Thomas walnut seedlings have produced more thrifty trees than Ohio nuts have.  However, the best understocks are those produced from seeds of native grown trees.  It is well understood that rarely does a specific type such as the Ohio, Thomas or Stabler reproduce itself exactly from seeds.  In raising black walnut seedlings, my experience has taught me that the nuts should be planted in the fall and not too deep, one to two inches below the surface being all the depth necessary.  They may never sprout if they are four to six inches under ground.  The black walnut tree is a glutton for food seemingly, it will use all the fertilizer that it is given although, no doubt, there is a practical limit.  It must have plenty of food to produce successive crops of nuts, and barnyard manure is the safest and most practical kind to use.  This can be put on as a heavy mulch around the trees but some of it should also be spaded into the ground.  One must always remember that the feeding roots of a tree are at about the same circumference as the tips of the branches so that fertilizer put close to the trunk will do little good except in very young trees.  Since 1936 we have been watching a small native walnut which came into bearing while in a nursery row.  This tree bore such fine thin-shelled easy-to-crack nuts and lent itself so readily to being propagated by graftage and had so many other good characteristics that we have selected it as representative of the black walnut varieties for the north and have named it the Weschcke walnut and patented the variety.  A list is here appended to show the order of hardiness and value based on our experience: 

     1—­Weschcke—­very hardy—­excellent cracking and flavor

     2—­Paterson—­very hardy—­excellent cracking and flavor (originating
     in Iowa)

     3—­Rohwer—­very hardy—­good cracker (originating in Iowa)

     4—­Bayfield—­very hardy—­good cracker (originating in Northern
     Wisconsin)

     5—­Adams (Iowa)—­fairly hardy—­good cracker

     6—­Ohio—­semi-hardy, excellent cracking and flavor (parent tree in
     Ohio)

     7—­Northwestern—­a new, good hardy nut

     8—­Pearl—­semi-hardy—­good (from Iowa)

     9—­Vandersloot—­semi-hardy—­very large

     10—­Thomas—­tender to our winters—­otherwise very good (from
     Pennsylvania)

     11—­Stabler—­tender—­many nuts single-lobed

     12—­Throp—­tender, many nuts single-lobed

A friend of mine, who lives in Mason, Wisconsin, discovered a black walnut tree growing in that vicinity.  Since Mason is in the northern part of the state, about 47 deg. parallel north, this tree grows the farthest north of any large black walnut I know of.  I would estimate its height at about sixty-five feet and its trunk diameter at about sixteen inches at breast-height.  Because of the short growing season there, the nuts do not mature, being barely edible,