THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



169 



CULTIVATION OF ENGLISH WALNUT TREES. 



1^ 1 Idi.i.i.^i i.R Sack. 



Cultivation ot" the Eni;iisii wainut is imt only one 

 (if the newest but one of the must rapidly growing 

 in(lustrie,s in the United State.s ; and of course the rea- 

 son for this is readily traced to the fact that this coun- 

 try is producing only about one-half enough of these 

 nuts to supply the demand. 



The Persian walnut, commonly called the l-,nglish 

 walnut, was named ".\'ut of the Clods." nineteen hundred 

 years ago. 1)\ the Romans, and by them was distributed 

 throughout southern Europe, where descendants of 

 these original trees are now standing — some of them 

 more than a thousand year- old — lasting monuments 

 to the men who con(|nered these countries. In many 

 places these same trees are iiroduciuL; a large part of 

 the total income; in ti-uth, tlie United States alone is 

 importing more than ti\e milli(jn dollars' worth of 

 nuts from these trees every year, and about half a 

 million dollars' worth of their timber. English walnut 

 timber is \ery valuable. ha\ing a handsome grain and 

 l)eing unusually heavy, so heavy, in fact, that the 

 green wood will not float in water. The wood is used 

 in the manufacture of .^unstocks and furniture, having 

 a greater value than mahogany. .Single trees lia\e 

 been known to sell for more than $3,000. 



Realizing the importance of having a home sujiply 

 of luiglish walnut trees, France passed a law in 1720 

 jirohibiting the e.xportation of the timber. Mow well 

 advised was this mo\e may be appreciated now wdien 

 it is known that the United States is im|)orting yearly 

 from southern France a large ]jercentage of our total 

 consumption of 50,000,000 pounds of English w.ihiuts. 



The Romans did not neglect England; for as a re- 

 sult of their invasion, man_\- of these tine trees, hun- 

 ilreds of years old, are scattered along the roads and 

 drixes in every part of the islands. .Some are nearly 

 a hundred feet high with a spreail of more than a 

 hundred feet and bearing thousands of nuts for their 

 owners every year. ( )ne tree is reixnted to be more 

 than a thousand years old and to ])roduce more than 

 100.000 nuts a year, lieing a chief factor in the support 

 of live families. In luigiand. by the wa\ . it is custom- 

 ar\- to eat the fresh nuts, after the removal of the outer 

 skin, with wine, the two dainties being served together. 



The Cermans, also, were f|uick to discover the great 

 intrinsic value to their country of these trees, and 

 very early formed the habit of jilanting a young Eng- 

 lish walnut tree to take the place of one which for any 

 reason h:id lieen cut down. The (iermans were also 

 said to hax'e promulgated m certain localities a law 

 which required every young farmer intent on marriage 

 to show proof that he was the father of a stated num- 

 ber of English walnut trees. 



It is believed the first English walnut tree in this 

 country was planted by Roger Morris in 1758 at what 

 is now known as Washington Heights, New York 

 C'itv, (leorge Washington must have found that tree 

 in 177(). Just one hundred years later. Norma Pom- 

 eroy. of Lockport, N, ^.. father of h". C. Pomeroy of 

 the l>^nglish ^VahnU l-arms, found a tree in Philadel- 

 phi.i, i)ossibly a descendant of the original Morris tree. 

 .Mr. I'omerov's tree was loaded with an e-xceptionally 

 line \ariet\' of sweet-flaxcired nuts, thin-shelled and 

 with a \ erv full meat. That \ery tree, with Mr. Pom- 

 eroy's help, was the ])rogenilor of all the l'".nglish wal- 

 nut groves in western New N'ork, ;is well as of the 

 many fruitful and ornamental trees now growini; in 

 all parts of the North and East. 



I'.-xperts say there is no good reason why this coun- 



try should not raise, at least. enoui.;h I'.nglish walnuiS 

 for our own needs, and e\en export a few million dol- 

 lars' woitli. \\ c are now importing more dollars' 

 worth of these nuts than both Canada and the United 

 States are exi)orting in ajiples — and this, too, when 

 Canada and the Cnitcil .States are known av apple 

 countries, 



California is producing about 12,000 tons a year. 

 That State's crop last \ear would have been more than 

 13,000 tons had there not been three days of extremely 

 hot weather about the middle of September, the ther- 

 mometer registering 115 in many of the walnut sec- 

 tions. This torrid period seriously burned .about 2,200 

 tons of nuts. 



The California growers do not ha\e the frosts to 

 open the outer shucks which we ha\-e here in the East, 

 but they overcome this drawback in a great measure 

 by irrigating a few days before the nuts are ripe. They 

 begin the harvest the last of September, gathering the 

 nuts which have fallen, drying them in trays for a few 

 (lays, then taking them to the .Association jiacking 

 houses, where they are bleached and sacked. The 

 Association -loes the shipi)ing and marketing, the 

 grower gets his check on delivery at the w.ireliouse. 

 For there is no waste and the nuts are all sold before 

 the harxest begins; in fact, often oversold. 



In some of the old missions of Californi.a there are 

 English walnut trees more than one hundred and 

 forty }-ears old. with trunks four feet in diameter. 

 There are many of these individual ancient trees 

 throughout the State, but the oldest of the orchards 

 are from thirty-h\e to forty years. Some of these trees 

 have a spread' of eighty feet or more and the growers 

 consider th;it an English walnut orchard will bear 

 profit.'diK- for at least two hundred years. 



If trees will do this in irrigated sections, they will 

 live and i^row much longer in unirrigated place>. tor it 

 is well known that the roots of trees not irrii;ated go 

 much dee]3er into the sub-soil and get the moisture and 

 nourishment which this sub-soil furnishe>. The roots 

 of irrigated tree> remain nearer the surface and are not 

 so long li\ed. 



As an orn;iment:il tree the English walnut is unsur- 

 passed. It has a li.H'ht bark and dark green foliage 

 which remains until late in the Fall, being shed with 

 the nuts in October and never during the .Summer. It 

 is also an exceptionally clean tree and beautifully 

 shaped, and so far as known, has never been preyed 

 upon In- the .San Jose scale or any other insect pest. 

 This freedom from scale is attributed to the peculiar 

 alkali sa|i of the tree. 



The demand for this nut is increasing rapidlx , as its 

 great food value is constantly becoming better known. 

 Its meat contains many times more nutriment th.ui 

 the same amount of beef steak. 



The jirice is keei)ing pace with the demand, the 

 growers now receivin.i; three times as nuich for a pound 

 of nuts as they got a few years ago, when they were 

 producing only a tenth of the present outjjut. 



Thus it ma\ be seen that the jjlanting of English 

 walnut trees not only is an exceedingly lucrative ven- 

 ture for the present generation, but it means the con- 

 ferring of a priceless boon u])on the generations to 

 come. .Some -States are considering the advisability 

 of planting these trees along the new -State roads, after 

 the custom in England and Cermany, wdiere practically 

 all the walnuts are distributed along the drives or 

 serve as ornamental shade trees u])on the lawns. There 

 is one avenue in Ciermany which is bordered on both 

 sides for ten miles by enormous luiglish walnut trees 



which meet in the c'enter. thus forming a beautiful cov- 



