Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Fourth Annual Meeting: Washington D.C. November 18 and 19, 1913
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Fourth Annual Meeting: Washington D.C. November 18 and 19, 1913
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
Now about the cultivated nuts. I wish I could tell you how much I think
of the native nuts. I grew up in Northern Illinois and could go out on a
day like this and gather two or three bushels of hickory nuts. How I
enjoyed the black walnut, especially when it was just shriveled so it
would leave the shell--it got rather too rich when it was dried and
stale in the winter time--but how delicious it was when just wilted!
Also there was the butternut and the wild hazelnut. I used to take a
one-horse wagon into the woods on a Saturday and gather enough hazelnuts
in the shucks to fill it; then we had hazelnuts all winter. So I am in
full sympathy with the Northern Nut Growers Association and I would
like to see those nuts grown, if not wild in the woods, at least in
cultivation.
There might be a few things of interest to you about the wild hickory
nut. According to Farlow's Index of North American fungi of twenty-five
years ago, there have been thirty-seven species of fungi collected on
that tree. Probably there are twice that number as a matter of fact, but
mycologists have collected, described and named thirty-seven species on
the _Hickoria ovata_, the plain shagbark, and the other hickories have
similar numbers. The pecan has only three named species in Farlow's
Index, but Mr. Rand has got together three times as many I think--I am
not sure of the number.
Of the pecan diseases, the pecan scab is probably the most conspicuous
fungus trouble. The pecan scab is the most typical fungus parasite of
the pecan. It attacks the leaves, fruit, etc. It attacks the vessels or
veins of the leaves and frequently enters by means of aphis punctures
which break the skin so that there is no doubt but that this particular
disease is favored by an aphis. We have investigated this disease quite
carefully and carried on a series of spraying experiments for some three
years and there is no doubt about our ability to control it. It can be
prevented by spraying with Bordeaux mixture. You never can tell how many
sprayings will be required. It may take three to ten sprayings to
protect the nuts. The leaves are grown mostly within a month--the leaves
are pushed out within thirty days and you can spray those leaves and
protect them. The weak point in the treatment is that the nut of the
pecan grows steadily from the time it starts to way into September. This
makes a hard problem in spraying as the nut keeps expanding and forming
a new and unprotected surface for an unreasonably long season and they
are susceptible to scab attacks all the time, so you have the problem of
spraying the nuts all summer. The spray does not stick very well on the
nuts. The result is that we advise dodging that parasite by planting the
non-susceptible kinds; it is much better and cheaper. It is certainly an
encouraging thing that you can plant good varieties, that do not scab
badly, and which at the very most require but two or three sprayings to
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