Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty Fourth Annual Meeting

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I do not wish to take any more of your time as we have a heavy program
and a lot of good speakers, and if they can add anything to nut culture,
I shall be happy indeed.

Dr. Zimmerman: We welcome members of the Penna. Nut Growers Association.
It is their field day tomorrow in connection with ours and we welcome
them to this convention.

The President appointed the resolutions and the nominating committees.

TREASURER'S REPORT

Balance September 1, 1932 as reported to Washington
Convention $ 8.79
Stamps and Canadian money redeemed by Treasurer 3.42
Balance in Litchfield Savings Society 15.94
______

Receipts $28.15 $ 28.15

Profit on Bus Trip at Washington 15.00
Memberships @ $3.50 old rate. No Nut News 21 @ $3.50 73.50
Memberships @ $4.00 new rate. No Nut News 3 @ $4.00 12.00
Memberships @ $4.50--$3.50 to Assn. $1.00 to Nut News 2 @ $4.50 9.00
Memberships @ $5.00--$4.00 to Assn. $1.00 to Nut News 43 @ $5.00 215.00
Memberships @ $5.00 without Nut News 3 @ $5.00 15.00
Membership @ $10.00--Mr. Ellis 10.00
Membership @ $10.00 with Nut News--Mr. Neilson 10.00
Miscellaneous Receipts 9.00
_______

Total Receipts $396.65 $396.65

DISBURSEMENTS

Refund to D. C. Snyder $ 2.00
Programs Washington Convention 25.00
Paid National Nut News 38.00
Membership American Horticultural Society 3.00
C. A. Reed. Expense Washington Convention 6.70

Total $ 74.70 $ 74.70
Balance to account for $321.95
Litchfield Savings Society $ 15.94
Cash on hand or in bank 306.01
_______

Total $321.95 $321.95

J. F. Jones' Experimental Work in Hybridizing Filberts and Hazels

_By_ MILDRED JONES

_Lancaster, Pennsylvania_

The first crosses of the hybrid filberts were made in the year 1919. The
small plants when taken from the nursery row were set 5 x 8 feet with
the thought in mind of taking out every other bush in the rows when they
began to crowd, and in case they were of value they could be
transplanted to a permanent place. It was not thought that many of the
plants would bear superior nuts promising enough to keep longer than to
observe the type of nuts the bushes bore. The first lot of plants, which
were mostly of the Barcelona cross, bore in the fall of 1924.

The object in view mainly was to produce, if possible, a variety or
varieties that could be made a commercial proposition here or elsewhere
in the eastern U. S. Not very much was thought at the time about the
flavor or the quality of the kernel. The main thought was to get away
from the corky substance adhering to the kernel of the most of the
filberts. Barcelona, the main commercial nut in the West, has a lot of
this, which makes the kernel unattractive and is probably more or less
injurious to the digestive system because of the tannin content. After
this fault was eliminated it was going to be necessary to work for size
and quality of the nut.

The filbert blight has not been found on our place, so not much stress
was put on the point of producing a blight-resistant or blight-free
filbert. Probably if we had the filbert blight we would consider it more
seriously.

The method used in crossing these hybrids was to remove the catkins on
the pistillate plant at any time before they developed and scattered
their pollen. The wood containing the catkins to be used for pollinating
was observed closely in order to bring it in at the same time with the
Rush pistillates by cutting and holding back in a cold cellar after the
catkins were swelling well. This was the Barcelona which blooms very
early.

The Italian Red, Cosford and Giant De Halles bloom later than the Rush
so this was another problem. These were forced by cutting and putting in
a sunny window. In cutting wood for pollinating, the cuttings should be
large. The stored up starch in the wood then gives the catkins more to
draw on. Apparently the filbert catkins and pistillates develop entirely
from the stored up starch in the wood and do not draw on the roots at
all. This being so it was figured they would develop just as well off
the bush.

