Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Fourth Annual Meeting Washington D.C. November 18 and 19, 1913

Excerpt

The fourth annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association was held, in conjunction with the meetings of the American Pomological Society, the Society for Horticultural Science, and the Eastern Fruit Growers Association, in the new National Museum building at Washington, D. C, during "Fruit Week," November 17 to 22, 1913, the meeting of the Association being on the 18th and 19th.

The first session was called to order at 11 a. m. in Room 3. In the absence of the President the chair was occupied by Professor W. N. Hutt of North Carolina.

The Chairman: Ladies and Gentlemen: If you will come to order, we will begin the meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association. It is unfortunate that our president is called away on important business. He has asked me to take his place and we will do the best we can. I will ask the secretary to read a communication.

The Secretary: I have this telegram from Mr. Littlepage, our president:

"Please express to the Northern Nut Growers Association my profound regrets that I cannot be with them. No organization has ever been formed that contained finer and more sincere men than ours. I invite the Association to come to Indiana next year. I will take you along the banks of the Wabash, the Ohio and Green River, where the pecan trees grow so big that the sun has to go around. I send best wishes for a successful meeting."

The Chairman: Mr. Pomeroy has kindly consented to give us a talk on walnuts.

EXPERIENCES AND EXPERIMENTS WITH THE PERSIAN WALNUT

A. C. Pomeroy, New York

When our secretary asked me to prepare a paper on this subject, I thought it would be very simple, but after making a beginning I found that about all I knew on nut culture was my own experiences—successes and failures—covering a period of about twenty-five years.

During the past year better data have been kept of the behavior of the Persian walnut trees under my observation, than in former years.

Hereafter it is my intention to keep a more detailed record of the time of the appearance of the nutlet blossoms of each tree, which is of the utmost importance to those interested in the growing of the Persian walnut in the North and East.

In order to keep a better record of each tree I have numbered the old original trees, planted by my father, from 1 to 7.

Nuts from each tree are here in jars numbered to correspond with the trees from which they were gathered and may be compared for variation in size, shape, thinness of shell and flavor.

It would be impossible to keep an exact record in pounds of the yield of any one tree per year. One thing against any such record, is that many visitors come to our farm every year to see the walnut trees and the pockets of some of them look suspiciously bulky on leaving. (An ordinary coat pocket will hold a quart, an overcoat pocket more than that and there are only thirty-two quarts in a bushel.)

The new orchard is just coming into bearing. At one end of it there is an old black walnut tree, and the young Persians that were planted near this tree began to bear first. Near the center of this eight-acre orchard we planted a butternut tree. This will, I think, help to fertilize the pistillate or nutlet blossoms on many of the trees.

Of the original trees five stand where they can have care and good cultivation. The other two were put in the lawn very close to some old shade trees where they can not be cultivated and are kept pretty well in the shade....