March, 1920 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 21 



Harvesting and Marketing English Walnuts in Oregon 



LIKE many another, the author of 

 this article is but one of the many 

 Westerners who are enthused, 

 confident and alive to the possibilities 

 that lie in the development of the nut- 

 growing industry on the Pacific Coast, 

 and especially in the Willamette valley. 

 The certainty of good returns, both fi- 

 nancially and otherwise, and the com- 

 parative ease of handling the orchards 

 and the annual crop of nuts, are two of 

 the biggest inducements and attractions 

 in this phase of horticultural work. 



To attempt to write an article on the 

 general subject of nut growing would 

 require an entire magazine in itself, 

 were the subject properly handled. 

 However, the lack of material dealing 

 with walnut culture, especially as re- 

 • gards certain phases of it, has induced 

 the author to keenly peruse what little 

 information there is available and to- 

 gether with his own experience and ob- 

 servations, to present a concise and at 

 the same time a detailed article on this 

 topic for the interest of those readers 

 of Better Fbuit, who, too, have a more 

 or less interest in the subject itself. 



As in the case of the Italian prune, 

 one of the most simple operations in 

 the handling of the crop of walnuts is 

 that of gathering them. The gathering 

 commences in the middle of the fall at 

 the time when the hulls of the nuts 

 begin splitting and the nuts start drop- 

 ping. In most orchards there are four 

 pickings, that is, the work is so plan- 

 ned that each tree is gone over four 

 times, at intervals of about four days, 

 the picking crew being kept busy by 

 starting at one side of the orchard and 

 working straight across. By the time 

 the entire orchard has been worked 

 over, it is about time for the crew to 

 start in again at the other side. During 

 the first two or three gatherings, only 

 those nuts lying on the ground are 

 taken, while on the later rounds the 

 branches of the trees are shaken by 

 means of a hook attached to a light 

 pole, care being taken, however, not to 

 injure the branches of the trees. 



As the nuts are gathered, they are 

 usually divided into two grades, the 

 nuts which are well-matured being seg- 

 regated from the cull nuts, and later 

 handled separately at the drier. Dur- 

 ing the gathering the nuts are either 

 sacked under the trees, stacked in piles 

 without being sacked, or else placed di- 

 rectly from the picker's bucket into the 

 wagon, to be carted thence to the drier. 

 The next step in the handling of the 

 crop is the drying of the nuts. On the 

 coast here there are two methods of 

 doing the drying, one by exposure to 

 the sun, a method in use in the warmer 

 regions of California, and the second 

 by means of artificial heat, the common 

 method in the Oregon sections. Under 

 the California method, the nuts, after 

 being thoroughly washed, are placed in 

 broad, shallow trays and so arranged 

 and assembled as to receive the maxi- 

 mum amount of sunlight. The princi- 

 pal disadvantages of this method, bow- 



By Arthur S. Moulton, MoUalla, Oregon 



ever, are that the sunlight is often un- 

 reliable, that the nuts cannot be ex- 

 posed to a temperature greater than 

 90° Fahrenheit, and that the trays must 

 be covered every night because of ex- 

 cessive dampness prevailing at that 

 time of the year. Under the Oregon 

 method of artificial drying, which is, 

 by the way, the only practicable method 

 of handling the crop in this section of 

 the coast, the drying is all done in 

 buildings either erected purposely for 

 that process or in buildings previously 

 used for drying prunes and which are 

 readily converted into walnut driers by 

 the addition of washing and grading 



machines such as are used in the Cali- 

 fornia orchards. Incidentally, too, an 

 added advantage of the artificial drier 

 here is that the owner of the orchard 

 can literally "kill two birds with one 

 stone" by planting Italian prune trees 

 as fillers when he sets out the walnut 

 orchard. In this manner the prune 

 trees will furnish crops available for 

 drying in the drier at a fine profit until 

 such time as the walnuts come into 

 heavy bearing. By that time the wal- 

 nut trees so crowd the prune trees that 

 the prunes are usually removed, inci- 

 dentally, too, being disposed of at a 

 time when the walnut trees are begin- 



Continued on page 24. 



Stimulation 



To spray your trees yearly with ZENO 

 Is to practice ideal Orchard Prophylaxis. 



To protect and defend your trees frorn disease 

 And parasites by the peculiarly cleansing and 

 Invigorating effect of ZENO 



Trees sprayed with 



ZENO 



Have clean bark, vigorous limbs, greener leaves; 



Green leaves mean more chlorophyll, 



Chlorophyll is to the tree 



What gastric juice is to the stomach; 



It means better assimilation, 



More life, more resistance to heat or cold. 



Better fruit and more of it. 



ZENO 



Is an internationally used 



Miscible oil spray, and these are reasons why 



It has proved the best by years of test. 



MANUFACTURED ONLY BY 



Eastbay Chemical Co., Inc. 



(formerly ST ANDARDCHEMICAL CO.) 



of Emeryville Station [Oakland] California 



Spohn & Wing 



Northwest Agents 



223 Sherlock Building 



Portland, Oregon 



T. O. McCLURE, Director of Research 



[Zeno may be had of your tocal Distributor, Fruit 

 Gompany, Exchange, or by writing to us direct] 



Wlll-N WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



