98 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
HOW TO GROW BLACK WALNUTS 
By Charles A. Scott 
Under favorable conditions the Black Walnut is a tree 
that is easily grown. The seedlings reach a height of from 
12 to 24 inches the first season, and this height growth is 
exceeded from year to year during the sapling and pole 
stages of development. The nuts should be planted where 
the trees are to be permanently located for the reason that 
the seedlings develop a very strong tap root the first season 
and transplanting is impractical. 
THE SEED 
The nuts mature in October, and they should be gathered 
soon after they fall from the trees. They should not be 
hulled as the hull in no way interferes with germination and 
it protects the kernel from injury by drying. The only 
treatment necessary before planting is to see that the nuts 
do not dry out, as drying seriously injures their germinating 
powers. 
Nuts for fall planting keep perfectly in small piles in cool, 
shaded places. The piles should not be made more than 12 
or 15 inches in height, on account of danger of the nuts heat¬ 
ing if the pile is large. 
For spring planting the nuts should be stratified over 
winter. They may be stratified in moist sand or leaves in 
any protected place. In stratifying, a two-inch layer of 
sand or leaves should alternate with a layer of nuts of the 
same depth. The pile should be kept moist and allowed to 
freeze and remain frozen throughout the winter. 
PLANTING 
The nuts may be planted either in the fall or in the spring 
with equally good results. The fall planting should be done 
any time after the nuts are gathered up to the time the 
ground freezes. The spring planting should be done as soon 
as the ground is in a workable condition. The danger in 
delaying planting until later in the season is that the nuts 
begin to sprout soon after they thaw out, and once through 
the shell the sprout is easily broken off. It is also necessary 
to exercise due precaution to prevent the nuts from becom¬ 
ing dry after they have been stratified as the germ is then 
very delicate and easily injured. 
AVHERE AND HOW TO PLANT 
The ground in which walnuts are to be planted should be 
thoroughly cultivated for two or three years before the nuts 
are planted as the trees will not make a-satisfactory growth 
in virgin soil. The Black Walnut is a tree that requires the 
deepest, richest soil that can be found along creek and river 
valleys for its best development, yet at the same time it 
makes a very satisfactory growth on the prairie soil of the 
eastern part of the state. In the western part of the state 
the planters should select the low ground along ravines for 
planting sites when possible. 
The nuts should be planted three feet apart in furrows 
ten feet apart and not more than four inches in depth. 
After the nuts are planted the furrows may be filled in with 
a cultivator. It is not necessary or even desirable to level 
the ground more than is required to securely cover the nuts. 
If the furrows are not leveled they will catch the excess sur¬ 
face water in times of heavy rainfall. 
If the nuts cannot be planted in furrows the next best 
plan is to plant them in seed spots. Seed spots are places 
where several nuts are planted in an area sixteen or eighteen 
feet in diameter to ultimately form a small group of trees. 
The ground for such planting should be spaded and pul¬ 
verized so as to increase the moisture-holding capacity of 
the soil, and from six to ten seeds should be planted in each 
seed spot. 
CULTIVATION AND CARE 
On account of the Black Walnut being a lover of moist, 
rich soils it is very sensitive to dry, parched conditions. It 
is therefore very necessary to give the seedling trees the best 
of cultivation until they develop a good root system and 
take possession of the ground. Thorough surface tillage 
that will maintain a dust mulch is the most desirable culti¬ 
vation. When it is impossible to give the trees such culti¬ 
vation, as in the case of seed spot planting, it is a good plan 
to mulch the ground with straw to keep down the grass and 
weeds. In all events keep the ground around the seedling 
trees free of weeds and grass sod. 
After the walnut trees are five to six years old it is often 
advisable to underplant them with such trees as the box 
elder, green ash, or red cedar, so as to completely shade the 
ground. Shading the ground and keeping out the weeds 
and grass are factors vastly more important in tree culture 
than most people are willing to believe. The walnut has 
very light foliage and the grasses and weeds soon take the 
ground unless some other trees with heavier foliage are 
planted with them. 
BREEDING GRAPES 
Mr. T. V. Munson, the well known grape breeder and 
nurseryman of Denison, Texas, presents an interesting dis¬ 
cussion on the breeding of grapes in the magazine of the 
American Breeders for the last quarter of the year 1910. 
In this article. Professor Munson takes occasion to contra- 
vert the somewhat common belief that the female vine 
parent transmits vegetative characteristics, while the 
staminate or male parent transmits fruit characteristics. 
Such has not been his experience. He emphasizes the fact 
that in grape breeding there seems to be no rule or law which 
enables the breeder to anticipate the character of the off¬ 
spring to be produced by special combinations. He says in 
some combinations all characters of one parent are domi¬ 
nant, resulting in all others being recessive. 
