RESOLVED: That it is the sense of the Northern Nut Growers' Association, in fifteenth annual convention in New York City this fourth day of September, 1924, that the U. S. Department of Agriculture be asked to take up systematically the work of discovery and investigation of promising native nuts in the northern states and of testing selected specimens at government stations in co-operation with the authorities of the state experiment stations; such discovery to be brought about by enlisting the aid of boy scouts, school children and others, in connection with the activities of county farm agents, inspectors and other attaches of the department.
THE PRESIDENT: Prof. MacDaniels, of Cornell University will now address us.
L. H. MacDaniels, Professor of Pomology, Cornell University
It gives me great pleasure to bring you greetings from the Agricultural College at Cornell University and to express my appreciation for your invitation to address this convention concerning what the college is doing along the line of nut growing. I have a very real interest in nut growing and in this association. I like to think of it as comparable with the American Pomological Society when it started more than one hundred years ago. All of you men who are spending your time and energy in finding new facts regarding the propagation and culture of nut trees are doing pioneer work, and your names will go down in the history of nut growing in the same way as those of Wilder, Downing, and Prince have come to us linked with the early development of fruit growing in the United States. I feel confident that the work of the association will stand the test of time.
Interest in nut growing at Cornell, as you probably know, was started by John Craig who died about a dozen years ago. He was greatly interested in northern nut growing and also in southern pecans. As a result of his work we are still receiving inquiries about southern pecans addressed to Professor Craig. While at Cornell he established a course of study in nut growing which was a part of the regular curriculum. At the time, however, the actual known facts about the growth of nuts in the northern states were so few, and reliable information so scarce, that after Professor Craig's death, when there was a general consolidation of courses in the department, nut growing was combined with another course in economic fruits. Since that time, as our knowledge of nut growing has increased, more and more attention has been given to the subject. Our aim is, in fact, to give all of the up-to-date information that we have regarding the propagation and culture of nut trees.
The nut tree plantings in the experimental orchards at Cornell have not been particularly successful. About ten years ago Professor Chandler set out about one-half acre of named varieties of pecans, Persian walnuts, black walnuts, hickories, hazel nuts, chestnuts and Japanese walnuts. These have received good care, both as to cultivation and fertilization but to date the only trees which have borne are the Japanese walnuts and these have not had good crops. Apple trees of the same age in adjacent land have been bearing commercial crops for a number of years, especially such varieties as the McIntosh, Wealthy and R. I. Greening. The climate at Ithaca is apparently rather too rigorous for most of the nut trees. Persian walnuts, hazel nuts and frequently Japanese walnuts suffer from winter injury. In the case of the chestnut, blight has practically killed all of the trees. The pecans are perfectly hardy but as yet have not borne, probably because our seasons are not sufficiently long or warm enough to grow this nut to advantage. Hickories have been very slow to become established and in fact have never made really good growth. This experience, of course, makes us feel that nut growing is really not as easy as some enthusiasts would have us believe.
In addition to this variety planting there are four or five acres of recently cleared woodland in which there are hundreds of hickory seedlings which can be top-worked. We are aiming also in this area to establish seedlings of all of the hardy nut trees to use as stocks and eventually to get a collection of all named varieties of nut trees. Grafting so far has not been particularly satisfactory due in some cases to failure of the grafts to set; in other cases to the winter killing of grafts which have made fairly good growth. Injury by bud moths and wind storms have also been detrimental factors. Our own experience together with observations upon the results of nut grafting elsewhere by experts lead us to believe that grafting of nut trees is a very difficult undertaking as compared with that of other fruit trees. It involves a knack which must be acquired by very considerable experience. I realize, of course, that new facts regarding nut grafting are being discovered almost daily and in the future we may look for better results.
The attitude of the Department of Pomology at the College with regard to nut growing is of necessity conservative. First of all, the men in the department are trained in scientific methods and have a somewhat critical attitude when it comes to statements regarding marked success in any line. The tendency is in each case to try to find the data or the experience upon which statements are based. Unfortunately, in nut growing there are very little data upon which statements can be based. Mr. Bixby's experiments with stocks are a very good start in the right direction, and it is upon such experiments as he is carrying out that real knowledge regarding nut growing will be gained.
We have heard enthusiastic statements as to the profits which may be derived from the planting of nuts in the northern states, but I must confess that I have looked in vain both for the facts upon which such statements might be based and also for orchards which actually are profitable. If such exist in New York state I have not been able to find them even after considerable travel.
In order to be profitable, an orchard must pay all the expenses involved, including interest on the initial cost of land; the cost of labor and materials and depreciation on tools, etc. We have cost accounts covering these items on many crops such as apples and wheat, but not on nuts. It seems to me we must recognize that nut culture is in its experimental stage only. This is in fact one thing that makes it particularly attractive for the amateur.