Northern Nut Growers Report of the Proceedings at the Twenty-First Annual Meeting | Page 6

We now have one called the Finney. This stands in Marshall County right beside the Northwestern Railroad track. I sent this to Professor Drake of Arkansas for testing and he reported it was a little better than Thomas, so I think we have a variety there that is worth taking care of. I received the sample of nuts through a friend, I believe it was three years ago. I didn't see anything particularly attractive in the outside appearance of the nuts, so threw them aside and didn't test them until some months later. I passed it up at that time as not being better than the Thomas, anyway, and some months later I cracked another one of them. I went on that way for the last year until this last fall. I had quite a quantity of them and every time I came across them I would sample them. Finally I sent some of them to Professor Drake, with the results that I have mentioned. So now I have concluded that it is a very worthwhile variety and I have begun propagating them.
DR. DRAKE: Did you call it by another name before?
MR. SNYDER: Well, I believe I called it Brenton.
DR. DRAKE: That is the name I remember.
MR. SNYDER: From the extreme north line of our state, a place called Cresco, I received samples of a walnut. This I considered on its first appearance as being a worthwhile variety and I took it up with the party who sent it to me and we agreed to call it Cresco. It is a very thin-shelled walnut, above medium size, excellent eating quality, and coming from so far north, and ripening and being of such excellent quality, I thought it was worth looking after and we began propagating it under that name.
We have another one that made its appearance in the Cedar Rapids exposition, that has been named Safely. This is of the Ohio type of walnut and I believe will prove to be just as good, possibly better. The first samples received of this were ripened under unfavorable conditions and were not fully up to their best. I think this will be worth looking after, although I have not yet made an effort to propagate it or get scions. It is owned by a cousin of mine so I could get them.
The best thing I have found in the state of Iowa I have authority to call Burrows. This is the finest cracking black walnut I have ever found. Just a crack of the hammer--four quarters. You don't have to pick them out. It stands near the county line of Marshall County, near a little town called Gillman.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you specimens of all of these?
MR. SNYDER: Yes, specimens on the tables. I believe this puts me through the list of nuts as far as anything new is concerned. I am quite an enthusiast about the black walnut. There is a double purpose in the black walnut here in Iowa because our saw mill men tell me, and we have the largest manufacturing walnut mills here in Iowa, they tell me the Iowa grown walnut is the most valuable black walnut and they will pay the best price for it. This alone makes it valuable to plant black walnuts here in Iowa. Another thing, they are easily and quickly grown. Our millers tell us that anyone who cuts down a walnut tree ought to be compelled to plant two. If we all followed this rule the supply would never be exhausted. We know the demand will not be.
MR. HERSHEY: Couldn't we pass a law here, as they have in Germany, that every man has to plant thirty trees before he can get married?
THE PRESIDENT: Have you found a first class butternut?
MR. SNYDER: None, except those that have been listed for a couple of years. The Buckley is the best in the state. Sherwood is next. Those two are the best.
THE PRESIDENT: In Michigan we are interested in getting a good butternut.
MR. SNYDER: By the way, we have on the table a hybrid. This hybrid is a cross between the sieboldiana and the American butternut. We call it the Helmick hybrid. We have propagated it for our own use at home. We have it under restrictions. I have six seedlings that I have produced from seed of this Helmick hybrid that are crossed with the Stabler black walnut. In these seedlings are wrapped up three distinct species, the Stabler (Juglans nigra), Japanese heartnut (Juglans sieboldiana cordiformis) and the American butternut (Juglans cinerea). I know this is the result because when the Helmick hybrid bloomed its cluster containing eighteen nutlets would have perished for want of pollen to fertilize them because it had produced no staminate blossoms of its own. There being nothing on