The butternut tree is found growing naturally farther north than the walnut tree. Its northern boundary is roughly a line drawn from Midland on Georgian Bay to Ottawa. It is widely distributed, but is not in large enough quantity to have commercial value for lumber. An expert wood carver, who is employed by the Department of Lands and Forests, uses butternut largely in his work.
The shagbark and bitternut hickories make up the large percentage of the hickories growing in Ontario. The northern limit of the bitternut is approximately the same as the butternut—that is, Midland on Georgian Bay and Ottawa on the east; while the northern limit of the shagbark is thirty to forty miles south of the bitternut. The pignut and the mockernut hickories are found in the southern hardwood belt along Lake Erie.
The American chestnut was quite plentiful in different sections of the southern hardwood belt. It was valued quite highly for the nuts. It has been killed out by the chestnut blight and it is very rarely that live suckers are seen.
The beech was widely distributed in the woodland of southern Ontario. It has rarely been planted as a shade tree and it is not seeding up extensively in woodlots. There are many stories of hogs being fattened on beechnuts in pioneer days.
The Japanese heartnut has been planted in various parts of the province. A heartnut tree in Bruce County lived through a hard winter that killed many sugar maples and beech in the same area. Nut trees are seeding up in many pastured woodlots in southwestern Ontario. The reason for this is that stock do not relish their foliage as they do the maple, beech and basswood, etc., and because of this, it is likely that nut trees will make up a larger percentage of trees in Ontario woodlots than originally, as it is a sad fact that at least seventy-five percent on the farm woodlots in Ontario are still being pastured.
It is hoped that more interest will be shown in planting nut trees by farmers and home owners. The Department of Lands and Forests is enlarging its staff of Extension Foresters, and no doubt they will include the propagation of nut trees in their extension work.
Nut Growing at the Horticultural Experiment Station, Vineland Station, Ontario
W. J. STRONG
There was very little interest in nut growing in the early days of the Horticultural Experiment Station although back in 1914 a few filberts and Persian (English) walnuts were planted.