470 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



close up to the woodlots on all sides even when 

 they are not grazed. Originally the squirrels 

 planted many nuts. Settlement has decreased 

 their number and possibly their habits. As a 

 result of all these factors there is little walnut 

 reproduction. 



"The future of our walnut business, in the 

 West at least, depends upon immediate artificial 

 propagation of this species. It is not at all dif- 

 ficult to start a walnut plantation and probably 

 several hundred of them exist throughout the 

 prairie states. The case of an Indiana farmer 

 shows as well as anything the ease with which 

 a stand may be secured. One fall after an 

 exceptionally heavy seed year he drove his wagon 

 down to the Wabash bottoms and shoveled it 

 full of nuts and litter. Then going up to his 

 field he spread the nuts from the tail of the 

 cart on the frozen ground in the same way 

 manure is spread. In the spring when the frost 

 was coming out of the ground and the soil was 

 sort, he had his boys take wooden mallets and 

 go out and pound into the soil every nut they 

 could see. It is reported that he has an excel- 

 lent young grove at the present time. 



"This would not be the method advocated in 

 general, however. The best one seems to be the 

 planting of sprouted nuts in the spring, as this 

 gets around the rodent problem, much of the 



"FIDDLE-BACK" FIGURE OCCASIONALLY OCCURRING 

 IN WALNUT 



MOKE MATCHED 



failure to germinate properly and the uncertainty 

 arising from delayed germination. 



"Getting the plantation started is the easiest 

 thing about it. The fact that during the war 

 not a stick of merchantable timber came from a 

 plantation, as far as I can learn, although some 

 of them are as old as 90 years, is sufficient evi- 

 dence that something is wrong somewhere. By 

 plantations I do not mean trees planted for orna- 

 ment or in single rows for shade and windbreak 

 purposes, as a very great number of such were 

 cut, but plantations made in solid bodies for the 

 primary purpose of supplying timber. 



"The first cause for this state of affairs is the 

 unsuitability of the sites planted. Naturally the 

 farmer has put his plantations where there were 

 no trees, on the uplands, and walnut is less able 

 than many associated hardwoods to stand such 

 conditions and thrive. It is of primary impor- 

 tance that the soil should be rich, well-drained, 

 and moist. It is just such soils that are most 

 valued for agriculture. Toward the East, where 

 the rainfall is more plentiful, walnut becomes 

 less exacting as to soil and in Tennessee, for 

 instance, is seen growing excellently on rather 

 shallow rocky soils of limestone origin not in 

 any sense poor or infertile, however. The State 

 walnut veneer, the variety OBTAINABLE is endless of Indiana had an illuminating experience on its 