The last pollinating on the Rush was done in the spring of 1921. The
catkins appeared to be all right and the limbs were cut and stored in
the cellar. These were taken from the DuChilly. Finding they did not
respond promptly to warmth it was seen that the catkins were drying up
and getting stiff. As Father was very anxious to use this variety he
tried soaking the limbs in water and then exposed them to the sun. Some
of the catkins only swelled and then appeared to stop. The soaking was
then repeated making it several hours and again they were exposed to the
sun and warmth. Most of them developed nicely after this treatment. As
those on the bush dried up and turned black it was thought probably the
pollen used after treated as just mentioned was not good, but the
pistillates developed promptly after being pollinated and the bush
produced a large crop of nuts. I suppose these had been injured in the
winter, but it would seem surprising that they could be made to develop
artificially and the pollen be good.

It was found that Rush crossed Cosford made the largest nuts but the
kernels of these nuts were not of the best quality.

On our eastern market I think it will be found that the longer type nuts
will bring the premium in price. I find in selling the nuts that people
mostly desire the longer nuts, but will take the other nuts if they
cannot get the longer ones.

This past spring we tried to graft several of the most promising hybrids
in the older block of trees. We used the modified cleft graft method and
we set the grafts on layered plants of the Barcelona filbert which were
lined out in April. We grafted them in May after the layers had started
to grow. Out of 200 plants grafted we have growing 16 nice plants from
18 to 24 inches tall, an 8% stand. The roots of the Barcelona layers
died also on the grafts that failed to live. I believe the main trouble
in this experiment was that there was not enough root system to carry
the graft rather than the fault of the grafting, as most of the grafts
started to grow. We should have tried grafting on layers established one
year and we will try this next spring.

We have several very promising filberts in the older block of bearing
plants. The Buchanan, No. 92, was named for President Buchanan, the only
President of the U. S. from Pennsylvania, whose home is in Lancaster.
No. 200 is also an excellent plant and was classed by my Father as one
of the best in the collection. This plant has not been given a name as
yet. I would like to have a name suggested that would be suitable. These
two plants just mentioned bear nuts very much the shape of Italian Red.
The kernels come out with little or no corky substance on the kernel.
The flavor is very good and the plants have borne very well. We have a
plant called "B." Letters were given to the plants where mice got in the
seed beds and mixed the nuts. The nut of this plant is more the shape of
Barcelona and is very good. It also bears well.

In the younger block of plants we have quite a few promising plants but
these must be tested further before we can say anything definite for or
against them.

I notice considerable leaf burn in the block of hybrids since the severe
storm we had two weeks ago. Quite a few of the nuts were knocked off too
but there is still a good crop which you will see tomorrow.

Since my Father died we have not done any hybridizing. We hope to do so
in the future as the work is very interesting.

Mr. Stoke: Year before last I bought 2 lbs. of supposedly stratified
nuts. I planted them but only one or two came up. This year they have
made a pretty fair start so I know it takes two years to germinate. It
seems as though it sometimes takes three years because these were
stratified for a year and it took them two years to come up after I had
them planted. I think you could probably get some stratified nuts from
Carlton Nursery Co., Carlton, Oregon. I sent to Carlton for mine but
they were shipped by someone else. It is my belief that the Carlton
Nursery Co. controls the supply, so you will have to write to them for
them.

I have three or four dozen trees out of the first planting. They were
planted in a very crowded position among walnut trees but are doing
surprisingly well. The trees are now three years old and are shoulder
high.

Prof. Slate: I planted some Turkish hazel nuts. They have been planted
two years and have not yet come up, but I believe they will next year,
as they take two years to germinate.

The following is a list of houses where seed of different species can be
obtained. Submitted by the courtesy of Miss Jones:

Sources of CORYLUS

CHINENSIS
Hillier Bros., Winchester, England.
Vilmorin & Co., Paris, France.

CORYLUS COLURNA
Carlton Nursery Co., Carlton, Ore.

C. TIBITICA
Forest Experiment Station, Dehra Dun, British India.

Notes on the Commercial Cracking of Black Walnuts

_By_ H. F. STOKE, _Roanoke, Virginia_

A year ago I reported to this body an experiment in the commercial
production of black walnut kernels by factory methods, including the use
of a power-driven cracking device. During the past year the experiment
was continued, with the variation that the shelling was done as a home
industry rather than as a factory operation. Ten families were furnished
with hand-power cracking devices and the whole nuts were delivered to
their homes. The workers received 10c per pound for cracking and picking
out the kernels and in addition retained the shells for fuel. Forty-five
thousand pounds of nuts were used in the experiment for which a uniform
price of $1 per hundred weight was paid.

