It is recognized that the butternut has little commercial value except as it is used in the New England states, particularly in Vermont, where it is combined with maple sugar in making maple-butternut candy. Anyone who has travelled through the New England states is familiar with the roadside advertising of this excellent product. On the general market, butternut kernels are not sold in quantity comparable to those of the black walnut, but are somewhat comparable to the kernels of the hickory which also do not have a commercial outlet except locally.
The greatest use of the butternut is, and will continue to be, for the home grounds and local consumption. I think it is highly probable that if the easy cracking varieties already named were better known, they would be much more widely planted. The common wild butternuts are really difficult to handle. They crack only after considerable hammering with a heavy hammer and then, when cracked, the kernels shatter to such an extent that recovery is very unsatisfactory for the labor expended. After butternuts have been gathered from the wild with some enthusiasm during the fall months, they often remain in the cellar or attic without ever being used. Even the squirrels and the rats will not go to the bother of extracting the kernels if other nuts are available.
For best results the nuts are usually cracked with a heavy hammer, the nut being held vertically against a solid vice or block, so it can be hit on the end. A glove to protect the fingers holding the nut is useful if many are to be cracked. Good results can be secured by holding the nut on its side and tapping it on the suture. This, however is difficult, as it necessitates shucking the nut and even then it is difficult to identify the suture.
Through the years many varieties of butternut have been named. Mr. R. L. Watts in the 35th annual report of the Association lists 26 names, and I am sure there are others. I personally have had experience with only three or four varieties. One of these, the Crax-ezy, has borne good crops and the nuts crack well. Another one, which I have named the Johnson, coming from Tonawanda, New York, cracks well but is a smaller nut. At one time I had Thill variety topworked on Juglans Sieboldiana stock, but the stock was killed by cold winter. Samples of Kinnyglen and Mandeville were furnished by Mr. Graham for testing. We do not, however, have any comparative rating of many varieties based on comparative tests, nor are there recognized standards of quality.
In order to set up standards of quality for butternuts, the following tentative schedule for judging has been worked out along the same lines as the schedule for judging black walnuts. Twenty-five nuts are used in a sample and the score is made up of the weight in grams of the kernels recovered on the first crack, plus total weight of kernels divided by 2, plus 1/2 point for each whole half kernel recovered. A nut should not be considered worthy of propagation unless practically all of the kernels come out in whole halves.
Proposed Schedule For Testing Butternuts
25 Nut Samples
Score = Wt. kernels first crack + total wt. kernels ÷ 2 + no. whole
halves ÷ 2.
Weight Total
Kernels Weight
1st crack Kernels No.
Variety Grams Grams Halves Score Remarks
Kinnyglen 52.0 57.5 36 98.8
Crax-ezy 48.0 56.0 44 98.0
Mandeville 53.6 66.0 10 91.6
Johnson 38.5 45.5 40 81.3
Seedling No. 1 36.5 45.0 7 62.5
Seedling No. 2 26.0 43.0 22 58.5
Seedling No. 3 20.0 44.5 10 47.3