Walnut tree

“ THE BLACK WALNUT There is something about the distinctive flavor of our native black walnut kernels that appeals to the American people. And there is much about the black walnut tree itself that makes it much admired and respected.
It grows rapidly, and yet it is one of our most valuable timber trees. It is an excellent tree for the grounds about the home. Not only does it yield an annual crop, but it is a lovely shade tree—beautiful to look at—and has the further advantage that the lawn grasses grow well beneath it. ”

“ The walnut tree has a great variety of good qualities in addition to its fine appearance and generous shade. From the kernel a valuable oil may be obtained for use in cookery and in lamps. Bread has also been made from the kernels. The spongy husk of the nuts is used as dyestuff. It thus unites almost all the qualities desirable in a tree--beauty, gracefulness and richness of foliage in every period of its growth; bark and husks which may be employed in an important art; fruit valuable as food; wood unsurpassed in durability and in elegance. ”

“ As a lumber tree, the walnut of Europe has long been commercially important. It is the staple wood for gun-stocks, and during wars the price has reached absurd heights, one country bidding against its rival to get control of the visible supply. Furniture makers use quantities of the curly walnut often found in stumps of old trees. The heart wood, always a rich brown, is often watered and crimped in curious and intricate patterns, that when polished blend the loveliest dark and light shades with the characteristic walnut lustre, to reward the skilled craftsman. ”

“ The land they stand on is grazed. They are not set the traditional 80 feet apart. Their nut crops may dwindle away. One never sees walnut trees growing in pure stands—always with other species which scatter their seeds and push in. They are not monopolists—like the pines.
Very well, we shall see. My own small experiment in unorthodox ways has the temerity to suggest a new treatment for a species of timber tree which I personally regard as America's very best gift of its kind to the world. For 17 years my modified forest-type planting of black walnut trees has not disappointed me. ”

“ The black walnut is a grand tree from any point of view, even though it so fully absorbs all water and fertility as to check other growth under its great reach of branches. The lines it presents to the winter sky are as rugged as those of the oak, but there is a great difference. And this ruggedness is held far into the spring, for the black walnut makes no slightest apparent effort at growth until all the other trees are greening the countryside. ”

“ Being the most valuable timber species of the area, walnut has been subjected to heavy cutting over the past 85 years. Most of the walnut trees still present are small or medium-sized, but the species is still abundant over much of the area. Along certain hilltop edges there are groves of walnuts, growing in nearly pure stands, with an occasional elm, ash, coffee-tree or honey locust. Elsewhere walnut trees are more scattered, but are distributed throughout the woodland. ”

“ Most native trees are immune to fungous and bacterial diseases that destroy so many trees. The black walnut is a hardy tree, and a fine timber proposition. In the second place, it is a fast growing tree. I don't knew just how quickly one could actually produce a black walnut orchard, but, outside of a few trees, such as the black locust and a number of others that do not produce nuts, the black walnut is one of the fastest growers. If you will feed a young walnut tree a small application of wood ashes and some stable manure it will commonly make a growth of six or seven feet a year. ”

“ In the woods, rocks emerging, and, where there is a slope immediately towards the lake, the snow is pretty much gone, and we see partridge-berries frozen, and outer shells of walnuts, and chestnut-burrs, heaped or scattered among the roots of the trees. The walnut-husks mark the place where the boys, after nutting, sat down to clear the walnuts of their outer shell. The various species of pine look exceedingly brown just now,—less beautiful than those trees which shed their leaves. An oak-tree, with almost all its brown foliage still rustling on it. ”

“ One thing against any such record, is that many visitors come to our farm every year to see the walnut trees and the pockets of some of them look suspiciously bulky on leaving. (An ordinary coat pocket will hold a quart, an overcoat pocket more than that and there are only thirty-two quarts in a bushel.)
The new orchard is just coming into bearing. At one end of it there is an old black walnut tree, and the young Persians that were planted near this tree began to bear first. Near the center of this eight-acre orchard we planted a butternut tree. ”

“ Any other small fruits may be planted in the orchard between the walnut trees or any cultivated crop can be raised satisfactorily on the same land, many orchardists gaining triple use of the soil in this way. Besides, the cultivation of the earth in proximity to the walnuts proves of great benefit to the trees. Before trees are planted the tap-root should be trimmed or cut back and most if not all the lateral branches trimmed from the tree. ”

“ Walnut trees, in the opinion of the writer, cease growing upward when they cease growing downward; that is to say, when rock, shale or impenetrable hardpan stops the growth of the tap root, the tree has practically reached its height. ”

“ Walnut seedlings like human beings tend to show marked inherited trends, erratic and undependable though they may be. Thus, seedlings grown from vigorous and upright trees tend to be vigorous and upright. Conversely, trees of poor parentage, either as timber or nut producers, will tend to reproduce the poor characteristics of their parent. This is more markedly true where the parent tree stands isolated from the pollen of other walnut trees of the same species. ”

“ It would probably kill a large tree to cut the whole top off at one time. I have seen trees, two feet in diameter, successfully topworked. It sometimes happens that the scions placed in the tree, in the spring, for some reason or other, do not grow. The tree then sends up nice green shoots that later in the season can be budded into just as if they were small seedlings. The wild black walnut trees, growing around the fields and hills, can all be very easily topworked to the English walnut by the slip bark method. The scions must be dormant and the tree starting into active growth. ”

“ Down they come glancing from bough to bough, and, striking the hard turf, the thick green rind splits asunder, and the walnut itself rebounds upwards. Those who buy walnuts have no idea of the fine taste of the fruit thus gathered direct from the tree, when the kernel, though so curiously convoluted, slips its pale yellow skin easily and is so wondrously white. Surely it is an error to banish the orchard and the fruit garden from the pleasure-grounds of modern houses, strictly relegating them to the rear, as if something to be ashamed of. ”

