This leads up to an enumeration of my mistakes. First, I did not start early enough in life. The elements of health and strength have their part in success. Then, too, let us see what might have been the result if I had started at the age of 20. Remember, in this first tract of 20 acres I planned a forest plantation of selected black walnut seedlings, some chosen for nut quality and some for large, straight timber growth. A tract of 20 acres planted 8 x 8 x 22 feet will hold about 4500 trees. Allow for thinning and other reductions. If only 1250 trees should reach log size in 50 years, that is, by today for me, at an average of $50 each, they would come to $62,500—a very tidy estate.
Just now there are perhaps 2500 well grown trees in the good portion of the ground in this 20 acres. Pleasantly enough, they do not now seem to need the interplanting of faster-growing trees in order to develop upright growth but are pushing each other up as they stand, 8 x 8 x 22 feet apart. In this planting, then, there is evidence of successful timber growth in the good ground but of almost complete failure in the poor ground.
Another failure is to be noted in my original plan for cattle guards. These guards were 12 feet in diameter, and about 6 feet in height. These were satisfactory for sheep after I had installed pipe for posts, but not for cattle. Trees grow horizontally as well as vertically. Cattle, reaching for these side shoots, reached over the guards and pushed in and under. I later reduced the guards to a 6-foot diameter of stronger woven fence-wire with 6-inch stays, not 12-inch, and raised the height to not less than 10 feet. The cattle may now nibble off the side shoots if they wish but the vertical growth is protected. Above 10 feet the trees can spread out without danger.
Others say, "Permit no grazing at all." This statement, I think, should be made with certain qualifications. Where bluegrass bottom is used for the orchard planting of pecans or black walnuts, there is a possible slight reduction in growth from lack of cultivation, but this loss will be nowhere nearly proportionate to a farmer's loss of pasturage. And even in my 8 x 8 x 22-foot planting of seedlings, though no grazing was permitted while the trees were young, now the older trees are large and strong enough in the good soil to take care of themselves. Some lower branches are rubbed off but they should be off anyhow. Also, thank heaven, the weeds are at last kept down by grazing, the grass is utilized and, most important of all, the hazard of grass fires is entirely wiped out. I know of a neighbor's planting destroyed in this way and I shall always fear fire. I should not permit grazing in a general purpose woods lot where young growth is constantly coming on.
Failure three: I have failed completely to interest my tenant in my project. Each mowing or clean-up job is just a chore to him. I can't blame him. Why should I expect anything else? With a World War on hand, and with his son in the army, and with two farms to care for, the immediate bread-and-butter jobs come first and my mowing suffers. However, the wonderful trees somehow continue to grow in spite of weeds and wars, perhaps a bit more slowly than they otherwise might, but I am in no hurry.
The last war casualty was my original plan to make a further orchard planting of seedlings in loco, ready to be top-worked to the wood of some outstanding find among the selected seedlings. It has not been done—period.
I think I do have one or two rather outstanding nuts among the seedlings, but this leads up to another casualty which must be faced by all of us—a temporary one, fortunately, namely, crop failures due to the weather. The larger trees began to bear at age seven. Then, three years ago we had a drouth. For the two years since then, we have had summer in March and winter in May. The catkins were mostly killed and the pistillate bloom was delayed in growth upon the new wood until most of it came too late for even such pollination as was so sparingly available. Thus we have had no generally good nut producing season for three years in our part of Ohio. As a result, my truly outstanding nut is still in hiding, and I am waiting for a good season to bring it out.
Another disappointment with me has been the Carpathians. They partially winter-kill each winter. Their trunks still live and send up shoots. I let them stand, hoping for an eventual hardening of the wood. I regard them not as failures but as not yet proven.
For purely experimental purposes I planted apple and peach trees close up to the walnuts. Whichever won out was to stay. Both are there yet. There is as yet no sign of the results of toxicity. They stand, literally, arm in arm.
One success I feel may safely be chalked up. In selecting seed for my original planting, some were chosen for better nuts, as stated, and some because of the magnificent growth of the parent trees. One such tree gave me seedlings that are definitely superior in growth to other trees which stand in equally good soil—in fact, in adjoining rows. This is noteworthy.