Walnut Growing in Oregon Part 2

The nut should be planted two or three inches deep. A good authority says to place the nut on its side as it would lay after falling from the tree. If the nut is sprouted make a hole in the well pulverized soil and put the root carefully down into it.

The best way for planting in the orchard is to bore a hole with a post or well auger 4 or 5 feet deep where the tree is to grow, put in a stick of dynamite and break up the ground thoroughly.

Or, better still, bore down to permanent moisture and fill the lower hole with good soil or other root food, then dynamite 4 or 5 feet of the upper section of the hole. Nothing will produce a vigorous and thrifty tree like a deep and vigorous root system, and no tree responds to cultivation and care as does the walnut, white or black. After bursting up the soil, excavate and put in a half bushel of barn or other mould, well rotted. This will force the tree in the earlier years of its life and can be no hindrance to it later. Cover the manure with a foot or two of soil and plant. Both before and after planting the ground should be ploughed and harrowed until it is as mellow as an ash heap. Plant three or four nuts in a hill 6 to 8 inches apart and at the end of the first season's growth pull out all but the most vigorous one. For transplanting from the nursery the same methods should be followed in the preparation of the hole and the soil as in planting the seed nuts.

If one wants to lay the foundation for a fine orchard and a fine fortune as a consequence, these preliminary steps must not be neglected. Because in time you expect this tree to pay you a rental of $8 to $12 a month.

If you are building a cottage that would bring in that sum, you would put in much more work and money besides. The wise grower would rather have a man plant six trees for him in one day than sixty. The walnut is usually a very vigorous tree and will fight its way among adverse conditions and surroundings, but its golden showers are much more abundant if it is protected from the scars of battle, especially in its youth. It almost seems to respond to the love and affection given to it by a kind master. Animals respond to kindness, and why not the domestic trees? It will pay you a big salary after a while when your other bank accounts and your health and strength fail.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _American Black Walnuts_]

A magnificent row of nine American black walnuts, 35 or 40 years old.

The tree in the foreground is 20 inches in diameter of trunk. The tallest of the trees is nearly 60 feet and they have a spread of more than 70 feet. They are at the residence of Dave Johnson on the Portland road about 8 miles from McMinnville. Seed from such trees as these would produce the very best trees for grafting upon.

There are very few California blacks of pure strain in the country. The hybrids or crosses with the American or eastern black walnut, are better trees for grafting stock than the pure Californias. They are more hardy and better adapted to our climate.

WHAT TO PLANT

Horticulturists of equal fame and experience take different views on the subject of planting, some contending that the nut should be planted where the tree is to grow; others that seedlings are the thing, and still others that trees should be grafted. And as all three plans have produced good results in Oregon, the individual planter may take his choice, according to the circ.u.mstances in which he is situated. The truth is that the walnut is one of the hardiest of trees, and with good attention will not disappoint if the right kinds are properly started.

In planting walnuts to raise seedling trees the best available seed nuts should be used. Select the best and most prolific variety and the one most suited to the climate.

It is claimed that the nuts from a grafted tree will produce the best seedling trees. This may be true as a rule, as the nut from such a tree will have some of the characteristics of the stock upon which the parent tree was grafted. It may inherit some of the resistant qualities of the black walnut or the rapid growth of the California hybrids. It may have early ripening qualities. It is well to consider all these points as well as the quality of the nut when selecting seed.

By careful selection and cross pollination many and better varieties will be produced. No doubt a nut superior to any that has yet appeared in any country will yet be originated in the Willamette Valley, as in the case of the Bing and Lambert cherry and some other fruits.

The improvement of the walnut in this section is one of the most fertile fields of investigation to be found anywhere and one that promises big reward to the successful culturist. And the walnut grower need not wait long to find whether he has a prize or not, for just as soon as the little sprout comes from the ground and has hardened sufficient to handle, a skillful grafter can place it in a bearing tree and the second or third year know the result of his experiment by the production of fruit, and this not more than three or four years from the planting of the seed.

The advantage of planting walnuts, providing you secure first generation nuts of the right variety for your soil and atmospheric conditions, is in simplicity and inexpensiveness. You merely purchase your nuts of a reliable concern, or from an isolated grove of one variety (many send direct to France, where pure strains can be more readily gotten), and in February plant them on their sides in a shallow box of moist sand; keep in a cool place. In April, or as soon as they sprout, dig a hole 2-1/2 or 3 feet deep, put in surface loam, and plant three or four nuts to a hole about 2 or 3 inches deep. They will come up by June and make a growth of a foot or so the first season.

It is contended by many that nothing is gained by planting seedlings in the nursery, as the set-back from transplanting prevents their bearing any earlier than trees of the same age grown from nuts.

Grafted trees, on the other hand, are difficult to obtain in large numbers, are expensive, but produce nuts of uniform size and beauty, and the pollination is said to be more sure.

The industry is still too young in Oregon for the final word to have been spoken on this point. The future will undoubtedly add much valuable information as larger experience supplants theory with facts.

The vital point is to plant good nuts or reliable seedlings from a pure strain.

In choosing varieties be governed by your location. If frosts are to be feared get late-blooming varieties, the leading ones established in Oregon being the Mayette and the Franquette. Other varieties will undoubtedly be introduced in the next few years that will withstand frost in regions where walnut planting now seems impractical. Mr. Henry Hewitt's one tree that blooms the fourth of July, at an elevation of 1,000 feet, is evidence of the possibilities in this direction. Air drainage is necessary.