“ In connection with the improvement of the black walnut as a nut and timber tree, the specialist might well investigate the English or Persian walnut. What about the possibilities of Circassian walnut lumber? What is to prevent the growers and the specialist from planting the English walnut for timber? Here in Northern Ohio, English walnut trees have been cut for timber. There are probably several hundred English walnut trees scattered through the northern counties of Ohio. Some of them are from 10 to 18 inches in diameter. A few are second generation. ”

“ The reason why the walnuts are put in exposed places, on the slope of a rise, with open aspect to the east and north, is because the walnut is a foolish tree that will not learn by experience. If it feels the warmth of a few genial days in early spring, it immediately protrudes its buds; and the next morning a bitter frost cuts down every hope of fruit for that year, leaving the leaf as black as may be. Wherefore the east wind is desirable to keep it as backward as possible. ”

“ The great age and size to which the walnut tree will attain has been demon- strated in these European countries ; one tree in Norfolk, England, 100 years old, 90 feet high, and with a spread of 120 feet, yields 54,000 nuts a season; another tree, 300 years old, 55 feet high, and having a spread of 125 feet, yields 1,500 pounds each season. In Crimea there is a notable walnut tree 1,000 years old that yields in the neighborhood of 100,000 nuts annually. ”

“ The walnut orchard is a better investment, and no less a delight to the eye. While young, the walnut-tree is graceful; when old, it is stately. It is a sturdy bearer, and if it did not bear at all, would be worth honorable place and room on large estates, simply for its avenues of generous shade. It is planted in the seed, and transplanted at two or three years old, with only twenty-seven trees to an acre. They begin to bear at ten years, reach full bearing at fifteen, and do not give sign of failing at fifty.
Most interesting of all South California's outdoor industries is the grape culture. ”

“ Late in the year the foliage has become scanty, and the nut-clusters hang fascinatingly clear, far above one's head, to tempt the climb and the club. The black walnut is a tree that needs our care; for furniture fashion long used its close-grained, heavy, handsome wood as cruelly as the milliners did the herons of Florida from which were torn the "aigrets," now happily "out of style." Though walnut furniture is no longer the most popular, the deadly work has been done, for the most part, and but few of these wide-spread old forest monarchs yet remain. ”

“ Stoke: "With the Carpathian walnuts there is no uniformity in winter injury. I have had the Crath variety kill back to two inch wood. Most others have never shown winter injury."
Corsan: "When is it practical to take mulch away?"
MacDaniels: "If you take mulch away too late you will get more injury than if you don't take it away at all."
Member: "Why does my young walnut tree not bear?"
Bernath: "English walnut trees may produce pistillate blooms for a number of years before they produce pollen so that if you have only one tree it may be due to lack of pollination." ”

“ The life of an apple tree is from fifty to sixty years whereas a walnut tree is just in its prime at that age and destined to live for hundreds of years afterwards. Then again the ravages of the chestnut tree blight are destroying the cultivated paragons just as freely as the chestnuts in the forests, which in a few years will be things of the past, thus giving still more room for walnut and other nut trees. ”

“ Every tree, no matter how carefully its parentage may have been guarded, is unlike any other. The seedlings differ in traits of vigor, hardiness, susceptibility to disease, time of beginning to bear, productiveness, and longevity, and the nuts vary in size, form, thickness of shell, ease of cracking, and in kernel characteristics.
The people of California have also found that in many ways, Persian walnut trees on their own roots are less desirable than are those budded or grafted on the roots of some black walnut. ”

“ Yet seedlings of the hardiest trees often do it. A new variety of the tree has been discovered which is wonderful in that, whereas the ordinary Persian walnut tree comes into leaf rather early, this tree comes into leaf in June when cherries are ripe. I have seen similar trees in France. I have no doubt there are ten or fifteen different varieties of this tree growing unappreciated in this part of the country. These particular trees we do know about happen to belong to gentlemen who are propagating them for our benefit and we owe them our thanks ”

“ They do not grow only that we may have something delicious to eat. They ripen and fall on the ground, where some of them take root and grow up into trees themselves. If you plant a hickory-nut a little hickory-tree should come up, and it will if the conditions are all right. If you plant a walnut it will be a walnut-tree that will appear; so you see a nutshell is the seed-vessel of the nut-tree.
English walnuts do not grow wild in this country, but are cultivated here and you all know what the English walnut is like. Our American walnut is very hard to crack ”

“ This will husk them rapidly and well. We should promote the growing of more improved black walnuts. Most catalog nurseries still list seedling walnuts. We sold 3000 Thomas and Myers black walnut trees to one mail order nursery, and they could have used more.
English Walnuts
I tried all the California varieties, but these lacked hardiness. The Wiltz Mayette grew into a big fine tree but the 1940 Armistice Day freeze proved fatal. Breslau, Broadview, Schafer, and several others with some 25 Carpathian seedlings are just coming into bearing. Some give promise of adaptation here. ”

“ To assure bringing of the best walnut into Canada and the U.S.A. I made an agreement with a local gardener to graft for us 500 walnut seedlings with the scions I would secure for him. Thus grafted seedlings could be brought to Canada the next fall. Furthermore, I have an idea to create the largest and the best walnut which ever grew on the globe. For this purpose I selected several walnut trees bearing Giant nuts and I wish to pollenize them next spring with pollen of a tree which yields the hardest and the sweetest kernel. ”