18 



Mi;. ()l(()I"i : I'dr i sinill orchard would it be proper to plant 

 ]fi(» to ISO iVcl ,i|),-irt ? 



.Mh. Mattoon : \\'1hii ))i.iiited in that way you would get nut 

 j)r()(luc-lioii .iiid at ihc s nc time, a timber growth. If pruned you get 

 a good log al ll.i' base. The small, ten-foot logs from these trees pay 

 as imu'h as you \vouhi gtt for an 18 foot log of a taller tree. For 

 fort'stry purposes, })runing is a desirable practice. 



Thk President: But for nut-bearing, what is your opinion? 



Mk. Mattoon: I should suppose that you would want your or- 

 rliard trees to be is low-branched as possible, and with as full foliage 

 as possible. 



Mr. Bixby (acting as secretary) then read a paper by H. R. Mosnat 

 of iMorgan Park, Illinois in which he spoke of the numlber of doctors 

 interested in nut growing and the need of all men of that character 

 liaving' a hobby of that kind. He thought that the taxes on many farms 

 might be paid out of the profits of nut trees planted on the farms 

 and along the highways. But these nut trees should not be seedling 

 trees. The apple and the black walnut are said to be the only trees 

 that grow in every state of the Union. Nuts were one of the staple 

 foods of our ancestors. We should not be discouraged if we have not 

 yet found the right nut for the East and the Middle West. We should 

 seek them promptly because of the rate at which nut trees are being 

 converted into logs. By next year, he said, he expected to have 25 

 varieties of black walnuts in his collection including some hybrids. 

 Machines for cracking black walnuts by power are now practically per- 

 fect and one firm in that business has cracked about a million pounds in 

 the last few years and expects to treble or quadruple its business this 

 season if supplies can be secured. The trouble with most walnut 

 cracking machines is that they crush instead of crack and small bits 

 of shell are apt to stick to the meats. But there is machinery now to 

 remove these bits of shell. There are wild black walnuts that run 16 

 to 18 per cent kernels, though the average is only 12^%. It is not 

 always the largest nuts that produce the greatest proportionate weight 

 of kernels. The picking and cracking expense with black walnuts is 

 \ ery little greater than with pecans, but the final cleaning to render 

 the meat absolutely free of shells has been very expensive. Cultivated 

 black walnuts will of course give better results, because they have 

 been selected for easy cracking, have kernels that separate readily 

 from the shell, the product is uniform, and the nuts require much less 



