t can be bought for $500 per acre at ten
years of age, yet the principal reason that this very thing has not been
done by the farmers throughout the pecan belt is because they have not
had sufficient information on the subject and have had no means of
acquiring it.
I do not want to close this long paper without saying something about
walnuts and hickory nuts in Indiana. While it is true that the pecan is
unquestionably the most attractive and valuable nut that grows in the
world, yet there is much profit and satisfaction in the culture of
walnuts and hickories. In southern Indiana we have some very fine
varieties of the shagbark, and I am making some experiments in
propagating it. One of the advantages of this nut is that it will grow
far into the north. In fact, I have had some specimens of very beautiful
shagbarks sent me by Dr. D. S. Sager, from Ontario, Canada. The shagbark
is a slower growing tree than the pecan, but when properly cultivated
shows a very satisfactory growth.
I am also experimenting with the propagation of the Persian (English)
walnut, and so far have had very satisfactory results. I am trying some
of the California varieties--the "Franquette" and "Parisienne"
especially--and last spring I grafted a number of them on the wild
seedling black walnut and they grew as much as four feet in height
during the summer. There are several very fine varieties of the Persian
walnut that are hardy throughout our latitude, and when grafted on the
native black walnut stocks, make very satisfactory growth. I have had
several Persian walnut trees under observation in Washington, close to
where I live, and have found that some of these trees bear good crops of
very fine walnuts. I cannot make this paper long enough to go into the
details of this subject as it has been discussed here by others who know
more about it than I. I merely desire to mention the fact that so far as
our experiments have gone in Indiana up to date with the Persian walnut,
everything seems to indicate that it can be very successfully propagated
and grown there, provided the right varieties are selected; but with
this, as with all other nut trees, the prospective orchardist must make
very careful selection of the varieties which he plants.
In closing, I want to add just a few words more as to the value and
beauty of nut trees. It is very hard to overstate either if the trees
are properly cared for. A friend of mine recently asked me how early
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