THE EXTENT OF THE HARDY NUT TREE NURSERY BUSINESS.
R. T. Olcott, New York.
For obvious reasons this subject may well be considered as constituting a gauge of commercial nut culture in the North; it is therefore of much more importance than the mere title would suggest. If there is merit in all that has been preached regarding the planting of budded and grafted trees instead of seedlings; and if it is still true, as we have long observed, that the propagation of named varieties of nut trees, and especially of hardy nut trees, is successful almost solely in the hands of experts, the progress of commercial nut culture in the northern states rests largely in the hands of the nurserymen. We may even go further and assert that it rests for the present mainly in the hands of a few nurserymen who have persistently studied the problems pertaining to the taming of a denizen of the forest, and have persevered with experiments in the face of repeated failure; for, as editor of the American Nurseryman, I am in a position to state that with a few exceptions nurserymen generally have not attempted to prepare to supply a demand for hardy, northern-grown, improved nursery nut trees. Seedling walnuts and hickories have been procurable for years from nurseries all over the country, as is shown by nursery catalogue listings; and at least two concerns—one at Lockport, N. Y., and another at Rochester, N. Y.,—have advertised nut tree seedlings extensively, despite the universal nursery practice of budding or grafting or layering practically all other kinds of trees and plants offered for sale as nursery stock—simply because it is not easy to propagate nut trees, and these nurserymen would take advantage of the growing demand for nut orchards.
Within established nut circles all this is commonly known. It was my purpose in referring to these conditions to direct the attention of those not posted to what has been done by a half dozen or more conscientious nursery concerns in an endeavor to supply material of quality for the starting of nut orchards or the planting of isolated trees in response to the arguments set forth in behalf of nut culture. My subject lies at the very base of the formation of this association; for was it not with the idea of directing into safe channels interest which might be aroused in nut culture that the pioneers of the industry in the North organized and convened repeatedly to select and propagate and recommend certain varieties? As the result of years of concentrated effort selections have been made and varieties have been named—and to some extent recommended—throughout the northern states. Now and for some time past the public has had opportunity to purchase and plant carefully grown budded and grafted true-to-name nursery nut trees of varieties having in the parent trees exceptional characteristics deemed sufficient to warrant propagation and dissemination. I need not go into the matter of years of patient effort on the part of a few nurserymen and of a few investigators who entered the lists solely for the love of Nature's developments.
This, in brief, is the rise of the hardy nut tree nursery business. Now, what of its extent? There are upwards of two thousand propagating nurserymen in the country, but those who have made a specialty of hardy, northern-grown nut trees are few. They include the Vincennes Nurseries, W. C. Reed & Son, Vincennes, Ind.; the Indiana Nurseries, J. Ford Wilkinson, Rockport, Ind.; the McCoy Nut Nurseries, R. L. McCoy, president, Evansville and Lake, Ind.; the Maryland Nurseries, T. P. Littlepage, Bowie, Md.; J. F. Jones, Lancaster, Pa,; J. G. Rush, West Willow, Pa.; C. K. Sober, Lewisburg, Pa., and some in the northwest.
As showing the extent of the business, Mr. Reed, of Vincennes, reports demand for nut trees increasing. He had to return orders unfilled last spring. His nurseries have 3,000 to 4,000 Persian walnut trees and about the same number of pecan trees for fall sales; also about 1,000 grafted black walnut trees. There are growing in the Vincennes nurseries ready for budding and grafting 50,000 black walnut seedlings and 50,000 pecan seedlings. Mr. Reed said recently: "Owing to the extreme difficulty of propagating nut trees in the North, I think the demand will keep up with the supply."
Mr. Jones sold last year about 8,000 nut trees which went to points all over the country; not many to California, or to the far South; a good many to New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, etc. The largest order was for 600 trees. A number of orders were for 100 to 300 trees. New Jersey leads in planting, he finds, with Virginia a close second, in large orders. In small orders, Pennsylvania leads with him.
Mr. McCoy has done a great deal of experimenting with grafts and he is still at it. He has 40 acres mostly under nut tree cultivation, and has a considerable number of trees for sale.
