| Data on 40 Plantings | Data on 68 Plantings | ||
| Questionnaire | Field | Field | |
| Tree Survival, percent | 77 | 75 | 51 |
| Average Height, feet | 9 | 11 | 13 |
| Cause of Tree Mortality, percent | |||
| Pre-establishment | 33 | 42 | 11 |
| Livestock and Other Destruction | 4 | 23 | 47 |
| Drought | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Insects and Diseases | 8 | 4 | 2 |
| Unknown | 42 | 31 | 40 |
West Tennessee Variety, Breeding and Propagation Tests, 1947
AUBREY RICHARDS, M.D., Whiteville, Tennessee
I surely wish I could have made the trip to the Northern Nut Growers Association meeting, but I simply had "too many hens setting" at that time. I've been waiting for you [the Secretary] to show up down here for the big news—at least it is to me—if it holds up. If you have ever tried to propagate heartnuts on Japanese walnut you know what it means.
Here it is: Rhodes, Wright and Fodermaier heartnuts patch-budded on 10 Japanese understocks (all I had) took 100%. The same 3 varieties as a control on black walnut gave a take of only 80%.
These trees give me a chance to check on the performance of black versus Japanese stocks for these varieties. From last year's propagation, Rhodes on black is beating Rhodes on Japanese and Bates (which was not used this year) seems fully as good on black walnut stocks.
An isolated tree of Bates did not set a nut. Its pollen all shed before the pistils were receptive. An isolated tree of Rhodes bore a full crop.
Incidentally, a weak chlorine bleach (Clorox) after these heartnuts are hulled does for them what peroxide does for the ladies and makes them look very inviting.
Stambaugh again led in topworked black walnuts, bearing its second consecutive full crop on a 3-year graft. It seems to be immune to whatever it is that causes the other nuts to turn black, shrivel and drop off from the time they set until near maturity. Thomas was second. Snyder, Sparrow and Myers had no crop. I budded 25 more trees of Stambaugh this year.