The more efficient and conscientious workers produced as high as 15% of
kernels per unit of whole nuts, which was slightly better than the
production by factory methods. The general average, however, was around
12-1/2%, or about the same for both methods. As to quality of product
there was no appreciable difference. It is necessary to exercise greater
care in the selection of workers where the work is done in homes without
supervision than in the factory. By actual experience it was found that
some workers would produce less than half the percentage made by the
more efficient workers. Such workers were dropped.

Where relatively small quantities of nuts are to be shelled there is
little to be chosen between the home-industry method and such factory
method as was used by me. The cost of delivering the nuts to the homes
may be roughly set over against the cost of operating a factory. Based
on the hours of work required to produce a given quantity of kernels,
the factory method is more efficient. On the other hand, the home worker
will work for a smaller wage per hour. Where large quantities of nuts
are available, commercial cracking by machine methods will be
increasingly used in the future, especially if economic conditions so
far improve that people will no longer work for starvation wages. Point
is given to this observation by the fact that local buyers paid from 8
to 15c for country-produced kernels last season, while my bare cost,
without overhead or profit, was 20c per pound.

* * * * *

The most notable advance that has come to my attention during the past
year in the way of commercial production of black walnut kernels is that
contributed by Mr. C. E. Werner, President of the Forest Park Nut
Company, of Ottawa, Kansas. Mr. Werner, who is 84 years of age and a
veteran inventor with several notable inventions to his credit, has
designed and built a machine that seems to mark a new era in black
walnut kernel production. This machine, which is mounted on a truck, is
not only used for the local operations of the company, but is moved from
place to place in the performance of custom work, after the manner of a
grain threshing outfit. Mention is made in company correspondence of
cracking twenty thousand bushels of nuts for one customer in southwest
Missouri. The following details were supplied by the manager of the
company.

The machine has a capacity of from 75 to 100 pounds of kernels per hour.
As they come from the machine they carry not more than 10% shells, and
run from 28 to 30% full quarters. After being hand cleaned the net
recovery of kernels represents from 10 to 11-1/2% of the weight of the
whole nuts. Custom work is charged for at the rate of from 3 to 5c per
pound for the kernels produced. The cost of the final hand cleaning and
packaging is given as 2c per pound, which makes a total production cost
of from 5 to 7c per pound.

The operation of the machine may be briefly described as follows: The
nuts are run through a revolving screen which separates and cleans them
from all adhering husk and grades them into three sizes. They then pass
through the cracker and thence, by conveyor belt, to the picker. This
ingenious device holds the broken nuts with soft rubber rolls while a
set of fingers literally pick the kernels from the shells. Careful
sifting is the last step as the kernels leave the machine, after which
they are hand-picked to remove any remaining pieces of shell. The owners
advise that the machine has been built primarily for their own use, and
has not yet been offered for sale. They would, however, consider
building the machines for sale.

While the subject assigned me did not include the marketing of kernels,
I cannot refrain from stating that no commodity is in greater need of
orderly, organized marketing. In the meantime I would urge the small
producer to cultivate his own local market as far as possible and refuse
to produce at unprofitable prices.

Cracked black walnuts make an excellent supplementary feed for growing
chicks and laying hens.

I advertised in the Rural New Yorker, The American Magazine and Better
Homes and Gardens. Mr. Hershey advised me I would go broke advertising
but I wanted to see what would happen. The Rural New Yorker gave the
best results. I got $1.25 for a 2-lb. package. The kernels were in
clean, first-class condition. I noticed some were advertised as low as
95c for two pounds. Some people in answering my advertisement said they
had bought others that were not in first-class condition. I had no
complaints about mine. In Better Homes and Gardens I did not get enough
orders to pay for my advertising. I would not advise anyone to advertise
there or in the American Magazine, as I got very poor results. I even
got a bad check. The Rural New Yorker was very satisfactory.

