The Colly, a Sub-Zero "Euglsh’ Waluut 
By J. C. McDaniel 
Department of Horticulture, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 
The cover picture, taken in the summer of 1951, shows a seedling walnut tree in 
the nut orchard of the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, growing well and 
bearing in the season following the damaging 1950 Thanksgiving blizzard, and a 
winter in which 19 degrees below zero F’. temperature was recorded at the nearest official 
weather station. It is the original tree of the Colby variety. 
The Colby walnut, of the Persian (or “English”) species, originated from a seed 
collected in the Carpathian Mountains of Poland in 1934 by the Reverend Paul C. 
Crath, a Canadian missionary. It was planted in a nursery at Ithaca, New York, and 
at two years of age, the seedling was set out by Dr. A. 8S. Colby in the Illinois Station 
nut orchard at Urbana. In 1952 it bore its eleventh consecutive crop of nuts, 3 bushels 
in the hull. None of a dozen other seedlings of the Crath Carpathian walnuts planted 
at Urbana during the late ’30s has been so productive as the one now named in honor 
of Dr. Colby, and only one of them (a less vigorous tree) has equaled it in hardiness 
of wood and buds in the past two test winters. The Colby isa seedling of the Crath 
No. 10 tree which grew near Cosseey, Poland. 
The new walnut has not yet been tested so completely as we would like, and, per- 
haps is best called a “pioneer,” rather than a “commercial” variety. Its largest crop 
prior to 1952 was 114 bushels of nuts gathered in 1950. But it is promising for home 
plantings, at least, as one of the very few varieties yet found to be fruitful and hardy in 
central Illinois. Probably it will prove hardy enough to grow throughout Illinois, on 
well-drained fertile soils and in similar climates elsewhere. It has grown very well for 
the past three years but not yet fruited on the Ira Kyhl farm at Sabula, Iowa, topwork- 
ed on native black walnut. Others among Northern Nut Growers Association members 
who had grafts of it fruiting in 1951 or 1952 include Fayette Etter, Lemasters, Penna., 
and Dr. R. T. Dunstan, Greensboro, North Carolina. At Greensboro, the Colby, in 
common with most other Carpathian walnuts that far south, starts growth so early 
that it is sometimes injured by late freezes. The wood, like the nuts, matures early in 
the fall, so the Colby should be resistant to fall freezes. 
At both Urbana and Sabula, the Colby has been as hardy to date as any other Car- 
pathian seedling, or named variety, in these plantings, and much hardier than the 
Broadview Persian walnut. Broadview trees have frozen dead to the ground at 
Urbana and Sabula in the past two years. Another varicty, the Littlepage, a Carpath- 
ian introduction from the Hudson Valley, also had a tree winter-killed to the ground 
at Urbana in 1951-52, and a second tree of Littlepage was partly killed back. Several 
other Carpathian seedlings at Urbana have had partial or complete winter-killing of 
the tops. Recent grafts will afford fuller comparison with other Carpathian varieties 
in future years. Reports from other growers on this variety are welcomed. 
The nut is medium in size for the species, thin-shelled as shown in the picture -- not 
quite so thin as nuts of the Hansen variety. Though the shells have been well-sealed, 
their thinness necessitates a little extra care in handling the nuts, for they are more 
easily cracked than the standard varieties from the west coast, and the kernels become 
stained, if left too long on the tree. Their quality is good. Nuts of this variety, 
collected after falling from the tree, took honorable mention in the 1950 Northern 
Nut Growers Association contest for Carpathian and other hardy walnuts. 
