We like to do the big things and the quick ones. To organize billion dollar corporations; grow billion bushel wheat crops; to have the swiftest motor boat or auto; to receive the largest income per man, per year, or per acre. Concentrating our attention on cap sheaves and superlatives rather generally we very easily lose sight of features less conspicuous though highly important.
Such an one is the rational development of nut culture in our Northern States. Since the scouring of our chestnut forests by the Asiatic chestnut blight has practically eliminated that nut from consideration for orchard planting in the infected territory until resistant varieties yielding good crops of nuts of acceptable quality are obtained or developed, we can hardly say with assurance that we have any nut of proved adaptability in sight which is worthy of planting on an extensive scale for its crop alone, on productive agricultural land in the Northern States.
Along the southern fringe of "the North" as in Delaware, Maryland, southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri exception in favor of the hardy varieties of pecans should probably be noted but in the light of present knowledge orchard planting of the commercially important almond, Persian walnut, and pecan must be left to the Pacific Coast and in the South.
This fact has been so generally recognized that we have been inclined to give up all thought of attempting nut production in the North merely because large scale operation is not attractive. There is much ground for belief that this view is erroneous and that there is need for localized planting.
If the world war taught any economic lesson to civilized men which they should remember and act on, it is that low cost food reserves should be provided against possible exigencies. They are not needed every year but when needed their value can hardly be estimated. Only to a limited extent can such reserves be accumulated out of the production of our ordinary cereals and commonly cultivated crops. Potential reserves in the form of fruitful nut trees can be established at relative light initial investment or of continuing care and labor on almost every farm and by many a roadside in much of our farming territory. Black walnut, butternut, shag bark, shell bark, beech and other hardy, long-lived native trees can be established at low cost in large numbers for beauty, shade, and food production. Nor should the possibilities of Persian walnut, Japanese walnut, and native hazel be disregarded in favored sections.
While none of these are entirely free from plant diseases or insect pests, they are, when once established, capable of maintaining themselves fairly clean and sound with little expenditure for spraying or other attention during the growing season when the peak load activities of the farm are on. Why should not their planting receive more attention and encouragement from our horticultural and other rural societies? For rough land and roadside planting they are decidedly more practical in most sections than any of our fruit trees, substantially all of which require spraying and tillage to maintain productiveness, or in fact to avoid becoming nuisances by harboring pests to contaminate the commercial orchards of the neighborhoods. While much has been said in America in commendation of the roadside planting of fruit trees so common in portions of Europe, and while there are possibilities of useful development along this line, most American efforts in this direction have proved disappointing because of the impracticability of giving the trees the care and attention they require. While often promising at the start they have quickly become infested with San Jose and other scales, borers, blights and rots which can only be prevented or controlled by systematic and thorough remedial measures, rarely possible on rough lands, in fence rows and on roadsides.
If this type of nut culture is sufficiently promising to be worth while, do we not need to attack its problems from a somewhat different angle than has become our custom with the trees which are to be grown under intensive cultural conditions at high maintenance cost, such as more and more characterizes our orcharding?
It has seemed to me for some time that in this field we need to return in our study of varieties and strains of nut trees to the standards and ideals of the earlier and ruder period of American Pomology when rusticity of tree, including storm endurance, freedom from troublesome diseases and insect pests, as well as productiveness and dessert quality were the primary consideration next after satisfactory productiveness and quality of crop.
This and other like societies might well devote much effort to the securing of performance records of promising individual nut trees, whether wild or grown by man, with a view to locating those which, whether bearing nuts of the largest size and finest quality or not, possess the inherent ability to bear regular crops of fair quality under the rough and humble conditions of the average fence row or roadside of the region to which they are adapted. Can a more alluring and fascinating field for search throughout the growing season be suggested or one more likely to interest the growing army of nature lovers, whether dwellers in country or town?
Once located and proved worth while through a sufficient period of cropping such trees, especially of black walnut, could be made available through nursery propagation for rapid dissemination for experimental planting throughout the areas of their probable adaptability.