71 



I am delighted to say that I never did anything in my Hfe that 

 met with such hearty and general approval as this venture. From 

 almost every quarter of Canada I received commendatory letters 

 and offers of assistance. One encouraging feature was the keen 

 interest shown by wealthy business and professional men in our 

 larger centres and by some of our more progressive fruit growers 

 and farmers. Inasmuch as my venture was an inovation there were 

 of course some humorous comments to the effect that we had enough 

 " nuts " in the country now without encouraging any more. I replied 

 to my humorous friends that the " nuts " they had in mind did not 

 grow on trees whereas the kind I had in mind did. 



The information I received in answer to my questionnaire was 

 very interesting and instructive and confirmed some of my impres- 

 sions regarding the occurrence of nut trees in our province. More 

 important still it showed that there were several superior trees of 

 various species growing here and there throughout the country. 



Geographical Distribution of Nut Trees in Canada 



The chief native nut trees are the black walnut, the butternut or 

 white walnut, the hickory, of which there are four species — the 

 chestnut, the beechnut and the hazelnut. Of introduced nut trees 

 there are the Persian, Japanese and Chinese walnuts, the European, 

 Japanese and Chinese chestnuts, the pecan and the European filberts. 



The Black Walnut (Juglans nigra). 



The black walnut is one of our finest native nut trees and is 

 found growing naturally along the north shore of Lake Erie and 

 Lake Ontario and around Lake St. Clair. It has been planted in 

 many other parts of Ontario and does well where protected from 

 cold winds. The tree grows to a large size, sometimes attaining a 

 height of 90 feet and a trunk diameter of 5 feet. When grown in 

 the open it makes a beautiful symmetrical tree, having a large, 

 rounded crown with drooping lower branches. 



The black walnut is not found growing naturally outside of 

 Ontario. It has been planted in Manitoba but does not do well there 

 because of the cold winter. In 1917 the writer observed a few speci- 

 mens near Portage la Prairie which were about five feet tall. These 

 trees made a fair annual growth but most of this froze back each 

 winter. 



Many people in Canada believe that the black walnut is a slow 

 grower. This impression is not correct as some trees grow very 

 rapidly. About eighteen years ago I planted a number of nuts along 

 the line fence and along the roadside on my father's farm near 

 Simcoe, Ontario. Most of these nuts sprouted and grew and some 

 have done exceptionally well. One of these trees is now thirty-seven 

 feet tall and has a trunk circumference of forty-one inches at the 

 ground. It has borne nuts since it was six years of age and this 



