100 



h.TVf regardinc: tlio propagation and culture of nut trees. 



riu' nut tree j^lantings in the experimental orchards at Cornell 

 have not been ])articnlarl3' successful. About ten years ago Profes- 

 sor (handler set out about one-half acre of named A'arieties of 

 pecans. Persian walnuts, black walnuts, hickories, hazel nuts, chest- 

 nuts and Japanese walnuts. These Iiavc received good care, both as 

 to eulti\ atidii .iiul fertilization l)ut [o date the only trees which have 

 borne are th.e Ja])anesi' walnuts and th*ese have not liad good crops. 

 Apple trees of the same age in adjacent land have been bearing com- 

 mercial crops for a number of years, especially such varieties as the 

 jNIcIntosh. ^\'ealth\- and R. I. Greening. The climate at Ithaca is 

 apparently rather too rigorous for most of the nut trees. Persian 

 walnuts, hazel nuts .-nid frequently Japanese walnuts suffer from 

 winter injury. In the case of the chestnut, blight lias practically 

 killed all of the trees. The jieeaiis are perfectly hardy but as yet 

 have not borne, jirobably because our scasoits are not sufficiently 

 long or warm enough to grow this nut to advantage. Hickories have 

 been \iry slow to become established and in fact have never made 

 really good growth. This experience, of course, makes us feel that 

 nut ffrowino- is reallv not as easv as some enthusiasts would have us 

 believe. 



In addition to this \ariety planting there are four or fi\e acres 

 of recentlv cleared woodland in which there are hundreds of hickory 

 seedlings which can be to})-worked. ^^'e are aiming also in this area 

 to establish seedlina's of :\l\ of the hardv nut trees to use as stocks and 

 eventu.illy to get a eolleetion of all named \arieties of nut trees. 

 Grrfting so far has not been i)artieularly satisO'ctory due in some 

 cases to failure of the grafts to set; in other cases to the winter kill- 

 ing of grafts which have made fairly good growth. Injury by bud 

 moths and wind storms have also been detrimental factors. Our own 

 experience togetlier with observations upon the results of nut grafting 

 "clsewliere by experts lead us to believe that grafting of nut trees 

 is a \ery difficult undertaking as compared with that of otlier fruit 

 trees. It invobes a knack which must be accpiired by very consid- 

 erable experience. I realize, of course, that new facts regarding nut 

 ffraftiuii' are being; discovered almost d^iilv and in the future we 

 may look for better results. 



The attitude of the Department of Pomology at the College with 

 regard to nut o-rowing; is of necessitv conservative. First of all. the 



