English walnuts; what you need to know about planting, cultivating and harvesting this most delicious of nuts

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ENGLISH
WALNUTS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
ABOUT PLANTING, CULTIVA-
TING AND HARVESTING THIS
MOST DELICIOUS OF NUTS

(Complltd by WALTER Fox ALLEN)
M

(Copyright 1912)

AGRIC. DEPT,

MAIN LIBRARY

OO ~TU\

V/3AU
Foreword.

REALIZING the tremendous in-
terest that is now being directed
by owners of country estates
everywhere to the culture of the Persian
or English Walnut, I have compiled this
little book with the idea of supplying
the instruction needed on the planting,
cultivation and harvesting of this most
delicious of all nuts.

I have gathered the material herein
presented from a large number of trust-
worthy sources, using only such portions
of each as would seem to be of prime
importance to the intending grower.

I am indebted to the United States
Department of Agriculture and to numer-
ous cultivators of the nut in all sections of
the country.

I have aimed at accuracy and brevity
and hope the following pages will furnish
just that practical information which I
have felt has long been desired.

THE COMPILER.

English H^aln u ts.

VIEWED as a comparatively new in-
dustry, the culture of the Persian or
English Walnut is making remark-
able strides in this country. Owners of
farms and suburban estates everywhere
are becoming interested in the raising of
this delicious article of food, thousands
of trees being set out every year.

There are two important reasons for
the rapidly growing enthusiasm that is
being manifested toward the English
Walnut: First, its exceptional value as a
food property is becoming widely recog-
nized, one pound of walnut meat being
equal in nutriment to eight pounds of

Page Fi

.steak,' Secondly, its superior worth as
an brnamental shade tree is admitted by
everyone who knows the first thing about
trees. For this purpose there is nothing
more beautiful. With their wide-spread-
ing branches and dark-green foliage, they
are a delight to the eye. Unlike the
leaves of some of our shade trees, those
of this variety do not drop during the
Summer but adhere until late in the Fall,
thus making an unusually clean tree for
lawn or garden. In addition to all this,
the walnut is particularly free from scale
and other pests.

Up to the present time, the English
Walnut has been more largely in demand
as a shade tree than as a commercial
proposition; in fact, so little attention
has been given to the nuts themselves
that there are, comparatively speaking,
few large producing orchards in the
United States, the greater portion of the
total yield of walnuts being procured
from scattered field and roadside trees.
It is a little difficult to understand why
they should have been so neglected when

Page Six

Six YEAR OLD BEARING ENGLISH WALNUT TREE

there are records of single trees bearing'
as much as 800 pounds of nuts in one
year.

In 1895 this country produced about
4,000,000 pounds, and more than 16,000-
000 pounds of English Walnuts in 1907,
with a proportionate annual increase
each year to the present. But, when it is
known that the United States is consum-
ing yearly about 50,000,000 pounds of
nuts, with the demand constantly increas-
ing, thereby necessitating the importation
annually of something more than 25,-
000,000 pounds, the wonderful possibil-
ities of the industry in this country,
from a purely business view point, will
readily be appreciated. And of course
the market price of the walnut is keeping
step with the consumption, having ad-
vanced from 15 to 20 cents a pound in
the past few years.

In California the nut industry is be-
coming a formidable rival of ^ Rival of

the orange; in fact, there are
more dollars worth of nuts (all

the Orange

varieties) shipped from the state now per

Page Seven

year than oranges. One grower is shipping
$136,000 worth of English Walnuts a year
while another man, with an orchard just
beginning to bear, is getting about $200
an acre for his crop.

No standard estimate can at present
be placed on the yield per acre of orchards
in full bearing, but the growers are confi-
dent that they will soon be deriving from
$800 to $1600 per acre, this figure being
based on the number of individual trees
which are already producing from $90 to
$120 a year. The success with the nut in
California can be duplicated in the East
providing certain hardy varieties are
planted; and in the few instances where
orchards have been started in the East,
great things have already been done and
still greater are expected in the next few
years.

