The native black walnut of Oklahoma is small and of little value. Most pecan growers have a few native black walnut trees they graft to the improved varieties. I have Thomas, Stabler, Ohio, Mintle, Myers, and others. Thomas has been used most extensively, but does not fill well on upland. However, in deep sand and low bottoms it fills perfectly. It is an alternate bearer and is subject to sunscald in our hot dry summers. Ohio and Stabler have not proven satisfactory. Mintle is a fine nut, splendid cracker, fills well, but is an alternate bearer. I like Myers very much, a consistent bearer, has thinnest shell of all, vegetates after frost in spring, has abundant foliage and twigs, holds leaves until late autumn. Myers is my choice of all varieties at present. However, as with pecans, what varieties to use is each grower's individual problem. We will be looking for better varieties 50 years from now. For five years I am offering $25 annually for the best seedling black walnut. Write to our A & M College, Horticulture Department, Stillwater, Oklahoma, for rules and regulations of the contest.
How to Make Money with Black Walnuts
I believe I have discovered the best way to market black walnuts. I have not had much success selling them either husked or unhusked, "too hard to crack." Then someone remarked, "If you would crack them and put in some horseshoe nails to pick out the meats, they might sell." There it is: the secret is discovered. The lowly and almost extinct horseshoe nail will sell cracked black walnuts. I have the reputation among local hardware dealers of having more horses than any man in Oklahoma. Black walnuts and horseshoe nails are reminiscent of the good old days down on the farm. The big fat meats of improved cracked walnuts peering through the sides of one or two pound cellophane bags pinned shut with a couple of horseshoe nails is a temptation few people can resist. Leave a few packages with your grocer or druggist and try it. I get 25¢ per pound for the whole walnuts, and 35¢ for those cracked. I sell several thousand pounds every season, and since the black walnut does not become rancid we sell them all the year. I have a down-town shop window to display nuts and fruits. We husk our walnuts by running them thru an ordinary corn-sheller, or by jacking up the rear wheel of an automobile, put on a mud chain, with a trough underneath, place car in gear and scoop walnuts into trough in front of the wheel. This will husk them rapidly and well. We should promote the growing of more improved black walnuts. Most catalog nurseries still list seedling walnuts. We sold 3000 Thomas and Myers black walnut trees to one mail order nursery, and they could have used more.
English Walnuts
I tried all the California varieties, but these lacked hardiness. The Wiltz Mayette grew into a big fine tree but the 1940 Armistice Day freeze proved fatal. Breslau, Broadview, Schafer, and several others with some 25 Carpathian seedlings are just coming into bearing. Some give promise of adaptation here. I am determined to find a prolific and adapted variety. In the meantime we must content ourselves to grow this most attractive tree with its large waxy leaves and beautiful light-colored bark as a useful novelty.
Heartnuts
Here is a surprise nut and tree to Oklahoma people. Both are unlike anything ever seen here. When they see this most unusual tree, with its tropical leaves and taste the delicious nuts they want a tree for their yard. Visitors stare in amazement at the immense catkins, and the grape-like clusters of nuts that develop later. This is a heartnut year. In most all varieties, ten to fifteen nuts to the cluster hang from the terminal of each twig. The leaves sun-burn easily. In spite of this we had a heavy crop of well-filled nuts. Of the several varieties I have, Stranger is the most prolific. Fodemaier, and Walters bloom late enough to escape our late spring freezes, are larger nuts, and should prove to be the best eventually.
Butternuts
Butternuts grow native in Missouri and Arkansas. Our section is most too hot and dry for them. However, I have a few grafts of Buckley and Weschecke bearing nicely, grafted on native black walnuts.
Hickories