Anyone who has seen the handsome nut tree catalogue issued by Mr. Littlepage, of the Maryland Nurseries, must have been impressed with the great care taken to produce the attractive trees and nuts there depicted. These nurseries have been recently established and not a great number of trees have yet been offered for sale, but Mr. Littlepage has 150,000 seedling nut trees in his nurseries for propagating purposes.
Mr. Sober's nurseries are devoted almost entirely to the cultivation of chestnut trees. Mr. Rush's specialty is the Persian walnut. Mr. Wilkinson naturally specializes in Indiana pecan trees. At Rochester, N. Y., James S. McGlennon and Conrad Vollertsen have produced interesting results with filberts imported some years ago from Germany. They have five-year-old bushes bearing; these have proved hardy in every way and they have no blight. The nuts compare favorably with the best of the imported kinds. Nursery stock will soon be ready in quantity, and they now have 500 plants suitable for transplanting.
Filbert and walnut are the only nut trees grown commercially to any extent in the nurseries of the northwest. A few almond and chestnut trees are grown there, but the demand for them is very light. J. B. Pilkington, Portland, Ore., a well-known grower of a general line of nursery stock, advertises French, Japanese and Italian chestnut trees and the American Sweet. Filberts are being produced to a considerable extent. At present the nurseries cannot supply the demand for filbert plants, owing to the limited number of mother plants in the northwest. Practically all the nurseries have Barcelona and Du Chilly for sale, and a number have the Avelines. From one nursery or another De Alger, Kentish Cob and a few other varieties can be had. Persian walnuts are grown on a larger scale. Groner & McClure, Hillsboro, Ore., are the largest exclusive walnut nurserymen in the northwest. They produce close to 6,000 grafted trees annually. These sell at 90c. to $1.00 per tree in lots of 100. The Oregon Nursery Company, Orenco, Ore., produce a large number of both grafted and seedling walnut trees, asking up to $2.00 per tree for grafted and 35 to 50c. for seedlings. Many of the smaller nurseries procure their nut trees from California nurseries. Each year the proportion of seedlings planted is less. Franquette is the popular variety that is propagated.
The Northern Nut Growers' Association and one or two other similar organizations have labored for years to extend interest in nut culture. The files of the secretary of this association will show in heaps of letters and piles of newspaper clippings the marked success in view of the means that were at hand. And it has all been upon a high plane. The campaigns have been marked by the utmost degree of conscientious effort to arrive at the truth regarding, adaptability of varieties and cultural methods. This work is still in progress—indeed, the need for it will never end. But in the opinion of the writer there should from this day go hand in hand with investigation and experiment a very practical application to orchard purposes of what has been learned. The sooner northern nut trees come into bearing in grove form the sooner will general interest in nut culture increase. I would urge constant effort in that direction; even, if need be, to the exclusion of some of the further study on varieties.
There are now grown in northern nut tree nurseries approved by this association named varieties of pecans, Persian walnuts, black walnuts, hickories and some other nuts amply sufficient to start orchards. The pecan growers of the southern states selected and experimented and discussed for a time—and then they planted. Mistakes were made, but these were discovered quicker by grove planting. Now they are shipping improved varieties of pecans by the carload, at $12,000 per car. Naturally interest in pecan culture in the South is widespread. With bearing orchards of nut trees in the northern states, similar interest will be manifested; and then we shall all see the real progress which comes of producing commercial results. Has not the time arrived to put into practical operation what has been learned in the last eight years? I believe this association could wisely consider the policy of confining discussion in the open session of its annual meetings to topics relating to behavior of varieties in orchard form and commercial cultural methods—at least to the handling of the planted tree by the public, whether isolated or in orchard rows—and reserve for executive sessions the discussion of varieties and methods not yet at a stage for formal endorsement by the association. It seems to me that any other policy obscures the issue which, I take it, is to foster the extension of nut culture. How can nut culture be practically extended if the public is constantly confronted with features of the experimental stage? Persons mildly interested in nut culture, as the result, perhaps, of association propaganda, drift into our meetings or make ad interim inquiry and receive for membership enrollment, or otherwise, printed matter relating almost wholly to experimentation in nut work. No wonder their interest wanes a short time afterward and many of them are not heard from again. What most of them expected was information as to varieties of improved nut trees available, where to get them and how to treat them when planted. Discussion by the experts is not for them; they will reap the result of that in due time.
