Mr. Gilbert Becker of Michigan, who is enthusiastic about the McKinster variety, believes the qualities of the nut to be superb and the characteristics of the tree satisfactory. He is of the opinion that the too-short dormancy of the variety is not a serious objection, particularly with climatic conditions such as those experienced in Michigan. Even in central Ohio, where peach and apple crops are frequently lost due to spring frosts, the McKinster has not been injured when located in the countryside and injured but once during its 15 years, with a resultant smaller than usual crop, when located in the city.
In closing, it might be well to comment on the fact that nuts of the McKinster, Hansen and Jacobs varieties alone placed high in both the 1949 and 1950 N.N.G.A. contests and that different panels of judges served in the two events. Certainly the nuts of these varieties are of a superior quality, and it would seem important to determine those parts of the country where these varieties are sufficiently hardy to be of commercial value. Certainly these varieties should be given every opportunity to prove themselves.
Carpathian Walnuts in the Columbia River Basin
LYNN TUTTLE, Clarkston, Wash.
Mr. Chairman and friends of the nut culture, I regret that I cannot meet with you at this time, but fate seems to have decreed otherwise. The pleasant memory of the meeting at Guelph is still with me and I must admit a feeling of humility as I prepare this paper for a group of sincere and devoted people united in a common interest.
The Pacific Northwest extends from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. This area is divided by the Cascade Mountains which run north and south. Between the Cascades and the Pacific we have a coastal area wherein winters are generally mild, summers cool, and rainfall abundant. Under these, conditions many plants do not attain a high degree of dormancy. Zero weather in Seattle will damage walnuts as much as will twenty-five degrees below zero in the more continental climate east of the Cascades. Carpathian walnuts have proved their value under both coastal and interior conditions. This hardiness is at least partially due to their tendency to mature their buds and harden their growth earlier in the fall than do other types of English walnuts.
Between the Cascades and the Rockies is a vast area part plateau and part mountains. It is scarred with deep canyons and crossed by swift streams fed from springs and mountain snows. Roughly the elevation of farm lands varies from five hundred to over forty-five hundred feet. Depending largely on slope and elevation, rainfall varies from about eight to twenty-five inches. In general, summer days are bright, dry, and fairly hot. Nights are clear and cool. Winters are unpredictable but always vary much according to location and elevation. Infrequently temperatures may drop to more than twenty below zero at Clarkston. Other areas of similar elevation may be five to ten degrees colder.
For the sake of clarity and to reduce the territory covered, we will confine ourselves largely to that part of the Columbia Basin irrigated and to be irrigated in Central Washington. The application is general, however.
Grand Coulee Dam has made feasible the irrigation of about 1-1/4 million acres of sage brush, bunch grass, and marginal wheat lands. Irrigation is already practised over other vast acreages. This land is level to rolling, and is of sandy loam nature. It is deeply under-laid by layers of lava rock—in places thousands of feet thick. As in most arid climates the soil is rich in minerals but low in nitrogen and organic matter. Under irrigation production is amazing. The growing season is sufficiently long for Carpathian walnuts anywhere in the irrigated area.
Walnuts originally from Southern Europe have proved unsatisfactory because they killed at 20 to 25 below zero. It was discouraging to have a ten or fifteen year old tree killed outright by an unusual winter. But it was just these conditions that led to the discovery of the Schafer walnut. This tree survived the winters of 1936 and 1937 in a part of the Yakima valley where all other varieties similarly located were killed. So far as I know, none of these were Carpathians.