Professor A. K. Chittenden, Michigan Agricultural College East Lansing, Michigan
I am very glad of this opportunity to tell you what the Michigan Agricultural College is doing, and what it thinks, about nut tree plantations in this State. I want to say first, that there is a very general interest in nut trees among the farmers and land owners of the State. A considerable number of the letters that the Forestry Department of the College receives from farmers are about nut culture. They seem to be particularly interested in pecans, English walnuts, and chestnuts. A few years ago the State was flooded with literature urging people to plant these trees and we are still feeling the aftermath of this campaign. Much of this state is too far north for the successful growth of these particular trees and we therefore have advised waiting before investing heavily in young trees, until experiments have shown where they would succeed and what kinds it would be safe to plant. At the same time, we suggested the planting of one or two trees of certain varieties as an experiment. We have for the most part recommended only our native nut trees for planting on a large scale.
We have tried many varieties of nut trees, grafted on hardy stock, at the College, and only a few of them are alive today. All of the pecan trees have been lost and nearly all of the English walnuts. About two years ago, we got some of Burbank's Royal walnuts from California. All of these trees except one, were killed back of the graft the first winter. One of them, however, is doing well although growing very slowly. It will doubtless succeed now, as it has pulled through two winters, one an exceptionally cold one.
About three years ago, we bought some Sober Paragon chestnuts from an eastern nursery which had been advertising them widely in this State. They were all infected with the Chestnut Blight disease. Now this disease has at the present time not appeared in Michigan, except on imported nursery stock. We have a considerable number of chestnut plantations in the State, and if the disease can be kept out, there is no reason why chestnuts cannot be raised more profitably. But our experience has shown that the trees must be raised in this State and not brought in from outside. We have some very nice chestnut trees in our nursery at the College which are now thirteen years old and which have been bearing nuts for four years. This fall we are planting them all along the drives so as to open up the crowns and induce a greater production of nuts.
We also have some Japanese walnuts that are doing well indeed. One of these trees on the campus is 35 years old and produces a large quantity of nuts.
There are a number of English walnuts at various places along Lake Michigan in the fruit belt. Individual trees will often succeed, but the chances for success are not great enough to warrant a man putting very much money into a plantation. There are two Sober Paragon chestnuts near Niles which are now 12 years old and are growing and bearing well. At the College farm, near Grand Rapids, there are some pecan trees, but their history shows that they have been repeatedly frosted back.
I could mention a great many cases of success with individual imported trees, but I do not know of any extensive plantations that have so far succeeded.
There is, however, a different story to tell of our native nut trees of which there are many successful plantations. Our native edible nuts are black walnut, hickories and chestnut. They will grow anywhere in the southern part of the State and along Lake Michigan. Using these trees as a basis, I believe we can develop, if it has not already been done, a tree that will bear an improved quality of nuts and that will be perfectly hardy.
The black walnut is the tree that did perhaps more than any other tree to help win the war, and, while timber raising and nut culture do not perhaps go hand in hand, probably more black walnuts are being planted as individual trees than any other tree in the State. The black walnut was an invaluable tree for gun stocks and airplane propellers. The War Department scoured the country to find trees for these purposes and every black walnut that is now planted, may be of service to the country in the future. The College raises thousands of black walnuts and Japanese walnuts each year, and the demand for them is very great. When we have in planting, a choice between two trees, one choice being a tree suitable for shade only and the other a nut producing tree, I would say plant the nut tree. Our trees will have a double appeal if they furnish not only shade, but edible nuts as well. At the last session of the State Legislature, an act was passed providing for the planting of nut and shade trees along our highways. As a result of this act, we hope sometime to see the highways in the southern part of the State lined with walnut and other nut bearing trees. A tree that will serve a double purpose should be planted wherever possible.
Tree planting is a thing in which we are all interested. Those of you who have been abroad remember the long rows of trees, often fruit trees, that lined the roads. In this country we cannot plant fruit trees along our roads as there is nobody to care for them and disease would quickly start and spread to our orchards. But nut trees can be safely planted.
We have, on certain soils in the southern part of the State, recommended planting black walnuts for fence posts. The heart wood is very durable and the tree grows quite rapidly under favorable conditions. Then, perhaps when the trees are large enough for posts, the owner will decide to keep them for the nuts and for timber production.
