Why the Black Walnut 

 Is Worth Growing 



By A. Rutledge, 



Pennsyl- 



PROFITS IN NUTS AND IN LUMBER — SOME REASONS WHY THE 

 TREE SHOULD BE PLANTED WHENEVER THERE IS ROOM FOR IT 



GROWING nuts for commercial 

 purposes has made great strides 

 during the past few years. In 

 the South, thousands of acres 

 have been set in young pecan trees, and 

 some of these nut groves are now paying 

 handsomely. Notable among such tracts 

 are the great Bacon orchards at DeWitt, 

 Ga., the splendid Barnwell orchard, just 

 south of Albany in the same state, and 

 the 500-acre Horlbeck grove across the 

 Cooper River from Charleston, S. C. 



Undoubtedly the pecan is the most 

 profitable of our native American nuts to 

 grow; but it is decidedly a native of hot 

 climates, and will never succeed in the 

 North so well as it does in its natural en- 

 vironment. The shellbark (Hicoria la- 

 ciniosa) is generally considered the best 

 all-round nut for the farm, and the timber 

 is quite valuable. The shellbark, how- 

 ever, does not prosper in the South, save 

 in the mountainous parts, and especially in 

 Southern Missouri and Western Ken- 

 tucky and Tennessee. The nut has such 

 a thick shell that it is not really very de- 

 sirable, although good. It retails in the 

 market for about one dollar a bushel. The 

 shagbark {Hicoria ovata), at its best in the 

 North and East, is one of the finest of 

 nuts, commonly thin shelled, and retails 

 often at five dollars per bushel. More 

 widely distributed than either the pecan 

 or the shellbark, as certain to crop as 

 either, and far more valuable for timber, 

 is the common black walnut (Juglans nigra) . 



There are five species of walnuts (and 

 possibly seven, the last two not being class- 

 ified as yet) native to American soil: the 

 common black, the white or butternut (/. 

 cinerea (the California black, the Mexican or 

 Arizona walnut, and Juglans major. At 

 least three others have been pretty widely 

 introduced in various parts of the country, 

 but more especially on the Pacific Coast. 

 These are the Persian, commonly called 

 English (J. regia) and the two Japanese 

 kinds, /. cordiformis and Sieboldiana. Of 

 these walnuts, the Persian easily ranks 

 first as a money-maker; the common black 

 and its California cousin probably rank- 

 ing, at this time, second for sound worth, 

 popularity, and value of nuts and timber. 



Between the Eastern and Western spe- 

 cies of black walnut there is no great differ- 

 ence; the Western tree has a habit of 

 branching and spreading lower, and its 

 nuts are much smoother than those of the 

 Eastern black walnut. But the commer- 

 cial value, tree for tree, is about the same. 



It is well for the man who has a place in 



the country to take an inventory, as it 

 were, of his trees. Let us consider then 

 what is the real value of the common black 

 walnut, (1) as an object of beauty on the 

 landscape, (2) as a nut bearer, and (3) as a 

 tree that affords hardwood timber. 



The distribution of the black walnut is 

 remarkably extensive, being almost equal 

 to that of certain hardy oaks and elms. 

 It is at home on the rocky farms of New 

 England, on the dreamy plantations of the 

 South, and on the rolling farm lands of the 

 West. It will grow on practically any 

 soil, and in most situations. Fine trees 

 are often found standing in the middle of 

 a grove of other trees; walnuts will develop 

 well beside streams and on the highest 

 slate hills; they will grow in sand and in 

 the toughest clay. This very hardiness, 

 therefore (which is by no means character- 

 istic of all nut trees), should serve to make 

 the black walnut a prime favorite. 



The black walnut does not bear until it 

 is eight or ten years old, and does not at- 

 tain full bearing strength under about 

 thirty years. Actual growth of the bole 

 and branches may continue for twice that 

 period. I know of walnut trees on a plan- 

 tation in South Carolina that are eighty or 

 ninety years old. They stand among live- 

 oaks, are very tall and straight, and are 

 still bearing nuts, though not regularly 

 and not in abundance. 



It is no exaggeration, however, to say 

 that a good black walnut tree will bear 

 crops for sixty or seventy years, in which 

 time two successive apple orchards would 

 have gone to decay. Nor, with the apple 

 in mind as a comparison, does one have to 

 wait so very long for a walnut crop. Two- 

 year old apple whips out of a nursery will 

 begin to bear in four or five years — that 

 is, when they are six or seven years old. 

 And every apple grower knows that no 

 apple orchard is likely to begin to pay 

 under ten years. Black walnuts do not 

 come in so far behind this, in spite of the 

 fact that they are hardwoods. They are 

 slow growers, like most nut trees; but they 

 are tough and vigorous, and they have 

 practically no enemies. 



Every farm and every country place 

 should have its own black walnut trees. 

 They may be conveniently planted along 

 driveways, fencerows, and in pastures, as 

 well as along brooks and streams, and in 

 land too wet or spouty to be planted in 

 crops. Because of the beauty of their 

 shafts and their shade, black walnuts make 

 a fine avenue; their long life also recom- 

 mends them for such use. Walnuts are 



140 



highly ornamental, not only in summer 

 when their heavy light-green foliage and 

 their clusters of nuts render them pictur- 

 esque adornments of the landscape, but 

 more particularly in the winter, when so 

 few trees are attractive. It is then that 

 their bare boughs make one think of the 

 fine "naked strength" that Tennyson de- 

 scribes in "The Oak:" 



"All his leaves 

 Fallen at length, 

 Look, and stands, 

 Trunk and bough, 

 Naked strength!" 



The very sight of a black walnut is gratify- 

 ing to a tree-lover's eye. Its noble pro- 

 portions, its stately and vigorous growth, 

 and its look of clean and stalwart health 

 render it most beautiful and desirable. 



Of recent years, the demand for all kinds 

 of timber has increased; and this is par- 

 ticularly true in the case of the black wal- 

 nut. The prices paid for fine sticks of 

 walnut are often surprising. Only during 

 the past year a representative of a furni- 

 ture manufacturing concern in Germany 

 passed through southern Pennsylvania, 

 selecting and buying black walnuts. For 

 many prime trees he gave as much as $60, 

 and for one extraordinary old giant, that 

 was growing close to the Potomac on the 

 Maryland line, and that gave three twenty- 

 foot sticks, $140 was paid. The butt of 

 this tree was 58 inches in diameter; the 

 tree must have been at least a century old. 



Men who have land in the country nat- 

 urally take a keener interest in the value 

 of those trees on property which they 

 might sell. They are also glad to know 

 when the planting of trees may reasonably 

 be considered a profitable investment. 

 Among the trees that may be looked to to 

 pay the planter well, the black walnut 

 easily holds a high place; not indeed for 

 those who are forever looking for "get- 

 rich-quick" schemes, but for those who 

 are willing to wait, and, failing to realize 

 a profit themselves, can still be happy in 

 the sure knowledge that their children will 

 reap the benefits of their faith and fore- 

 thought. 



Land that will grow nothing else worth 

 while will grow these fine trees. For 

 ordinary purposes they should be set 40 to 

 60 feet apart. The nuts should be planted 

 where the trees are meant to stand, as it 

 is a difficult, and often impossible, task to 

 transplant young black walnuts. As with 

 many other nut trees, the tap root is large 

 and very long, and any injury to it may 



