“ The thing I like about nut trees is their cleanness. My English walnut has never been troubled by pests, neither has the pecan, except there is one thing I hold against the pecans and that is the borers on the branches. It is ten times as bad as English walnuts. But the trees are clean and nice to have, and I really prefer them to apple trees. With apple trees you are at all times troubled with apples on the lawn and it is a job to keep them cleaned up. You have nothing of that sort to contend with in nut trees. ”

“ We do not know much about getting revenue from our trees as we use all our nuts in the family. A pound of nuts I raise myself is worth much more to me than a pound I would buy in the grocery store because of the fun I get in growing them.
I have chestnuts that have escaped the blight so far. They say the Japanese variety is very hardy and very resistant to blight. As to the nuts, I do not know much about them.
Another nut tree that we do not often think of is the beech tree. I have never seen a beech tree that had nuts on big enough to amount to anything. ”

“ Because of some failures each year I still have many trees that have not yet been successfully grafted. I am not in a great hurry to get my grove on a paying basis as I am getting a lot of fun playing with the developing of it and I don't believe there will be so very much difference in the size of these trees 25 years from now. I would say, however, that for the man who wants to get a nut grove developed as soon as possible, he should buy his trees from the expert nut tree nurseryman. ”

“ Cultivation during the hot weather of June, July, and August will only aid in burning out the organic matter in the soil, just the very thing we plant a cover for. Many of the covers such as alfalfa, sweet clover and non-legume grasses can be harrowed very heavily in early spring after the frost is out of the ground, thus checking their growth for several weeks, and it is in early spring before the first flowers open, and while open, that the tree needs its nitrogen to aid in the set of fruit, and season's tree growth ”

“ On several occasions discussions of root toxicity between the black walnut and certain of its neighbors have taken place at Association meetings. The theory that black walnut trees give off toxic properties from their roots, which are fatal to other plants, is therefore not new. Some years ago the Virginia Experiment Station definitely isolated a toxic substance which was held responsible for the death of tomatoes, potatoes, alfalfa, blackberry plants and apple trees when these other plants were grown in close enough proximity for their roots to come in contact with those of the black walnut. ”

“ All these things we have to consider when choosing trees to plant about our yards.
In my own grounds I have black walnut, Persian walnuts, pecans, filberts, hicans and some others. I feel we might as well have something around our places to help pay the taxes. We might as well get a little pleasure out of our property. Some of us have vegetable gardens. Nut trees can be an asset to your property [Pg 40] in the same way if you will plant the proper kinds.
You all know the black walnut. It grows to be a large spreading tree but it needs good soil. Another nice tree is the Japanese walnut. ”

“ It is this class of people that are interested in such things as nut trees as something new and different.
It is Downingtown's faculty of being prepared for what is to come that makes it a particularly appropriate place for your convention. It is always a little ahead of the parade. We are proud of our local nut nursery which, in line with the spirit of the town, is just a little ahead of the parade. ”

“ We have a very nice crop of filberts this fall. If you have a little place that you want to screen in, why not do it with a hedge that is both beautiful and productive.
We also have a peach almond. That is worth growing just for its blossom. People go to Washington to see the Japanese cheery blossoms but they are no more beautiful than the Ridenhower almond when in bloom. The blossom is 2 inches in diameter. The hull dries and parts through the middle leaving the nut easy to get out. My farmer calls my tree "the dried peach tree." The fruit looks more like a peach seed than an almond. ”

“ First, the grafting of nut trees is a highly technical job and requires an enormous number of moves, from the first thing of cutting the grafting wood at the proper time in the winter and carefully storing it, until the cutting off of the stocks and knowing how long to let them bleed, and then grafting at the proper time, the proper shading of the graft, sprouting, staking, and tying up of the rapidly growing graft until the end of the growing season, so that the average man will have fallen down long before the season is over. ”

“ Whether or not the increase in consumption and its coincident change in eating habits of the American people will prove permanent after the return of normal times, remains to be seen, but it may be accepted as fact that the future of this country is likely to see greater competition in the home markets among foods than has been the case in the past and that, eventually, only those having the greatest values in nutrition and palatability will survive. ”

“ With a native pecan crop from one county in Illinois, more or less ungraded, selling for $100,000 in a recent year, thinking horticulturists in the state are beginning to feel that there are potential profits in nut culture where better varieties are planted or top worked. Seedling trees for top working are already growing in abundance in many sections of the state with an ideal climate and soil for northern nut production. ”

“ Growers from Iowa and Indiana have also attended. The total attendance has run into the hundreds, both men and women, most of them actual growers.
All the meetings are held out of doors in the orchard or nursery and the group is instructed in the propagation of nut trees through grafting and budding. Nut growers of the immediate locality are glad to assist [Pg 54] with the work. After the discussion and demonstration, all present are invited to learn how to do the work by actual participation and many become sufficiently skilled to top work their own trees upon their return home. ”