During the past summer the College made a study of native nut tree plantations in the State with a view to determining the profitableness of such plantations.
Among the older plantations studied was one in Berrien County. It was planted 45 years ago and covers four acres. The soil is clay and loam with a clay sub-soil. Three year old seedlings were used with an average spacing of about 28 by 32 feet. The grove was cultivated for about 8 years after planting. The trees are now in fairly good condition but many are affected with heart-rot. They are quite spreading and bushy in form and are not suitable for lumber. There is now about 30 cords of wood per acre. The average diameter is 20 inches with an average height of 60 feet. The ground is sodded over and the grove is used for grazing sheep. The owner says that about half the trees bear and that the June bugs are the principal source of trouble, eating the blossoms. The yield in nuts varies from practically nothing to 25 or 30 bushels for the entire plantation. About six years ago, the owner reports a crop of 36 bushels, and two years ago a crop of 27 bushels. From these figures I should say the plantation is a success.
A chestnut plantation in Van Buren County was set 37 years ago and covers one acre of sandy soil. The plantation was cultivated for about ten years and corn was grown between the trees. The average tree is 14 inches in diameter and 65 feet tall. The returns have been small because the trees were planted too close together, but some years the plantation has yielded 15 bushels of nuts. There are 67 trees on the acre, which is too many for good nut production. The grove will produce about 20 cords of wood or about 550 split fence posts per acre.
One of the oldest plantations in the State is 56 years old and covers 1½ acres in Montcalm County. It consists of black walnuts and chestnuts mixed together. The average black walnut is 14 inches in diameter and 67 feet tall. The average chestnut is 20 inches in diameter and 60 feet tall. The spacing is about 40 by 30 feet and the soil is a gravelly sand. The yield in nuts has been quite small, six to eight bushels a year.
There are a number of such mixed plantations in the State and it would seem that the two trees do not do very well together. In this case, I should say that the soil is not well suited for either tree.
There is a plantation of Japanese walnuts in Oakland County. It is five years old and on sandy soil. About 500 trees were planted at the cost of 60 cents per tree. The stock came from Pennsylvania and was budded to English walnut. The scions died back, however, and the plantation stock came along so it is now a Japanese walnut grove. The average tree is about 2 inches in diameter and 10 feet tall. The trees are very healthy and vigorous and are beginning to bear a few nuts.
A chestnut plantation in Van Buren County is 12 years old. Two foot transplants were used and the trees were planted at the rate of 100 to the acre. They were cultivated for two years. The average tree is 4 inches in diameter and 20 feet high. The trees are healthy and in good condition. The grove is yielding from one to two bushels of nuts a year and should be thinned so as to open it up and encourage nut production.
A black walnut plantation in Ingham County, planted about 20 years ago for timber purposes and underplanted with white cedar to force the trees to grow straight and tall, is in excellent condition. The average tree is 5 inches in diameter and 34 feet tall. The plantation has not yet borne nuts but if it were opened up, would doubtless produce a large number in a few years.
I could give more instances of nut tree plantations in the State, but I think I have mentioned enough to show that our native nut trees can be profitably raised. During the last few years, a great many black walnut plantations have been established but most of them are yet too young to be in a bearing condition. If it were not for the difficulty of getting healthy chestnut stock, I believe Michigan would be a large producer of these nuts.
A study has been made of the volume of the wood that could be obtained from these chestnut plantations. Owing to the open nature of the groves, the trees are mostly not suitable for lumber and the yield of cordwood and posts is less than in a forest plantation where the trees are closer together and force each other to grow straight and tall. It was found, however, that a chestnut grove planted for nuts, would yield on the average 13 standard cords of wood per acre at 20 years of age, 20 cords at 30 years, and 25 cords at 40 years of age. Placing the value of this wood at present prices of $7 per cord, would give a value of $91 per acre at 20 years and $140 per acre at 30 years for the wood alone.
Probably most of the chestnut plantations have been planted for the nut and the black walnuts for timber with the nuts as a side issue.
Black walnuts should be planted on fairly fertile, moist soil. We do not recommend planting the nuts as squirrels are liable to dig them out. It is better to use small trees.
The cost of establishing black walnut plantations is quite small. Native trees can be bought for $15 per thousand one year old seedlings. We prefer to plant these small trees as the black walnut develops a strong tap root early in life, making it difficult to transplant large trees.
