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English Walnut Industry in the Northwest 



By Knight Pearcy, Salem, Oregon 



THE rnilcd States annually imports 

 between 45,000.000 and 55,000,000 

 pounds of walnuts. These come 

 from France, Italy and China, largely, 

 the latter country selling us some 

 7,000,000 pounds of the so-called "Man- 

 cuhrian" walnuts; California produces 

 between 20,000,000 and 30,000,(100 an- 

 nually, all of which is consumed in this 

 country. Oregon produced between 

 70,000 and 100,000 pounds in 1917. The 

 three Pacific Coast States are the only 

 ones in the United States that can pro- 

 duce the Engli-sh walnut commercially. 

 California has in bearing some 35,000 

 acres, with 20,000 non-bearing; Oregon 

 has a total of about 0,000 acres, a small 

 per cent of which is in full bearing. 

 Washington acreage is nmch smaller 

 than Oregon's. 



We are often asked if walnut culture 

 is not still in the experimental in Ore- 

 gon. There are less than 100 acres 

 over twenty years in age in this region, 

 and yet the performance of this small 

 acreage has been such as to encourage 



the planting of some 0,000 additional 

 acres. There can be no doubt that the 

 walnut is here to stay and that the 

 time will come when it will rank in 

 connnercial importance with the apple, 

 prune and loganberry. While the wal- 

 nut is grown successfully in every 

 county in the Willamette Valley and in 

 some, if not all, of the counties of West- 

 ern Washington, there are nevertheless 

 certain very marked limitations to its 

 culture in these regions. Greater care 

 must be exercised in selecting the site 

 of a walnut grove than is necessary 

 with most other orchards. 



The walnut grows to be a very large 

 tree, and to nourish it properly and to 

 anchor it securely its roots must 

 spread far and deep. Hence a fairly 

 deep soil is necessary for the best re- 

 sults. The soil should be retentive of 

 moisture but well drained, for this is a 

 tree that refuses to do well when its 

 feet are wet, especiidly when it is growl- 

 ing on its own root or that of the Cali- 

 fornia black walnut. In draws and 



July 



other i)laces where the water table 

 stands high in tiie winter months it is 

 considered good practice to plant trees 

 that are woiked on the American black 

 walnut root. However, where any con- 

 siderable area of the prospective nut 

 orchard has a high-water table it had 

 better be avoided. It is on plantings 

 on poorly-drained soils that "Die-back" 

 is most common. Professor Barss of 

 Oregon Agricultural College, in an ad- 

 dress at a recent meeting of the West- 

 ei'n Walnut Association, explained that 

 among the causes of "die-back" are wet 

 soils in spring. Wet soils prevent sufTi- 

 cient air from entering the soil, which 

 hinders spring foliation. Proper ab- 

 soriJtion of water and plant foods will 

 not take place unless there is a certain 

 amount of air in the soil about the 

 roots. In this case water transpires 

 more rapidly from the upper part of 

 the tree than it is absorbed by the 

 roots. The inner parts of the tree get 

 first chance at this water and the tips 

 get what is left, and as a consequence 

 many of them die back because of in- 

 sufiicient water. 



Frost is the most important limiting 

 factor to walnut culture in Oregon. 

 Locations subject to late spring and 

 early fall frosts should be avoided. 

 The heavv frost that hit the Willamette 

 Valley in September, 1916, cost those 

 growers who did not have proper air 

 drainage two crops of walnuts. It froze 

 all the nuts on the trees at the time 

 and injured the fruiting buds for the 

 following season to the extent that 

 there was a very light crop in 1917. 

 Other plantings located with due re- 

 spect to air drainage were uninjured. 

 It is because of the better frost protec- 

 tion of the hills that the bulk of the 

 plantings of the state are there planted. 

 Yamhill County has over 50 per cent of 

 the walnut acreage of the state. Wash- 

 ington, Marion and Polk, next to Yam- 

 hill, have the largest plantings. The 

 larger part of the plantings of these 

 counties is in the hills. 



Generally speaking any land that is 

 suitable for prunes is suitable for wal- 

 nuts, provided that the soil is deep. The 

 prune, however, will thrive on more 

 shallow soils and will stand a higher 

 water table. The same points that 

 must be considered in deciding between 

 a valley location and a hill one for 

 prunes must be considered in the case 

 of walnuts. In favor of the valley lo- 

 cations the following points are ad- 

 vanced. The heavier, more retentive 

 and generally richer soils will produce 

 a larger tree with more bearing surface 

 and will grow a tree to a size capable 

 of bearing commercial crops at an 

 earlier age than is possible under hill 

 conditions. The yield per acre, where 

 other conditions are equal, will gen- 

 erally be greater as long as frost does 

 not hit. However, one frost in ten 

 years might more than equalize the in- 

 creased profits of the heavier bearing 

 lowland trees. It is more difiicult to 

 find proper depth of soil in the hills. 

 The soils of these sections are generally 

 less retentive of moisture, and as a con- 

 sequence the trees are less likely to 

 attain the great size of those valley 



