JOHN W. HERSHEY
Broadview English Walnut—This hardy variety seemed so good it took a lot of effort to keep from recommending it commercially. The oldest tree in our section, owned by my brother, bore lightly for several years. With its fine flavor, tree beauty and hardiness it edges closer and closer to where we can recommend it commercially. In its seventh year it bore a half bushel; the 8th, this year, it's really loaded. I have planted 30 trees.
A Southern Persian Walnut The northern man in the south loves the cool climate, Persian walnut. I have found chance seedlings here and there, even down to northern Alabama. One tree, northeast of Knoxville, Tennessee, had a good quality nut and was seemingly resistant to sun scald. Starting late in the spring it avoids the late frosts so damaging to horticulture in the south.
Cornell Black Walnut—This new variety, a Thomas seedling, named Cornell by its originator at Ithaca, New York, bore one nut for us in 1946. The boys at Cornell like it because it fills even in an abnormally cool season of the Finger Lakes region when natives fail. You can't decide an issue with one nut, but our specimen was as large and full of high-flavored, white meat as the Thomas, and as thin-shelled as the Stabler. So attractive does this variety appear that I am reserving it this fall in order to plant several in orchard form to produce scion wood.
Honey Locusts—The latest report on their performance comes from J. C. Moore, Soil Conservation Service at Auburn, Alabama, on February 3, 1947. Their laboratory tests of Millwood show a sugar content of 36.65%, and Calhoun 38.95%. The animal husbandry department of the Alabama Experiment Station at Auburn has found the pods equal to oats, pound for pound, in a dairy ration. A team of mules fed for 30 days on pods showed satisfactory results. Cows and hogs showed equal success. At 5 years of age, Millwood averages 58 pounds and Calhoun 26 pounds per year. At eight years, Millwood bore 200 pounds, and Calhoun 60. The pods fall from October 15th to December 30th. Lespedeza sericea planted between the trees yields 2½ tons per acre annually. This gives us courage to continue emphasizing their great value for pasture and rough land planting. The trees we planted in our swampy, worn-out meadow are doing fine.
Mulberries—This great chicken, bird and hog feed will some day fill a definite place in the sun of the American farmer, just as it does in Asia. The drawbacks are lack of hardiness and short bearing season in the north. The Hicks variety bears for six to eight weeks but is not hardy north of the Mason-Dixon line. This year we have grafted eight varieties of which seven are new. One from southern Indiana, an American seedling selected by a mulberry enthusiast, bears for six to eight weeks. Will it be hardy farther north? We shall know soon. Six are from select seedlings of L. K. Hostetter, of Lancaster, Pa., the mulberry king of America. The other is a fine white, a chance seedling from 75 miles north of Pittsburgh. It has not borne yet but was far hardier than Downing last winter. I have a few of these to sell this fall. Mulberries need sweet soil to prevent winter killing. On worn out soils we have discovered that they do well until established, by applying a few handfuls of lime around the tree at planting time. Not only are they excellent for the above mentioned uses but the right varieties are better than raisins when dried.
In 1945 we set a leaky corner of sandy meadow to honey locusts. I saw them growing in semi-swamp land in Alabama, but here all but two of the 18 trees died. When replanted in 1946 also they died. I found the two that were living were carelessly planted too shallow, with the top roots sticking out of the ground. We replanted more trees in the spring of 1947 with the top roots above the ground level, mounded soil over them about 6 to 10 inches, then mulched. They are all growing fine.
Starting a Tree Crop Farm. What Is It?—It consists of a blended, balanced program of cattle, hogs, poultry and sheep pasturing under mulberries, honey locust, persimmons, oaks, etc., plus the hog feed from the refuse chestnuts, walnuts and Chinese dates. The great secret of nature is that your security lies in a balanced land use between animal and plant production with crops for animals, and animal manure for the crops, with a margin of each for the profit book. I bought this abandoned swampy, rocky, sandy soil farm of 72 acres, to show how it can be done on land too rough for the plow. The first requirement was to work out a program with permanent crops to bring in a continuous return, while planting and developing the slower bearing nuts and crop trees. I have found you must live on the farm a year to learn which soils and sites are best for a species. For instance, the field that fitted my plan to plant walnuts is too wet, so there we shall plant the hickories, pecans and hicans with persimmons as fillers. The place where I wanted walnuts was too sandy, so we shall plant chestnuts and filberts, and where I wanted chestnuts the soil is good for walnuts.