“ Winter killing of the wood and catkins is probably the limiting factor in growing filberts in Western New York. Satisfactory varieties must possess catkins hardy enough to provide sufficient pollen for pollination purposes. There must also be very little killing of the wood or the crop will be reduced in proportion to the amount of wood that is winter injured. Several years observations in the Station filbert orchard at Geneva have shown a great variation in hardiness of filbert varieties. With some varieties the catkins are severely injured each winter, with others, very little injury occurs. ”

“ Now regarding cost of carrying the grove, as I'm a sweet corn drier I have the most of my farm in corn. I farmed the grove in corn the first five years and hardly missed the space used for trees. I proved what I stated above that one can plant trees and keep on farming and hardly miss the tree space. If planted 70 feet apart one can farm still more land. In cultivating the corn the trees are cultivated, which cuts down the extra cost of caring for them, although of course one must cultivate them if he expects to have them grow and develop rapidly. ”

“ It may mean planting blue spruce or junipers around the house in a pleasing way, or you may use plants. The object is to make a picture which gives a certain impression of our home. We can just as well use nut trees in such a way as to make a beautiful picture, so that when one looks out any window of his home he gets a beautiful picture or vista, or when one goes by and sees your home, he sees a beautiful picture.
We tend to follow too stereotyped ways of doing things. There is no reason why we should make a liability of our property. We can just as well have nuts to help make an asset. ”

“ The propagation of selected strains of nut trees is not primarily the function of an Experiment Station, with the exception of such work as may be necessary to establish on Station property a sufficient number of trees to furnish scionwood for experimental purposes and to supply interested parties with what they require. We believe that nut tree nurserymen should undertake the propagation of new varieties of proven merit and we have endeavored to furnish our local nurserymen and others with scionwood of our best native selections or introductions. ”

“ Please bear in mind that in every move we must remember that this is a new industry of the soil and, although we believe it has a great future, all groving procedure must be felt out and experimented with as we have no guide to go by, just ideas, and you can expect to make some mistakes. But that is life. ”

“ It's fun to have a hobby, and to know what others who share your interests are doing and thinking! Let HOBBIES keep you posted! And if you haven't a hobby as yet, but would like to have one, let HOBBIES help you to find it! ”

“ There are 19 trees in the grove and the largest and best fruited tree is about 45 feet tall and nearly one foot in diameter at the base. The nuts are of medium size, crack easily, and contain kernels of good quality. A good crop was borne last year and other satisfactory crops have been secured for several years. It is quite likely that this tree would not mature nuts in a short growing season or in a season of low heat units, but the fact that it has done so well in recent years in growth and nut production is very encouraging, indeed. ”

“ The site of this orchard seems nearly level to the casual eye; yet slope, with its accompanying erosion, together with differences in depth of soil, have created nearly as large differences in growth and yield as any treatment. Good treatments have nearly offset the initial disadvantage of poor soil; but it is more economical to plant the orchard on good soil than to attempt the improvement of a poor soil. ”

“ By the time he has his legs run off over a period of five or seven years going from tree to tree set 60 or 70 feet apart doing more duties than he ever thought were needed, he will have a spotty grove of trees from one year old to bearing age, and then he will wake up and find that the first grafted ones are bearing so well, that should he have bought grafted trees and set them all out at one time the crop would have paid for the complete planting and he would have saved the long agony of trying to get a grove started. ”

“ We nut growers have been in the habit of thinking of growing nut trees on land which is good for nothing else, so that it is interesting to find nurseries using this good land and making a success of nut tree growing. ”

“ Of the various methods of searching for good trees, nut contests are the most efficient and economical. Through the medium of national contests this Association has discovered many good varieties, and several of these new varieties are now being propagated. In view of the discoveries resulting from the Association contest in 1929 and our state contest in the same year, it was deemed advisable to stage another contest in 1932. ”

“ It is very difficult to advertise a nut contest so that every person in rural sections knows of it and moreover, even if it were thoroughly advertised in any one year, it would not be possible to get nuts from all good trees because of the irregularity in fruiting habit of nut trees. ”

“ Grafting of new growth of the year upon new growth of the year in the growing season is an established feature of horticultural experiment with certain annual plants. Why had it so signally failed with perennial plants and most impressively with trees? Doubtless plants produce in their leaves a hormone which directs certain enzymes that conduct wound repair by cell division. ”

“ In summer the new green growth of the year was cut away completely from a scion and the remaining wood of one or more previous year's growth was depended upon for sending out shoots from latent buds. That is what happens after accidents to limbs or to trunks of trees and it occurred in the same way with my scions. Furthermore, it seemed to offer new hope for the propagation of walnuts, maples, and grapes, for example, because the free flowing sap of such species in the spring and early summer has led to attacks upon the sap by bacteria and fungi which ruin repair cells. ”