The tested varieties in Oregon to date, and the results, are as follows:

Mayettes (the famous "Gren.o.ble" of commerce) and Franquettes are first choice for hardiness and for reliable commercial crops, the nuts being of good size, fine flavor and in every way meeting the highest market demands.

Praeparturiens bear earlier than other varieties, are very productive and as fine flavored as a hickory nut, but the nuts are small for best commercial prices.

The Chaberte is a hardy tree, good for the uplands, and prolific; a delicious nut, small but excellent for confectioners use.

The Ford Mammoth, Glady and Bijou are too large to find favor for commercial purposes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _A Fine j.a.panese Hybrid in Lafayette_]

The Parisienne, Meylan and Lanfray are newer varieties that give much promise, but have not been thoroughly tested.

H. M. Williamson, Secretary Oregon State Board of Horticulture, in an article says:

"The extremely unfavorable weather of the past winter (1908-9) has been one of the best things which could have happened to many heedless persons who planted walnut trees without first taking pains to learn anything about the business. The destruction of many young trees of the Santa Barbara type was a blessing to those who planted them, and the planters deserve no sympathy, for the warnings not to plant trees of that type have been ample for many years past.

"The fine condition of suitably located groves of walnut trees of Franquette, Mayette and other French varieties, after a winter which proved the most trying to fruit trees of all kinds which we have known during a long period of years, has given firm confidence to those who are leading in the development of the walnut industry in Oregon.

"The varieties which are best adapted to culture in this state are those which produce the finest nuts known to the world."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Walnut Groves, Dundee, Oregon_]

SEEDLING WALNUTS

The leading commercial orchard in the state is that of Mr. Thomas Prince, of Yamhill county, and is composed almost entirely of seedling trees. The history of this orchard is best told by Mr. Prince in the following very conservative letter:

"About 17 years ago the Ladd Stock Farm of Yamhill, Oregon, by the advice of Mr. H. E. Dosch, then Secretary of the Oregon Horticultural Society, purchased from the late Felix Gillett, Nevada City, Cal., and planted quite a number of young walnut trees which are now in bearing.

The first few years their cattle received first attention and the young trees were not cultivated as much as they should have been to make good growth. They therefore do not grow the quant.i.ty of walnuts they would have produced with better cultivation. Two or three years after this Mr.

Z. T. Davis, of Dundee, Oregon, also by advice of Mr. Dosch, purchased of Mr. Gillett some 500 one-year-old seedlings. One year later the writer, who had some land adjoining Mr. Davis, also became interested and set out about 1,500 additional trees, and about two years later purchased the place belonging to Mr. Davis, and became owner of the young trees at Dundee, with the exception of a few purchased by several neighbors. All are now in bearing.

"Those who do not know the facts are inclined to give the writer more credit than he is ent.i.tled to. Mr. Dosch, the Ladds, Mr. Davis and Mr.

Gillett were first to interest themselves and should receive the credit to which they are ent.i.tled.

"We have now in Oregon and Was.h.i.+ngton quite a few trees in bearing, and we believe they can be grown here with profit. There is much to learn.

We find the young trees should be carefully set out and receive good cultivation for the first few years. That the selection of the trees and the location in which to grow them are very important. The number of trees to the acre, and whether to grow seedling or grafted trees; and if grafted whether root grafting or top grafting is best must be considered.

"I think growing of walnuts has the advantage of many other products.

The crop is easily grown, harvested and marketed; the labor greatly economized and the net profits a larger per cent of the gross receipts; while sometimes with other crops the results are just the reverse--the net profits but a small per cent of the gross receipts.

"The question is often asked how much is land worth that is suitable; how long before trees will bear, and how much will they produce, etc.

The price of land depends largely on location; generally it is worth from $50 to $150 per acre. Seedling trees come into bearing from 7 to 9 years of age, quant.i.ty from 10 to 50 pounds per tree; number of trees per acre, 20 to 40."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Sixty Year Old Walnut Trees on Derr Place_]

These trees are about 60 years old and were planted by I. M. Johns, who took the donation claim two miles southeast of McMinnville, about 1844, now the Derr farm. The trunk of the largest one on the right is 10 feet in circ.u.mference, and is probably the largest English walnut tree in Oregon. They have some nuts every year, but are shy bearers, due no doubt to lack of proper pollination. The nut is not large, but is full of good meat and resembles the Parry. The trees are about two hundred yards from the Yamhill river, are hale and hearty and seem good for a few centuries. In fact, all of the seedlings examined in this county are healthy and vigorous.

There are half a dozen or more walnut trees growing in the woods and about the garden of Mr. J. T. Jones, seven miles west of McMinnville, which are a valuable study to the walnut grower. They are seedlings from the Casey tree, and they all bear full crops every year. The largest is 21 inches in diameter. One of them has a much larger and finer nut than that grown on the Casey tree. Hardpan is reached about 18 inches below the surface, which would indicate that no tap root were needed were it not for the fact that a tiny brook runs down through the garden not far from the trees.

Following is the testimony of Col. Henry E. Dosch, taken from "Better Fruit" of August, 1908: