President Davidson: Mr. Shadow, the County Agent of Decatur, Meigs County, Tennessee, will tell his experiences with tree crops in that county.
Experiences with Tree Crops in Meigs County, Tennessee
W. A. SHADOW, Meigs County Agent, Decatur, Tennessee
Mr. Shadow: Mr. Chairman and members of the Nut Growers Association: As President Davidson announced, I am an agricultural agent. About twelve years ago I thought it would be good to have a hobby, and since I was born and reared in the nursery world propagating fruit trees and ornamentals, and due to the fact that John Hershey came by one day and talked to me about the tree crops in the Tennessee Valley, it struck me just right, and I have made that my hobby.
You know, every man who has a job gets fed up on his job and needs to get out and play with himself, or something else, to forget his troubles. So I find in propagating nut trees, top-working them, if you will, top-working trees where I find them to named varieties, is very interesting to me.
John Hershey taught me the technique of grafting nut trees. I had grafted and budded in all kinds of ornamentals and fruits, but I needed training in nut trees. So in the spring of 1935, I guess, I grafted about a hundred Thomas black walnut on trees where I found them in the woodland. At the same time I grafted maybe a hundred Japanese persimmon of possibly a dozen varieties on the common native persimmon. I purchased three, four, maybe five Japanese persimmons and planted these trees in the spring of 1935. All these persimmons, maybe 60 or 70 of them, grew nicely. The Thomas grew very well, and the winter of 1939 or 1940, I don't recall just which, was rather severe. We had below-zero weather, and all of my persimmons were killed—I thought. The next year I found a persimmon tree up in the woods with maybe a peck of great big nice persimmons and later I found that that was a Fuyugaki persimmon. All the rest of mine were winter killed. Those that I purchased were winter killed the first year. I don't know why. I grafted the persimmon about 5 feet high. Those that were grafted at the ground I noticed winter killed the first year, and these that are grafted up about shoulder high seemed to live three or four years before they winter killed, and the one variety that survived as Mr. Kline and Mr. Chase, or someone, has told, is Fuyugaki, I believe. I have a Tamopan persimmon, a great big, nice persimmon about so big, but bitter as the dickens, and about the only thing I think it is good for is to look at. It is pretty. But the Fuyugaki is never bitter. It is very tasty even partially green, and as it ripens my lady thinks it is very good, and I think it is good, myself.
I have about two or three varieties of mulberries. I got them from Glen St. Mary Nurseries in Florida. They make awfully good pig feed and bird feed, and I don't mind eating them myself.
There are some honeylocust, Millwood and Calhoun. I purchased several seedlings of thornless honeylocust from some northwestern nursery and grafted them to Millwood and Calhoun. I also have four trees that are ten years old and they have never borne. Last year there was one tree of that hundred that bore heavily, and the rest of them are barren. It must be lack of pollenization, or something. I am not getting fruit from my honeylocust.
Someone asked me what I am going to do with all this stuff, and I said, "Well, the squirrels and I will have lots of fun anyhow, and the cows will eat the honeylocust if they ever bear."
I have two pecan trees that are bearing nicely. One is a Posey and the other is a Greenriver, bearing very nicely. They are about ten years old. I have some Schley and Delmas and Mahan, and they are not bearing. I don't know why. We are out of the realm of the southern pecan and too far south for the northern pecan, I am afraid.