Mr. Jones then began eight or 10 years of lean hard work. He modernized buildings, planted an orchard of nut varieties most of which were purchased from W. C. Reed of Vincennes, Ind., and W. N. Roper of Petersburg, Va. From Roper he bought both seedling and grafted trees. Some of the "seedlings" had been budded and then not cut back to force the buds. The latter were still dormant and when the trees were properly cut back, the buds pushed forth. T. P. Littlepage, of Washington, and Prof. W. N. Hutt, of Raleigh, N. C., had a good laugh at Roper, but as the trees bore no labels, they were no more valuable than seedlings and were treated as such. All three men are now deceased.
Thomas black walnut trees came from E. A. Riehl, Godfrey, Illinois. The variety had originated in eastern Pennsylvania and was first grafted in 1881 by J. W. Thomas and Son, at King of Prussia, Pa. The parent tree had been destroyed some time before by the Pennsylvania Railroad, in extending its lines. The Thomas is today the most widely planted variety, although it has rarely borne well. Mr. Jones selected and grafted the Ohio walnut, but the owner of the seed-parent tree was given credit for its introduction, although she probably knows nothing of the incident, to this day. She was a Miss Clark, McCutcheonville, Ohio, and it was felt that it would help more to give her name as originator if one were ever to locate the tree.
[See Ohio black walnut original tree photos, NNGA Rept., 1946.—Ed.]
The Stabler eastern black walnut, introduced in 1916 by Mr. T. P. Littlepage by means of a paragraph inserted in the Country Gentleman, was also propagated by Mr. Jones, but he early found it disappointing in its habits of bearing. He also found that about 80 percent of the nuts from the parent tree had single kernels, while with young trees 80 percent had double kernels. Most planters have long since discontinued using this variety. However, Mrs. Jane Baum, Douglassville, Pa., reports that her customers like the Stabler best. Others she has are Thomas, Ohio, and Ten Eyck.
Other varieties were tested by Mr. Jones, but he pushed none of them, rightly thinking that 4 leaders were as many as a nursery could afford to carry. He insisted that a new variety would have to prove its superiority before he would insert it in his catalog. Among other varieties was the Peanut from southern Ohio, the nut of which had single lobes; but apparently there was some mistake along the line, as nuts from grafted trees were indifferent and had 2 half kernels. He also had Creitz from Indiana, which Mr. H. F. Stoke, 1436 Watts Avenue, Roanoke, Va., thinks well of at this time. It was a prize winner in the 1926 contest of the NNGA. Neither Creitz nor Peanut was a Jones introduction.
+His Work with Hickories+
Among the hickories, there was the Stanley from Indiana in 1916, which was quite a favorite with Mr. Jones for some time. But did any one ever see a shellbark that bore well and filled the nuts? Shellbark trees are beautiful to look at, have enormous leaves, seven to nine leaflets, but they leaf out early in spring and the flowers are frequently killed back by spring frosts. Part of its flowers are killed outright with too great frequency for it to be worth growing for the nuts. These are very large, the hulls split entirely to the base, and what kernel there is, is of sugar-like sweetness. The shells are mostly thick and the kernels seldom well-filled.
The Glover shagbark hickory, from Connecticut, which was introduced by Mr. Jones in 1918, is undoubtedly one of the best shagbarks yet propagated. The nuts are of medium size and shell thickness. The flavor is very good. Most shagbarks have five leaflets; this one has seven quite as often, and the leaf is about a foot long.
There were other hybrids, or what are supposed to be hybrids. The Pleas hickory, introduced in 1916, was perhaps first successfully grafted by Mr. Jones, but credit for introduction went to the owner of the parent tree, Dr. E. Pleas, Collinsville, Oklahoma. It was a beautiful tree, shapely, with an air of considerable refinement, making it a graceful lawn tree. It bore fairly well, although not heavily. The nuts were thin-shelled and also had thin hulls that split entirely to the base. So far as most laymen are concerned, the Pleas may be but an edible, or semi-edible bitternut. On the grounds of the Plant Industry Station, at Beltsville, Md., there were once two trees of Pleas, but they were given to the Wild Life Service for planting 10 miles away, although there are many native bitternut trees just over the line fence in neighboring woods. We fancied that we could detect bitternut flavor in good shagbarks about the plantings, due to xenia influence, as in the case of chestnuts.
Burlington was another hican first propagated by Mr. Jones, in 1915. It came from eastern Iowa, and for a time was confused with Marquardt, which never was propagated, or apparently not. Burlington makes a fine appearing tree and serves well for ornamental purposes. It bears fairly well while young, but soon develops faulty nuts, few being well-filled and the majority weevil infested. It is also subject to shuck-worm and twig girdler injury.