Only a comparatively small number of hickories have been planted in this state. This is a tree that, while it grows slowly, is very valuable for its wood and it is becoming very scarce. It should be planted more extensively. It may well be planted in openings in the woodlot. Every farmer knows the value of hickory and the trees can be utilized when quite small.
It is needless to say anything about the value of black walnut wood. High prices have been paid for standing trees and for saw logs. Many individual trees have sold for $500 apiece and even more. Prices as high as $120 per M board feet have been paid for standing timber.
At the present rate of cutting, it is only a question of a few years before all of the merchantable black walnut will have been removed, and, unless trees are planted, the black walnut will be a thing of the past. It cannot be depended upon to reproduce itself in our forests as do the maples, the ash, and many other trees with nonedible seed. For every black walnut tree in our woods and along the roads, there are innumerable small boys and squirrels who are after the nuts and the seed have little chance of germinating even if they do get into the soil. If there are to be black walnuts in our future forests, the trees must be planted or the nuts planted and properly safeguarded. From a forestry viewpoint, the black walnut is a good tree to plant. It has a high value and the demand for the wood is very great. And, for planting, trees should be chosen that will give a good quality nut as far as possible.
For ornamental planting, too, nut trees may often be chosen to advantage. For the farm yard they are often the best choice. Hickories or black walnut are long lived trees and the hickory is very ornamental. A great many trees have been planted by the school children of the State; and right here is a good field for planting, around our school houses. The average country school ground is a forlorn place, usually barren of both grass and shade. While we perhaps cannot have a lawn, we can certainly have shade trees, and the children will take care of them and watch their development with interest, particularly if they have a part in planting them. A few years ago the College distributed about 6000 trees to the schools of the state for Arbor Day and many of these trees were black walnuts. During the last few years, the Collage has not raised enough of these trees to meet the demand.
As memorial trees, also, nut trees are being quite extensively planted. A great many black walnuts have been planted in the honor of our soldiers who gave their lives in the war and it is a very suitable tree to plant for this purpose.
Now that our forests are becoming more scarce, we are beginning to appreciate more fully the value of their products. Nuts, extracts, maple syrup and many minor products are obtained from our native trees. If man could be surrounded with the right assortment of trees, he would need little else. He would have food in the nuts and fruit; fire wood and building material in the stems, as well as paper and clothing from the wood pulp. He would have sugar from the sap, medicine from the bark, and he would have wood distillates, turpentine and resin. He could live long and well on the products of our forests.
Our forests are, however, disappearing. Our native nut trees are being cut off. Our sugar maple orchards are being put into farm land, and forest products are increasing rapidly in price. We have got to keep a certain part of the country in forests in order to have the country prosperous, and to do this we must either plant trees or so manage the existing forests that they will renew themselves naturally. In planting trees, we should not overlook the by-products of the trees, nuts and syrup and bark. These products are often the main crop in themselves and in any case, they will increase the receipts and make our forestry work more profitable.
There are many acres in southern Michigan and along the Lake, that will give larger returns from nut tree plantations than from any other source. We want first to be sure that the trees are hardy to the locality before we recommend them. I believe there is a very big future for such plantations. The history of southern plantations has been one of remarkable success.
We must be particularly careful in advising the establishment of nut tree plantations. We ought to be particularly careful in not encouraging people to buy trees that we are not sure will succeed. For every plantation that fails means a loss of money and an obstacle to future progress. But every tree that succeeds means an advertisement for years to come.
I do not see any reason why southern Michigan cannot raise many improved varieties of black walnut and perhaps some other nut trees as well. Our study of native nut tree plantations this summer, shows that with proper care they may be very profitable and we hope to see a great extension of such plantations in this State.
Prof. Chittenden: I would like to say that the College has been very favorably impressed with the work that this Association has been doing and the care that is used in recommending nut trees. It is a thing the people need a lot of advice about. I thank you. (Applause).
Mr. J. F. Jones: I would like to ask if the pecans that were tender were northern or southern pecans.
Prof. Chittenden: We got them from a nursery in New York State and I could not say as to the source of the stock beyond that.
Mr. Jones: Naturally the southern source is the cheapest tree.
