22 MISC. PUBLICATION 61, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



BLACK WALNUT AND BUTTERNUT 



Whether starting from plants or seeds, black walnut and butternut 

 have not done w^ell in these plantations, especially when planted 

 alone. In some of the stands are a few dominant trees of these 

 species 35 to 45 feet high, but they are not common although black 

 walnut especially w r as used a good deal. 



A small part of the Black Walnut plantation shows fair growth, but 

 the trees are only a little more than half as large as white pine of the 

 same age. In most of this plantation the walnuts were never success- 

 ful, and yellow pines were soon added to help the walnuts along. 

 This they did not do, but rather took possession of the ground them- 

 selves. Plate 6 shows the two stands of this plantation as they looked 

 in 1923. 



Black walnut was chosen for this site because there were on the 

 ground two large old trees of this species; but part of the area was 

 undoubtedly too far up on the slope for the best walnut develop- 

 ment. Perhaps if the poorer trees had been left alone for a few 

 years longer they would have grown better than they have with the 

 pine competition. 



In some of the other plantations a quarter of the walnuts and 

 butternuts had died by the end of the first summer. Those that sur- 

 vived grew very well for a year or two but had heavy losses later on. 



In nature, black walnut and butternut are not trees of pure stands, 

 and it might be thought that they are not adapted to growing so. 

 But black walnut has been grown elsewhere in pure plantations. 

 And at Biltmore this species has failed in mixed as well as in pure 

 stands. Frost is probably one of the main reasons for the poor 

 showing made. It is likely also that rodents took most of the seeds 

 from the fall sowings. 



CHESTNUT 



Chestnut was even less successful than w^alnut. This species is 

 native to the region and reaches large size in wild stands but, although 

 both seeds and nursery-grown plants were used liberally, very few 

 trees of this species survived. In 1895 and 1898, Schenck planted 

 25 or 30 bushels of chestnuts on Long Ridge. The next year after 

 planting the stand was very poor, and now there are only a few 

 small planted chestnut trees there. Yet on this ridge are wide- 

 spreading chestnut trees 30 or 40 inches in diameter which were left 

 on the land at the time it was cleared 80 years ago. 



BLACK LOCUST 



Black locust is another species which has not been very successful, 

 though a few good-sized trees, sometimes as much as 60 or 70 feet 

 high, are found here and there in the Apiary, Douglas, and Long 

 Ridge plantations. Tillotson estimated in 1920 that 24-year-old 

 locusts in the Apiary plantation would yield three to five 7-foot fence 

 posts to the tree. 



HICKORY 



For the first two years after planting and sowing, the Apiary hick- 

 ories grew very well. A few years later it was reported that mice 

 had damaged them badly. Now there are only a few small hickories 

 in this plantation, and it is not entirely certain that they are planted 

 hickories. On Long Ridge, 40 per cent of them were gone a little 

 over^a year after planting, and in 1921 no hickories were found. 