But where did this walnut originate?
Origin of What is its history? Juglans

the English Re#ia (nut of the Sods) Persi.an

Walnut Walnut, called also Madeira

Nut and English Walnut, is a

native of Western, Central and probably

Page Eight

Eastern Asia, the home of the peach and
the apricot. It was known to the Greeks,
who introduced it from Persia into Eu-
rope at an early day, as "Persicon" or
"Persian" nut and "Basilicon" or "Royal"
nut. Carried from Greece to Rome, it
became "Juglans" (name derived from
Jo vis and glans, an acorn; literally "Ju-
piter's Acorn", or "the Nut of the Gods").
From Rome it was distributed through-
out Continental Europe, and according
to Loudon, it reached England prior to
1562. In England it is generally known
as the walnut, a term of Anglo-Saxon
derivation signifying "foreign nut". It
has been called Madeira Nut, presumably
because the fruit was formerly imported
into England from the Madeira Islands,
where it is yet grown to some extent.
In America it has commonly been known
as English Walnut to distinguish it from
our native species. From the fact that
of all the names applied to this nut "Per-
sian" seems to have been the first in
common use, and that it indicates approx-
imately the home of the species, the name
"Persian Walnut" is regarded as most

Page Nine

suitable, but inasmuch as "English Wal-
nut" is better known here, we shall use
that name in this treatise.

As a material for the manufacture of
gunstocks and furniture the timber of
the nut was long in great demand through-
out Europe and high prices were paid for
it. Early in the last century as much as
$3,000 was paid for a single large tree for
the making of gunstocks.

Everything depends upon the planting
and cultivation of English Walnuts as

. indeed it does of all other

ng and f mits f rom wj^ich the yery best

Cultivation results are desired. The follow-
ing general rules should be thoroughly
mastered.

PLANT ENGLISH WALNUT TREES:

On any well-drained land where the
sub-soil moisture is not more than
ten or twelve feet from the surface.

Wherever Oaks, Black Walnuts or
other tap-root nut trees will grow.
Forty to sixty feet apart.

Page Ten

In holes eighteen inches in diameter

and thirty inches deep.
Two inches deeper than the earth

mark showing on the tree.

AND REMEMBER:

That the trees need plenty of good,
rich soil about their roots.

That the trees should be inclined
slightly toward prevailing winds.

That the trees should not be cut
back.

That the ground cannot be packed
too hard around the roots and the
tree.

That the trees should be mulched in
the Fall.

That the ground should be kept cul-
tivated around the trees during
the Spring and Summer.

That English Walnut trees should be
transplanted while young, as they
will often double in size the year
the tap-root reaches the sub-soil
moisture (that is, the moist earth).

Page Eleven

That tap-root trees are the easiest
of all to transplant if the work is
done while the trees are young and
small.

That trees sometimes bear the third
year after transplanting three-
year-old trees where the sub-soil
moisture is within six or eight feet
of the surface.

That the age of bearing depends
largely on the distance the tap-
root has to grow to reach the sub-
soil moisture.

The growth of the English Walnut is

different from that of most fruit trees.

The small trees grow about six inches the

first year, tap-root the same; the

Peculiarities second year they grow about

of Growth twelve inches, tap-root the same ;

the third year they grow about

eighteen inches, tap-root nearly as much.

For the first three years the tap-root

seems to gain most of the nourishment,

and at the end of the third year, or

about that time, the tree itself starts its

real growth. After the tap-root reaches

Page T<wf/<ve

the sub-soil moisture, the tree often
grows as much in one year as it has in the
preceding three or four. If the trees are
transplanted previous to the time that
the tap-root reaches this moisture and
before the tree starts its rapid growth,
very few young trees are lost in the pro-
cess of transplanting.

For orchard planting the trees should
be placed from forty to sixty feet apart
and by staggering the rows a greater dis-
tance is gained between individ-
ual trees. Any other small fruits Orchard
may be planted in the orchard Planting
between the walnut trees or any
cultivated crop can be raised satisfactorily
on the same land, many orchardists
gaining triple use of the soil in this way.
Besides, the cultivation of the earth in
proximity to the walnuts proves of great
benefit to the trees. Before trees are
planted the tap-root should be trimmed
or cut back and most if not all the lateral
branches trimmed from the tree. The
tree itself should not be cut back as is
customary with other fruit trees, but by

Page Thirteen

leaving the terminal bud intact, a much
better shaped tree is developed. It is not
necessary to prune English Walnut trees
except in cases where some of the lower
branches interfere with cultivation.

