who knew the tree well, considered as I do that it was a hardier and better timber tree than the common walnut.
The black walnut cannot be expected to attain great size except on deep soil in a warm situation. A tree grown from a nut, brought by my father from America over 60 years ago, is now only about 60 feet high and 3 feet in girth, on the dry oolite of the Cotswolds; whilst in Kent, on good loam, it has attained 100 feet by 12 feet in about 100 years, and probably contains as much timber, and that of twice the value, as any oak of its age in Great Britain. It seems indifferent to the chemical nature of the soil, if it is deep, light, and well drained, and should have a southern or western aspect.
It is stated in Woods and Forests that the tree is almost if not entirely rabbit- proof, for when nearly everything else is barked it is left untouched, even in a young state.
I have no certain knowledge as to the age which this tree attains, but from the fact that the old ones at Fulham Palace and Syon are dead or dying, I should suppose that, like the common walnut, it is not a very long-lived tree.
Cultivation in Germany and France
The high value of the timber of the black walnut has led to experiments with the tree in Continental forests. These trials have, however, hitherto been only on a small scale.
In the State forests of Prussia the black walnut has been planted in twenty-two different stations, the whole area under cultivation being thirty-one acres, the separate plots varying in size from seven acres to a rood. Schwappach’ draws the following conclusions from the results obtained in these experimental plots:—Of all the exotic species which have been tried in Prussia, Juglans nigra is the most exacting as regards soil and climate. It only thrives on deep moist rich soils, such as loamy sand rich in humus or pure loam, and never succeeds on shallow soils of any kind, or on wet clay or sand. It requires for its good development a con- siderable amount of warmth and a long season of vegetation. It has only succeeded on the best oak soils, such as the alluvial lands by the rivers Oder, Mulde, and Elster, and in certain restricted areas of the hilly land of central and western Germany.
Schwappach gives a description of the long tap-root of the seedling, and the consequent difficulty in transplanting; but he lays stress upon the fact that in Germany the seedlings normally make their appearance very late, and believes that this is one of the main causes of failure, as the young plants do not then ripen their wood, and are destroyed by late frosts. He advocates the early germination of the seeds by artificial means, such as by placing them in pits covered with straw, soil, and horse-dung. These speedily germinate, and are then planted in the forest in gaps of about a rood in extent, which are the result of clear felling, or under
1 Ergebnisse Anbauversuche Fremländischen Holzarten, 37 (1901).
