nuts. It is the Alpine variety, scions of
which were given me by Mr. J. F. Jones. Of course, it is yet to be seen
whether or not there is anything in these nuts. But it is encouraging
anyway.
We all send greetings to our many friends at the convention. Will be
with you in thought and wish you all a happy time.
Some Notes on the Hardiness of the English Walnut in Michigan and
Ontario
_By_ J. A. NEILSON, _Michigan_
In a study of the desirable characters of nut trees for planting in the
northern part of the United States and in southern Canada, one is forced
to place hardiness first. Rapid growth, high yield and excellent quality
of nuts are of little value if hardiness is lacking. Hardiness, of
course, is a relative term and may be applied to disease and insect
resistance, adaptability to diverse soils and capacity to withstand
extremes of winter and summer temperatures. In the present paper
emphasis will be placed on resistance to winter cold and to unusual
weather conditions, such as occurred during the autumn of 1933 and the
winter of 1933 and 1934.
In order to properly understand the effect of the past winter on the
English walnut, it will be necessary to devote some attention to the
weather conditions that prevailed in the southern half of Michigan in
the autumn of 1933. A perusal of the meteorological records shows that
the average maximum and minimum temperatures in September and October
were unusually high and that there was a heavy rainfall in these two
months. The following table shows the precipitation and temperatures
recorded at the Kellogg Farm where most of our nut cultural experiments
are conducted.
September--The average maximum temperature, 79.1; average minimum
temperature, 55.7; precipitation, 4.55 inches. October--The average
maximum temperature, 60.1; average minimum temperature, 38.4;
precipitation, 6.81 inches.
The unusually high temperatures and heavy rainfall caused growth to
continue much later than normally and thus prevented the wood from
ripening properly before winter set in.
English walnuts are found at several places throughout the lower
peninsula and more particularly in the southern half of the state. In no
place, however, are the trees numerous with the exception of a small
area around Lexington, where there are approximately 100 trees. Inasmuch
as this paper deals with the effect of low temperatures on the English
walnut, the minimum temperatures of the weath
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