings of various types, some being hybrids. As some of these bore we planted what we thought were the best nuts in a nursery and at present have about 3000 chestnut trees ranging from three years old up to 16 years. There is some blight occasionally showing which appears to be on the hybrids. About 35 acres of the chestnuts were interplanted in vineyards which we were planning to pull out. During the war, however, the price of grapes was quite high and we left the grapes, pulling the last of them out this Spring. Due to cultivation of the grapes an appreciable number of the nut trees were cut out accidentally, and have later been filled in with seedlings, with the result that the orchard has a rather peculiar appearance. The mature trees, this year, have been doing, we think, very well, and a great majority of them are bearing from a light crop to a rather heavy crop.

Up to date we have had no trouble with worm in our chestnuts. In fact we have not found a single wormy chestnut. This interests us appreciably, as when the old American chestnuts were common on our farm it would seem as if hardly a chestnut escaped a worm hole if you kept them long enough. If you ate the chestnuts immediately it wasn't so bad--the worms were probably too small to be observed.

We understand that in some sections Chinese chestnuts are attacked by worms but I repeat we haven't had one to date.

Our chestnuts are planted largely in Volusia clay loam on fields where chestnuts formerly flourished. This soil is not fertile, as soils go, and the trees will probably not grow as large nor will they grow as fast as if planted in a more fertile soil. At first we used a s.p.a.cing of 36 feet but we now use 24 feet, which we think will be satisfactory for our farm.

Since the chestnuts have come into bearing and the project has become to some extent a commercial one, we are more interested in doing what we can for the trees. We are convinced that the mulching process is to be recommended. There is some sawdust to be obtained in this section and as far as it goes we have covered the ground under the branches of the trees with a mulch of sawdust about five or six inches deep. We will not know how successful that is for a few years.

We have planted the fields with a cover crop of rye gra.s.s and orchard gra.s.s, and this month are cutting it and throwing it under the trees.

We have some adjoining fields which were in hay but which had rather run out. We are cutting these likewise and throwing the hay under the trees.

We believe if we keep this practice up for a few years we will have a reasonable mulch under the trees. We have become interested in Reed canary gra.s.s. We have had a few sample patches of it and are going to plant a couple of outside fields with it to be used for mulch. It grows stronger than any other northern gra.s.s with which we are conversant, and therefore would produce more mulch. We are also giving the land two rather heavy applications of mixed fertilizer each year.

We think the chief thing we have learned about chestnuts is that the first few years the trees should be cultivated, fertilized, watered, and mulched. You cannot handle them the way you could, for instance, Christmas trees by simply sticking them in a field of gra.s.s. The first year they should be watered every ten days if they require it, and watered the second year if there is a real drought.

In closing we would say that as far as our immediate section is concerned, it is our guess that chestnuts are the only nuts which might appear to have commercial possibilities. Of course, at present, the nuts sell at quite a high price and I fear beyond their value. What will happen when the numerous orchards which have been planted in the last few years come into bearing is any man's guess.

We do not believe that the black walnuts would ever prove a commercial success here, although they normally do well. Of course the trouble is the compet.i.tion of the wild nuts from other sections. On the other hand, if some one had the time to give to working up a market for the improved black walnuts, he might get some profit out of it.

If I were younger, I might want to try growing a number of Winkler hazel nuts. I think hazel nuts covered with chocolate make a very attractive candy, and here, in this section, the Winkler seems to be immune to blight and other troubles. This year, for the first time in our recollection, the frost got them and the crop is very light.

I do not know just what to say about the heartnuts. They might not have enough flavor to suit some people, but when eaten with salt I think they are delicious. They are very free cracking. We have one, the Lobular, which as soon as they are cracked can be shaken out of the sh.e.l.l. I am disturbed however over the bunch disease to which some of them are subject.

Please note that our remarks in regard to the commercial possibilities of these various nuts has reference to our farm at Westfield and to no other place.

I regret I am not going to be at your meeting to endeavor to answer any question which might be asked.

Discussion of Mulches

DR. ANTHONY: Mr. Sherman and I were there a few years ago, and he has very definitely given up the heartnut and black walnut. Many trees in this area are affected with this bunch disease, which caused failure to set, and he has very definitely decided that he is out of those two nuts.

MR. FRYE: That sawdust, how old must it be, and how green have you used?

DR. ANTHONY: We have used sawdust in our fruit tree work. There is a period when I don't like it. When it's raw and going down, it uses a good deal of nitrogen. Also, if it gets dry, it will blow. Also when it gets dry it will run off with the water, and I would like to use it pretty well rotted down when I get it, and usually you can find old rotted piles. If you do use it on trees where nitrogen is a factor, you probably will have to use additional nitrogen.

Now, with the chestnut where you want to mature them fairly early in the fall, it might work all right, because it will withhold the nitrogen in the breakdown of your sawdust. But apparently, it works pretty well. I think it was Mr. Sam Hemming who suggested using it in the rows. Most of our State Forests and Waters nurseries in their seedling beds, plant their seedlings, including chestnuts, make a mixture of sawdust and sand, about one of sawdust and two of sand, and then broadcast that right over their seeds. The seeds are broadcast on the firm soil, then this mixture of sawdust and sand is broadcast over the seeds. That gives a uniform planting of your seeds and gives a very nice protection. There is one place that I think sawdust works very nicely.

