The
walnut top flourished but tended to outgrow the butternut, so that the
caliber of the walnut was greater than that of the stock a few inches
below the graft union. I also noticed that, although the graft began to
bear about as early as black walnuts do when they are grafted on their
own species, the nuts did not mature at all during the first few years
of bearing. In 1938, after a favorable season, I found mature nuts on
one variety, the Thomas. These nuts varied in size more than they do
when grafted on black walnut. The most surprising thing about them,
though, was that they did not have the characteristic black walnut
flavor. When properly dried and cured, they could have passed as an
entirely different nut since they tasted like neither the black walnut,
the butternut nor the Persian walnut.
The overgrowth of the Ohio black walnut, grafted on butternut, was even
more apparent than that of the Thomas. These nuts were, as I have said,
immature the first few years they appeared and they, too, lacked the
usual black walnut flavor. In their case, however, the most striking
change was in the shape and structure of their shells which were
elongated like butternuts, with corrugations typical of those found on
butternuts and nearly as deep and sharp.
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