HILTON—The Hilton black walnut came to the attention of the U. S. Department of Agriculture in early March of 1933, when specimens were received through the courtesy of Prof. L. H. MacDaniels of Ithaca, New York, by whom its propagation had already been successfully begun. Professor MacDaniels wrote that he did not feel that it was "outstanding," except that "apparently it does succeed rather far north and is much above the average in general merit."
The nuts sent to Washington averaged 25 per pound, had a range of from 21 to 28 per pound, and were therefore quite large, especially for that latitude. The yield of quarters was 20.46 per cent, that of small kernel parts O.66 per cent, and the total 21.12 per cent. The cracking quality was very good, the kernel quality rich and the flavor very good.
The original tree, according to Professor MacDaniels, is tall and difficult to climb. It stands on the lot of a next-door neighbor of Mr. D. C. Wright of Hilton, through whom it came to the attention of Professor MacDaniels.
As the town of Hilton is within ten miles of the shore of Lake Ontario, the origin of the variety was practically on the extreme northern edge of western New York. In view of this, it is felt that the Hilton variety should be carefully considered in connection with any planting in the northernmost zone.
HUBER—The Huber black walnut was brought to light by Mr. Ferdinand Huber, Cochrane, Wis., in 1929, when he made an entry in the Association contest. Although the nuts were awarded no prize, the Bixby report made special mention of these nuts as being "notable for the high percentage of kernel (1930 Proc. N. N. G. A., p. 108), having yielded 32.8 per cent of total kernel."
The variety has not been tested by the department, although several attempts have been made to procure specimens for the purpose, but each such effort has been coincident with a crop failure by this particular tree.
LAMB—The Lamb black walnut is a variety propagated and grown for its wood only. The parent tree stood on a farm one-quarter mile east of Ada, Kent County, Michigan, perhaps ten miles due east of Grand Rapids. After the log had been cut and shipped to a mill, discovery was made that the wood of the original tree had a highly figured grain. Mr. George Lamb, then Secretary of the American Walnut Manufacturers Association, 616 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, traced the origin of the log back to its source, where the top was found to be still green, although the tree had been cut two months previous. Scions were cut and sent by Mr. Lamb to the Department of Agriculture in Washington, and also to Dr. Robert T. Morris, Merribrooke Farm, Stamford, Conn. At the suggestion of Dr. Morris, Mr. Lamb also sent scions to Mr. Ford Wilkinson, Rockport, Ind.
Some of the scions received by the Department were placed in the hands of others, including the late Messrs. Jones, Bixby and Snyder, also Prof. V. R. Gardner, Director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station at East Lansing, and Dr. G. A. Zimmerman, Piketown, Pa. Drs. Morris and Zimmerman, Professor Gardner, and Messrs. Wilkinson and Bixby, were all successful in their efforts at grafting. Mr. Bixby made new grafts as soon as the original could be cut for scions, and also made some distributions of scions. At the time of his death in August, 1933, there were a dozen or more nursery trees of various sizes and degrees of condition among his stock at Baldwin. From these, scions were sold to a number of Association members during the spring of 1934.
While it has not yet been established that the character of figured grain is transmissible with scions, the value of such wood is so great that anyone interested in producing walnut trees of outstanding value would do well to investigate this variety to the extent of growing a few trees. In all likelihood the combined results from tests made by a large number of persons would be of great value to science.
TASTERITE—The parent tree of the Tasterite walnut, owned by Everl Church, R. F. D. 3, Ithaca, New York, was discovered and named by Mr. S. H. Graham, a neighbor, living on Route 5, also out of Ithaca. The latter submitted specimens to the department in Washington in 1929, where they made a highly favorable showing. Tasterite nuts entered that year in the contest of the Northern Nut Growers Association, although receiving no award by the committee were given the rating of "excellent" by Dr. Deming. In 1930, Prof. N. F. Drake of Fayetteville, Ark., gave Tasterite nuts a rating of "100 per cent on cracking quality." He obtained a total of 28.05 per cent of kernel. Nuts of the 1930 crop examined in Washington averaged 36 per pound, ranged from 34 to 38, and yielded 20.92 per cent of quarters and 7.22 per cent of small pieces, making a total of 28.14 per cent.