Growing Nuts in the North | Page 9

success of my grafting in this instance was only
about 1-1/2%, showing that something was decidedly wrong. Two
conclusions were possible: Either the scionwood had been injured by
transportation and the severe winter temperatures during January and
February of 1937 during which they were stored, or incompatibility
existed between the imported walnuts and our local ones. My
conclusion now is that when these stocks are fifteen years old or more
and are thrifty, they will support grafting of the Carpathian English
walnuts much more successfully than they will in their first decade of

growth. Results have shown that these local stocks will accept such
grafts, however, and that crops of English walnuts will be produced.
The fertility of the soil must be maintained carefully, since the English
walnut top tends to overgrow its black walnut root-stock, and unless
nutritional substance for the support of these tops is fed to the
root-system, meager crops, if any, will result.
I might note in comparison to the 1-1/2% success I had in this grafting,
that during the same season I put several hundred scions of these same
English walnuts on the Eastern black walnut stocks without a single
successful graft occurring.
In 1933 and 1934, many of these experimentally grafted walnuts, such
as Vandersloot, Paterson, and Rohwer as well as others, were planted in
orchard formation. In digging these trees, we took care to get all of the
root possible and to take a ball of dirt with the root. In spite of these
precautions, some of the trees died, not having sufficient vitality and
root development to withstand transplantation. This was a result not
only of the crowded condition under which the stocks had grown but
also of the poor soil which had nourished them. The soil was heavy
blue clay underlaid with limestone within two feet of the top of the
ground. Enough trees were set out in orchard formation which are
growing well and bearing annual crops, to give us the proof we need in
drawing conclusions of superiority among these varieties.
Black walnuts will keep for several years if they are properly dried and
then stored in a cool, but not too damp, place. Storing nuts in attics
which are likely to become excessively hot in the summer time, causes
rancidity sooner than any other method. Nuts keep very well in attics
during the winter but they should be transferred to a basement during
hot weather. If the basement is very damp, though, nuts will mould
there. For general storage, without having to move them from one place
to another for different seasons, nuts can be kept most practically in a
barn or outside shed. The only precaution necessary under such
circumstances is that they should be in a box or steel barrel to prevent
squirrels and mice from feeding on them, since barns and sheds are
easily accessible to these animals.

The kernels of black walnuts need not be discolored if the hulls of the
fresh nuts are removed as soon as the nuts are ripe. At my farm, we
have done this with an ordinary corn-sheller. The nuts, having been
hulled this way, are then soaked in water for a few hours to remove any
excess coloring matter left on their shells, after which they are dried for
several days out-of-doors, although not exposed to the sun since this
might cause them to crack open. Thorough drying is necessary before
sacking to prevent moulding. Kernels extracted from nuts treated this
way are very light in color like English walnuts. This enhances their
market value and they command a higher price when they are to be
used for culinary purposes such as cake frosting and candies where
there is exposure of large pieces or halves of the nut kernel. I find black
walnuts are exceptionally delicious when used in a candy called
divinity fudge. The strong flavor of the black walnut kernel although
appreciated by many people, is not as popular as that of the butternut,
of which more is said in another chapter.
The food value of black walnut kernels is high since they are composed
of concentrated fat and protein, similar to the English walnut, the
hickory nut and the pecan. There is also the advantage, which John
Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek, Michigan, has pointed out, that nuts
are a food of high purity being entirely free from disease bacteria. One
could safely say of unshelled nuts that there is not a disease germ in a
carload.
There was a time when black walnut hulls were purchased by producers
of insecticides. The black walnut hull, when dried and pulverized,
produces a substance which gives body to the concentrated pyrethrum
extract which is the essential ingredient of many insecticides.
One cannot leave a discussion of black walnuts without