The farmers' education along this line has been very inadequate. We have been very stupid. Can we never learn to begin, as Hitler began—as the Russians are even now beginning—with the nation's children?
Perhaps we are learning a little. It is heartening to know that school and community forests are fast increasing in number, notably in New England. When fully used and well managed, they can work a revolution in the thinking of the young people who are so fortunate as to have some of their schooling out in the open. These future American leaders are learning at first hand through the ways of the woods how to make the work of their hands live far beyond the span of their lives.
Perhaps, as the result of this training early in life, a new interest among the farmers will emerge and some of our sins of omission will be remedied. As a planter of trees for the future, the American farmer, both of yesterday and today, has notoriously, thoughtlessly, and disastrously failed both his children and himself. By all standards, he should be the first-ranking tree planter of the land. As a matter of fact, it is practically impossible to interest the average farmer at all. State experiment stations and forestry departments make some effort to stimulate interest in the planting of trees by furnishing seedling stocks of forest trees at nominal prices and by issuing occasional bulletins. However well intentioned and, within their limits, well done these bulletins may be, the fact remains that in proportion to their numbers, farmers are still not notable planters of trees. Perhaps one reason for this failure is that most of the literature upon the subject seems aimed at lumbermen, and not at farmers. As to the bulletins which are aimed primarily at the farmer, examples of advice on forestry which is given in these rather too specialized and somewhat near-sighted publications are typically of the following kind: "Fence off the woodlot and never pasture it," "Use your best land for field crops; your waste land for trees." "You are interested in nuts? You can not have nuts and timber, too."
It is evident that these rules are prepared by foresters—not farmers. Is it any wonder that the inquiring farmer finds them rather frustrating?
It should be remembered that practices which are valid and helpful in the care of an already existing forest or woodlot where mature growth is periodically harvested and where young sprouts are encouraged for replenishment may be of little use in the management of an entirely new planting of certain kinds of trees where cultivation, at least for a time, is necessary. Deep-rooted trees, for example. Such rules have been of little use to me in my own planting of American black walnuts upon an Ohio farm. Indeed, to have followed them would have been disastrous.
My planting is not large. It is modest enough to be within the power of nearly any farmer. It has been treated as a farmer would treat it, without too much pampering. We now have a few more than three thousand trees planted upon forty acres. Most of them are now fifteen years old. Here are some of the things we have learned in fifteen years from our trees:
1. Trees spaced 80 feet apart in good deep soil have not made as much growth as seedling black walnut trees spaced 8 feet apart in rows 20 feet apart, also in good soil. However, these wider spaced trees are grafted pecans and Persian walnuts.
2. The seedling trees which stand in good soil have made surprisingly good growth. Some better than 8 inches diameter, breast height. One measured tree has grown 7 feet 1/2 inch this year to date—Aug. 20. (No fertilizer used, but cultivated.) Those which stand in shallow, thin soil are dwarfs, worthless. Walnuts have deep taproots. They need deep, rich earth.
3. Trees grown from planted seed make the best timber trees. Upon the other hand, if production of known quality is the primary objective, grafted trees of known varieties must be planted. The seedling of good parentage is an exciting gamble. It may be, and usually is a commonplace producer of nuts. Upon the other hand, it is more likely than the tree of poor parentage to win a place among the named varieties, set aside for propagation by budding or grafting upon other stocks.
4. Walnut seedlings like human beings tend to show marked inherited trends, erratic and undependable though they may be. Thus, seedlings grown from vigorous and upright trees tend to be vigorous and upright. Conversely, trees of poor parentage, either as timber or nut producers, will tend to reproduce the poor characteristics of their parent. This is more markedly true where the parent tree stands isolated from the pollen of other walnut trees of the same species.