By A. B. Anthony, Sterling, Illinois
I have something like 25 grafted hickories of my No. 1 (Anthony) variety. The largest tree now has a trunk of 5-1/2 inches in diameter; has 20 nuts on it this year; and while it has had but few nuts each year, has missed bearing but one season in the past seven years. Other No. 1 trees run from 3-1/2 inches, in diameter down to about 1 inch. One 3-1/2 inch tree is offering its second bearing with five nuts this season. All these trees were grafted in cutover woodland tracts and moved here except the largest one which was moved in 1930 and grafted in 1933, 30 inches high and never trimmed for a higher head. Heavy annual catkin bloomer, few pistillates so far.
Of my No. 2 variety, one tree transplanted in 1927 now has something like 25 nuts on it. The No. 3 hickories, five of them, have never borne either pistillate or staminate blooms. No. 4 is a hican from the parent tree of which I have had but three good nuts. The weevil moth works so well in dense woods that rarely are the nuts good there. The nuts are attractive and should not discolor like the lighter hickories, should their opening husks get rained upon when maturing.
Men of the future must decide on the merits of these trees. Of the two Hagen trees grafted in 1931, one now has its first nuts, eight in number. I have been told that some one will cut these trees down some day. One of our county or state officials said a short time back that "if hog troubles keep coming on as of late, in 50 years we will not be able to raise hogs." With corn being the main hog food and the corn borer coming, this may come to be quite true, and then perhaps more men will get new vision as to where their meat is coming from.
The past three years have offered almost no hickories at all. Hickories do not like shade, but they have to grow where the squirrels have planted them. Carrying a nut 100 yards to bury it would doubtless be about a squirrel's limit. I have noticed in timber of sizeable growth a north slope showed no young hickories, while a south slope showed a scattering few. Oak trees in this section predominate when it comes to groves of one species. Cottonwood trees come up here and there, probably because their seed is wind-carried. Willow sticks get carried down stream and get lodged, and grow. I have known a few young oaks to come up on my place all of a mile and a half of such woods. How come? It is probably the combination of the blue jay and squirrel, this time. No trouble for the blue jay to travel some distance and put his acorn in a bark crevice of cottonwood or willow tree. Along comes a wandering squirrel, finds the acorn, and if not hungry enough puts in the ground where it has a chance to grow. I have seen blue jays start off with chestnuts and the nearest trees they could reach were willows one-fourth mile or further away.
For some reason there seems to be a tendency for the hickories to bear in seasons when the black walnut does not and the walnut to bear when the hickory fails. Last year, except for filling, walnuts did reasonably well and this year, at least with my Rohwer variety, the yield is still better except that the nuts are unusually small, doubtless because all of July and up to the 9th of August it was very dry.
Throughout my years there have always been walnut trees on the place, first started by a pioneer land owner, then squirrels took it up, so I have a choice of stocks I did not have in hickories.
Two of my Rohwer trees have trunks 12 inches in diameter; one is 11 inches and the other 14 inches in diameter. For years these trees, grafted in 1931, have been very profuse with catkins, but with few nuts. I have heard other complaints of it not bearing.
My complaint with all walnuts grown in Northwest Illinois is that so many kernels turn out black and immature. I am inclined to blame it, in part, to the walnut shuck, which takes in so much moisture. The hickory shuck is much dryer and never has so many immature kernels. Late summer is generally the dryer part of our growing season, which can well be the cause. In the year 1940, we had an excess of moisture in that it rained day after day all through August, and that is the only season I can say we had good walnuts with practically all good, light-colored kernels.
I have a few Thomas walnuts planted on the edges of the lowest flat ground I possess, hoping that they may there get more moisture and produce completely matured nuts.