s trustworthy, in 17 years the best 1000 trees have added
17,000 potential dollars to the value of that 20 acres. And they have
done it with safety, with little labor on my part and, lately, with
annual dividends of excellent nuts and good pasture. No other kind of
forestry that I know of can do that.
It would, of course, be foolish to claim that the kind of management
here described would be wise or workable with other forest species. Wise
forest management requires, first of all, that the choice of species
shall be adapted to the soil and climate favored by that species. It
requires a proper density of stand. Finally, good management demands
that a choice be made of the most valuable type of timber that can be
produced upon your land. If you can grow walnut successfully, it would
be foolish to grow Willow or Box Elder.
One necessary thing I must do, a thing that I should advise others
similarly situated to do, namely, place a tight legal fence around this
twenty acres in order to assure the trees' survival until 50 years have
proved or disproved my faith. For, after all, these trees are guinea
pigs--pioneering. They break some traditional rules. The land they stand
on is grazed. They are not set the traditional 80 feet apart. Their nut
crops may dwindle away. One never sees walnut trees growing in pure
stands--always with other species which scatter their seeds and push in.
They are not monopolists--like the pines.
Very well, we shall see. My own small experiment in unorthodox ways has
the temerity to suggest a new treatment for a species of timber tree
which I personally regard as America's very best gift of its kind to the
world. For 17 years my modified forest-type planting of black walnut
trees has not disappointed me. That is why I now believe that the farmer
in the Eastern black walnut's native habitat who fails to set out these
nut trees wherever he can is losing a good opportunity.
The McKinster Persian Walnut
P. E. MACHOVINA, _Columbus, Ohio_
The McKinster Persian walnut first attracted public attention when it
received first place in the preliminary Persian walnut contest conducted
by the Northern Nut Growers Association in 1949. In the follow-up
contest of 1950, the variety was granted third place. The McKinster tree
resulted from Crath Carpathian seed secured through the Wisconsin
Horticultural Society by Mr. Ray McKinster of Columbus, Ohio. The seed
was obtained and planted in the spri
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