The prices I paid locally were from .05 to .08 and sometimes .10 to .15
to old customers. Twelve and a half cents was the average price. I think
maybe I should have advertised in a confectioners' journal in order to
reach a large consumer source, but I felt at the time that I was using
the only way I had of reaching a market.

This carton (showing a mailing container) is a 2-pound carton which I
used in shipping in response to mail orders. It makes a very nice
package that is received in good condition. I might add that the
contents are 50 cubic inches.

Question: Do you use a paper bag inside?

Mr. Stoke: I line it with wax paper. I made a form and fold the wax
paper around it to get the size. This makes a neat lining and then I
just pour in the nuts and fold the top down.

Mr. Graham: Do you notice much difference in the kernels?

Mr. Stoke: Not in black walnuts. I found a few nuts which I could not
use. The best nuts I found this year were in and about our locality.

Mr. Smith: Did you try offering prizes? Mr. Hershey and I once got
almost tipsy testing a lot of walnuts in a prize contest.

Mr. Stoke: No. The best nuts I got would score not higher than the
Thomas. They were brought in by different people and mixed together so
that I was unable to tell their source.

The President: Do you do your separating of kernel and shell by hand?

Mr. Stoke: Yes. I use sieves, too. I use first a 3/8 x 3/4 inch mesh. It
will take out most of the shell. Then for a minimum size, the best is 8
mesh to an inch, as used by the Forest Park Nut Co., Ottawa, Kans. This
is smaller mesh and eliminates the smaller bits of shell.

Mr. Hershey: Did you have any correspondence with those people?

Mr. Stoke: I was interested in their machine for cracking nuts and I
wrote the company a letter. Two or three months later I received a
letter from Mr. Werner, a son of Mr. C. E. Werner, and who signed
himself as Len Werner of the Werner Steel Products Co., and I received
details and facts about the machine. He asked me if I would be
interested in buying a machine or renting on a basis of kernel
production. The younger Mr. Werner said they built the machine for
themselves but could supply orders if they came in.

Miss Sawyer: Did you get any information on the price?

Mr. Stoke: No, none whatever. It seems to be taken from place to place
mounted on a truck and cracks the nuts right on the job.

Mr. Reed: Do you have any difficulty in cracking nuts when they are dry?

Mr. Stoke: The nut cracks best when not too wet or too dry but just
right. If too dry, they are too brittle and you break up the kernels too
much, also get too many spalls of shells. If wet you have other
troubles. In the South and Southwest the summers get hot and so some
nuts get rancid. The sweet type that have less oil seem to stand up
better.

Question: Do you ever steam nuts before cracking?

Mr. Stoke: No, I haven't. To keep them in a damp atmosphere is also not
good. Nuts should be kept dry while in storage. Kernels should also be
kept in a dry place. I put them in trays of wire mesh and if the nuts
are too green or I am in a hurry for them, I turn on the electric fan.

Last Fall I put some in cold storage in December. I also put some in
cold storage in May and I found that I would not have needed to put any
in cold storage until May as they have kept just as nicely as those
stored earlier. But I find it is essential to have the kernels
thoroughly dried before they are put away. If thoroughly dried they will
not mold, but if kept in too warm a place they will turn rancid. To keep
them in a damp atmosphere is also not good. If they are treated right
they will keep indefinitely.

Dr. Zimmerman: Mr. Stoke, how many nuts did you crack?

Mr. Stoke: About 40,000 or 50,000 lbs.

Mr. Reed: What did you do with screenings?

Mr. Stoke: I fed them to the chickens. Some said that they would keep
the chickens from laying but I found that by mixing about 25% with
ordinary mash it worked fine.

Mr. Hershey: Did you find that it made the egg shells hard?

Mr. Stoke: No, the chickens had too much sense.

Question: What percent do you lose in sieving?

Mr. Stoke: When I did my fine sieving, I used a 4-inch screen. The
shells were taken out entirely. I lost, maybe, 4%.

Prof. Reed: Do you people in Virginia have local names for different
types of walnuts? What is the swamp black walnut?

