The Perils of Planting: A Warning to Yakima Valley Orchardists
A local agricultural expert debunks state-sanctioned advice on walnut cultivation, warning farmers against the financial ruin of planting untried varieties.
The Seattle Daily Times recently contained an editorial on Nut Growing in the State of Washington. The editor states that the soft shell walnut, commonly known as the English walnut, can be raised in all parts of Eastern Washington. This statement is made on the authority of A. Yon Holderbeke, the state horticultural commissioner. I know nothing about this statement of the horticultural commissioner, except what is stated in the Times. He may have been misunderstood. But, I do know that the statement, if made, is incorrect and is calculated to do harm. Should anyone be led to plant the English walnut in any considerable quantities in Eastern Washington he will meet with disappointment and loss. The writer has this walnut growing on his ranch in the Yakima valley, and knows from experience that it will not stand our winters. Whenever we have a cold winter the trees kill to the ground. Should some venturesome man plant a grove of these trees they might grow all right for a few years and just as he was looking for a profitable return in nuts there would 'come a frost, a killing frost,' and cut his trees back to the ground.
“Should some venturesome man plant a grove of these trees they might grow all right for a few years and just as he was looking for a profitable return in nuts there would 'come a frost, a killing frost,' and cut his trees back to the ground.”
Agricultural advice in the early 20th century was often speculative and booster-driven, much like modern real estate or investment trends. F. Walden’s warning highlights the tension between state-level promotion and the hard-won, localized knowledge of farmers working the land in the Yakima Valley.
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