Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 41st Annual Meeting Part 26

Main one now six inches above ground. Has a circ.u.mference of 20 inches, and just above this branches into four main limbs of similar size, which at a height of six feet were grafted--two to the thin bark above, and two to the cork bark type. The thin bark type have made very compatible unions--well healed over. The circ.u.mference four inches below the graft is now 9-1/2 inches and at similar distance above is now 10 inches.

July, 1950:--These are bearing a few nuts, following a winter temperature of-24 F. Although the two branches worked to the cork bark type have no crop this season, they have over-grown graft unions, and the tops are oversize for stocks. Circ.u.mference four inches below union is now 7 inches, and at same distance above is 9 inches. Both these types have thick sh.e.l.led roundish nuts which are hard to get out of the husks, and so far have many blank nuts. India tree hazels also contain many blanks and are very difficult to separate from the husks. Trees are all hardy and vigorous.

Best of 25 seedling ~C. colurna~ (cork bark tree hazels). Circ.u.mference twelve inches above ground line is 31 inches, and at six feet above ground is 25 inches. Height about forty feet. On August 3, 1950, I climbed thirty feet into upper branches to see if there was any crop, but none was to be seen, but heavy crop of catkins was developing for 1951. I have many hybrids from all of these tree hazels and filberts, nearing the bearing age, and they give interesting promise of new strains, as all sorts of crossing are evident.

Tibet Hazel (C. tibicia)

Vigorous grower, upright, good cropper, fair size round nuts. Clean kernels, nut cl.u.s.ters, 4 to 6 nuts in open medium husks. Nuts fall free.

These cl.u.s.ters differ from usual run of filberts or hazels in that each husk is separate on short neck from center of cl.u.s.ter.

Timber Type Tree Chinese Chestnut (Castanea mollissima)

Seed secured direct from China. All select large nuts. So far, only a very few produce trees that yield nuts of as large size as those planted. All that have are timber type trees. All the bush or dwarf spreading type trees yield small to medium-sized nuts, all of good quality and flavor. (Selection to 1950 date referred to.)

One Chinese Chestnut Selection Named

Skioka. Most promising timber type to date of this group of seedlings.

Has one straight trunk 38 feet tall, base circ.u.mference 1 foot above ground, is 22 inches; and 6 feet above ground line circ.u.mference is 15 inches. To date, tree is spa.r.s.e cropper. Started bearing in 1945, with three very large sized nuts in large fleshy burs. It has borne every year since, with gradual increase in number. In 1949 it matured 12 large nuts of 1-5/8 inch diameter. A good peeler and solid kernel. I have four other trees of similar size and all winter hardy this past winter, at 24 below. Skioka is the most promising to date of the four as to size of nut.

Bush or Peach Tree Type of C. mollissima

Of this type I have about 30 trees. Many seem 100% hardy and came through in good shape. However, for some years they, with the tree type, seemed to be having trouble with some soil deficiency or else some excess of soil salts which caused a lot of leaf fading, followed by browning and drying up. Some trees almost defoliate themselves, while others nearby and alongside are O.K., possibly due to individual tolerance of conditions.

DR. MacDANIELS: The first paper after recess has to do with the varieties of hickory nuts. I know of no one who is in a better position to talk on this subject on their performance here in this part of New York State than Gilbert L. Smith of Millerton. He began a number of years ago topworking trees on a hillside and propagating trees as a nurseryman and probably is, as far as I know, one of the best men in nut shade trees and hickory varieties that there is anywhere in the country.

Mr. Gilbert Smith.

MR. SMITH: I am no good at making a speech, so I am just going to read this. This is our experience with hickory varieties so far. That's just up to date, but not any further.

Our Experience with Hickory Nut Varieties

GILBERT L. SMITH, Route 2, Millerton, N. Y.

Because we are located so far north, 41 45' North Lat.i.tude, we have paid particular attention to the earliness of ripening of the various varieties of hickory.

While we have living grafts of more than a hundred named varieties of hickory, only a comparative few have started to bear nuts. Of these, I will give a brief discussion, starting with the earliest and going through the list in order of their ripening.

ANTHONY, s.h.a.gbark--We believe that this is Anthony No. 1 but as there are four or five varieties named Anthony with a number following the name, we are not absolutely sure. This variety has ripened very early with us. It is rather small but cracks very well and has borne well with us. We consider it to be an excellent variety.

WESCHCKE, s.h.a.gbark--Is our second earliest variety so far. It is also rather small, with a distinctive shape, tapering from a rather broad blossom end to a sharp point at the stem end. Our graft has had one very good crop, but it is younger than many of our other grafts. We consider it a very good variety.

