Page 26 



BETTER FRUIT 



July, ipip 



Developing Local Market for Oregon-Grown Walnuts 



By Knight Pearcy, Secretary of Western Walnut Association 



THIiRE are no reliable stalislies to 

 be had of acreages of nuts planted 

 in Oregon. During the last four 

 years the writer has roamed around 

 among the nut orchards considerably, 

 he has read all items concerning nut 

 orchards that have come to his atten- 

 tion and he has talked nuts with every- 

 body who would talk on the subject 

 with him. In this manner he has 

 learned of the whereabouts of many 

 orchards. The acreage, ownership, age 

 and other data covering the orchards 

 have in every case been carefully re- 

 corded. No claim is made that these 

 records are complete, but until some- 

 one presents a more complete set of 

 statistics I shall consider them the most 

 complete available for the state. 



My records show some 6,100 acres of 

 walnuts planted in Oregon. Whatever 

 plantings that are not here covered are 

 probably largely small ones scattered 

 about in districts where walnuts are not 

 widely grown. I am of the opinion that 

 a complete survey of the situation 

 would show close to 8,000 acres in the 

 state. 



I have the ages for about 4,400 acres 

 of the above; 927 acres are between one 

 and five years of age; 3,110 between six 

 and ten; 226 between eleven and fifteen, 

 and 160 over fifteen years; 5,300 acres 

 are tabulated according to county. 

 Yamhill leads the state with 3,162 out 

 of the 5,300. Marion is second with a 

 little over a thousand acres. The rec- 

 ords in this county are the most com- 

 plete that I have, as they were largely 

 taken from a survey of the orchard 

 plantings made by Mr. Van Trump, 

 county fruit inspector of that county. 

 Washington has 441 acres; Polk, 402; 

 Lane, 227, and Linn 105. 



The tabulation according to age indi- 

 cates that about 70 per cent of the 

 plantings are between 6 and 10 years of 

 age. In other words, some 70 per cent 

 of the total plantings of the state are at 

 the age where they are coming into 

 bearing and rapidly increasing their 

 yields. Quite a per cent of these are 

 trees grafted from varieties that tend 

 to come into commercial bearing at an 

 earlier age than does the average seed- 

 ling orchard. 



The thought probably comes to many 

 that a large part of these orchards will 

 never come into commercial bearing. I 

 am well enough acquainted with 3,500 

 acres in the state that I have undertaken 

 to forecast their futures and to tabulate 

 them accordingly. From this tabula- 

 tion I have reached the conclusion that 

 about 60 per cent of the total plantings 

 of the state will in time average 800 

 pounds and over per year. About 25 

 per cent are worthless commercially 

 and the remaining 15 per cent will yield 

 an average of 400 to 500 pounds an- 

 nually. 



Clarke County, Washington, which is 

 tributary to the same local markets as 

 we are, has 7,136 walnut trees, accord- 

 ing to a local survey. 



Seventy-five thousand pounds cov- 

 ered the walnut production of this state 

 in 1917. In 1918 the production was 

 probably more than 200,000 pounds, and 

 it will continue to double each year for 

 several years to come and to increase 

 annually for many years, as more plant- 

 ings are going in every year. Those 

 who have had marketing ditficulties 

 with walnuts during the last few years 

 can imagine where we will be within 

 a few years in case we continue to re- 



main unorganized and to undertake to 

 grade and market our nuts as indi- 

 viduals. 



A Portland nut broker, who is in a 

 position to know, informs me that the 

 annual consumption of the territory for 

 which Portland is the jobbing center is 

 as follows: Eight to ten cars Man- 

 churian walnuts; twenty cars unshelled 

 walnuts (other than Manchurians) ; 

 24,000 pounds (one car) of chestnuts; 

 150,000 pounds unshelled almonds; 



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