Now, the extent of the hardy nut tree nursery industry is directly dependent upon all this. If that extent is not yet great, it is due undoubtedly to the newness of the industry. But it is also due in part to conditions which have been referred to. I wish especially for the purposes of this address that this association were an incorporated body so that I could speak of it as such and not seem to be criticising individuals. What has been done by our officers and members has been very necessary. It is of the future that I speak.
Nut brokers, wholesale grocers and manufacturers of confectionery are calling for crop and market reports of nuts. A letter from a large commission house in San Francisco, importers and exporters, says that what is wanted is information as to growing crops of nuts and market conditions. Other brokers and dealers ask the same thing. The American Nut Journal has given crop and market conditions of southern pecans and California walnuts and almonds; and, in peace times, of foreign nut crops. What else is there to give? The native nut crop? But that concerns this association about as much as the blueberry and huckleberry crops of the Michigan and Minnesota barrens concerns the horticultural societies and the National Apple Growers. What the brokers, wholesale grocers and commission merchants want is crop and market reports on cultivated nuts. But where are they? The public and the middlemen are calling for nuts. And these people write that they are not interested in cultural methods.
The hardy nut tree nursery business is what it is and will be what it will be just in proportion to the character of the crop and the market report. Interest in nut culture generally will lag or increase in just the same ratio. This is the eighth annual convention of this association. Will the sixteenth annual meeting see a greatly augmented membership without a practical incentive?
I have said that this association has recommended to some extent the planting of nut trees—the named varieties. I believe that what is needed is a publicity campaign bearing upon the planting of the varieties now on the market. When other varieties come on they may receive proper attention. Native nuts are in great demand. The varieties considered by this association are the best of the natives. Is that not sufficient basis to proceed on? Has not this association officially endorsed the varieties grown by the nut tree nurserymen we have referred to, by officially endorsing those nurserymen? Having endorsed the named varieties grown for sale by the nurserymen on its approved list can this association consistently do otherwise then to urge without hesitation the planting of those varieties by the public?
Dr. Morris: Mr. Olcott spoke on the almonds of the Pacific Coast. Here in the east it was said yesterday that only hard shelled almonds would thrive. That has been my experience with one exception. I got from a missionary some soft shelled almonds of very high quality and thin shelled. There were about twenty of those almonds, I ate two and planted the rest. The ants enjoyed the sprouting cotyledons of all but one. That one lived and thrived and grew in two years to a height of about four feet. In its third winter it was absolutely killed. Now that means that somewhere in Syria there is a soft shelled almond of very high quality that will live three years in Connecticut according to accurate record. It may live fifty years here if well started and protected when young.
The Chairman: You showed us some hard shelled almonds I believe from your place.
Dr. Morris: The hard shelled almonds do pretty well on my place if looked after. I have had trees that bore nearly a bushel each, but the chief difficulty is due to the leaf blights. Almond trees are quite subject to leaf blights. As long as I sprayed the almond trees frequently they did well but I had several other things to do and couldn't keep it up.
A Member: The Association has a list of nurserymen who are reliable and who will furnish reliable trees. It occurred to me in line with the spirit of Mr. Olcott's paper, if it would be practicable, for the Association to get up a little paper on approved varieties of trees for planting. That may seem foolish to suggest but a good many members who come in here are very green on the subject of nut growing. It may have been done but if it has I am not familiar with it.
The Secretary: A good many requests are received by the secretary for information as to what nut trees to plant. My advice usually is that they get the catalogues of all the different nurserymen on our approved list and select from those catalogues as many nut trees of each variety recommended by the nurserymen as they wish and give them the best cultural conditions they can. I don't see that we can recommend any particular varieties. There are few enough grafted varieties of nut trees obtainable, and I do not see that we can, as an association, recommend any particular varieties. I would like to have suggestions.
