Growing Nuts in the North | Page 4

learned to graft on them many varieties, species and hybrids
of hickory. They served as a root-system and shortened the length of
time required to test dozens of hickory types, helping me in that way, to
learn within one lifetime what types of nuts are practical for growing in
the north.

Remembering the nut trees in southern Minnesota, I first thought to
procure black walnut and hickory trees from some farmer in that
district. Through acquaintances in St. Peter, I did locate some black
walnut trees only to find that it was impractical to dig and transport
trees of the size I wanted. A nursery near St. Paul supplied me with
some and I bought twenty-eight large, seedling black walnut trees. I
was too eager to get ahead with my plans and I attempted, the first year
these trees were planted, to graft all of them. My ability to do this was
not equal to my ambition though, and all but two of the trees were
killed. I was successful in grafting one of them to a Stabler black
walnut; the other tree persisted so in throwing out its natural sprouts
that I decided it should be allowed to continue doing so. That native
seedling tree which I could not graft now furnishes me with bushels of
walnuts each year which are planted for understocks. This is the name
given to the root systems on which good varieties are grafted.
In an effort to replace these lost trees, I inquired at the University of
Minnesota Farm and was given the addresses of several nurserymen
who were then selling grafted nut trees. Their catalogues were so
inviting that I decided it would be quite plausible to grow pecans and
English walnuts at this latitude. So I neglected my native trees that year
for the sake of more exotic ones. One year sufficed; the death of my
whole planting of English walnuts and pecans turned me back to my
original interest. My next order of trees included grafted black walnuts
of four accepted varieties to be planted in orchard form--the Stabler,
Thomas, Ohio and Ten Eyck.
I ordered a few hickories at the same time but these eventually died.
My experience with hickories was very discouraging since they were
my favorite nuts and I had set my heart on growing some. I think I
should have given up attempting them had not one dealer, J. F. Jones,
urged that I buy just three more hickory trees of the Beaver variety. He
gave me special instructions on how to prepare them against winter. I
have always felt that what he told me was indeed special and very
valuable since those three trees lived. Subsequently, I bought several
hundred dollars worth of trees from him. More than that, we became
friends. I visited him at his nurseries in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and he

again demonstrated his interest and generosity by giving me both
horticultural information and the kindest hospitality. My friendship
with him was but one of many that I have formed while traveling and
corresponding in the interests of nut culture. True and lasting friends
such men make, too, with no circumstances of selfish import to taint
the pleasure of the relationship.
Since I wanted to have many black walnut trees some day, I decided to
plant ten bushels of black walnuts in rows. I thought I could later graft
these myself and save expense. The theory was all right but when I
came to practice it, I found I had not taken squirrels into consideration.
These bushy-tailed rats dug up one complete bed which contained two
bushels of nuts and reburied them in haphazard places around the farm.
When the nuts started to sprout, they came up in the fields, in the
gardens, and on the lawn--everywhere except where I had intended
them to be. I later was grateful to those squirrels, though, because,
through their redistributing these nuts I learned a great deal about the
effect of soil on black walnut trees, even discovering that what I
thought to be suitable was not. The trees which the squirrels planted for
me are now large and lend themselves to experimental grafting. On
them I have proved, and am still proving, new varieties of the English
walnut.
The other eight bushels had been planted near a roadside and close to
some farm buildings. The constant human activity thereabouts probably
made the squirrels less bold, for although they carried off at least a
bushel of walnuts, about two thousand seedlings grew. I had planted
these too close together and as the trees developed they became so
crowded that many died. The remaining seedlings supplied me with
root-stocks for experimental work which proved very valuable.
I have always suspected the squirrels of having been responsible for the
fact