English Walnuts

English Walnuts, by Various

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Title: English Walnuts What You Need to Know about Planting,
Cultivating and Harvesting This Most Delicious of Nuts
Author: Various
Compiler: Walter Fox Allen
Release Date: August 13, 2006 [EBook #19038]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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WALNUTS ***

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ENGLISH WALNUTS
[Illustration]
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PLANTING,
CULTIVATING AND HARVESTING THIS MOST DELICIOUS OF
NUTS
(Compiled by WALTER FOX ALLEN)
(Copyright 1912)

Foreword.
Realizing the tremendous interest 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
trustworthy 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
numerous 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 Walnuts.
[Illustration]
Viewed as a comparatively new industry, the culture of the Persian or
English Walnut is making remarkable 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 recognized,
one pound of walnut meat being equal in nutriment to eight pounds of
steak. Secondly, its superior worth as an ornamental shade tree is
admitted by everyone who knows the first thing about trees. For this
purpose there is nothing more beautiful. With their wide-spreading
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 there are
records of single trees bearing as much as 800 pounds of nuts in one

year.
[Illustration: SIX YEAR OLD BEARING ENGLISH WALNUT
TREE]
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 consuming yearly about 50,000,000 pounds of nuts,
with the demand constantly increasing, thereby necessitating the
importation annually of something more than 25,000,000 pounds, the
wonderful possibilities 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 advanced from 15 to 20 cents a pound in the past few years.
[Sidenote: =A Rival of the Orange=]
In California the nut industry is becoming a formidable rival of the
orange; in fact, there are more dollars worth of nuts (all varieties)
shipped from the state now per year than oranges.