Prof. Chittenden: We got the trees from a nursery that had been advertising them very extensively in Michigan. It was about five years ago, at a time when this State had been flooded with literature from this nursery and other nurseries about particularly pecans and chestnuts. We were doubtful about the trees they were recommending, and we got a considerable number and planted them out, but we took pretty good care of them; but they all died in winter.
Dr. Morris: It is a pity that people who do the most advertising have to. Certain firms are not allowed to advertise in nut journals at all. I think the public ought to be made aware of that fact. It is a pity too, because the ones who spend the largest amount of money in advertising are the ones of whom we ask the most questions.
In regard to Prof. Chittenden's paper, it is a very important matter to impress upon children and others who are setting out trees the idea that a tree is not able to care for itself as a rule. It is quite the exception for a tree set out by itself to thrive and enter into competition with other trees and bushes and shade, in the early years, and insects later. I suppose the number of ordinary trees including maples that make their way to a successful old age would not represent one in many hundred thousands that make a start in the sprouting seed. That fact ought to be impressed on every school child who is setting out a tree—he really should adopt that tree and make that its own child. And if you can inculcate the maternal and the paternal instinct along with the setting out of from one to six children of these other children, you will then get trees on your roadsides and your waste lands, and without a great amount of difficulty. But you have got to go back to first principles there and realize that very few trees are able to succeed after they have been set out unless they receive a great deal of care subsequently. Those of us who give a great deal of attention to trees, who pretend to care for our trees, will lose a percentage so large that I would hardly dare state what it probably is. Among the hundreds and thousands of trees I have set out, all from reputable nurserymen or raised by myself; I doubt if 25% are alive today, and I have pretty good success too. This is not to discourage anyone; it is to encourage people, and they are to be encouraged by knowing the facts; and when all the final facts are known about the values of trees that are given proper attention, then people will be willing to give them that degree of attention. Not until then are we to have success in filling our waste lands with nut trees.
Prof. Chittenden brought up one point of a great deal of consequence. In any locality plant the species which belong to that locality. The species which, by natural selection and adaptation have fitted themselves to the environment are, as a rule, the trees which will do best in that locality. That is a principle I think which ought to be thoroughly well fixed in mind. One may experiment with any number of trees from a distance, but the trees which naturally have adapted themselves to a locality, the species which have done that are the species upon which we can expend our efforts to the best advantage.
In the matter of chestnut blight, we assume that the chestnut blight will act like measles blight, scarlet fever blight, or any other epidemic. In other words, it is due to a microbe, it is due to a peculiar microbic group, a peculiar family group which happened to start out in northern China on its invasion and got to this country where it found trees which were not resistant. The American and European trees are not resistant. Wherever it has gone from northern China, from the place where blight, the tree host and enemy grew up side by side, and represented the survival of the fittest; wherever it has gone away from the place where we have the survival of the fittest, at any rate as a result of struggle, there it has found susceptible individuals that it has destroyed. When a blight of any sort sets out, chestnut blight, measles, scarlet fever—any blight you please, you are talking natural history, you are taking biology, about an animal or a plant, about a microbe, a living thing. All of these living things run out of their vital energy in time. Each microbe runs out of its energy just as a breed of horses or of strawberries runs out of its energy. All varieties, varietal types, run out of their natural energy, so that it is simply a question of length of time before this family microbe or family group of this microbe will lose its energy. We do not know how many years that will be. It may be a great many years, and by that time, our chestnuts may practically have disappeared. We can find here and there a tree which resists better than others do, and we may find some with enough resistance to be worthy of propagation as of that resistant kind. We know that several species resist the blight very well. I found four species that resist the blight very well among six kinds I have tried out on my place. But some chestnuts bear so early and heavily that we may afford to set them out, even in the presence of blight, trimming them back and looking after them carefully: For instance, a number of Sober Paragon chestnuts that I planted all died but one that is near the house. It bears so heavily that it is well worth while, and it simply means that one must give a great deal of attention to it. Some people can afford even to set out the Paragon because of its high bearing power. I have a number of hybrids which resist the blight very well. The cross between the American chestnut and the Japanese, or between the common American chestnut and the chinquapins showed the resistance very largely of the resistant parent. But curiously enough, the ones which look most like the American chestnut also carry that parent's weakness in regard to blight, so that all of my hybrids between the American chestnut and the resistant kinds which look like the American chestnut and act like it also catch the same microbe for the most part. But one of the hybrids does not. No. 2 which I have given Mr. Jones, is very much like the American chestnut. It grows vigorously, acts like it, and looks like it, and it has not blighted up to the ninth year of age, beginning to bear about the fourth year. Most of those that are like the chinquapin or like the Chinese chestnut resist blight very well.
