Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting: Downington, Pennsylvania, September 11 and 12, 1933 — John Shaqi
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting: Downington, Pennsylvania, September 11 and 12, 1933
Science
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting: Downington, Pennsylvania, September 11 and 12, 1933
Northern Nut Growers Association -- Periodicals; Nut trees -- Periodicals; Nuts -- Periodicals
In the spring of 1926, I had a nurseryman graft 6 small black walnut
trees to the Thomas and Stabler varieties with 5 catches, 4 Thomas and 1
Stabler. In the spring of 1927, I bought the homestead farm and planted
2 Thomas, 2 Stabler, and 2 Ohio black walnuts, 2 shellbarks, 2 hardshell
almonds and 6 filberts. This spring I also planted about a bushel of
seedling black walnuts and, as it happened we had an exceptionally wet
summer, these seedlings made a wonderful growth.
In the spring of 1928 I transplanted about 15 acres to these seedlings.
In 1929 I planted another 20 acres, and in 1930 another 10 acres. Some
of these trees were planted 60 feet each way and some 30 feet apart.
Some of these trees were grafted the same year they were planted but
most of them were grafted two years later. At this time I had little
experience in grafting and, naturally, my 2 acres in getting catches
were accordingly. When I started out I thought it would be cheaper to
plant seedlings and graft them, as explained above. I have gotten along
fairly well in getting my grove started but I found it to be far more
work than I expected it would be and I would not do it that way again.
Because of some failures each year I still have many trees that have not
yet been successfully grafted. I am not in a great hurry to get my grove
on a paying basis as I am getting a lot of fun playing with the
developing of it and I don't believe there will be so very much
difference in the size of these trees 25 years from now. I would say,
however, that for the man who wants to get a nut grove developed as soon
as possible, he should buy his trees from the expert nut tree
nurseryman.
My entire grove is now seeded to blue grass for a permanent pasture.
About 25 acres is pastured by 160 head of sheep and the balance is cut
for hay to feed the sheep in the winter time. My reason for seeding to
blue grass is to prevent erosion. Possibly if I should keep my trees
cultivated during the summer they would make a better growth. But then
my sheep will make quite a bit of manure and I spread much of this
manure under the trees every winter and, as it is, my trees are making a
very good growth every year.
I now have a grove of about 800 black walnut trees. These are mostly of
the Thomas, also quite a few Ohio and Stabler and a few Ten Eycks. The
Stablers, Ohios, and Ten Eycks seem to fill the shell so full of meats
with me that they are hard to remove in large pieces. I think I shall
regraft most of these to the Thomas and some of the later varieties.
About 600 of my trees are now 7 years old from seed. These trees had
about 1/2 bushel of hulled walnuts last summer and I expect to have
about 2 bushels this summer. Last summer I also had about a peck of hard
shell almonds from my two trees that were planted in 1927. In 1931 my 6
filberts had about 1/2 peck of nuts. These trees are now big enough to
have at least a bushel or two of nuts if the catkins had not frozen this
past winter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account