Now, when it comes to discussing filberts as a food, all that I want to say is that at Christmas time when you buy mixed nuts you usually get a few of the filberts in the mixture. These nuts are good eating, and when the plants are grown on the home grounds everyone who has them says they are much enjoyed by all members of the family. Our experience has been that filberts yield annually and, if given reasonable care, in good amounts.
In conclusion we would like to say we feel there is not only a place for filberts in landscape work, but there is an absolute need for greater use of these plants especially in rural plantings. At present, the professional landscape artists are not inclined to recommend them as often as they could, simply because they have not been trained to think of dual purpose plants. Greater publicity as to the value of these plants would undoubtedly mean greater use of them.
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President Davidson: We also have a paper from Mr. Reed, which is of quite a good deal of importance historically on the work of Mr. Jones. I wish you could have that. Probably you will have to read that, too.
J. F. Jones, Introducer of Many Nut Varieties
CLARENCE A. REED, Collaborator[22]
The name of J. F. Jones was once one of the best known and most highly respected in eastern nut culture. It was from Mountain Grove, Wright County, Mo., that he was first heard from in 1900, when he discovered and introduced the Rockville hican, which he named after the nearest town. It never proved of value, but that fact did not detract from the importance of being first, a habit which remained with him till his death. In 1902 he moved to Monticello, Jefferson County, Florida; five years later he moved to Jeanerette, Iberia Parish, Louisiana; and in 1912, he moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he died in January, 1928.
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In 1903, while at Monticello, he successfully graft-propagated the Rush Persian (English) walnut and the Weiker hickory, an intermediate form between shagbark and shellbark. Both were from Lancaster County, and he used scions sent him by J. G. Rush, of West Willow, south of Lancaster. Mr. Rush is credited with introducing the walnut bearing his name, while credit went to Mr. Jones for the Weiker hickory. Some years later, on two occasions, Mr. Jones took a visitor to the Weiker parent tree when the branches were laden with nuts so that they hung down in a manner suggestive of plums. For some reason, never explained, no other tree of the variety, so far as is known, ever bore as much as a quart of nuts, although the trees frequently flowered profusely. The variety was, however, markedly dichogamous. The parent tree, which stood in the yard of Mr. Christ LeFever of Lampeter, about two miles east of the Jones home, was blown over in a heavy gale many years ago.
Mr. Jones graft-propagated a considerable number of Hales shagbark while at Monticello, with scions that came from the original tree near Ridgewood, New Jersey. However, this variety was first propagated by Henry Hales of Ridgewood, in 1879. He also had Kirtland from Yalesville, Connecticut, but like many others since that time, both it and Hales proved to be light bearers. Other hickories may have been propagated by Mr. Jones while at Monticello but these are the only ones of which there is record. The Kirtland was first propagated in 1897.