What Came Through the Hard Winter in Ontario
GEORGE HEBDEN CORSAN, Islington, Ontario
For winter killing of trees I refer you to the winter of 1947-48. I had a huge elm and a very tall white ash killed. A lot of black walnuts and heartnuts and some Persian (English) walnuts were killed back the length of last year's growth. Some Persian walnuts were killed to the ground while others were not even nipped off of a bud. Very strange to say, my best Persian walnut—-whose shell is very thin, whose meats are very sweet and fat, the tree itself a fast grower, prolific and self-pollenizing—not only did not show a sign of trouble but actually had a crop of most excellent nuts. These trees only will I distribute in future, as well as my two types of "Rumanian Giants." The Rumanian Giants did show a little winter killing of two or three inches of the tips and showed up poorly on the crop size.
I find that all my Russian walnuts [J. regia, probably "Carpathian"—Ed.] run true to seed—no bitter nuts as from north China. They evidently planted the sweet nuts only, thus eliminating the bitter types; they knew and practiced no budding or grafting in [that part of] Russia. Astounding to say, filberts came through last winter in excellent shape, but the terrible, cold, late spring, froze all male blossoms but those of the "Jones Hybrid" types, which I have from seeds I sowed. These latter yielded a good crop of nuts as did Brixnut seedlings.
Not a butternut on a tree nor a beechnut! Some black walnuts were loaded while others were quite empty.
And so I predicted—last September—a mild, open winter with some cold days. [His prediction was good for his locality.—Ed.]
My "Senator Pepper" hybrid (butternut x heartnut cross) had a crop but my "David Fairchild" had some empty and some full. My "Mitchell hybrid" had a good crop and, believe me, this nut is far away ahead of the Mitchell heartnut and up against the world for cracking out clean. It will equal an almond, and as for taste, it is so far ahead of a Brazil nut that the Brazil nut would rank D 3 beside it.
I still believe in seed planting, even for speed of eventual growth.
Last October I climbed up a black walnut tree I planted in mid-World War
I. From the top of it I looked away down to the tops of electric power
poles!
Filberts Grow in Vermont
JOSEPH N. COLLINS, R.F.D. No. 3, Putney, Vermont