Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Third Annual Meeting: Lancaster, Pennsylvania, December 18 and 19, 1912
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Third Annual Meeting: Lancaster, Pennsylvania, December 18 and 19, 1912
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
Mr. Lake: I think that is an extremely exceptional case in relation to
northern nuts. There is very little such North Carolina land in this
section of the country, if I judge right. We don't plant nut-growing
orchards up here in peaty soils, so Dr. Deming's recommendation was
rather for very good agricultural soil. A water-table here must be eight
or ten feet deep; in that event, it would not make any difference
whether you left three feet of tap-root or 15 inches.
Mr. Hutt: No.
The Chairman: In the soils of some parts of New England, a tree would
have to have a root three or four hundred feet deep to get to flowing
water, but nevertheless trees flourish there.
Mr. Lake: But the capillarity of the soil provides water for the tree
above the water-table.
Mr. Corsan: It all depends on the kind of nut. At St. Geneva I came
across a butternut that was growing in a soil that would kill a chestnut
very quickly. The soil was very springy and wet and the butternut just
loves that soil. I found that while other butternut trees bore nuts in
clusters of one to three, this butternut tree was bearing them in
clusters of ten and eleven. At Lake George, right in front of the
Post-Office, there was one tree twenty-four years old, two feet through,
that grew butternuts in clusters of ten and you could get a barrel of
nuts from it. It bore again this last summer heavily, not in clusters of
ten but in clusters of seven or eight. When we have damp soil we can't
grow the chestnut but the hickory nut will grow in a swamp, and so will
the butternut.
The Chairman: And the beech.
Mr. Corsan: The beech wants clay; it won't grow unless there is clay.
The Chairman: Our beech will grow where it has to swim.
Mr. Reed: Before we get away from this discussion I think that we ought
to commend Dr. Deming in the selection of this subject and in the
handling of his paper. In my position in the Government, we have a good
many inquiries about nut matters, and they are usually from people who
want to know how to start. The great call for information at the present
time is from the beginners, not from the advanced people, and I am glad
that Dr. Deming took that subject and handled it as he did, and I am
glad that he proposes to issue it as a circular from this Association.
It will be a great relief to others who are called on for information.
I should like to have a word, too, about this tap-root question. From
what has been said it is pretty clear that there is quite a difference
of opinion. We sometimes think we can improve on nature in her ways by
harsh methods and, while I know it is customary in the nurseries of the
South to cut the tap-roots back pretty severely, I wonder, sometimes,
whether that is always the best thing.
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