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
My place is in Wolfeboro, N. H., which is situated in the eastern end of
Lake Winnepesaukee, 43 degrees, 35 minutes north latitude; elevation
above sea level, 687'. The elevation of the lake is 504'. Wolfeboro is
just about at the northern fringe of the climate where peaches will
ripen, that is during favorable years in favored locations. Improved
varieties of field corn will ripen during favorable seasons. It also
happens to be the northern fringe of the American chestnut, in favored
location. I have discovered a number of saplings that are still alive.
As a matter of fact, three or four years ago I was fortunate in finding
some ripened nuts, but the trees that bore those nuts have since died of
the blight. While a certain variety of old fashioned sweet cherry will
live and bear fruit, some of the recent improved varieties will not
live. Every one that I have planted was winter-killed. The Montmorency
cherry, however, does well. It is also the northern limit of the pignut.
Butternuts do very well.
DDT Dust versus Butternut Curculio
I was prompted to write this note by reading Mr. S. H. Graham's article
entitled "An Experiment with DDT" appearing on page 101 of the 1945
annual report, in which he states that the butternut curculio did not
survive DDT powder.
In the past four or five years the butternut curculio (identified as
such by Prof. Conklin of the University of N. H.) has all but ruined my
Crath Persian walnuts and heartnuts, so, acting on the basis of Mr.
Graham's experiment, I had my trees dusted early in the morning when the
dew was on the leaves, using a 10% DDT powder, the first time about May
30 and again two weeks later, and I am happy to say that this dusting
has been very effective. I have been unable to find any sign of curculio
injury this year, although I have seen it nearby on some native
butternut trees.
My Gellatly heartnut was riddled by the curculio last year. This year,
when the dusting was done, this tree was overlooked, so I undertook to
dust it myself, and not realizing that the Niagara duster which I used
was set in the closed position, I dusted the tree with considerable
effort. In spite of the small amount of dust that came out, it proved
sufficient to keep the curculios away or else to kill them so that there
is no sign of any damage at this writing.
Persian Walnuts
In the spring of 1938 I planted a number of Crath Persian walnut
seedlings. Out of possibly eight or ten, only two survive. (I gave each
one about three years, and if it showed serious winter injury, I pulled
it up.) I was pleasantly surprised the other day to discover that one of
them has borne a single nut this year. This particular tree is at least
300' from any other Persian walnut, so it looks as if it were
self-fertile. It now remains to be seen whether or not the nut will
ripen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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