Mr. Stoke: My own opinion is that there is only one black walnut in the
East. We have a butternut that some people call the English walnut and
some the white walnut. The Japanese walnut is sometimes called an
English walnut. We also have the English or Persian walnut.

Prof. Reed: I believe the botanists recognize only the one black walnut.

Prof. Slate: I do not think there is more than one kind.

Mr. Stoke: It is interesting to know that while the black walnut has
been higher in price than the English walnut, so that manufacturers have
been substituting the English walnut for the black walnut, this year the
black walnut has dropped as much as 10c per pound under the English and
is now about 5c, I believe. Consequently the black walnut has come into
its own and is now being substituted for the English walnut.

Mr. Frey: I would like to mention alternate years in bearing. If apple
trees can be made to give a fair crop each year by good care, feeding
and spraying, it is my thought that walnut trees will do the same thing
under the same conditions. But we must remember that forming the hard
shell is a most difficult thing for a tree to do.

Prof. Neilson: I should like to draw your attention to a drawing sent me
by J. U. Gellatly. (The paper was held up for all to see.) Just look at
the size of the leaves. That is a tracing of the leaf of a hybrid
English walnut and heartnut. He sent it along as evidence of its vigor
of growth. This large compound hybrid leaf measured 27 inches from tip
of the leaf to the bottom of the last leaflet, exclusive of the stem
which was 5 inches long. Many of the larger leaflets measured 5 x 9
inches, shape, oblong ovate, edges of leaf, serrate, total width of
compound leaf, 17 inches.

Dr. Smith: I should like to suggest to Mr. Frey that the theory he
suggested might be supported if the tree were placed in a particularly
favorable location.

Mr. Hershey: I should like to remind the audience of Judge Potter who
told me some years ago that on his farm in Southern Illinois he got
three doubles of his meadow grove of about 50 hickory trees, by using
plenty of good horse manure, phosphoric acid, and potash. The increases
were that he doubled the amount of growth and the size of the nut and
changed the trees from alternate bearing to yearly bearing.

Black Walnut Notes for 1933

_By_ C. A. REED, _Associate Pomologist
Fruit and Vegetable Crops and Diseases
U. S. Department of Agriculture_

A number of developments in connection with the black walnut industry of
the East have taken place during the last 12 months which appear to be
of such importance as to justify special record at this time. Some of
these have to do with the production and marketing of and prices
received for, the wild product, others with certain features in
connection with orchard and nursery management, and still others with
walnut relationships both inside and outside of the genus.

The Black Walnut Kernel Industry

Production of black walnut kernels in this country is fully 99 per cent
from seedling trees of the fields, forests, roadsides and dooryards.
That from orchard and top-worked trees, while now considerably on the
increase, due to recent activity in planting and top-working, will
hardly become of relative importance for some years to come. The wild
crop is actually on the increase each year, due partly to greater care
now taken of old bearing trees and partly to the large number of young
trees coming into bearing each year but more largely to the greater
extent to which nuts are now being gathered and not allowed to decay on
the ground.

This increase in production is working both for and against the
permanent welfare of the industry, and by this use of the term
"industry", it is meant to include the cultivated as well as the
uncultivated phases. Consumption has increased tremendously. No figures
are available as to either total production or percentage of total crop
which is still allowed each year to remain on the ground until it
becomes decomposed.

However, it is the opinion of Baltimore merchants who have long handled
this product that in certain large districts the wild nuts are now
gathered closely and that very few are allowed to decay on the ground.
There is no available information upon which to base a curve as to the
probable increase in production which may be expected from young trees
just beginning to bear or the thousands still too young to bear or yet
the other thousands to be planted by squirrels each year. Whether or not
the increase in consumption and its coincident change in eating habits
of the American people will prove permanent after the return of normal
times, remains to be seen, but it may be accepted as fact that the
future of this country is likely to see greater competition in the home
markets among foods than has been the case in the past and that,
eventually, only those having the greatest values in nutrition and
palatability will survive. Salesmanship may defeat this for a while but
ultimately, palatability assumed, cash values and human tastes will most
certainly arrive at pretty much the same point. The ultimate future of
the walnut would therefore appear to depend largely upon its ability to
become one of the fittest survivers.

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