Mr. Chase: Our next speaker is Mr. George Shivery, Extension Forester for the University of Tennessee, and I know that the interest of this Association is in the planting of improved black walnuts, and I simply can say this man arranged for the planting of more Thomas walnut trees than any other man in the world. George Shivery.
The Black Walnut Situation in Tennessee
GEORGE B. SHIVERY, Extension Forester, University of Tennessee,
Knoxville, Tennessee.
Mr. Shivery: Mr. Chairman and members of the Association: I certainly appreciate that compliment made by Mr. Chase, and I want to assure all of you that we certainly are interested in the black walnut in Tennessee. In the past we have had to depend pretty much on the wild black walnut, and we will for years in the future. But we have done everything possible to get distribution on this Thomas improved black walnut which has been propagated here through the efforts of Mr. Chase, Mr. Zarger and other members in his division.
It seems to me that this black walnut kernel industry is sort of a tradition, particularly in East Tennessee. If you have lived in this state as long as I have, you have become curious about its history. Well, in the early days there were no railroads in this state, and commerce moved pretty much by means of wagon team, and the supply center seemed to be Baltimore, Maryland. Now, I can visualize very well that on outbound trips they doubtless carried black walnut kernels, and on the way in, of course, they'd bring clothing and other materials that were not produced here at home.
In the early days they produced tremendous amounts of maple sugar and maple syrup. Doubtless this was consumed at home and nowadays we don't have any evidence of that, because the climatic conditions in New York State and other northern states and New England are much better suited to the flow of the sap. The weather, I believe, is not so changeable up there. Our weather is changeable. We may have a very severe cold week, and then in ten days it will be balmy and pretty weather. We haven't made any effort to bring back the sugar maple industry. We don't consider it economic in this state, because cane sugar in the past has been cheap in price, and then we have another product that some of you may not be familiar with, sorghum molasses. That serves as dessert lots of times in many meals, hot biscuits and sorghum to finish up the meal.
Now, I might mention something about the size of the black walnut industry in this state. We estimate that there are eight million pounds of uncracked whole walnuts produced on the average in a normal crop year in Tennessee, and there is another five million pounds that is never gathered, never hulled, never enters the market, never used, and the value of this crop in a normal year would be around $750,000. That is for the nuts, the fruit, the kernels. If you speak of timber it will amount to $960,000. That is in the form of lumber and veneers, and if you figure that in the form of a log at the shipping point, we'd reduce that figure and say it would be $480,000.
I think to understand this state you have to give some consideration to physiographic regions, and if you will bear with me I'd like to sketch through these regions of the state, because they have a bearing on production of black walnut. Here in the east we have the East Tennessee Mountains, and proceeding westward we have the Great Valley of East Tennessee. It goes all the way down to Chattanooga, up through Bristol, on up through Virginia to Hagerstown, Maryland, all the way up to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
We have fine soil, and we also have different kinds of shale in that valley. Then we proceed westward. We come to the Cumberland Plateau, and the elevation of this plateau is around 2,000 feet. It is higher than this valley. Then we cross that and we reach this area (indicating on map). That is what we call the Highland Rim. That is made up of limestone soil of a different character, usually, than that in this East Tennessee valley. That is what we term the Eastern Highland Rim, and this around here (indicating) we term the Western Highland Rim. And this red portion would be the Central Basin in which Nashville is situated. Then you would travel through this central elevation, come up on the Western Highland Rim, and then you come up here and you cross the Tennessee River flowing north. Then you get into West Tennessee.
Now, that is coastal plain soil, and as you approach the Mississippi River here you have a covering of what the Germans call loess, fine, wind-blown material, silt loam. So that very sketchily gives you some idea of the physiographic regions in this state.