The cracking of the nuts is done with one of the small mechanical crackers that is to be found on the market. The more care exercised in the cracking at the nuts, the less work and time will be required in separating the kernels. After cracking the nuts they are sifted through a series of screens. This helps very materially in preparing them for rapidly picking their kernels. It is quite important that this operation be done properly if the kernel picking is to be made simple and rapid. The cracked nuts are first sifted through a screen made of 1-inch mesh chicken wire netting. Next the nuts are sifted through a screen made of ½-inch mesh hardware cloth. All material which will not pass through this screen should be kept separate. Some of these pieces will require recracking and kernel picking with the fingers. The material which has passed through the ½-inch mesh screen is now sifted on a hardware cloth screen with 5 meshes to the inch. Only the very fine material will pass through this screen which is not suitable for further kernel recovery. The material which remains on the ½-inch mesh screen is now placed on the table especially made for kernel picking. This table is shown in the accompanying sketch. The table is of suitable size to allow two people to use it at the same time. The operators sit on stools about 20 inches in height, and work from the low side of the table. A small amount of the material is brought forward and spread out very thinly before the operator. A piece of ½-inch softwood dowel about 5 inches long with 4 No. 9 sewing needles imbedded in one end is used to pick up the kernels. The needles are placed in the form of a square and should be only about 3/32 of an inch apart to do the best work. The picks should not be used to pry kernels from the shell, as the needles would soon become bent and worthless. The picks are meant to be used only to pick up the kernels from among the shells. As soon as the operator has removed all the kernels from the small amount of material he has brought forward from the rear of the table, he shoves the shells into the hole at the edge of the table and they drop into a receptacle. The pick is used with the right hand, and the kernels are removed from the pick with and into the left hand. As soon as a convenient handful of kernels has been obtained, they are dropped into a small pan which sets on the table near the operator's left hand. The rapidity with which kernels may be picked by using these methods is surprising. It is sometimes necessary to moisten the nuts and hold them in this condition for 2 or 3 days before cracking them, to keep the kernels from shattering unduly. After the kernels are picked out they are dried very thoroughly. Trays whose bottoms are lined with screening somewhat finer in mesh than that used for windows, are used to dry the kernels. Care should be taken to not overheat the kernels, or their flavor and color will be impaired. Good clean lard or similar cans with tight fitting covers are used for storing the kernels. The kernels are stored in a cool dry place. Any kernels which are to be kept over the summer months, are placed in cold storage.
Better Butternuts, Please
S. H. Graham, Ithaca, N. Y.
"As to palatability, there are many persons who would be disposed to place the butternut at the very head of edible nuts." This is the opinion of Luther Burbank in Vol. XI, page 32, of "Luther Burbank, His Methods and Discoveries."
The butternut tree is noteworthy as being at home in a greater variety of soils than the blackwalnut as well as being hardier than the black walnut or the hickory. It ripens so early that the nuts always have plenty of time to mature while the richly flavored kernels are rarely shrunken and never astringent. Despite these good qualities, a search through the publications of the Northern Nut Growers' Association for the past thirty years proves that comparatively little interest has been manifested in it. It would seem quite in order to inquire into the reasons for this neglect. Five of them come to mind: 1. Too early blooming. 2. Difficulty of propagation. 3. Curculios. 4. Melanconis disease. 5. Lack of sufficiently good varieties.
The butternut too often blooms so early that its blossoms are caught by frost. The filbert has the same fault and so, to a less extent, has the Persian walnut. Late blooming varieties of each have already been selected. It does not seem too much to hope that late blooming varieties of butternut may also be found. I know of one butternut that has had good crops every year but one for the last ten years but have never visited it at the right time to observe its blooming habit. President Weschcke reports that butternuts on black walnut stocks have their blooming retarded for a few days.
Many experienced nut tree propagators have little success in grafting the butternut. But Mr. Harry Burgart of Michigan, has found that nursery trees may be successfully grafted if the operation is performed at a point three or four feet from the ground, while the late Dr. G. A. Zimmerman of Pennsylvania, found that very early grafting gave him the best results. He reported that his best catch was from grafts set March tenth. Some moderately successful propagators do not pay careful attention to outside temperatures when they cut their scions. In contrast to this let us see what Mr. J. F. Jones thought about it. He was undoubtedly the most successful nut tree propagator in the East and he was always as generous in sharing his hard earned knowledge as he was skillful in its application in his own commercial nursery. Note this from his paper in the 1920 annual report. "In the case of trees that bleed freely when cut, we must guard against taking scions after hard freezing weather and before the tree has fully recuperated. This semi-sappy conditions following low temperatures that freeze the wood seems to be a provision of nature to restore the sap lost by evaporation. We always try to avoid taking scions of any kind soon after hard freezing weather. I have found scions of English and Japanese walnuts, cut from trees in this condition, to be practically worthless for propagation, although they may have been cut in late winter long before the sap gets up in the tree naturally." This warning would undoubtedly apply to the butternut as it bleeds freely when cut. Another pitfall for the inexperienced propagator lies in storing scions in packing material that is too moist. Sphagnum is commonly used. It should be no more than slightly moist to the touch.
If left to run wild, the butternut curculios are a serious menace to the butternut, the Japanese walnut and the Persian walnut. Their life history as described at length in U.S.D.A. bulletin 1066, is briefly as follows: The beetles (called elephant bugs by some because the side view resembles the elephant) spend the winter in the ground. As soon as new growth appears on the host tree they begin feeding on the tender leaves and stems. Soon they begin laying their eggs in crescent shaped punctures which they cut in the new shoots and nutlets. The larvae hatch in a few days and tunnel through the pith of the shoots seriously injuring and stunting their growth while the infested nuts soon fall from the tree. The eggs may be laid from late May to early August. They hatch in a few days. The larvae complete their growth in four or five weeks when they enter the ground to pupate. In about a month they emerge as adult beetles and begin feeding on leaves and leaf stems as their parents did in the spring, but they will do no egg laying until the following spring. Poison spray applied in early spring and again in late August and September should so reduce their numbers that they will not become a serious pest. Our State Experiment Station suggests the use of a cryolite spray as it is more effective against curculios than arsenical sprays and less likely to injure tender walnut foliage. The Mitchell hybrid, (butternut x heartnut) with us, appears to have natural immunity to the curculio. This brings to mind a secondary but very important reason for finding better butternuts,—namely that they may be used as a starting point for the super variety that someone should give the world from his long rows of crosses between the best butternuts and the best heartnuts.