After they had grown into large trees, these few were grafted to English walnuts.  The difference between the Eastern black walnut and the local native black walnut is quite apparent when the two trees are examined side by side.  Even the type of fruit is different, although I do not know of any botanical authority who will confirm my theory that they are different species.  They are probably to be considered as geographically distinct rather than as botanically different species.

For several years I continued to graft black walnuts on butternut trees with the intention of converting hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these wild trees over to prolific, cultured black walnuts.  I did not realize my mistake in doing this until ten years had elapsed.  I believed that since the tops were growing, the trees would shortly produce nuts.  Today they are still growing, bigger and better, yet most of these grafted trees bear no nuts, having only a crop of leaves.  A few nuts result from these grafts, however, and some of the trees bear a handful of nuts from tops of such size that one would expect the crops to be measured in bushels.  The kind which bore the best was the Ohio variety.  In another chapter, I shall relate parallel experience in hickory grafting which I carried on simultaneously with grafting of black walnut on butternut.

My first big disappointment in my black walnut orchard was when, in about 1930, having a fairly good crop of nuts, I unsuccessfully attempted to sell them to local stores.  They were not interested in anything except walnut kernels and to them, a wild walnut kernel was the same as a cultivated one as long as it was highly-flavored.  This so cooled my enthusiasm and hopes for a black walnut orchard that I ceased experimenting with them except to try out new varieties being discovered through nut contests carried on by the Northern Nut Growers’ Association.  The 1926 contest produced a number of black walnut possibilities, among them being such named varieties as the Rohwer, Paterson, Throp, Vandersloot, Pearl and Adams.

The neglected and over-grown walnut seedlings now began to serve a useful purpose in grafting the new varieties which I obtained for testing in this locality.  These were propagated by obtaining scionwood from the originators of the variety and grafting it on these seedling trees.  My technical knowledge had increased by this time to such an extent that I was usually certain of one-half of the grafts growing.  The behavior of the Rohwer and Paterson in 1937 invited nursery propagation on a greater scale than did other better-known types, because of their qualities of hardiness and earlier-ripening.