CROWN POINT, s.h.a.gbark--Is our third variety in order of ripening. This is a rather small nut with some of them being very small; that is, there is quite a variation in the size of the nuts. It cracks quite well and is of very good quality. It has also borne as well or better than any other variety we have under test. We have never propagated it for sale as we have hardly thought it quite good enough.

In fourth place of ripening order, we have four ties, namely; Bauer, Cedar Rapids, Hines, and Independence.

BAUER, s.h.a.gbark--Has borne well, is of good size, good quality and cracks well. It is also a very good shaped nut. We consider it to be one of the very good hickories.

CEDAR RAPIDS, s.h.a.gbark--While our graft of this variety has borne but moderately, we consider it to be a very good variety. It is of good size, cracks well, is of good quality and attractive shape.

HINES, s.h.a.gbark--While our graft of this variety has borne well, cracks well and is of good quality, it is so small that we have never propagated it for sale.

INDEPENDENCE, s.h.a.gbark--The nuts of this variety are so small that we have paid little attention to it.

FOX, s.h.a.gbark--This variety is in fifth place in order of ripening.

Fox won first prize in the 1934 N.N.G.A. contest. But there is a deep mystery connected with this variety as subsequent crops, grown on grafts, have not produced nuts of such top qualities. There have been many theories advanced but no one has solved the mystery yet. One theory is that there is bud variation in the parent tree and that Mr. Fox, quite naturally, cut scion wood from the lower parts of the tree, which were most readily accessible. During the war, I secured a special allotment of gasoline and made the trip to Fonda, N. Y., to cut scions from all parts of the tree. The scions from the various parts of the tree were labeled separately and were grafted on stocks in our test orchard. While not all of these grafts lived, we have living grafts from nearly all parts of the tree. I note that at least one of these grafts has nuts on it this year. If there is bud variation we hope that we will have at least some grafts of the superior Fox nuts.

In spite of all this, Fox is an excellent variety, being of good size, cracks well, and is of very good quality. While it is fifth in order of ripening, it is still an early hickory and will succeed considerably farther north than our location.

In sixth place we have two varieties, namely; Clark and Stocking.

CLARK, s.h.a.gbark--Our graft of this variety has borne well, the nuts being of good size, crack well and are of good quality. We consider it to be a very good variety.

STOCKING, s.h.a.gbark x bitternut--While our graft has grown very well, it has produced but very few nuts. We were not very greatly impressed with these.

In seventh place in order of ripening, we have two varieties, Camp No. 2 and Stratford.

CAMP NO. 2, s.h.a.gbark--We did not find this variety good enough to interest us very much. Subsequent crops may show up better.

STRATFORD, not sure whether s.h.a.gbark or hybrid[29]--Our Stratford graft has been poorly tended and has had little chance to show its merits. So while it has an excellent reputation, we know very little about it.

However we have several good sized grafts of it, growing in nursery row, which have several nuts on this year, so we will find out more about it soon.

[29] It is a bitternut hybrid.--Ed.

In eighth place we have three varieties; Proper, Shaul, and Wilc.o.x.

While being in eighth place, these are still medium early varieties.

PROPER, s.h.a.gbark--This is a little known variety, our graft is rather young and we have had too few nuts to form any opinion of this variety as yet.

SHAUL, s.h.a.gbark--While this is a very good nut, being of good size, cracks well and of good quality, our graft on s.h.a.gbark stock has grown slowly and it is the one variety so far that we have found will not do well on our bitternut stocks.

WILc.o.x, s.h.a.gbark--So far this is our favorite variety. The graft has grown into a fine tree and has borne good crops of nuts which are of good size, crack almost perfectly and are of very good quality.

MINNIE, s.h.a.gbark--While we have not had a crop of this variety since starting to keep a ripening record, it ripens about the same time as Wilc.o.x and is a very good variety.

Ninth on our list we have two varieties; Davis and Peck Hybrid. It so happens that I discovered both of these varieties.

DAVIS, s.h.a.gbark--First prize winner in the New York and New England Contest of 1934. Incidentally, a sample of Fox nuts was awarded tenth place in this same contest. You will note that this was the same year in which Fox won first place in the N.N.G.A.

Davis has pretty well lived up to expectations. Grafts of this variety are rapid growers. It is the only variety we have ever succeeded in making live on pignut stocks. While the grafts are slower growing on pignut stocks, they have lived for several years and have borne nuts.

But as the squirrels have stolen all of the nuts, we do not know how they compare with the nuts grown on other stocks.