Test Trees Of Oregon

The first walnut trees were planted in Oregon in limited number for purely home use, just to see if they would grow, and they did. Thus the state can boast of single trees close to sixty years of age, each with admirable records



of unfailing crops, demonstrating what a fortune would now be in the grasp of their owners had they planted commercially. In Portland, Oregon, on what is known as the old Dekum place, 13th and Morrison streets, there are two walnut trees, planted in 1869, that have yielded a heavy crop every fall since their eighth year, not a single failure having been experienced. The ground has never been cultivated. The nuts planted were taken at random from a barrel in a grocery store. During the silver thaw of 1907, the most severe cold spell in the history of Oregon, one of the trees was wrenched in two, but the dismembered limb, hanging by a shred, bore a full crop of walnuts the following season. N. A. King, at 175 Twenty-first street, has some fine, old trees that have not missed bearing a good crop since their eighth year. Henry Hewitt, living at Mt. Zion, Portland, an elevation of 1,000 feet, has many handsome trees, one, a grafted tree fifteen years old, that has borne since its fifth year. Another tree of his buds out the fourth of July and yields a full crop as early as any of the other varieties. In Salem, there is what is known as the famous old Shannon tree, fully thirty years old, with a record of a heavy crop every season. Mayor Britt, of Jacksonville, has a magnificent tree that has not failed in twenty years. Dr. Finck, of Dallas, has a large tree seventeen years old that bore 70 pounds of nuts in its thirteenth year, and has increased ever since. C. H. Samson, of Grants Pass, has a grove of 250 trees, now ten years old, that bore at seven years. Mr. Tiffany, of Salem, has a fifteen-year-old tree that at thirteen years bore 115 pounds. Mr. E. Terpening, of Eugene, has four acres of walnuts grafted on the American black, which in 1905 produced 700 pounds, in 1906 produced 1200 pounds, in 1907 produced 2000 pounds, and in 1908 produced 3000 pounds. He tried seedlings first, but they were not satisfactory. The Epps and Reece orchard near Eugene produces about 100 pounds per tree, at 12 years of age. Mr. Muecke, of Aurora, planted a dozen walnuts from his father's estate in Germany; they made a splendid growth, and at six years bore from 500 to 800 nuts to a tree. Mr. Stober, of Carson Heights, planted nuts from Germany with satisfactory results. Mrs. Herman Ankeny, of New Era, has seven young trees that in 1907 netted her $15 a tree. Cozine tree on A street, McMinnville. Seedling, 15 years old; bears good crop of nuts every year. At 14 years old the crop was 125 pounds. Is 16 inches in diameter and has a spread of 42 feet. One sixteen-year-old tree near Albany netted its owner $30. A Franquette walnut near Brownsville yielded eight bushels at ten years. The French varieties planted in and around Vancouver commenced bearing at seven years, and have never failed. Prominent growers are A. A. Quarnberg, A. High, Mr. H. J. Biddle, C. G. Shaw. In Yamhill county, Ed. Greer, James Morison, F. W. Myers, D. H. Turner and Bland Herring all won prizes at the first walnut fair held in the state, on nuts from their groves.

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