Marketing of Black Walnuts in Arkansas
T. A. WINKLEMAN, Rogers, Arkansas
The Benton County Produce Company has been in the walnut business for 38 years. For the first few years we dealt only in hulled nuts, shipping carloads of them to Omaha, Chicago, several points in Nebraska, and the West Coast. About twenty years ago, as I recall, there was a large cracking plant at Kansas City and we shipped several carloads there.
Eventually we began to receive small orders for kernels. We filled them and the number of orders increased. This led us finally to the decision that we should get out of the hulled nut business and sell only kernels, and with few exceptions, that's what we have been doing for the past 25 years. During this time the production of kernels throughout the walnut region has gone up tremendously. As you know, many plants using mechanical cracking machines have become established. We have stuck to hand-operated crackers; but even so, we were able one year to turn out 13,000 pounds of kernels. At present we ship kernels to practically every state in the Union.
Millions of pounds of walnuts are available from Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee. Here the walnut tree seems to make its best growth. It has been our experience that the better nuts come from upland trees. Those produced in the bottomlands along the larger streams lack the rich flavor typical of those coming from higher elevations. This means we get our best nuts from the Ozarks in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri. So far, few walnut trees are grown commercially. Practically all of the nuts come from wild trees. But recently there seems to be a trend toward planting grafted walnut trees and grafting native seedlings to improved varieties. The nurseries in this area now have walnut seedlings for sale and some landowners are setting out considerable acreages. It seems like a good investment. The trees grow fast, bear nuts at an early age, and eventually yield additional income in the form of logs. We believe walnut offers better prospects for commercial production than pecan, owing mainly to the value of the walnut wood for cabinet uses.
Not much has been done here with improved varieties. There are some Thomas trees in the region and they yield very well. You get about 20 pounds of kernels from 100 pounds of hulled Thomas nuts as against an average of 12 pounds from our wild native nuts. We anticipate that within three or four years the Thomas will attain commercial importance here. In my opinion, however, Thomas kernels do not have the flavor that the wild nuts have; the percentage of oil seems to be less. I have also been told that wood from the Thomas trees has little value in the furniture trade. Why this should be true, or whether it is true, I don't know.
Shells are a problem with us as they are with most concerns in the walnut cracking business. We sent some samples to Iowa State College for testing and got a pretty favorable report. If available in sufficient quantity, the shells apparently can be used for gas production, oils and for other purposes.
Walnut in this region has few enemies; but one, the walnut Datana caterpillar, does considerable damage. We need federal or state aid in controlling this dangerous pest.
Further Notes on Nut Tree Guards for Pasture Plantings
OLIVER D. DILLER, project Supervisor, Hillculture Research, Soil
Conservation Service, Wooster, Ohio