84 



NUT GROWING IN PENNSYLVANIA FROM THE STAND- 

 POINT OF THE EXPERIMENT STATION 



By Prof, F. N. Fagan, State College, Pennsylvania 



' I think the majority of the older members will recall that about 

 10 or 12 years ago pressure was brought to bear upon tlie experiment 

 station at State College regarding walnut growing in Pennsylvania. 

 The situation then was a good deal like it is now. Our fruit growers 

 had met with a rather disastrous year, many of them becoming pessi- 

 mistic. We have lots of pessimistic fruit growers in Pennsylvania 

 today. Prices are poor. There will be thousand's of bushels of fruit 

 not harvested in the state of Pennsylvania and not marketed. It is 

 because competition is so keen with all types of vegetables — tomatoes, 

 for instance, can be purchased in places in Pennsylvania for 25c a 

 bushel. That situation existed about 10 years ago to such an extent 

 that a few men, who had seen English walnut trees bearing good 

 crops of nuts, immediately thought about the price of nuts back at 

 Thanksgiving and Christmas time the year before, and said, "Why, 

 there is a gold mine in that." They will plant these trees, which will 

 grow anywhere, and then they will get rich. 



There are about 5,000 bearing English walnut trees in the state 

 of Pennsylvania. Most of them are seedlings. We are fortunate, I 

 believe more so than many states, in having had for a good many 

 year Mr. J. F. Jones Avhom we feel has done more work in the state 

 of Pennsylvania than the experiment station has done. We cannot at 

 the experiment station do very much in the breeding and testing of 

 nuts because we are a little too far north. Then there are financial 

 restrictions. It is our hope that sometime we will be able, probably, 

 to come to this county, or some other southeastern county, and es- 

 tablish a farm not only for the interest of the nut industry, but also 

 for the solving of some of the other problems in horticulture. 



Do not think I am a pessimist in regard to horticulture in the state 

 of Pennsylvania or in the eastern United States. I am not. It has 

 just as bright a future today as it has ever had. The general fruit 

 industry is just as bright as ever. 