Mr. Olcott: I Don't Think It Is Advisable for the Association To go into that detail. I think that as the association has endorsed a list of nurserymen, so long as those nurserymen keep within boundary and retain that endorsement that is sufficient guarantee to the public.
Mr. Reed: We cannot recommend the different varieties because they have not been tested out and fruited. In the National Nut Growers' Association data are obtainable because they have been worked out by experiment stations and by individuals. But in this association where varieties are just being discovered and have not been disseminated and tried we have got to test them. We haven't got developed beyond the infant class in this Northern Nut Growers' Association.
A Member: I realize that the thing is in an experimental stage, but since I have been at this meeting I have been asked by two different people here if I could give them any information as to what varieties to plant. That is a very live question for a person here for the first time and he wants a primer.
The Secretary: We had a circular, now exhausted, giving the best information known at that time. It gave the method of procedure from the cultivation of the land until the nut trees were advanced several years in their growth, covering it in detail in so far as it lay in the secretary's ability to give it at that time. The same advice perhaps would not be given now but it would be practically the same thing. It may be desirable that we reprint something of the kind for the person who wants to begin the cultivation of nuts and has no knowledge on the subject.
Mr. Jones: I think the association might do something of the kind. We could have a map of the states for instance, and have that outlined in belts and varieties specified that would be somewhat likely to succeed in those belts.
Mr. Chairman: I think it is only a question of time when that will be done. In the National Association that has been worked out, what they plant in Florida what they plant in west Georgia, what they plant in Mississippi, and what they plant in all the different sections. I think it is only a question of time when it will be worked out by this association. Every year will bring in new data. You will find in the National Nut Growers' Association that good reports on new varieties of nuts from year to year keep accumulating. From that we get data very definite for certain varieties. I expect the members of this association will know lots of them. They have become past history in nut growing in the south. We have got past those poor things and in to something that is definite and satisfactory.
Mr. Bartlett: Would it be possible and advisable for the association to have such a thing as an experimental orchard, provided they could get somebody to take care of such a place? There is a man in this room who has plenty of room and facilities for taking care of an orchard.
The Chairman: That is worthy of attention but I do not know whether the association is in a position to take care of it. In my paper yesterday I spoke about putting it up to the experiment stations.
Col. Van Duzee: The experiment stations are at the service of the people and if you will call upon your stations repeatedly they will respond eventually. It is going to take some little time but it seems to me that they are the logical people to carry it out. We have found in the south that the behaviour of varieties in different localities was so different that we have been obliged to wait until each locality had something of history to guide us. I suppose it would be a very good plan if all who are interested in nut culture in the North would convey the information to their experiment stations that they are desirous of having these orchards established. Eventually the country could be covered with little experimental plots where the information obtained would be reliable, where the work could be under the supervision and inspection of people who are paid by the state for that purpose.
Now in regard to the publicity. We have followed a plan for a number of years in the South of publishing frequently what we call Nut Notes. They were gathered together by the editor of the Nut Grower. Whenever an item of interest to the public came to him in his exchange and from any other source, he made a paragraph of it and then at the end of the month, or perhaps two months, he would publish a little circular "Nut Notes," and that would be run off in some large number, and distributed to the nurserymen, or other interested people, and they would simply enclose it in their correspondence. They would send them to the local papers all through the South so that the things that were found worthy of dissemination in the way of new records and new ideas were constantly being sent to the local papers and to the interested people in that way. I have a vast sympathy for Dr. Deming. He is not drawing a princely salary and he has a lot of things to do. I know his heart is in this work and he would be glad to do these things but he must have help. These two ways I suggest to you are ways we have found in the South to accomplish a considerable work. Make a demand upon your experiment stations that this work be taken up and get Mr. Olcott to print the slips and then get the nurserymen who are interested and the local newspaper people to publish the nut notes that become available from time to time.
Mr. Olcott: I have knowledge of these circulars of Nut Notes sent out by Dr. Wilson in the South and have thought of doing something like it but have not gotten at it yet. I have exchanges and notices coming in that could be summarized just that way and even more extensively but I haven't had time to do this work.
