and
scions from his native Ukraine region and adjacent areas of Poland in
the 1920s, he started a chain of propagation and selection which
promises to establish the Persian walnut (_Juglans regia_) as a commonly
grown nut in southern Ontario and the north central states. The best of
his importations, and seedlings from them, are fruiting in such states
as Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, showing in many cases a
degree of hardiness which must reverse the conclusion of an older
generation of pomologists that Persian or "English" walnuts were too
tender for successful cultivation in most of the middle west.

The time has now arrived when there are enough fruiting trees of the
"Crath Carpathian" walnut seedlings in many states that comparisons can
be made and the more promising ones named and disseminated for
propagation. The nuts which the Reverend Mr. Crath imported in greatest
quantity during the middle 1930s came from more than 100 different
seedling trees selected in Poland. Their seedlings exhibit much
variability in characters of trees and nuts. Some are much less hardy
than others under our conditions. Not all are as large fruited as their
seed parents (and some of the parent trees bore small nuts). Though many
have smoother shells than Mayette or Franquette, there is also much
variation in shape, thickness, and color of shells. Color and flavor of
kernel vary from tree to tree. The season of nut maturity, though
variable, is generally early enough in locations where the trees are
winter hardy. The parents were selected for good filling of kernels,
and this character generally has carried over to the seedlings fruited
in America. As with other walnuts, some of the Carpathian seedlings are
apparently more susceptible than others to fruit damage by the husk
maggot. Walnut blight has infected them in some localities.

The COLBY Persian walnut, named in August 1951, and released to nut
nurserymen for propagation early in 1952, is the best to date of
thirteen Carpathian seedlings (each from a different parent tree)
planted at the University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station
from 1937 to 1939. It is the first Persian walnut variety to be named at
this station.

The name, Colby, honors Dr. Arthur S. Colby of the Department of
Horticulture at the University of Illinois, who has been in charge of
nut investigations here since 1919. It was given to this variety, with
his permission, by members of the North