The Rural Voice, 1992-10, Page 25basswood and black ash at the west
end of the farm. The trees were
planted at the recommended six-foot
spacing. The trees grew slowly. The
ash grew best, he says, but the strain
grown was worth little. The walnuts
grew more slowly but finally became
well established.
In 1968 he put a ladder against
each of the walnuts and pruned them
as high up as he could. He girdled the
rest of the trees so they
wouldn't compete with
the walnuts for light and
fertility. By about 1977
the walnuts were doing
well but "I asked myself
why I planted 3000 trees
to get 140 good trees."
Part of this thinking
came from just looking
out at the front lawn
where another walnut
grew. It had been there
when he bought the
place in 1936 and
seemed to grow much
more quickly than the
trees in the bush because
it wasn't crowded out.
Last year he sold the
tree, getting $1500 for a
tree he estimates was not
over 70 years old. It's
the value of that tree that
brings the visions of
dollars growing on trees.
As you travel through
the orchards now run by
Jim and Mary Lou who
also grow asparagus and
strawberries, you can see
how Dixon would have
come to the conclusion
that it made more sense
to plant trees out in the open where
they could be easily pruned, instead
of in the thick bush environment. He
plants trees now at 40 -foot spacing,
allowing them plenty of room to
grow. It also allows room for a
bucket truck to be used in pruning the
trees and space for a tractor when
cuuing the grass around the trees.
That wide spacing also provides
hope for more immediate cash-flow
for landholders while they wait for
their trees to grow.
Again it was observation that
helped lead to a new way of planting
the trees. In 1968 he had a problem
with a steep little hillside which had
been pastured by cattle. He fenced it
off and planted walnuts, but they
didn't do well. They were baked by
the sun and buffeted by the wind, but
they persevered and he noted that
once they reached chest height, they
took off. He thought it over and
realized that the trees in an open field
were in a hostile environment
compared to their natural bush
setting. They would struggle until
they got to be six or eight feet high,
he didn't want to grow corn a fourth
year and the trees didn't need as
much protection, so he planted oats,
getting 78 bushels per acre. In 1990
he got 72 bushels per acre of wheat
off the land between the trees.
In 1991, with the trees well
established, he planted perennial rye
grass to be grown for seed, getting no
crop last year and watching this
year's crop rot in the swath in the wet
weather.
Andy Dixon stands beside a walnut only seven years old but which is
already taking off due to his special growing techniques.
by which time they were creating
their own shade to cool the ground
and getting back into a more
favourable environment. What he had
to do, he reasoned, was to recreate
that woodland environment in a field
setting.
The larger spacing proved a
double benefit. If he planted 16 rows
of corn in the 40 foot spacing
between the rows of newly planted
trees, he could get instant income off
the land and the corn would quickly
grow up, sheltering the walnuts.
He intercropped the walnuts with
corn for three years, getting yields of
142, 128 and 90 bushels per acre on
the corn in 1986, '87 and '88. In 1989
Still, while those
crops have been growing,
so have the trees, now
reaching a height of up to
15 feet in only their
seventh year of growth.
Each has been pruned to
have a long straight
trunk. As they grow they
will be pruned every few
years to maintain the
potential for a good
veneer log in a long
straight trunk.
Andy Dixon isn't a
lone voice wondering
about the potential of
intercropping trees and
traditional farm crops
any more. In tests
reported by the Soil and
Water Conservation
Information Bureau in
December 1990,
University of Guelph
researchers Andrew
Gordon and Peter
Williams found good
potential for growing
trees, not just on
marginal agricultural
land, but on prime land as
well. They strongly
advocated agroforestry intercropping
systems be adopted. As well as the
value of the trees themselves, there's
the added value that windbreaks
bring to regular crops. They point out
that combining tree growing and
pasture land is common in other parts
of the world. And, they say,
reforestation of riversides allows the
trees to absorb excess nitrogen before
it can enter the waterway.
Andy Dixon calculates that it will
take 70 years to grow a good tree
with a 30 inch butt, the kind of tree
that brought $1500 when it was sold
off his front lawn. Currently he has
1192 trees on the farm, each with a
good log developing. The value of
OCTOBER 1992 21