Walnut Growing in Oregon — Wood of the English Walnut through Locations for Additional Groves

The wood of the English walnut is very hard and close grained, and nearly as hard and tough as hickory.

It will no doubt be valuable for furniture, finishing lumber and any other use that may require a first-class hard wood.

YOUNG GROVES OF OREGON

The Prince walnut grove of Dundee, Yamhill county, thrills the soul of the onlooker with its beauty, present fruitfulness, and great promise.

Lying on a magnificent hillside, the long rows of evenly set trees--healthy, luxurious in foliage, and filled with nuts--present a picture of ideal horticulture worth going many miles to see.

There is not a weed to mar the perfect appearance of the well-tilled soil; not a dead limb, a broken branch, a sign of neglect or decay.

In all, 200 acres are now planted to young walnuts, new areas being added each season.

From the oldest grove, about forty-five acres, the trees from twelve to fourteen years old, there was marketed in 1905 between two and three tons of walnuts; in 1906 between four and five tons; in 1907 ten tons were harvested, bringing the highest market price, 18 and 20 cents a pound wholesale, two cents more than California nuts.

The crop for 1908 was at least one-third heavier than for 1907. One tree on the Prince place, a Mayette, that has received extra cultivation, by way of experiment, now twelve years old, has a spread of thirty-eight feet, and yielded in its eleventh year 125 pounds of excellent nuts.

Mr. Woods, the superintendent of the Prince place, considers walnut growing a comparatively simple matter; he advocates planting the nut where the tree is to grow, choosing nuts with care; and then thorough cultivation.

The soil is semi-clayey, red, hill land.

Near Albany, Linn county, 700 acres are planted; the soil is a rich loam, and seems admirably adapted to walnuts.

Near Junction City, in Lane county, there are 200 acres of young trees.

Every condition seems present for the best results.

Eugene has two small groves.

Yamhill county, where the greatest demonstration thus far has been made, has close to 3,000 acres in young trees, the planting having been both on hill and valley lands.

At Grants Pass, Josephine county, there is a promising grove of 600 young trees.

Near Aurora and Hubbard, Marion county, where the soil is a rich, black loam, rather low, a number of young groves are making a growth of four and five feet a season.

J.

B.

Stump, of Monmouth, Polk county, has a very thrifty young grove.

[Illustration: _A Young Willamette Valley Grove_] This is a view of a part of the R. Jacobson orchard one and one-half miles west of McMinnville.

The land was bought for per acre and when planted to walnuts sold for . The orchard is now five years old and could not be bought for per acre.

It is located on a hill 150 feet above the level of the valley.

The largest single grafted grove in Oregon is situated one mile from Junction City, the property of A. R.

Martin.

He has sixty-five acres.

Washington county is rapidly acquiring popularity as a walnut center, many fine orchards being now planted.

Mr. Fred Groner, near Hillsboro, is now planting 100 acres to grafted trees.

The Oregon Nursery Company is establishing large walnut nurseries in Washington county.

In Douglas county, vicinity of Drain, little attention has been paid to walnut culture, but a sufficient number of trees are doing well to insure good results from large plantings.

In Jackson county, near Medford, a number of young groves have been planted, and individual trees throughout the Rogue River Valley furnish ample evidence of correct soil and climatic conditions in that section.

Even when apple trees have been caught by frost the walnuts have escaped uninjured, bearing later a full crop.

In Tillamook county only sufficient trees have been planted to demonstrate favorable soil conditions.

While western Oregon is universally conceded to be the natural walnut center, eastern Oregon also has its localities where walnuts bear heavily, and will prove a good commercial crop.

In Baker county there are thousands of acres of land adapted to walnuts; young groves are being planted, and a number of trees have produced fine crops.

When one considers the years of the future when the trees of each of these young groves will lift their symmetrical heads fifty, sixty, ninety feet into the air, laden to full capacity with a plenteous crop, each October dropping their golden-brown nut harvest that falls with the clink of dollars to the commercial-minded, but with an accompaniment of finest sentiment in the hearts of those otherwise inclined, one turns away with a desire to repeat the wisdom of these pioneer planters and start a grove of his own.

With what grander monument could one commemorate his little span on earth?

LOCATIONS FOR ADDITIONAL GROVES

Much is heard, in a general way, of necessary climate and soil conditions for walnut culture, some giving preference to the hillsides, others to valley lands; some contending for a deep, rich loam, others for sandy soil.

But a careful examination of the soils of Oregon and the trees now bearing thereon produces convincing evidence that almost any deep, rich, well-drained, western Oregon soil--and some in eastern Oregon--not underlaid by hardpan, will insure a good harvest, providing the right varieties are planted.

The whole question resolves itself into a matter of intelligent choice of trees to suit varying conditions.

For example, the famous Prince grove is producing magnificent crops on soil decidedly clayey; but the place is thoroughly cultivated and careful selection has been made of hardy trees, the Mayette being preferred.

Another young grove is proving that walnuts do well on clayey hill land of buckshot nature, where the drainage is good and there is no rock or hardpan.

In contrast with the hill land, young groves are making admirable growth on the rich loam about Aurora and McMinnville.

Mr. Henry Hewitt, of Portland, has fine, young seedlings on a hillside, elevation 1,000 feet, that made four feet of growth in one season.

[Illustration: _View of a Yamhill Orchard_] In the neighborhood of all these groves, there are hardy, bearing trees that amply foreshadow the future of the larger plantings.

Colonel Henry Dosch, the pioneer walnut grower of Oregon, who has experimented rather thoroughly, even goes so far as to claim that rocky soil is not objectionable, providing there is no hardpan.

In this, as in all other horticultural pursuits, naturally the richer soils are best; but the industrious horticulturist, by cultivation, fertilization, and proper care, can produce a fairly good grove on unfavorable lands.

However, so much of Oregon is favorable by nature that growers will hardly undertake to enrich the few less desirable areas for a good many years to come.

Land that on the Atlantic slope would be seized readily enough, in Oregon is passed by, as there is still so much untouched that nature has made ideal.

Years hence growers accustomed to the less fertile conditions of the far east will undoubtedly turn their attention to even the few poorer areas in Oregon, and make of them glowing garden spots.