Production of black walnut kernels in this country is fully 99 per cent from seedling trees of the fields, forests, roadsides and dooryards. That from orchard and top-worked trees, while now considerably on the increase, due to recent activity in planting and top-working, will hardly become of relative importance for some years to come. The wild crop is actually on the increase each year, due partly to greater care now taken of old bearing trees and partly to the large number of young trees coming into bearing each year but more largely to the greater extent to which nuts are now being gathered and not allowed to decay on the ground.
This increase in production is working both for and against the permanent welfare of the industry, and by this use of the term "industry", it is meant to include the cultivated as well as the uncultivated phases. Consumption has increased tremendously. No figures are available as to either total production or percentage of total crop which is still allowed each year to remain on the ground until it becomes decomposed.
However, it is the opinion of Baltimore merchants who have long handled this product that in certain large districts the wild nuts are now gathered closely and that very few are allowed to decay on the ground. There is no available information upon which to base a curve as to the probable increase in production which may be expected from young trees just beginning to bear or the thousands still too young to bear or yet the other thousands to be planted by squirrels each year. Whether or not the increase in consumption and its coincident change in eating habits of the American people will prove permanent after the return of normal times, remains to be seen, but it may be accepted as fact that the future of this country is likely to see greater competition in the home markets among foods than has been the case in the past and that, eventually, only those having the greatest values in nutrition and palatability will survive. Salesmanship may defeat this for a while but ultimately, palatability assumed, cash values and human tastes will most certainly arrive at pretty much the same point. The ultimate future of the walnut would therefore appear to depend largely upon its ability to become one of the fittest survivers.
One of the most important developments during the past year is of very recent occurrence. It is the fact that the 1933 season is opening with the highest prices received during the last two years. This may in part be due to reports that the outlook in the Tennessee—Kentucky—Virginia and North Carolina district is for a light crop. According to Baltimore merchants who have recently been consulted, consumption last year was the greatest in history and, while prices reached the lowest level since the depression began, relatively speaking, the total drop has probably not been as great as for other food products during the same period. These merchants look forward with confidence to a continuance of increased consumption.
This forecast is encouraging, but it is based on the assumption that there will be continued improvement in the manner of handling and packing the kernels for delivery. At present, considerable overhead is usually charged back to the farmers because of labor involved in cleaning, grading, and sometimes curing, after the kernels reach the city merchants. This handling is necessary with much of the output in order that it may be made acceptable to the manufacturers. One of the most desirable characteristics in connection with the sale of black walnut kernels is brightness of color. This is a matter largely due to the manner of handling during the process of harvesting, curing, and cracking. Once the kernels become dark, they cannot be brightened except by bleaching and removing the pellicles. However, the importance of prompt gathering as soon as the nuts fall from the trees, removing the hulls, and curing the nuts cannot be overestimated. These are matters easily within the ability of the producers to adjust.
The Orchard Industry
On the orchard side of the industry, several developments may be listed, although the majority are merely old developments newly emphasized.
Black walnut trees, seedlings and grafted trees alike tend to bear full crops not oftener than during alternate years, and with conditions at all unfavorable, full crops may be delayed for several years.
Grafted trees of many varieties begin to bear their first fruits quite as promptly as with apples. Not infrequently walnuts appear by the end of the second year after grafting. This is especially true with top-worked trees.