Growing Nuts in the North | Page 3

gradually changed in
appearance, becoming elongated and very deeply and sharply
corrugated like butternuts although they still retained the black walnut
flavor. Because of this mixture of characteristics, the government
experts had great difficulty in identifying the variety, although the Ohio
was well known to them.
Another variety of black walnut, the Thomas, I have also known to be
influenced by the butternut stock on which it was grafted, when in 1938,
one of my trees bore black walnuts whose meat had lost its

characteristic flavor and assumed that of the butternut.
[Illustration: A--Genuine original Ohio Black Walnut from parent tree
B--Nut produced by grafting Ohio on Butternut]
I also liked to pick hazelnuts when I was a boy. These are probably the
least interesting among the wild nuts since they are usually small and
hard to crack. There is much variation in wild hazels, however, and
many people may recall them as being reasonably large. One of the two
species abundant in Minnesota, Corylus cornuta or Beak hazel, has fine,
needle-like hairs on its husk which are sure to stick into one's fingers
disagreeably. When the husk is removed, Corylus cornuta resembles a
small acorn. It does not produce in southern Minnesota and central
Wisconsin as well as the common hazel, Corylus Americana, does, nor
is its flavor as pleasing to most people. It is lighter in color than the
common hazel and has a thinner shell. Of course, some hazels are
intermediate or natural hybrids between these two species, and if the
nuts of such hybrids are planted, they generally revert to one of the
parents when mature enough to bear. This natural hybridization occurs
among all plants, between those of the same species, the same genera
or the same family. It is very rare between plants of different families.
The process is a very important one in horticulture and I shall explain
some of the crosses which are well-known later in this book.
Chapter 2
FIRST ATTEMPTS
When I was about fifteen years old, my family moved to St. Paul,
Minnesota, where my home now is and where my experimental work
with nuts was begun. St. Paul is in the 45th north parallel, but although
it is farther north, it is as favorable for the growth of nut trees as New
Ulm or St. Peter, because it lies in the Mississippi River valley and is
farther east. Bodies of water and altitudes have as great an influence on
plant life as latitude; at least, they can have, and these are factors that
must be understood thoroughly. Soil conditions also vitally affect plant
life, particularly deep-rooted trees such as nut trees usually are. Each

has its own requirements; hickory, Japanese heartnut and Persian
walnuts favor an alkaline soil, which chestnuts, wanting acid will not
grow in; chestnuts thrive best in a slightly acid, well-drained soil;
hazels will grow in either alkaline or acid soil as will black walnuts and
butternuts; almonds need a light sandy soil, similar to that suitable to
plums, pecans do well in either rich river bottoms, which may be
slightly acid, or in clay soil on high hillsides which are alkaline. A deep,
sandy or graveltype soil is usually accepted by the chestnuts even
though it may not be slightly acid, and successful orchards have been
grown on a deep clay soil on hillsides.
It is not always easy to obtain black walnuts and butternuts to eat.
Hickory nuts have been a favorite of mine since I first tasted them and I
often have found it difficult to procure fresh ones, ones that were not
slightly rancid. Because I liked eating these nuts, I thought I would try
to grow some for my own consumption and so avoid having to depend
on a grocer's occasional supply of those shipped in, always a little stale.
Raising nuts appealed to me economically too, since obviously trees
would need little care, and after they had begun to bear would supply
nuts that could be sold at interesting prices.
I turned the back yard of my home in St. Paul into an experimental plot.
Here I set out some of each kind of tree I planted or grafted at my farm
in Wisconsin. I had purchased a farm 35 miles east of St. Paul, beyond
the influence of the St. Croix River Valley. My experiments really
began there. The farm was covered with butternut trees, hazel bushes,
and a wild hickory called "bitternut." This last is well-named for I have
never found an animal other than a squirrel that could endure its nuts.
Possibly the white-footed mouse or deer-mouse could--I don't know.
He usually eats anything a squirrel does. I learned to appreciate these
bitternut trees later and they became a source of experience and interest
to me as I