Straw mulch, any material of that kind, in breaking down takes nitrogen from the soil. They are all good if you balance that loss of nitrogen that is lost during the period of breakdown. Now, there comes a time, if you put a mulch on the soil and let it stay there for six or eight years and keep building it up, when you pa.s.s imperceptibly from straw into soil, and when you reach that time, your breakdown of your straw is usually done without taking nitrogen from your soil itself, and from that time on you may release nitrogen. But until you get that imperceptible transformation from straw to soil, there is a time when the breakdown of the straw uses your nitrogen, which is all right, if it's late in the season, but not early. I'd want to watch my trees and get my nitrogen on early, then let the straw use it later on.

A MEMBER: The migration of nitrogen--is there some such migration, and is it just in the case of the sawdust?

DR. ANTHONY: You put it right on top, it's much worse. You can put it right on top and it will take a year or two to pa.s.s through that period where the utilization in the breaking down of the straw is greater than the release of nitrogen. If it's mixed in the soil, the tree gets more of it.

MR. STOKE: How deep is that effect on the soil?

DR. ANTHONY: We have used straw, hay, weeds, sawdust, chips, anything of the kind, putting on a 5 to 6-inch layer. As I say, it takes from one to three years to get through that period.

Now, Ma.s.sachusetts has the longest continuous use--all of New England has--of mulch, and they are reaching a point now where some of the mulches are ten years old where the release of nitrogen is too much and they get poor color on McIntosh. I think with the Chinese chestnut this is one thing we have got to watch to get good maturity. Going farther and farther south, you have more trouble. As you go to the north, our trees color more easily, and there you wouldn't want to force them, as our New England people find. They are releasing too much nitrogen late in the season. So I would not want to use long, continued mulch in the chestnut, I'd watch my maturity, and the minute they get a little slow in maturing, I'd quit.

MR. BERST: How about corn cobs?

MR. JAY SMITH: How about anything in the street, leaves?

DR. ANTHONY: Anything like that, whether it's oak or maple. One goes down as quickly as the other.

MR. CORSAN: On the way down here I called in to see Rodale, and we found him in a ma.s.s of brewer's hops and ground up corn cobs. He had them in the chicken house, and you know how a chicken house smells. He had no smell in the chicken house. We looked all through his place, and we saw another big pile of furs, mink, and such tr.i.m.m.i.n.g off of them, a big pile about that high (indicating), and that will go down. He had everything under the sun in the way of mulch, but corn cobs ground up fine was the chief one in sight.

Personally, I like to grow the mulch on the land right there. We can grow it--up to 10 ton of green mulch to the acre. I have done it many, many times. You have something there that goes down quickly. The very growing of that through the latter part of the summer also uses the nitrogen and hardens up your trees. Then we turn it down and within two to three weeks we have it reseeded, and so we are growing a constant supply in the soil-itself. You get the same effect as hauling in your mulch. It's cheaper, usually, and you get, I think, a little bit better control. Your mulches are not dry, they are turned under when--well, it's crimson clover in the red, right in the blossom. They go down very quickly. We leave as much as possible on the surface. I think it's a little cheaper and a little more satisfactory control. I put them on quite green. I find they rot much quicker.

MR. CHASE: I will now turn the gavel back to Dr. MacDaniels, who will take over.

DR. MacDANIELS: Thank you, very much, Mr. Chase.

Perhaps we had better take a 10-minute recess.

(Whereupon, a short recess was taken.)

Nominating Committee Elected

DR. MacDANIELS: We will proceed with the election of a nominating committee. That committee is elected. It is a committee of three, and the nominations come from the floor. The present nominating committee is Mr. Stoke, Mr. Sylvester Shessler, and Mr. Sterling Smith. Now, I guess it is a good plan to change the nominating committee, and I think we ought to have regional representation. I think that is important. Does anybody have a nomination? Say we start in the Middle West.

A MEMBER: Mr. Silvis.

DR. MacDANIELS: He will take it. That's middle. Another nomination from the farther west.

MR. CHASE: Mr. Chairman, I nominate Dr. Crane.

DR. MacDANIELS: That would be South Atlantic.

MR. WEBER: I nominate Mr. Chase.

DR. MacDANIELS: Do you wish to nominate more than three and have a ballot?

MR. FRYE: I move nominations be closed.

DR. MacDANIELS: Nominations closed. Do you move to have the secretary cast a unanimous ballot?

DR. McKAY: So move, Mr. Chairman.

MR. WEBER: Proceed with the election.

DR. MacDANIELS: The motion is that nominations be closed and the secretary be instructed to cast a ballot for the slate as nominated. Any further discussion? If not, all in favor say "aye."

(A vote was taken on the motion, and it was carried unanimously.)

DR. MacDANIELS: Carried.