Such practical methods, if widely used, would bring far more valuable results than any legislative program.
The Virginia Polytechnic Institute is showing some interest, and conducted a field clinic in top-working the walnut in the Shenandoah Valley area in the spring of 1951. County Agents have become interested, and a county-wide Black Walnut Contest will be held at Harrisonburg, Va., Nov. 9 and 10th of this year, in which VPI is collaborating. It is hoped this idea will spread.
On Prince Edward Island, just off the Canadian east coast, there does not appear to be enough summer heat to mature the nuts, though the tree is grown somewhat on home grounds.
In the fruit-growing sections of British Columbia the black walnut appears quite at home, trees of a diameter of from three to four feet being reported at Chilliwack, in the Fraser River valley. J. U. Gellattly also reports the walnut at Brooks and Medicine Hat, Alberta.
Confirmation of the ability of the black walnut to stand extremely low temperatures is to be found in a letter of Aug. 22, 1951 from W. R. Leslie, Superintendent, Dominion Experiment Station, Morden, Manitoba, as follows:
"Black walnut is doing fairly well in such places as the Provincial Horticultural Station, Brooks, Alberta, (P. D. Hargrave, Supt.), and at Portage la Prairie, Winnipeg and Morden, Manitoba. Apparently the black walnut enjoys a heavier soil than the butternut (or white walnut). The white has been more widely planted than the black. The Manchurian seems hardier than either and is the most rapid grower of the three Juglans on test here. However, the two natives usually give us a fairly abundant crop of nuts."
"Our source of black walnut was from around New Ulm, Minnesota; the butternut came from around Sault Ste. Marie, at the lower end of Lake Superior. I am not aware of either indigenous species being native closer than the points mentioned."
Belgium reports the black walnut as thriving in door-yards and along roadways, where the nuts are mentioned as a menace to traffic.
In conclusion it is urged that friends of conservation and a sound economy should lend their every effort to the extension of black walnut plantings. Some progress has been made since the days of pioneer plunder, but much remains to be done.
Thanks are extended to all those who have contributed to this survey.