Cultivation in the North should be
stopped about the first of August, thus
halting the growth of the trees and giving
them a chance to harden their wood for
Winter. This is a good plan to follow in
the cultivation of nearly all the smaller
fruit trees.

When planting on the lawn for orna-
mental purposes a ring from two to three
feet in diameter should be cultivated
about the base of the tree.

The tender varieties that have been used
in Southern California must riot be experi-
mented with in the North, as they bloom
too early and are almost certain
Selection to be caught by the frost. These

f \ T * *

of Varieties varieties have been tried in Nor-
thern California without success,
and the venture is quite likely to be disas-
trous in any but the warmest climates.

Page fourteen

MR. E. C. POMEROY, GATHERING ENGLISH WALNUTS
ON His FARM IN LOCKPORT, N. Y.

The uncertainty of a crop is often due
to the very early blooming of the kinds
planted. These start to grow at the first
warm spell in the latter part of the Winter
or at the first blush of Spring, and almost
invariably become victims of frost and
consequently produce no fruit.

Planting in the Northwest and the
East until recently has been limited to an
extremely narrow area. There was need
of a variety possessing strong, distinct
characteristics, hardy, late to start growth,
and with the pistillate and staminate
blossoms maturing at the same time and
bearing a nut of good quality and flavor
with a full rich meat. This variety has
now been found, as will later be shown.

English Walnuts grown in the North
command from three to five cents more a
pound than the other nuts in the markets,
as the meat is plumper and the flavor
better. Most fruit is at its best at the
Northern limit of its range.

One experienced grower, in reference
to transplanting has said: "I have trans-
planted all the way from a year to six and

Page fifteen

the trees have grown and done well, but
so far as my experience goes, I prefer to
move them at three years of age or about
that time. The best trees I have were
transplanted at this age."

The following extract on tree planting
17 11 c • in general, pertaining to all kinds
5p™g of trees, is contributed by O. K.
White of the Michigan Experi-
ment Station:

"The advisability of Fall or Spring
planting depends upon several con-
ditions. Fall planting has the advan-
tage over Spring planting in that the
trees become firmly established in
the soil before Winter sets in, and
are able to start growth in the Spring
before the ground can be marked
and put in condition for planting.
This is important because the trees
get a good growth in the early part
of the season before the Summer
droughts occur. On the other hand
there is more or less danger from
Winter injury during a severe season
or from the drying out of the trees if

Page Sixteen

THIRTY YEAR OLD PARENT ENGLISH WALNUT TREES IN
BACKGROUND, YOUNG BEARING TREE IN FRONT

the Winter is long and dry. Fall
planting is much more successful
with the hardy apples and pears than
it is with the tender plums, cherries
and peaches.

"The convenience of the season
will determine in a majority of cases
whether or not the planting shall be
done in the Fall or Spring. Very
often the rush of the Spring work
induces the grower to hurry his plant-
ing, or to do it carelessly; and as a
result a poor start is secured, with
crooked rows. Others have large
crops to harvest in the Fall and
would find it more convenient to do
the planting in the Spring. If there
is any doubt as to the best time to
plant, let it be in the Spring."

We now come to the subject of fer-
tilization. Up to the time when the
young trees come into bearing,
cultivation and fertilization will Fertilizing
help them enormously, the cul-
tivation keeping the soil in condition
to hold the moisture of the tree. In

Page Seventeen

fertilizing, a mulch of stable manure in
the Fall is considered by most growers
to be the best, but the following prepara-
tion is thought to be exceptionally good
for all young orchards:

Dried blood, 1,000 pounds; bone meal,
550 pounds; sulphate of potash, 350
pounds. Total, 2,000 pounds. This
should be applied close up and about the
tree, extending out each year in a circle
somewhat beyond the spread of the
branches.

This provides a quickly available plant
food, rich in nitrogen and especially
recommended for rapid growth.

After the tap-root reaches the sub-soil
moisture it is well able to take care of the
tree; and both cultivation and fertiliza-
tion may then be stopped. In fact, by
this time practically no further care is
needed in the nut orchard with the ex-
ception of that required at the harvesting
time, and this is a pleasant and easy
occupation, especially in the Northern
and Eastern states where the frost opens

Page Eighteen

the shuck and the nuts drop free upon
the ground where they may be picked
up and put into sacks of 110 to 120
pounds each, ready for the market.

