I am delighted to say that I never did anything in my life that met with such hearty and general approval as this venture. From almost every quarter of Canada I received commendatory letters and offers of assistance. One encouraging feature was the keen interest shown by wealthy business and professional men in our larger centres and by some of our more progressive fruit growers and farmers. Inasmuch as my venture was an innovation there were of course some humorous comments to the effect that we had enough "nuts" in the country now without encouraging any more. I replied to my humorous friends that the "nuts" they had in mind did not grow on trees whereas the kind I had in mind did.
The information I received in answer to my questionnaire was very interesting and instructive and confirmed some of my impressions regarding the occurrence of nut trees in our province. More important still it showed that there were several superior trees of various species growing here and there throughout the country.
Geographical Distribution of Nut Trees in Canada
The chief native nut trees are the black walnut, the butternut or white walnut, the hickory, of which there are four species—the chestnut, the beechnut and the hazelnut. Of introduced nut trees there are the Persian, Japanese and Chinese walnuts, the European, Japanese and Chinese chestnuts, the pecan and the European filberts.
THE BLACK WALNUT (Juglans nigra).
The black walnut is one of our finest native nut trees and is found growing naturally along the north shore of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and around Lake St. Clair. It has been planted in many other parts of Ontario and does well where protected from cold winds. The tree grows to a large size, sometimes attaining a height of 90 feet and a trunk diameter of 5 feet. When grown in the open it makes a beautiful symmetrical tree, having a large, rounded crown with drooping lower branches.
The black walnut is not found growing naturally outside of Ontario. It has been planted in Manitoba but does not do well there because of the cold winter. In 1917 the writer observed a few specimens near Portage la Prairie which were about five feet tall. These trees made a fair annual growth but most of this froze back each winter.
Many people in Canada believe that the black walnut is a slow grower. This impression is not correct as some trees grow very rapidly. About eighteen years ago I planted a number of nuts along the line fence and along the roadside on my father's farm near Simcoe, Ontario. Most of these nuts sprouted and grew and some have done exceptionally well. One of these trees is now thirty-seven feet tall and has a trunk circumference of forty-one inches at the ground. It has borne nuts since it was six years of age and this year has a very heavy crop. Some of the first crop of nuts were planted and these in turn have developed into trees which have produced nuts. Nuts from the second generation have been planted and will likely make trees which will yield nuts in a few years. An interesting feature of the original planting is the great variation in the size, shape of nut, thickness of shell and yield. Some are large, some are small, some are round and others are pear-shaped. The majority of the trees yield well but a few, however, are light croppers.
THE BUTTERNUT (Juglans cinerea)
The butternut is much hardier than the black walnut and has a much wider distribution in Canada. It occurs throughout New Brunswick, in Quebec, along the St. Lawrence basin and in Ontario from the shore of Lakes Erie and Ontario to the Georgian Bay and Ottawa River. It has been planted in Manitoba and does fairly well there when protected from cold winds. West of Portage la Prairie the writer observed a grove of seventy-seven trees. Some of these trees were about thirty-five feet tall with a trunk diameter of ten inches and had borne several crops of good nuts.