Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Thirty-Seventh Annual Report: Wooster, Ohio, September 3, 4, 5, 1946
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Thirty-Seventh Annual Report: Wooster, Ohio, September 3, 4, 5, 1946
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
True, a nut specialist will not keep death from the door of nut growers,
nor will he save their groves from destruction, but he can keep a record
of each grower's trees. He can plant his trees and lay out his plantings
on state land where there would be more assurance of permanency. Once a
nut department is established there is good reason to suppose that the
work would go on until certain objectives were attained.
Well, what should our specialist specialize in? May I suggest a few
activities? Such a specialist would be the proper person to keep the
score cards of the prize-winning black walnuts, hickories, butternuts
and English (Persian) walnuts of nut contests held in the state. He
would have the time and space for grafting scions from such trees for
further observation and study.
In the second place, he could plant and study other varieties under
identical conditions and observe their performance. By correlating these
data with the records of individual growers he ought to be able to
recommend certain varieties of nut trees for various sections of the
state.
In Ohio, we have chapters of the Izaak Walton League; we have Friends of
the Land; we have sportsmens clubs; we have extensive tracts of
municipal and state land. We have the problem of doing something
constructive with strip mining areas; we have, and will have under
contour farming, little crazy-quilt blocks of land unsuitable for
cultivation. All these agencies and all these needs tie in with the
intelligent use of trees, particularly nut trees, because they serve a
fourfold purpose; lumber, food, erosion control, and a balanced wild
life. Here is where the nut specialist would enter the scene. By
collecting data, by pooling the results of the individual growers, and
especially by selection and breeding, he should be able to recommend the
proper varieties of nut trees for specific needs.
It seems to me, however, that the main job of such a worker should be to
produce a streamlined black walnut, a thin-shelled, good-cracking,
fast-growing walnut.
The black walnut is, indeed, a regal tree. It grows all over the State.
Here is a tree of almost infinite variation. What an opportunity for the
genetic scientist! What an opportunity for the nut specialist!
In connection with the improvement of the black walnut as a nut and
timber tree, the specialist might well investigate the English or
Persian walnut. What about the possibilities of Circassian walnut
lumber? What is to prevent the growers and the specialist from planting
the English walnut for timber? Here in Northern Ohio, English walnut
trees have been cut for timber. There are probably several hundred
English walnut trees scattered through the northern counties of Ohio.
Some of them are from 10 to 18 inches in diameter. A few are second
generation. As these trees seem to be fairly rapid growers it would seem
reasonable that nuts from these hardy trees would grow into valuable
timber, apart from the value of the nuts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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