Starting a Profit Cycle—To create a return as quickly as possible on such a cycle we started a small flock of chickens, ducks and geese. The next step was to decide what to plant of a permanent nature to make a succession of crop income from spring until the nut crop comes in autumn. In the spring of 1945 we planted an acre of asparagus and one of raspberries. In 1947 both started bringing in returns. In 1948 they will be in full production. In 1946 and 1947 we set an acre or more of blueberries. Half of the blueberries were planted in a semi-swamp, useless to farm or pasture, but the home of blueberries after we drained it. These will start bearing in 1948 and increase in production for ten years. We have 2 cows for family milk as I nearly live on it. The surplus we use in vealing calves as well as to start a herd.
The first year we took in about $100, the second $150; to date we've taken in $850, plus an inventory increase of 5 nine months old bulls and 6 year old heifers. No soil can live without manure and, due to the results of over 20 years of organic soil management, we use no chemical fertilizers. Hence, we need lots of manure. I can not afford to buy straw so we use shavings and sawdust for bedding.
We apply to the manure in the stables about 100 pounds per animal of raw phosphate rock a week, which sweetens the dust and helps feed the soil. We also buy straw for seven riding horses for the manure, as this is great fox hunting country. While this young stock is supplying manure for the soil it is increasing in value. Our program is expensive because time needed in the nursery and orchard prevents us from growing grain, but when you start you can grow grain. We shall soon be having stock to sell each year which will add to our income.
While these crops are contributing to our keep, our time is used in developing the slower-bearing, permanent tree crops, 600 mulberries for hogs and cattle, 350 honey locusts, nearly a 100 persimmons, 50 oaks, 50 Chinese Jujubes and 90 filberts, all going well. To this we added in the spring of 1947 5 acres of Persian and black walnuts with chestnuts interplanted in the row. These are our future feeds for a bigger and cheaper hog, cattle, sheep and poultry feeding program, as well as providing food and cover for wild life. We have yet to plant 5 acres of mixed hickory, hicans and pecans interplanted with over 100 seedling persimmons and a six acre boulder field of black walnuts interplanted with chestnuts and a 5 acre sandy field of chestnuts interplanted with filberts.
The rest of the farm will be in nursery, hay and cereals. Now hold in mind these vital factors. To get rich just planting a farm of nuts or any other one crop is a delusion, with the bankers eventually holding the bag, the soil and owner taking a licking. Nature is a balanced force, soil undisturbed is a delicately balanced flour barrel of never ending life. Learn of nature how to protect this soil, that shallow insulation board between man and disaster.
After feeling our way over 3 years this is what we found best in handling trees. In the meadow where we planted honey locust, and on a rocky knoll with oaks, the first year we applied a shovelful of night soil and a light mulch of leaf compost. The second summer we mowed, raked, and forked the hay to the tree in a wide circle. It was amazing the life activity that was created under this mulch by the next spring. Mice were controlled by pulling the mulch 3 inches from the tree in early fall and with poisoned wheat under the mulch. In the spring of 1947 we mulched a 4 to 5 ft. circle around each tree with manure two or three inches thick. You should see the trees growing. One-half was mowed for hay and on the other half electric fences were put up along the tree rows and the field was pastured. We planted the walnuts and chestnuts in a sod of natural white clover and timothy. Walnuts were planted in 60 ft. rows with a chestnut tree every 30 ft. Here, three rounds were made with the plow and disk and the ground was manured before the trees were planted. After planting one shovelful of night soil, or two or three shovelfuls of cured slaughter house tankage, were applied to each tree. The rows were kept clean until June and then sowed to soy beans. Sufficient manure was available to make it possible to complete a manure mulch around these trees. The field where the hickory and pecans are to go has the tree rows plowed, manured and soy beaned ready for planting. We plan to use the same method in future plantings.