Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting: Rochester, N.Y. August 31 and September 1, 1953
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting: Rochester, N.Y. August 31 and September 1, 1953
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
There seems to be no doubt, therefore, that curly grain in walnut is
directly related to the curly condition to be found in the cambium,
which produces such curly grain. The basic question to be resolved is
what makes the cambium of a curly-grain tree assume the curly or wavy
character. As indicated above, one hypothesis is that several factors
may be operating. For example, a tree might have the inherent capacity
to produce wavy grain but would only do so under special environmental
conditions. These environmental conditions might be related to rapidity
of growth, water and nutrient supply, or various other habitat
characteristics, which affect the nature of growth. The fact that the
tree in question at Ithaca was growing rapidly might have been
responsible for the failure of the curly grain to develop. There is
evidence that trees with figured grain grow slowly. (Ref. 3, 4) On the
other hand the specimens from the tree at Beltsville, Maryland, were
from a slowly growing plant and did not show curly grain.
Another hypothesis is that development of the curly grain is dependent
upon the foliage of the tree. This has been demonstrated to be true in
instances where the foliage of fruit plants determines the
characteristics of the growth of the trunk and roots and of the fruit
itself. (Ref. 5, 6) It might be, therefore, that the failure of this
particular trunk to show curly grain is related to the fact that the top
of the tree at Ithaca was of another variety than the original Lamb.
Possibly the foliage of the original variety producing the curly
character is necessary to produce the curly grain. An argument against
this interpretation is that the tree at Beltsville, Maryland, is not
topworked.
It would be valuable at the present time to survey all the trees of the
Lamb walnut, which are growing in various parts of the country, to see
under what circumstances they may be showing the curly characteristic of
the original tree. Dr. M. Y. Pillow of the Forest Products Laboratory at
Madison, Wisconsin, in an unpublished report, has pointed out that it is
possible to determine the curly nature of the grain by shaving off the
outer bark, exposing the inner bark just outside of the cambium.
Inasmuch as the same cambium cells form fiber cells both on the inside
to make the wood and towards the outside to make the bark, the direction
and nature of the fibers in the bark are a direct indication of the
direction of the fibers underneath the cambium in the wood.
The appearance of the normal straight grained wood and bark and wood and
bark of a curly grained tree are shown in figures 4 and 5. Shaving off
the outer bark in this manner will not harm the trees, if it is done
carefully so it would be possible to make this survey without injury to
the trees. Examining a number of trees of the Lamb walnut in this way
and finding that some were curly, might give evidence as to the
conditions under which the Lamb walnut will produce curly grain.
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