Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 41st Annual Meeting Part 6

DR. MacDANIELS: That makes sense.

MR. SHERMAN: How many nuts are expected?

MR. CHASE: Last year we asked and received fifteen. We'd like to have twenty-five. That gives us a better opportunity for the tasting department. We have a lot of tasters. We don't have many crackers, but a lot of tasters.

MR. McDANIEL: I found that the mice in the State Capitol at Nashville weren't very particular as to variety. They took to any that were open.

DR. MacDANIELS: Are we men, or are we mice?

MR. CHASE: In case you didn't notice, downstairs we have all the entries in the contest with the exception of some which human mice got from me, two samples, I believe. But all the rest I managed to save. And I, of course, have not seen too many Persian walnuts, being down there where the spring frost gets them. I was very favorably impressed by the appearance of all these samples. We simply picked five, as I said, and pointed out that this should be considered a preliminary finding and not definite, but all those samples were fine. Some were, of course, more bitter to the taste than others. That's where we lost a lot of nuts, trying to find out the least bitter. But many were an improvement on the commercial varieties, as far as I was concerned.

I think if we all get active on hunting out these Persians the way we have blacks, we can make very good progress.

MR. McDANIEL: Even on appearance I think some of them beat what you see in the stores.

MR. CHASE: Yes, on appearance. Of course, some of them were handed back and forth and competing against each other, that's what happened.

DR. McKAY: I'd like to ask how much importance you ascribe to tree characteristics and not the nut itself.

MR. CHASE: I asked for that information and tabulated it, and it didn't mean much. We found we couldn't do it. So then we came back to the nut first.

Carpathian Scions for Testing~

There is one other point I might mention. Last year you may recall that I reported on our planting of Carpathian seedlings at Norris, some 500 of them, which were frosted every single year. We have babied them along now for almost ten years, and I don't see any prospects of getting any nuts on them.

Now, among those 500 there must be one good one, and I will be very happy to collect scion wood of all those trees and send it to members who are willing to top-work them and see what they will do. So if any of you folks are interested in some of these varieties--not varieties yet, but seedlings--I'd like to see them fruit, and I am sure we never will at Norris.

DR. MacDANIELS: Where did you get the seed?

MR. CHASE: From the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society.

DR. MacDANIELS: In other words, it's just as good seed as any other.

MR. FRYE: You are in a frost pocket.

MR. CHASE: The whole place is a frost pocket. They are up on the hill--the frosty spot.

A MEMBER: When were they planted?

MR. CHASE: In the spring of 1939.

MR. CORSAN: Let me understand that. You say there are 500 trees that did nothing at all?

MR. CHASE: We have approximately 500 of the Crath seedlings, and each year they are frosted.

MR. CORSAN: Let me explain that. I have had the same trouble. Mr. Crath, not knowing the nature of my place, put some of the best nuts in wet places, in frost pockets, but he had two rows of one kind of nut that grew very rapidly the first year, but they are not any bigger now, and that was many years ago, back in 1935 they were planted. And there were about 80 varieties he got from Russia, he being able to speak four Russian dialects, his father being the Burbank of Russia and the gardener to the Czar, he had a lot of information, and he knew just what he was doing. But he was too hopeful and got some varieties from the foothills, some up a little higher, some up half way, some up towards the snow line, and they are tremendously hardy.

Now, I have given these nut trees away to people south of Lake Ontario.

You see, I am north of Lake Ontario, and those are around St.

Catherines. There trees will grow and succeed. I have been told there is no check by frost on them. I have given a lots of those away. But with me they are absolutely worthless north of the Lake, and there is a vast difference in them.

Now, I thought, looking at a great, big nut, the Rumanian giant, thought sure a nut that big would be bitter. I thought sure that it wouldn't be hardy, but at any rate, I planted a few, and I have a nearly perfect reproduction of those nuts, and one is very hardy and very productive, and the other is not quite so hardy. It's a huge nut and not so productive. However, size has nothing to do with it. I noticed a certain type and shape of nut was sometimes quite tender, and then again the same shape of nut but different variety was quite hardy.

I sold a lot of trees in varying sizes, keeping the small and the runts and those that were injured by the tractor and other trees for myself, but I have enough varieties every year to come down and see some wonderful results.

For instance, I slashed one up badly to dwarf it, and it had a little, wee nut that big (indicating). When I cracked that nut, the sh.e.l.l was crammed full of meat, and it was exceedingly sweet, and it tasted like a hickory nut. So I cut my own throat, as it were.

DR. MacDANIELS: Mr. Chase's problem right now is to get these trees out somewhere where they can be tested further, and he has asked any of you if you want scions to get in touch with him.

MR. CORSAN: I say, send them south.

DR. MacDANIELS: The farther south you go the worse they are.

MR. H. F. STOKE: May I also say a word? Also send them north. Sometimes the winter sun will start the growth activity, and then wind comes along and kills it. The original Crath that was started in Toronto, I had it killed back to five-year-old wood thick as my wrist one winter, when the sun moved it to activity. It was hardy in Toronto, but it wasn't hardy in Roanoke, Virginia.

DR. MacDANIELS: Let's have a showing of hands of those who have that trouble, starting in the spring and freezing back. (Showing of hands.) About five or six.

The next paper will be, "The Persian Walnut in Pennsylvania and Ohio,"

Mr. L. Walter Sherman.

MR. SHERMAN: Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Chairman: First I'd like to tell you who I am. Some of you have been to my place and know who I am, but last fall Pennsylvania started something new--a little bit different.

They put on a survey of the nut trees of Pennsylvania. Two of us were selected for the job, and I would like to introduce Dr. Anthony--stand up so they can see. He and I were the two that were selected to put on the tree crop survey of that State of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania is a big state, and there is lots to see. They not only made it a survey of the nut trees, but any trees that are potential food for wildlife. Well, that made it the acorns and the honeylocust and, well, what have you, How big a job they hung on two fellows! Well, we have done the best we can, and we want to bring you this afternoon just a little of those results.

The Persian Walnut in Pennsylvania and Ohio

L. WALTER SHERMAN, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Tree Crop Survey, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

As members of the Northern Nut Growers a.s.sociation, most of you are familiar with the early history of the Persian walnut, its introduction into the United States by the early settlers, and how it finally found a home in California. You also know of the more recent introduction into this country of nuts and other material from the Carpathian Mountains by the Rev. Mr. Crath, who was a.s.sisted by members of your organization.

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These recent Crath introductions are supposed to be much hardier than the former ones, and probably able to establish themselves in northern United States and southern Canada.

When the Pennsylvania legislature authorized a survey of the nut trees of the state, very few people realize the foothold that the Persian walnut already had in Pennsylvania.

Early in this survey, we visited Fayette Etter, who is Pennsylvania's Luther Burbank with nut trees. He is well informed concerning the Persian walnut in his section, and he surprised us by his estimate of several thousand trees in his county of Franklin. The adjoining counties of Adams, York, and Lancaster, along the southern border of the state, have fully as many trees of this species, so it is a very conservative estimate that there are ten thousand of these trees in Pennsylvania.

These are located, for the most part, in the southeastern corner of the state below one thousand feet elevation.