Just before the first frost it is a very
good idea to remove all leaves from the
ground so that when the nuts fall they
can be readily seen and gathered. An
excellent method of accomplishing this
is by means of a horse and rake. The
nuts may be left on the ground to dry or
may be removed to any convenient place
for that purpose.

There are three distinct kinds of Eng-
lish Walnuts — hard-shell, soft-shell and
paper-shell, the soft-shell being the best.
Each of these three is divided
into a number of varieties, the The
names of some of the more pop- Different
ular ones being the Barthere, Kinds
Chaberte, Cluster, Drew, Ford,
Franquette, Gant or Bijou, Grand Nob-
lesse, Lanfray, Mammoth, Mayette,
Wiltz Mayette, Mesange, Meylan, Mis-
sion, Parisienne, Poorman, Proepar-

Page Nineteen

turiens, Santa Barbara, Pomeroy, Sero-
tina, Sexton, Vourey, Concord, Chase and
the Eureka.

The question of the best varieties for
planting in the North as well as in the
South is somewhat open to discussion,
due largely to a lack of sufficient infor-
mation in regard to some of the more
promising kinds. There is but little
question that the best proven variety for
the Northwest is the Franquette and for
the East and Northeast, the Pomeroy.
Both of these are good producers bearing
a fine nut, well filled with a white meat
of excellent flavor, and of good shape and
commanding the highest market prices.
The two varieties are also very late in
starting in the Spring making them safe
against the late frosts. Their pistillate
and staminate blossoms mature at the
same time.

The white-meated nut is far superior
to any other. The browning or staining
is caused by the extremely dry heat and
sun in the far South. In the North or

Page Twenty

ENGLISH WALNUTS BEAR IN CLUSTERS OF Two TO FIVE

where the tree has an abundant thick
foliage the meat is invariably whiter.

The Mission Nut was introduced by
the priests of Los Angeles and is the
pioneer Persian Walnut of California.
Most of the bearing orchards of ji
the state are composed of seed- **• • MI

v p ii • rrn iVIlSSlOn iNUt

ling trees of this type. The nut
is medium-sized with a hard shell of
ordinary thickness. It suceeds admirably
in a few favored districts (of Southern
California) but fails in productiveness
farther North. Its most prominent faults
are — early blooming, in consequence of
which it is often caught by the late frosts;
the irregular and unequal blooming of its
pistillate and staminate blossoms, and the
consequent failure of the former to be
fertilized and to develop nuts; and late-
ness in ripening its wood in the Fall and
consequent liability to injury by frost at
that time.

The Santa Barbara English Walnut
(soft-shell) variety is about ten days later
than the Mission in starting growth and

Page Twenty-one

in blooming in the Spring. It fruits from
four to six years from seed and usually

The Santa produces a full crop every year.

Barbara Nut ^ *s no^ as strong a grower as
the Mission and more trees can
be grown to the acre. The shells are thin
and easily broken, therefore the nuts are
sometimes damaged in long shipment.
The kernel is white and of very fine
quality.

The Pomeroy variety was started in a
most peculiar and interesting way. The
late Norman Pomeroy of Lockport, New
The York, made the discovery quite

Pomeroy Nut ^Y accident. When he was in
Philadelphia in 1876 visiting the
Centennial Exposition, he awoke one
morning to be greeted by the leaves of a
gorgeous tree, which just touched his
window and through which the sun shone
brightly. He soon was examining a mag-
nificent English Walnut tree. On the
ground directly under he found the nuts,
which had fallen during the night. Their
flavor was more delicious and the meat
fuller than any he had ever before tasted.

Page Twenty-two

The shell was unusually thin and Mr.
Pomeroy was astonished, for he never
believed the English Walnut grew in the
East.

Knowing the varieties grown in Cali-
fornia could not be raised in the East or
North, he questioned his landlord and
found that this particular tree had been
brought from Northern Europe. Mr.
Pomeroy determined at once that possibly
this variety would be hardy enough for
cultivation in New York State. He pro-
cured some of the nuts and put them in
his satchel which he entrusted to a
neighbor who was about to start home.
The neighbor reached home all right and
so did the nuts — but — the neighbor's
children found the rare delicacies and ate
all but seven. They would doubtless
have eaten these too but fortunately they
had slipped into the lining of the satchel
where Mr. Pomeroy found them on his
return to Lockport. These seven nuts,
which had so narrow an escape from ob-
livion, are now seven beautiful English
Walnut trees, sixty or more feet high and

Page Twenty-three

the progenitors of the Pomeroy orchards,
all of which are now producing nuts like
the originals — a very fine quality.

