Part 3

After the tap-root reaches the sub-soil moisture it is well able to take care of the tree; and both cultivation and fertilization may then be stopped. In fact, by this time practically no further care is needed in the nut orchard with the exception of that required at the harvesting time, and this is a pleasant and easy occupation, especially in the Northern and Eastern states where the frost opens the shuck and the nuts drop free upon the ground where they may be picked up and put into sacks of 110 to 120 pounds each, ready for the market.

Just before the first frost it is a very good idea to remove all leaves from the ground so that when the nuts fall they can be readily seen and gathered. An excellent method of accomplishing this is by means of a horse and rake. The nuts may be left on the ground to dry or may be removed to any convenient place for that purpose.

There are three distinct kinds of English Walnuts--hard-shell, soft-shell and paper-shell, the soft-shell being the best. Each of these three is divided into a number of varieties, the names of some of the more popular ones being the Barthere, Chaberte, Cluster, Drew, Ford, Franquette, Gant or Bijou, Grand Noblesse, Lanfray, Mammoth, Mayette, Wiltz Mayette, Mesange, Meylan, Mission, Parisienne, Poorman, Proeparturiens, Santa Barbara, Pomeroy, Serotina, Sexton, Vourey, Concord, Chase and the Eureka.

The question of the best varieties for planting in the North as well as in the South is somewhat open to discussion, due largely to a lack of sufficient information in regard to some of the more promising kinds. There is but little question that the best proven variety for the Northwest is the Franquette and for the East and Northeast, the Pomeroy. Both of these are good producers bearing a fine nut, well filled with a white meat of excellent flavor, and of good shape and commanding the highest market prices. The two varieties are also very late in starting in the Spring making them safe against the late frosts. Their pistillate and staminate blossoms mature at the same time.

The white-meated nut is far superior to any other. The browning or staining is caused by the extremely dry heat and sun in the far South. In the North or where the tree has an abundant thick foliage the meat is invariably whiter.

The Mission Nut was introduced by the priests of Los Angeles and is the pioneer Persian Walnut of California. Most of the bearing orchards of the state are composed of seedling trees of this type. The nut is medium-sized with a hard shell of ordinary thickness. It succeeds admirably in a few favored districts (of Southern California) but fails in productiveness farther North. Its most prominent faults are--early blooming, in consequence of which it is often caught by the late frosts; the irregular and unequal blooming of its pistillate and staminate blossoms, and the consequent failure of the former to be fertilized and to develop nuts; and lateness in ripening its wood in the Fall and consequent liability to injury by frost at that time.

The Santa Barbara English Walnut (soft-shell) variety is about ten days later than the Mission in starting growth and in blooming in the Spring. It fruits from four to six years from seed and usually produces a full crop every year. It is not as strong a grower as the Mission and more trees can be grown to the acre. The shells are thin and easily broken, therefore the nuts are sometimes damaged in long shipment. The kernel is white and of very fine quality.

The Pomeroy variety was started in a most peculiar and interesting way. The late Norman Pomeroy of Lockport, New York, made the discovery quite by accident. When he was in Philadelphia in 1876 visiting the Centennial Exposition, he awoke one morning to be greeted by the leaves of a gorgeous tree, which just touched his window and through which the sun shone brightly. He soon was examining a magnificent English Walnut tree. On the ground directly under he found the nuts, which had fallen during the night. Their flavor was more delicious and the meat fuller than any he had ever before tasted. The shell was unusually thin and Mr. Pomeroy was astonished, for he never believed the English Walnut grew in the East.

Knowing the varieties grown in California could not be raised in the East or North, he questioned his landlord and found that this particular tree had been brought from Northern Europe. Mr. Pomeroy determined at once that possibly this variety would be hardy enough for cultivation in New York State. He procured some of the nuts and put them in his satchel which he entrusted to a neighbor who was about to start home. The neighbor reached home all right and so did the nuts--but--the neighbor's children found the rare delicacies and ate all but seven. They would doubtless have eaten these too but fortunately they had slipped into the lining of the satchel where Mr. Pomeroy found them on his return to Lockport. These seven nuts, which had so narrow an escape from oblivion, are now seven beautiful English Walnut trees, sixty or more feet high and the progenitors of the Pomeroy orchards, all of which are now producing nuts like the originals--a very fine quality.

English Walnuts to be used for making pickles, catsup, oil and other culinary products, are gathered when the fruit is about half mature or when the shell is soft enough to yield to the influence of cooking. The proper stage can be determined by piercing the nut with a needle, a certain degree of hardness being desired. The nut is often utilized for olive oil in some parts of Europe. It takes one hundred pounds of nuts to make eighteen pounds of oil.

In England the nuts are preserved fresh for the table where they are served with wine. They are buried deep in dry soil or sand so as not to be reached by frost, the sun's rays or rain; or by placing them in dry cellars and covering with straw. Others seal them up in tin cans filled with sand.

As an illustration of the hardiness of the English Walnut, there is a tree at Red Hill, Virginia, which was brought from Edinburgh, Scotland, when six months old, planted in New York, where it remained three years, then removed to Staunton, Virginia, and after two years taken to Red Hill. In consequence of so many changes, the tree at first died back, but is now thrifty--twenty feet high; trunk, eight inches in diameter at the ground.

During several severe Winters, the thermometer fell so low that some peach trees and grape vines growing near English Walnuts on the Pomeroy farm near Lockport, N.Y. were killed, while the nut trees were not in the least injured.

The English Walnut at its Best.

A smooth, soft-shelled nut.

Meat full, with sweet, hickory-nut flavor.

Nuts fall clean and free from outside shuck.

Frosts harvest the nuts--in October.

They are self-pruning.

Require no care after arrival at bearing age.

An alkali sap keeps scales and pests from the trees.

Blossoms immune from late frosts, as they start late.

Pistillate and Staminate blossoms mature at same time in the best varieties, insuring perfect fertilization and productivity.

Bears more regularly than other nut trees.

Bears heavier crops the older it becomes, unlike other fruit trees the size and quality of whose fruit degenerates with age.

Interesting Figures about the English Walnut.

In Spain and Southern France there are trees believed to be more than 300 years old which bear from fifteen to eighteen bushels of nuts each, annually.

In Whittier, California, is a famous tree which has been leased for a term of years at $500.