Young walnut trees were very scarce. We were told in one province that Chinese merchants, who had been forced out of Russia because of economic conditions there, and had lost everything, had come home and were seeking something with which to make money. They were already planting a considerable number of walnut trees, and were growing crops under the trees, planting crops of millet first, and then of soy beans later in the season. Another crop they use is called kaolin (pronounced "gollin" in this country).
Very few of the trees are ever pruned systematically, or taken care of; the Chinese seem to have no idea of this. Of course, the rainfall there is at a different time of the year than ours. Fall, winter and spring, in North China, are practically without rain. Consequently, the atmosphere is very dry.
Here and there we found trees that struck us so favorably that we made notes with the intention of going back to the trees to get scions for propagating purposes for this country. We were told that one of these trees had borne 800 pounds of nuts. I suppose, however, if that was so, it was green weight, and included the hulls. This tree was on the grounds of the Y. M. C. A., about 80 miles below Shanghai, the farthest south we went. The tree had been planted by missionaries, and had made splendid growth. There were not many walnuts south of that point, however. In the province of Shanshi the soil is of a washed nature, subjected to rains, and we found there huge gorges that had evidently been forming for centuries. All of the soil there, that is not too uneven to be cultivated, is terraced; and along the sides of the terraces walnut trees are planted. We usually found tunnels along the sides of the terraces. These were dug around the bank so that the water would run through the tunnels instead of over the terrace.
We saw no indications of blight. We thought we saw it in one case, but when we examined the nuts, it proved to be nothing but insects working on the hulls.
Wherever we went, we were told by the Chinese that they harvest their walnuts at about the time of the year which in America would be about the first week in September. We found, however, that the nuts were off of the trees and assembled on the ground for sorting and drying, long before that. They were put in windrows covered with millet straw and left for ten days, after which time the hulls were chipped off with knives and the nuts immediately washed and put on the market. I was particularly struck with the mechanical motion with which the Chinese men worked; it was just as regular as a machine. This was the first time that characteristic came to my attention, and afterwards I was struck with the same thing everywhere.
Each farmer takes his products, whatever they may be, to a common town called "market town," and there they are bought by the local merchants, or the "compradors." The exporters are missionaries and foreigners who make no effort to buy from the farmers, for the tradesman, or comprador, can get the nuts at a better figure than can the foreigners. The tradesman gets his commission in addition. The baskets of nuts are carried on poles placed over the shoulders of the Chinese.
One of the principal walnut centers of Chantung Province is 25 miles from the railroad, and we made quite an effort to reach it. An agricultural missionary, a Mr. Gordan, made the trip there with me, and we found it a badly infested section. We arrived about three o'clock in the afternoon and took about one hour going around to see the nuts. There were places within the wall where nuts had been assembled, and we made estimates as to the number of pounds. I think there were from 100 to 150 sacks of nuts in a pile.
Many of the women and children grow walnuts and these crops are inspected and sorted before being shipped to Peking. In the early summer, we saw quantities of apricot kernels being transported to the market and sold as almonds. We had understood that China was quite an important almond-producing country, but I doubt if there are any almonds in China. I did not see a tree, nor did I get an indication that there were any there.
One of the largest chestnut trees that I saw measured eight feet and would have been valuable for timber purposes. It was in one of the very attractive little orchards of chestnut trees in the north of Shansi and northeast of Tientsin. We understood that there were very large orchards to the north, but you might say that there is no such thing as a large orchard in China. We counted about 100 trees in such orchards, and we made notes as to their bearing habits. We found the chestnuts of pleasing quality, of a fair size, and not quite as large as European nuts but larger than the American. We did not see many of the trees which had been allowed to develop normally. They are not of special value in China, and consequently, the branches are removed as high as possible, and often the tops are cut out.
The Chinese have a species of native peanut which is very shrivelled and hard; but missionaries from this country have introduced there the American peanut, which is now grown so extensively that Chinese exports have disturbed our market conditions considerably.