English Walnuts to be used for making

pickles, catsup, oil and other culinary

products, are gathered when the fruit is

about half mature or when the

Some uses shell is soft enough to yield to

of English the influence of cooking. The

Walnuts proper stage can be determined

by piercing the nut with a

needle, a certain degree of hardness being

desired. The nut is often utilized for

olive oil in some parts of Europe. It

takes one hundred pounds of nuts to

make eighteen pounds of oil.

In England the nuts are preserved fresh
for the table where they are served with
wine. They are buried deep in dry soil
or sand so as not to be reached by frost,
the sun's rays or rain; or by placing them
in dry cellars and covering with straw.
Others seal them up in tin cans filled
with sand.

Page Twenty-four

As an illustration of the hardiness
of the English Walnut, there is a tree
at Red Hill, Virginia, which was brought
from Edinburgh, Scotland, when Examples of
six months old, planted in New
York, where it remained three
years, then removed to Staunton, Vir-
ginia, and after two years taken to
Red Hill. In consequence of so many
changes, the tree at first died back, but
is now thrifty — twenty feet high; trunk,
eight inches in diameter at the ground.

During several severe Winters, the
thermometer fell so low that some peach
trees and grape vines growing near Eng-
lish Walnuts on the Pomeroy farm near
Lockport, N. Y. were killed, while the
nut trees were not in the least injured.

Page Twenty-five

The English Walnut
at its Best.

A SMOOTH, soft-shelled nut.
Meat full, with sweet, hickory-nut
flavor.

Nuts fall clean and free from outside
shuck.

Frosts harvest the nuts — in October.

They are self-pruning.

Require no care after arrival at bearing age.

An alkali sap keeps scales and pests from
the trees.

Blossoms immune from late frosts, as they
start late.

Pistillate and Staminate blossoms mature
at same time in the best varieties, in-
suring perfect fertilization and pro-
ductivity.

Bears more regularly than other nut trees.

Bears heavier crops the older it be-
comes, unlike other fruit trees the size
and quality of whose fruit degenerates
with age.

Pagi Twenty-six

Interesting Figures about the
English Walnut.

IN Spain and Southern France there
are trees believed to be more than
300 years old which bear from fifteen
to eighteen bushels of nuts each,
annually.

In Whittier, California, is a famous tree
which has been leased for a term of
years at $500.

Orchards seven and eight years old bring
all the way from $1,000 to $2,000 per
acre and are a fine investment, yielding
from 15 to 125 per cent, according to
age.

The total cost of producing and harvest-
ing an English Walnut crop is about
one and one-half cents a pound.

Page Twenty-sewn

Kernels of Fact about the
English Walnut.

T

HE United States consumes more
than 50,000,000 pounds a year.

The United States imports about
27,000,000 pounds a year.

The price is advancing steadily with the
demand.

Besides being profitable, the English
Walnut is a clean, highly ornamental
shade tree.

The leaves remain on the tree until late
in the Fall, not littering up the ground
during the Summer.

English Walnuts are not only a rare table
delicacy, but may be utilized for catsup,
pickles and oil.

One pound of walnut meat equals eight
pounds of steak in nutriment — and is
a far more healthful food.

Page Twenty-eight

What Luther Btir bank
has to say:

"W

HEN you plant another tree,
why not plant the English
Walnut? Then, besides sen-
timent, shade and leaves, you may
have a perennial supply of nuts, the
improved kind of which furnish the most
delicious, nutritious and healthful food
which has ever been known. The con-
sumption of nuts is probably increasing
among all civilized nations today faster
than that of any other food; and we
should keep up with this growing demand
and make it still more rapid by producing
nuts of uniform good quality, with a
consequent increase in the health and a
permanent increase in the wealth of our-
selves and neighbors/' — From Address at
Santa Rosa, California, in the Fall of 1905.

Page Twenty-nine

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