Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 41st Annual Meeting Part 37

MR. BERNATH: Mr. Silvis will tell you how he keeps his scions good.

MR. SILVIS: Through Goodrich Chemical Company I was interested in what Dr. Shelton, another Ohio member who is a chemist, had available, an emulsion called "Goodrite Latex VL-600." That's the agricultural and horticultural designation for its use. Otherwise, industrially it's known as Geon 31 XX, and some other names.

MR. CORSAN: That is the latex that congeals quickly?

MR. SILVIS: Yes. It's water soluble and makes a very stiff; impervious water barrier on everything it becomes attached to. Therefore, if you dipped the entire scion--usually I go out and cut scion wood and maybe even as late as the next day dip it in the latex. Then after it's dried for five minutes, I can take and throw it in the garage and leave it there until June, July and August, and I can take it to the refrigerator, the same thing. I think the refrigerator is the best place.

MR. SHERMAN: You know last March, at the Ohio meeting there was some wood dipped there, and the latter part of May I came through and picked up a piece and brought it in to Harrisburg in the back of my car in the window where it was cooked in transportation, and it made two inches of growth in the Harrisburg office just lying on my desk.

MR. SILVIS: I have seen it happen, and it doesn't restrict the growth. I have had it on filberts, Persian walnut, and hickory. Then when I cut my stock by using a simple splice graft, in grafting it I use a rubber band, same rubber band they used here, tie it and just forget about it.

You don't need the additional shading, and you don't need additional waxing.

DR. MacDANIELS: Can you use that material as a wax? Do you put on additional wax?

MR. SILVIS: It isn't necessary in a splice graft, because you have got a good union.

DR. MacDANIELS: Suppose you haven't got a good union?

MR. SILVIS: I wouldn't use it anyway, because you are covering the cut portion pretty well anyhow.

MR. RICK: Is this outside or inside?

MR. SILVIS: I would say outside. You dip the wax at 70 degrees temperature. Any colder than that would allow it to congeal. It's thick.

I am not sure about this, but I think you can dilute it with about eight parts water, if you wish, six or eight parts water to one part latex. It still will make a complete coverage.

That's for scion storage, and it does eliminate making boxes in some places where they have storage problems. It eliminates the storage problem and eliminates waxing immediately after grafting.

MR. WEBER: Your method completely shuts off the air from the bud the same as waxing would do.

MR. SILVIS: And any water going in.

MR. STOKE: I was wondering how long you kept it. You said it was soluble in water. You mean before it sets up?

MR. SILVIS: Before it sets up.

MR. LOWERRE: That's if it's a suspension. It is some time before the water sets up.

MR. STOKE: Retaining moisture and yet being soluble, and that's the thing I wanted to clarify.

MR. SILVIS: If you leave it out, it is a dispersal, let's call it, but it appears like sh.e.l.lac after it is dry.

(Editor's Note: See fuller discussion in 1949 Report, pp. 30-37.)

MR. CHASE: I think we all owe Mr. Bernath a vote of thanks for showing us this. (Applause.) We will visit his place tomorrow, and if you have additional questions, I am sure he will be glad to answer them for you.

He has left the grafting case over here for anyone to see.

MR. SHERMAN: In case of heavy rain tomorrow, what are the plans?

MR. SALZER: Wear rubbers.

MR. CHASE: We are not going to have any rain tomorrow.

(He was right.--Ed.)

We have a short paper here that I have asked Dr. Anthony to summarize for us, "Experiences in Nut Growing Near Lake Erie," by Ross P. Wright, Erie, Pennsylvania.

DR. ANTHONY: Mr. Wright is a very interesting man and has a very interesting plantation. He is a manufacturer and fortunately has a son who is mature and married and as interested in the work as he, so there is a continuity that we are pretty sure of.

Experiences in Nut Growing Near Lake Erie

ROSS PIER WRIGHT, Erie, Pennsylvania

This report should be made by my son Richard Wright. He is in charge of the farm but is on a trip to Europe with his family and will not return in time for your meeting.

