orld to talk about. It is a question of how much one
ought not to say, however, in a limited time. The pecan tree was my
first love. I shall always stick to the pecan. But if I were called upon
today, to point out to this Association or to any prospective grower who
actually wants to make money raising nuts, and who wants something that
will pay the grocery bill and his sixty or ninety day notes, I think I
should tell them to plant the black walnut. And I don't think, either,
that that is treason, because I think, as we go through with this
programme, the pecan will be properly taken care of.

In the first place, the black walnut is a native tree. I have seen it
growing, too, on the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Dominion of Canada. Most
native trees are immune to fungous and bacterial diseases that destroy
so many trees. The black walnut is a hardy tree, and a fine timber
proposition. In the second place, it is a fast growing tree. I don't
knew just how quickly one could actually produce a black walnut orchard,
but, outside of a few trees, such as the black locust and a number of
others that do not produce nuts, the black walnut is one of the fastest
growers. If you will feed a young walnut tree a small application of
wood ashes and some stable manure it will commonly make a growth of six
or seven feet a year. Therefore, you don't have to wait a long time for
walnut trees to come into bearing.

It is easy to propagate the black walnut. Cleft grafting is one of the
simplest methods in the spring. Dormant wood, cut in February or March
and put in cold storage, and cleft grafted in the spring, ought to give
from sixty to seventy per cent of success. I haven't had experience
budding, but those who have say it is easy. Mr. Roper says it is, but
grafting is easy and simple. The walnut, like other nut trees, must be
propagated by budding or grafting in order to come true. It will not
come true from seed.

Up until a few years ago I seldom saw a whole half of a black walnut.
The ordinary black walnut cracks about like this (showing picture). Here
is a black walnut cracked with two halves, and you can't even see the
kernel. The two upper pictures show very beautiful walnuts, but they
defy you to get out a whole kernel.

Now, then, when you come to a black walnut like this (showing picture),
where you can crack out anywhere from fifty to seventy-five per cent of
whole halves, and many entirely whole kernels, the most important
p