Part 29 (1/2)

I think our lunch is ready for us downstairs. We will come back up here at one o'clock.

(Whereupon, at 11:50 o'clock, a. m., the meeting was recessed, to reconvene at 1 o'clock of the same day.)

TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION

DR. MacDANIELS: Calling the afternoon session to order.

This afternoon I am going to turn the gavel over to our good friend, Spencer Chase, to carry on.

MR. CHASE: Thank you, thank you.

All of us are interested in the various experiment stations doing more work with nut trees, and we are very fortunate this afternoon in having two experiment stations represented, and we will first hear from Bill Clarke from Penn State, who will talk on, ”Progress in nut culture at the Pennsylvania State College.” Mr. Clark.

Progress in Nut Culture at the Pennsylvania State College

W. S. CLARKE, JR., State College, Pennsylvania

Work in nut growing at the Pennsylvania State College was formally begun in 1946, when a project on this subject was approved by the college authorities. A few acres of land were set aside for this work, and the following spring about half an acre was planted with a few nut trees of different species. At the present time an area of about twenty acres is set aside for nut plantings, although a few spots on this land are not plantable on account of rock outcrops.

We now have out in the field sixty black walnuts, all but three of them named varieties, which were received from Tennessee in 1949. Seventeen varieties are represented in this collection.

In the nursery are more than 200 seedling black walnuts. These were planted from nuts gathered from local trees in the fall of 1946. They were transplanted at the end of their first season and have remained in their present position for three years. They were planted largely for the sake of experience in handling the nuts and the young trees. Some of them have been grafted, and this year a few grafts of Thomas and Stabler were successful. On account of their size, all these trees will have to be taken out at the end of the present growing season.

About twenty Persian walnuts have been received from the United States Department of Agriculture. These are all budded trees, the buds having been taken from special selections with the best nuts from trees originally introduced from northern Europe and central Asia. Three out of four seedling Persian walnuts and one out of two j.a.panese walnuts planted in 1947 have survived and are included in our planting. One named variety of b.u.t.ternut is in our collection, and a number of seedlings in our nursery.

It has been our experience that walnut trees can be moved rather easily.

The percentage of loss in transplanting has been negligible. On account of an emergency, this spring we had to move several walnuts which were already in full leaf. Some of the leaves were trimmed off, and the trees have survived and have even made some additional growth.

On our grounds is one Chinese chestnut left from a planting of eight in 1930. It was killed back to the ground in 1934 after winter temperatures of close to 30 degrees below zero, but it has since grown up to be a tree of moderate size. It suffered considerable injury to buds and twigs in 1948 from temperatures down to 23 degrees below zero, but has since recovered. In several years it has borne a crop of burs, but no other tree is available for cross-pollination, and the nuts have seldom filled.

Twelve seedling Chinese chestnut trees from different sources have been planted, and an area of several acres has been set aside to extend the work on chestnuts.

A start has been made toward a collection of filberts. Five named varieties of European filberts were planted in 1947. All have suffered from winter injury, but only one tree has been killed outright. Very few nuts have been produced. About 25 seedlings of European filberts and 25 of the American were received from Tennessee two years ago. About 90% have survived and are growing nicely.

Several other species of nuts have been tried without success. Two trees of the red hickory were set out several years ago, but they failed to leaf out. Four young trees of the golden c.h.i.n.kapin of the Pacific Coast were planted and grew well the first summer, but all four were killed by the first freeze in the fall. About a pound of nuts of the Turkish tree hazel were planted several years ago; these failed to come up the first year. The next winter the mice and rabbits discovered them and ate up most of the planting. A few germinated, but most of these were lost in transplanting, and today only two are left of the entire lot.

MR. CHASE: Thank you, Mr. Clarke.

(Applause.)

Discussion

MR. SHERMAN: I'd like to say, just before you leave this subject, that the speaker barely mentioned the fertilization experiment that was started in Pennsylvania on black walnuts. I think the members of the nut survey stuck their necks out and got their heads. .h.i.t a little bit when we said that the black walnut as an orchard industry in Pennsylvania was sick. We hadn't been able to find crops of black walnuts. We found individual trees, but we couldn't find orchards of black walnuts, and as a result of that, this fertilization experiment was started, in a 55-acre black walnut orchard with Ohio, Stabler and Thomas varieties.

The owner, Truman Jones, said, ”I don't care what you do with the Stablers, you can't hurt them, anyway; they are no good to begin with.”