Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting: Guelph, Ontario, September 3, 4, 5, 1947
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting: Guelph, Ontario, September 3, 4, 5, 1947
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
The butternut tree is found growing naturally farther north than the
walnut tree. Its northern boundary is roughly a line drawn from Midland
on Georgian Bay to Ottawa. It is widely distributed, but is not in large
enough quantity to have commercial value for lumber. An expert wood
carver, who is employed by the Department of Lands and Forests, uses
butternut largely in his work.
The shagbark and bitternut hickories make up the large percentage of the
hickories growing in Ontario. The northern limit of the bitternut is
approximately the same as the butternut--that is, Midland on Georgian
Bay and Ottawa on the east; while the northern limit of the shagbark is
thirty to forty miles south of the bitternut. The pignut and the
mockernut hickories are found in the southern hardwood belt along Lake
Erie.
The American chestnut was quite plentiful in different sections of the
southern hardwood belt. It was valued quite highly for the nuts. It has
been killed out by the chestnut blight and it is very rarely that live
suckers are seen.
The beech was widely distributed in the woodland of southern Ontario. It
has rarely been planted as a shade tree and it is not seeding up
extensively in woodlots. There are many stories of hogs being fattened
on beechnuts in pioneer days.
The Japanese heartnut has been planted in various parts of the province.
A heartnut tree in Bruce County lived through a hard winter that killed
many sugar maples and beech in the same area. Nut trees are seeding up
in many pastured woodlots in southwestern Ontario. The reason for this
is that stock do not relish their foliage as they do the maple, beech
and basswood, etc., and because of this, it is likely that nut trees
will make up a larger percentage of trees in Ontario woodlots than
originally, as it is a sad fact that at least seventy-five percent on
the farm woodlots in Ontario are still being pastured.
It is hoped that more interest will be shown in planting nut trees by
farmers and home owners. The Department of Lands and Forests is
enlarging its staff of Extension Foresters, and no doubt they will
include the propagation of nut trees in their extension work.
Nut Growing at the Horticultural Experiment Station, Vineland Station,
Ontario
W. J. STRONG
There was very little interest in nut growing in the early days of the
Horticultural Experiment Station although back in 1914 a few filberts
and Persian (English) walnuts were planted.
The first nut orchard at the Station was set out in 1922 and since then
several lots of nut trees have been added from time to time, principally
filberts and Persian walnuts. Also a few black walnuts, Japanese
heartnuts, Chinese chestnuts, hickories, pecan and several hybrids were
planted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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