A WALNUT FREAK. 



In the winter of 1895, niy attention was called by Mr. William H. 

 Oroninger, clerk to the commissioners of Juniata county, to a re- 

 markable fruit produced by a walnut tree near Pleasant View post- 

 office, in the county above named. The statement made in connection 

 with the tree was that it was a walnut tree which produced hickory 

 nuts. 



Mr. Groninger handed me the fruit for inspection. Naturally 

 enough I was cautious about expressing an opinion concerning so 

 remarkable a production as the one held in my hand. It was appar- 

 ently a black walnut, which retained its outer hull, or husk, in a 

 wrinkled or weathered condition. I noticed that its free or upper 

 end showed signs of splitting into valves, after the manner of the 

 ordinary hickory nut. The other end, on which the point o<f attach- 

 ment to the branch was still visible, had the texture, color and odor 

 of the walnut, and of that only. The nut itself was unmistakably .i 

 walnut. 



On April 16th, 1896, Mr. M. S. Esh was kind enough to take me to 

 see the tree. It stands within a few minutes' walk of the railroad 

 station known as Warble, on top of a low ridge, or hill, and witkin 

 half a mile of the mountains on the southern side of the Tuscarora 

 valley. The tree was about forty feet high. The trunk was two feet 

 seven inches in diameter at four feet from the ground. The illustra- 

 tion will show that it had in earlier days received severe injury. On 

 the one side, toward the west, was a scar much more than a foot 

 wide above, tapering down several feet to a point. It seemed as 

 though one of the largest limbs had been torn off there by a storm. 

 On the side toward the south, apparently an earlier and more ex- 

 tensive injury had overtaken the tree. The illustration will show 

 that it extends in one limb from above where the primary .branches 

 arise to the ground, and that it involves the entire heart of the 

 trunk. The general belief is in the neighborhood that it is the result 

 of a stroke of lightning. This I am not inclined to doubt. The tree 

 is old and seems to grow but little. The statement of Mr. W. D. 

 Bcale, a middle-aged man, who grew up (I am informed) on the farm, 

 was that the tree seemed to have changed but little in appearance or 

 size as long as he can remember it. At the time of my visit (April, 



