HARVESTING AND MARKETING THE NATIVE NUT CROPS OF THE NORTH
By C. A. Reed, Associate Pomologist, U. S. Department of Agriculture
The native nut crops in the northern portion of the country, east of the Rocky Mountains, offer a possible source of considerable income, if gathered while in prime condition and properly prepared for market. Thousands of bushels of highly edible nuts annually go to waste in that portion of the country covered by the great Mississippi Valley, the Appalachian region and the Middle Atlantic seaboard. These are chiefly black walnuts, hickory nuts, and butternuts, although it is probable that several hundred tons of beechnuts which annually go ungathered should be included. These last are too small for human consumption in this country, under the existing relations between human labor and the quality of available food. Nevertheless, there are ways by which they can be put to profitable use.
The kernels of black walnuts and butternuts are in great demand. The potential supply of the former is usually abundant but the small number of butternut trees in the country automatically makes the possible supply of nuts of that kind very limited. The kernels of both these, walnuts and butternuts, and also of the best northern hickories, particularly the shagbarks and shellbarks, are highly palatable and nutritious. In these respects they compare favorably with any other kinds of nuts on the market. These northern species are singularly free from an impregnation of tannin in the pellicles which leaves a bitter after taste so familiar with certain of their chief competitors in the nut market.
Black walnut kernels in particular appear to be firmly entrenched in the markets of this country. They are in keen demand with many classes of manufacturers. This demand is on the increase with no apparent possibility of foreign competition, as the eastern black walnut, Juglans nigra, the finest of the American blacks, is grown nowhere outside of the United States except in certain districts of a narrow adjoining fringe of neighboring Canada.
The present year may be one of the best likely to occur soon in which to harvest and prepare these nuts for the market or home consumption on the farm. The drought has undoubtedly reduced the crop as a whole, although at this writing the yield appears considerably greater than that of 1929. At harvest time it will probably be found that many of the nuts are below normal size and that the kernels are imperfectly developed. The quantity of the finished product which it would be possible to place on the market would therefore appear likely to be small.
On its face, with a light crop of poor grade in prospect, it may be difficult to understand why this should be a propitious year to inaugurate a systematic harvesting and marketing campaign. However, in explanation of this, first, there are no carry-overs from last year. So short was the crop of 1929 that manufacturers found the supply exhausted before the end of last January. Many sent out urgent appeals hoping to find some source of supply. They offered the inviting price of 65 cents a pound for good grade kernels, f. o. b. the farmers' shipping point. Yet it was all in vain as the kernels were not forthcoming.
Second, as a result of the recent extreme drought and the consequent shortage of some of the more staple crops, there will likely be considerable slack time on many farms. Where this is the case and there are nut crops in the field it will likely be found in many cases that they may be gathered and sold to good financial advantage, assuming that right methods are employed in harvesting and preparing for market.