The farm is located in the Chautauqua Grape Belt; due to the proximity of Lake Erie, which acts as a heat reservoir, it is not as a rule bothered by the late frosts in the Spring or early frosts in the Fall, this making it a very satisfactory climate for Concord grapes. Peaches are also grown commercially.

The village of Westfield is located on the main road between Erie and Buffalo, and the Wright family has lived there for the past 136 years.

We have several hundred acres and really started the endeavor more with the idea of seeing if nuts might be profitably grown, without any idea of going into the nut business.

In 1915, 35 years ago, we planted a three acre plot with several varieties of nut trees obtained from nurseries. They were black walnuts, hickories, hazel nuts, pecans, English walnuts, and j.a.panese heartnuts.

The black walnuts are native of Westfield and the trees we planted have done well. The only hickories that survived were two Siers hickories. We did not think much of them until recently as they did not fill out any too well, but the last three or four years they have for some reason decided to fill better. Due to the extremely thin sh.e.l.l they are very easily cracked and at the moment we think quite highly of these Siers hickories.

We have a nut cracker made by the Dazey Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri, which costs $5.00 or $6.00. It is very effective with the Siers but does not crack thick sh.e.l.led hickories very well. On the other hand it is ideal for pecans and English walnuts.

The filberts in this field are not very satisfactory, with the exception of the Winkler hazel. These usually bear very well. The trouble with the filberts is that the catkins are quite p.r.o.ne to winter kill but the Winkler hazel seems to be more hardy. There again we think more of them since we have used the Dazey Nut Cracker. The Winkler nuts are rather small and have quite a hard sh.e.l.l and if a hammer is used it is quite likely to crush the kernel.

The English walnuts we planted at that time were not of a hardy type and were p.r.o.ne to winterkill. There are really only two stunted trees left.

The pecans do not winterkill but the nuts do not fill.

The j.a.panese heartnuts we planted were successful. One of them we consider very satisfactory and is worthy of propagation. We call it the Lobular heartnut.

In the Spring of 1923, 27 years ago, we obtained a half bushel of heartnuts from our representative in j.a.pan and planted them. Three years later we interplanted some of the trees in a four acre field in which we were planting as permanent trees some Snyder and Thomas black walnuts.

Reporting on that field as it is today we will say that these walnuts and heartnuts, up to five years ago, bore very well indeed and the nuts filled properly, but the last few years the nuts have not filled properly although they have received nitrate of soda. We are somewhat in a quandry as to the reason for it.

Adjoining the field is a black walnut tree, probably 150 years old, which always bore nuts and they have always filled up to the last few years. In this field where the majority of the seedling heartnuts have been planted there was the usual interesting difference in the nuts.

Some were of the true heartnut variety, some had the rough s.h.a.ggy sh.e.l.l and shape of a b.u.t.ternut and others were round and looked like English walnuts. Some of the heartnut trees have developed a disease called witches'-broom or bunch disease. There does not, to date, seem to be any cure for it. We used some heavy applications of zinc sulphate and thought the trouble had improved but the improvement seems to have been only temporary.

In this field also are the trees which Clarence Reed designated as the Wright heartnut and the Westfield heartnut.

In 1933 to 1935, 15 to 17 years ago, we grafted about 35 hickories with various varieties. They were grafted in a grove of hickories which were on our farm and which were perhaps eight inches in diameter. This endeavor did not prove to be much of a success. Some of the grafts died after a year or two and the others which have continued to live do not appear to bear to any extent. We would have to mark that particular endeavor down as very close to a failure.

Perhaps if we had given the grafting endeavor more attention we might have had different results but we are in the manufacturing business in Erie, Pennsylvania, and really look upon the Westfield, New York, farm as a type of relaxation. In those years 1933 to 1935 industry was experiencing a major distress and I am afraid most of our attention was given to our factory rather than our farm. In fact, that situation applies very largely to all of our nut endeavors. There is an old Scotch saying "The eye of the master fattens the kine," and during the last 15 or 20 years when we in industry have experienced a tremendous depression followed by a war it has meant that those interested have had to watch their manufacturing plants to the detriment of their other interests regardless of how much they regretted it.