The more efficient and conscientious workers produced as high as 15% of kernels per unit of whole nuts, which was slightly better than the production by factory methods. The general average, however, was around 12½%, or about the same for both methods. As to quality of product there was no appreciable difference. It is necessary to exercise greater care in the selection of workers where the work is done in homes without supervision than in the factory. By actual experience it was found that some workers would produce less than half the percentage made by the more efficient workers. Such workers were dropped.
Where relatively small quantities of nuts are to be shelled there is little to be chosen between the home-industry method and such factory method as was used by me. The cost of delivering the nuts to the homes may be roughly set over against the cost of operating a factory. Based on the hours of work required to produce a given quantity of kernels, the factory method is more efficient. On the other hand, the home worker will work for a smaller wage per hour. Where large quantities of nuts are available, commercial cracking by machine methods will be increasingly used in the future, especially if economic conditions so far improve that people will no longer work for starvation wages. Point is given to this observation by the fact that local buyers paid from 8 to 15c for country-produced kernels last season, while my bare cost, without overhead or profit, was 20c per pound.
The most notable advance that has come to my attention during the past year in the way of commercial production of black walnut kernels is that contributed by Mr. C. E. Werner, President of the Forest Park Nut Company, of Ottawa, Kansas. Mr. Werner, who is 84 years of age and a veteran inventor with several notable inventions to his credit, has designed and built a machine that seems to mark a new era in black walnut kernel production. This machine, which is mounted on a truck, is not only used for the local operations of the company, but is moved from place to place in the performance of custom work, after the manner of a grain threshing outfit. Mention is made in company correspondence of cracking twenty thousand bushels of nuts for one customer in southwest Missouri. The following details were supplied by the manager of the company.
The machine has a capacity of from 75 to 100 pounds of kernels per hour. As they come from the machine they carry not more than 10% shells, and run from 28 to 30% full quarters. After being hand cleaned the net recovery of kernels represents from 10 to 11½% of the weight of the whole nuts. Custom work is charged for at the rate of from 3 to 5c per pound for the kernels produced. The cost of the final hand cleaning and packaging is given as 2c per pound, which makes a total production cost of from 5 to 7c per pound.
The operation of the machine may be briefly described as follows: The nuts are run through a revolving screen which separates and cleans them from all adhering husk and grades them into three sizes. They then pass through the cracker and thence, by conveyor belt, to the picker. This ingenious device holds the broken nuts with soft rubber rolls while a set of fingers literally pick the kernels from the shells. Careful sifting is the last step as the kernels leave the machine, after which they are hand-picked to remove any remaining pieces of shell. The owners advise that the machine has been built primarily for their own use, and has not yet been offered for sale. They would, however, consider building the machines for sale.
While the subject assigned me did not include the marketing of kernels, I cannot refrain from stating that no commodity is in greater need of orderly, organized marketing. In the meantime I would urge the small producer to cultivate his own local market as far as possible and refuse to produce at unprofitable prices.
Cracked black walnuts make an excellent supplementary feed for growing chicks and laying hens.
I advertised in the Rural New Yorker, The American Magazine and Better Homes and Gardens. Mr. Hershey advised me I would go broke advertising but I wanted to see what would happen. The Rural New Yorker gave the best results. I got $1.25 for a 2-lb. package. The kernels were in clean, first-class condition. I noticed some were advertised as low as 95c for two pounds. Some people in answering my advertisement said they had bought others that were not in first-class condition. I had no complaints about mine. In Better Homes and Gardens I did not get enough orders to pay for my advertising. I would not advise anyone to advertise there or in the American Magazine, as I got very poor results. I even got a bad check. The Rural New Yorker was very satisfactory.
The prices I paid locally were from .05 to .08 and sometimes .10 to .15 to old customers. Twelve and a half cents was the average price. I think maybe I should have advertised in a confectioners' journal in order to reach a large consumer source, but I felt at the time that I was using the only way I had of reaching a market.