will sprout,
however, and seedlings were raised from the immature nuts of this
northern tree. Incidentally these seedlings appear to be just as hardy
in wood growth as their parent tree. I have also grafted scionwood from
the original tree on black walnut stocks at my farm in order to
determine more completely the quality of this variety. Since grafted,
these trees have borne large, easy to crack mature nuts and are
propagated under the varietal name (Bayfield) since the parent tree is
in sight of Lake Superior at Bayfield, Wisconsin.

Many of our best nut trees, from man's point of view, have inherent
faults such as the inability of the staminate bloom of the Weschcke
hickory to produce any pollen whatsoever, as has been scientifically
outlined in the treatise by Dr. McKay under the chapter on hickories. In
the Weschcke walnut we have a peculiarity of a similar nature as it
affects fruiting when the tree is not provided with other varieties to
act as pollinators. It has been quite definitely established, by
observation over a period of ten or more years, that the pollen of the
Weschcke variety black walnut does not cause fruiting in its own
pistillate blooms. Although this is not uncommon among some plants, such
as the chestnut and the filbert where it is generally the rule instead
of the exception, yet in the black walnuts species the pollen from its
own male (or staminate) flowers is generally capable of exciting the
ovule of the female (pistillate) flower into growth. Such species are
known as self-fertile. As in the case of ordinary chestnuts which
receive no cross pollination, and the pistillate flowers develop into
perfect burrs with shrunken meatless, imperfect nuts, the Weschcke black
walnut, when standing alone or when the prevailing winds prevent other
nearby pollen from reaching any or but few of its pistillate bloom, goes
on to produce fine looking average-sized nuts practically all of which
are without seed or kernels. Such therefore is the importance of knowing
the correct pollinators for each variety of nut tree. In the
self-sterility of filberts the failure of self-pollination results in an
absence of nuts or in very few rather than a full crop of seedless
fruits such as the common chestnut and the Weschcke black walnuts
produces. This is the only black walnut that has come to the author's
attention where its pollen acting on its pistillate bloom has affected
the production of nuts in just this way but