About Japanese walnuts. If Prof. Chittenden has a large number of Japanese walnuts about the state, he may very well select one or two of the very best and advise the owners to top work the others with the one or two which happen to be particularly good. Most of the Japanese walnuts are small. Most of them are Siebold type instead of the heart nut variety, but a few very large ones will be found here and there and of high quality, and they graft almost as easily as peaches.
In regard to Persian walnuts. If there are a few trees here and there about the state, we need not fear the question of introducing others because it is too far north. If you simply have one tree that is a good one, that is enough, because you can graft over all sorts of black walnuts, Japanese walnut and Persian walnut stocks with the one or two trees which are known to be good in Michigan. One good tree in the state which is bearing good nuts of desirable qualities is enough. Graft all of your other walnuts back from it. And in setting out the native black walnuts, chestnuts and the hickories of different species, it is important always to distinguish in regard to intention—whether they are to be for forest purposes or for nut purposes. That is not always clear in the minds of a number of people whom I have seen setting out groves of these trees. They talk about getting timber and nuts. You can not get both profitably. I think people ought to be impressed with the fact that if they are setting out apple trees for timber they would set them five or six feet apart. If they are setting them out for apples, they would set them sixty feet apart. Precisely the same thing is true of nut trees. (Applause).
Mr. Jones: I would like to ask Dr. Morris how he protects grafts the first year. Grafts growing the first year are very tender, put in late, and they will often winter kill in the tree that is perfectly hardy otherwise.
Dr. Morris: Mr. Jones is quite right about that, and that is a matter requiring more experience than I have at the present time. What I have done in the way of protection fairly well is this: For instance, if I graft Persian walnut on black walnut and it makes a late start and then in September has a very sappy growth, or in October has a sappy growth of three or four or five feet (they grow tremendously fast, like weeds) if the bark at the base of the graft is brown or has two or three buds that are brown or partially ripened, I cut off four or five of the first leaves and let them harden. Then in the fall I cut off all but those four or five buds and put wax over the end. That is the way I avoid the winter killing of the sappy growth. As soon as the part nearest the grafted place begins to turn brown, looks like hardening up and two or three buds are pretty hard, I cut off four or five of those leaves right there and let the buds ripen, and those buds will ripen very well. I will sacrifice five or six buds for the sake of saving three or four buds. The next year they grow all right. That is not a nice way, but when you see you are going to lose a thing on account of sappiness, that will sometimes work.
Mr. Jones: I generally wrap the base of the limb in burlap.
Dr. Morris: If the sappy tip dies, it poisons the rest. There are poisonous enzymes that poison the rest of it.
Mr. Bixby: I was going to ask Prof. Chittenden if he could give any experience with the named varieties of black walnuts.
Prof. Chittenden: I don't think I could distinguish between the varieties of black walnut that have been planted in this state. That is not a thing that I feel able to discuss. I know that a number of different varieties of black walnut have been planted. At the College we have done a good deal of grafting on the black walnuts, and we have not had very good success.
Mr. Bixby: I had in mind improved varieties of black walnut grafted on the black walnut stock.
Prof. Chittenden: I don't think we have had any experience of that. We always get a good deal of wood from Pennsylvania in the spring and do the grafting in class. We can not expect a very high grade of work when the students do it as a part of their work of instruction. There are some black walnuts in the state that have very good nuts, and some that have not. I have tried to get for our nursery good nuts from trees that had a good native nut. We have had so much difficulty getting black walnuts at all the last few years that we have taken just what we could get. We get nuts from all over the central part of the state and plant in the nursery to get our seedling trees.
Mr. Bixby: I have found some of the named varieties of black walnuts bearing in quite a number of sections of this state and other states. They seem to bear quite young.
President Reed: Mr. Jones has partly prepared a paper on "Pecans other than those of the well known sections," but as it has been impossible to complete it, it will be handed to the secretary later, and inserted in the proceedings.