The Secretary: I think this proposal of Mr. Bartlett's is very important and I promise Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Barrows that all the members of this association will help. I am sure Dr. Morris will be glad to give advice about planting this orchard. I haven't the slightest doubt that Mr. Reed will go there in his position as Nut Culturist of the Department of Agriculture. I think we ought to go ahead and do that without waiting for the Connecticut authorities, but at the earliest opportunity begin to try to interest them. They are not interested enough to go into it now. Some of the members of this association have got to start this thing and then we have got to interest the men at the agricultural experiment station. Two of them were here yesterday and have expressed their interest in the subject. We hope eventually that they will take full charge of such work which really ought to be in the hands of self perpetuating institutions and not in the hands of individuals. I can assure Mr. Bartlett of the hearty co-operation of this association in any planting of that kind and I wish that the steps might be taken at once to begin such a planting.
Dr. Morris: I would be only too glad to give him some trees to start with.
Mr. Jones: The nurseries growing these trees would be glad to cooperate and supply these trees at reduced prices for this experimental orchard.
The Chairman: There seems to be lots of interest in this matter but it ought not to be on a voluntary basis. It might be interesting to you to have an idea of how we have done that further south. In North Carolina we have definite nut projects on our experiment station's list. The work is outlined and funds appropriated for carrying it out, and workers and funds are assigned to that particular project. They have a regular definite program and when a project is once begun that project has to be reported on. It cannot be discontinued. It has to be continued until it is worked out. In that way we are getting something definite and we have some machinery to work with. At first we had no commercial nut growing. We instituted a nut survey of the state. We issued instructions for our extension men to look out for nut trees on the farms. Then we made a list of the growers and orchards. There we made experimental planting and we made them in every section of the state so as to find out what varieties were best for the different sections. We had difficulty in finding varieties for all of our conditions. We had experiment orchards in all of the various sections of the State which have been conducted now for ten years and we have very definite data. The man who writes in to me for information can be answered shortly. Every year we are getting new data. I think every tree that we can get from any nursery catalogue that I can find is in those experimental orchards. Every year eliminates a few. If the stocks are good we work them over. There is no uncertainty about it. It is either a positive or a negative result. These results are published just as soon as they can be. It is part of our experiment work just as we experiment with cotton or apples or corn. I made a suggestion in my paper for work of this kind here and I thought it would be picked up by the Committee on Resolutions, but it was not acted on. To get this matter crystallized and get it to the attention of the experimental station I think that the secretary ought to be empowered to write officially to the directors of the experiment station in the various states asking that a nut survey be made of those states and that nut projects be entered upon and especially the testing of the varieties that have been found in the various states.
Dr. Britton: Representing the Connecticut station I can say that the men there will be glad to help you, but they are in the same position as Dr. Deming, doing all they can at present, more than they ought to do, and most of the funds for that reason are arranged for in definite projects. That being the case, it will be necessary to provide for a future appropriation. During his war we are all short handed. I have four young men working in my department who have not had a day's vacation this summer—more work than they can do. At present we have no one connected with the station who is a specialist on nuts, and it would mean getting in a man to work up this subject. But I think that can be brought about in time. Of course if the legislature is asked for any appropriation, this association or those interested in growing nuts would have to help get the appropriation for the state.
The Secretary: Prof. Hutt is State Horticulturist of his state and he is also a specialist on nuts. He lives in a state where nut culture is much further advanced than it is here, consequently it has been, it seems to me, a good deal simpler for him to accomplish results there than it is for us here. I approve of grasping this opportunity and going ahead with it and at the same time following up the suggestions of Dr. Britton of trying to get the appropriation in order to enable the agricultural experiment station to take action.
Mr. Olcott: I move that the secretary be asked to communicate with the experiment stations in the various states along just the lines you suggested for the purpose of getting started.
The motion, duly seconded, was passed.
Mr. Olcott: I would like to make another motion that the association do whatever it can to take advantage of this opportunity that Mr. Bartlett has just spoken about, and I would move that the matter be put in the hands of the secretary with power to act.
Mr. Webber seconded the motion and it was carried.